Comes now the University of Switzerland

Here is their letter to me, followed by my letter to them, which I think may be all anyone needs to know. However . . . that name "Joe Yomtoub" rings a faint and distant bell, but I can't place it. Anyone else?

THEIR LETTER TO ME
From: University of Switzerland
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 7:00 AM
Subject: add site

<http://www.swissu.org/>www.swissu.org

Please submit University of Switzerland for inclusion into your site.

The University of Switzerland is a unique institution offering comprehensive programming in virtually all areas of study. Due to our stringent acceptance requirements, students that matriculate through the University of Switzerland are among the most qualified alumni coming out of any institution of higher learning anywhere in the world. The distance learning programs offered by the University of Switzerland are among the most comprehensive in the field.

If you decide to list our University please sends us a link to the listing so we can link back to you on our links page.

Also we would be willing to offer a $700 Scholarship in your site's name for mutual benefit and the benefit of your viewers.

all you would need to do to offer this scholarship is to reference this letter. with the following code #7007

Thank you
Joe Holiday
Administration

MY REPLY TO THEM
Thank you so much for your interesting letter, Mr. Holiday.

My first problem is that I seem unable to access your site. I can get to the home page, but none of the links to faculty, admissions, etc., seems to be working. I have tried in both Explorer and Netscape.

My second problem is that I haven't yet been able to find any evidence of your school, either in my standard reference works, or through extensive internet searching, which seems odd to me for a school that is claimed to have one of the most comprehensive programs in the world.

My third problem is that I have Emailed my friend David Roberts who is a teacher in Geneva, and his reply is that he has not heard of the school, nor does he find it listed in any of the expected places.

My fourth problem is that your website seems to be owned by Joe Yomtoub, c/o Mr. Petit of P. O. Box 519 Redwood City, California, which is odd for a Swiss university.

My fifth problem is that when I call Mr.Yomtoub's number, which is in the state of Washington, it is answered "University Degree Program," which is a name that has been associated with quite a few other schools, none of them recognized.

Your addressing of my problems will be most appreciated. Then we can discuss the matter of a referral or link from my publisher's site at www.degree.net.

Yours sincerely,

John Bear
[email protected]

 

Oh..... ........ ............... .............. ...........

That cracked me up John. How gullible do they think people are. Problem is........it has a great sounding (ie realistic name). Sighhhhhhhh

North

 

John,

I would be very surprised if you get a response John. If you do please share.

John

 

I've always wondered how a Swiss school with Liberian accreditation would operate?

 

John Bear wrote:

> that name "Joe Yomtoub" rings a faint and distant bell,

Didn't you say the Romanian mill is owned by a rabbi? Yom is the Hebrew word "day", as in yom tov = "good day". Next time you talk to Joe, you can say "Yom tov, Yomtoub!"

> My fifth problem is that when I call Mr. Yomtoub's number,
> which is in the state of Washington, it is answered "University
> Degree Program," which is a name that has been associated
> with quite a few other schools, none of them recognized.

I assume the Romanian mill itself would be too smart to e-mail John Bear. Is this the first time we've seen them let an independent franchisee set up a "university"?

 

Do me let know, Dr. Bear, if you need any on-the-ground investigatory assistance up here in Washington. If you wish to privately email me the number, I can do a reverse trace on it and see the physical location of the number, if it is in the Seattle area.

Regards,

Michael Lloyd
Mill Creek, Washington USA

 

I keep an informal list of California, er, entrepreneurs, some of whom were provided by Dr. Bear once upon a time. None of those names are on it. Back to square one!

Some of the text on University of Switzerland's programmes page matches the text on two other websites,

www.stafford.ac/programme_options.htm
and
www.shaftesburyu.org.uk/programme.htm

I'm particularly interested in their "Wealth Management" programme.

 

Re: Re: Comes now the University of Switzerland

How very odd. I just went to the 'school's' site, and found the Washington state numbers referred to. The voice phone and fax numbers are the same. I entered the numbers into seven different reverse phone directories. Strangely enough, the numbers seem to be unlisted. I could find no names nor addresses associated with these numbers.

One would think that if a University was anxious to recruit students, their main phone and fax numbers would not be unlisted.

Regards,

Michael Lloyd
Mill Creek, Washington USA

 

Joe Yomtoub

A Copernic agent professional and Google search revealed no hits for a Joe Yomtoub.

Dr. Joe Yomtoob (note different spelling), however, is a well-respected school district superintendent in the Midwest. And 'Joe' is an anglicized version of his true first name: Youssef.

Regards,

Michael Lloyd
Mill Creek, Washington USA

 

It's okay. They couldn't hear the phone ring in Seattle anyway, if they're busy picking up their mail in Redwood City!

 

Reply from the University of Switzerland

Here is the reply received today:
---------------------------------------------
From: "University of Switzerland" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Univesity of Switzerland
Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 15:56:03 +0200

May 29, 2003

Dear John,
Thank you for your inquiry here are the answers you are seeking.
---------------------------------------
My first problem is that I seem unable to access your site. I can get to the home page, but none of the links to faculty, admissions, etc., seems to be working. I have tried in both Explorer and Netscape.

Answer:
I just tried now and everything with exception of two links worked (legal and distance learning) I will contact the webmaster. I have internet explorer 6.0, and Netscape 7.0  and aol8.0, works on all those, although it is optimized for explorer & aol. please try downloading the latest version and try again.... or just try again. Currently the website is being improved to be optimized in older browsers sorry for the inconvenience
------------------------------------
My second problem is that I haven't yet been able to find any evidence of your school, either in my standard reference works, or through extensive internet searching, which seems odd to me for a school that is claimed to have one of the most comprehensive programs in the world.

Answer:
If you do a goggle search for the university of Switzerland you will find us listed on many college and other sites such as edvisors.com findaschool.org and dozens of other school sites. Our course offerings are truly very wide ranging
-----------------------------------
My third problem is that I have Emailed my friend David Roberts who is a teacher in Geneva, and his reply is that he has not heard of the school, nor does he find it listed in any of the expected places.

Answer:
The University of Switzerland is not a traditional brick and mortar university, but a distance learning School which like thousands of other universities has not sought accreditation are are simply not widely known. We hope that this will in time change as our new approach and concentration of our distance programs are gaining wider acceptance in North America and Asia. We may in the future seek accreditation should that become an obstacle for our students, however many European institutions just like American institutions are not accredited
---------------------------------------------
My fourth problem is that your website seems to be owned by Joe Yomtoub, c/o Mr.. Petit of P. O. Box 519 Redwood City, California.

Answer:
Mr. Petit is one our north American admin dir., Joe Yomtoub is our webmaster and admin. staff. ( I forwarded your info about the site to him)
--------------------------------------------
My fifth problem is that when I call Mr..Yomtoub's number, which is in the state of Washington, it is answered "University Degree Program," which is a name that has been associated with quite a few other schools, none of them recognized.

Answer:
Many fine institutions offer "University Degree Programs" and with this term........... not sure why this is negative, The Name of our school is the University of Switzerland. Our telephone in the usa, as listed on our website is 206-350-3392 as far as the address goes, it really should not be too surprising, we have offices in three continents. We do not claim to be accredited in fact we state that we are not in our site. Many European institutions having been formed even before the USA was established and often feel that we do not need to increase student fees in order to pay exorbitant fees to maintain accreditation.

I hope this is all acceptable to you, if you do decide to list us please let us know so that we may relink back to you from our links page, either way thank you for your intrest in our Institution.

Sincerely,

Joe Holiday
USG Admin.
-------------------------------------------

 

Online application forms

University of Switzerland

Atlantic International University

 

2nd letter to the University of Switzerland

To Joe Holiday, University of Switzerland

Thank you so much for your prompt and interesting reply, Joe.

Now that I can view your site, I find that much of the text is identical, word for word, to the text used by the University of Shaftesbury and by Stafford University. Are these by any chance affiliated schools?

I also note that many of your course descriptions are identical, word for word, with course descriptions of the University of Memphis. Are they, by any chance, affiliated with you?

Antepenultimately, I would be most interested in knowing how your Mr. Petit in Redwood City manages to answer the telephone in Washington State, 1,500 km away.

Penultimately, you write:  Many fine institutions offer "University Degree Programs" and with this term........... not sure why this is negative."

My answer: Because there are, in my extensive experience, no legitimate schools that do not answer their telephone with the name of the school.

Finally, I am well aware that a university does not require a 'bricks and mortar' campus, but there must be offices somewhere, where people like you sit, and where student records are kept, etc. May I learn, please, where the University of Switzerland's office, or offices are. I assure you I will not put such information in any public place.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

John Bear

 

Re: 2nd letter to the University of Switzerland

John Bear wrote:

> [...] I seem unable to access your site. I can get to the
> home page, but none of the links to faculty, admissions, etc.,
> seems to be working.

and then:

> Now that I can view your site [...]

There's a page http://www.swissu.org/faculty.html, but I can't see any faculty on it. Can you?

> I also note that many of your course descriptions are
> identical, word for word, with course descriptions of the
> University of Memphis.

Where are these course descriptions? "Undergrad Degrees" in the pulldown menu of the main page http://www.swissu.org links to a page http://www.swissu.org/courseinfo.html that doesn't exist.

 

I think the reason no one can get a reverse listing on the phone number is because the number is probably owned by one of the call forwarding services.

There's a large one in Seattle that offers 206 area code phone numbers that can be forwarded instantly and on-the-fly (reconfigurable from a webpage) to any number in the U.S... so my guess is that's what we're seeing. The same folks also offer tollfrees.

I won't mention the name of the company, because if I do, every mill operator that's now using a voicemail box (that's SO 20th century) will switch.

Yet another wrinkle in the ability of a "virtual university" to disguise its whereabouts.

 

OK

Keep in mind I read this post quickly.
Swissy makes comment about high cost to students due
to accreditation.
Gosset post online applications to
Swissy and Atlantic International University.

Two quick things.

A - Do not want to pass high cost onto students due the the accreditation process and registration, however, $3,000.00 minimum tuition for a non legit degree is not what I call a discount.

B- I Notice Atlantic International University likes to call themselves AIU. Hmmm. AIU- American Intercontinental University is my college which is RA, who calls themselves AIU.
Sounds like creative marketing to me. Do they offer a BS in BS?

 

bgossett
posted links to
University of Switzerland
and
Atlantic International University
they look exactly alike!

i decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and thought the University of Switzerland might have just liked the design and copied it

so I looked at the html code for the University of Switzerland's page, and saw that the registration information went to exactly the same place as the Atlantic International University registration did

interesting

 

Well there is a simple explanation as to why a reputable school would need to use a phone service like that ... because ... hmmm ... thinking ... well because ... ... sorry, I'm tired and can't think of the answer right know.