Hello guys. I saw through the years there's been so much noise about degree mills, fake, loophole sites, intstantdegrees, and so on. But strangely I haven't found yet comments about this curious thing. It has no name and runs many websites, and claims not to be a mill but to sell accredited and even PUBLIC college degrees and high school diplomas. It exists at least since 2010 and has many clone websites. So not finding comments I would ask what do you think about this. I found at least those clone website addresses, all the same business, with a FormStack form for orders, and all Wordpress based websites and (obviously) hidden whois domains. (massive list of links deleted by moderator) And the list is not even complete. What to think about this stuff?
It is 100% a scam. There is zero chance that you are getting a legitimately accredited degree through that list of sites you listed. I deleted them because quite frankly, there is also zero reason for those sites to get traffic from this forum.
Good but, how can we warn people of this scam? It's really big and they should be reported. They can't keep existing.
Welcome to DegreeInfo, Etan. It just warms the cockles of our hearts that you joined us, um, yesterday. Or warms the heart of our cockles. I’m not quite sure which. But if you’re not a shill for the mills whose links you posted, then you’re like a well-meaning evangelical: heathen yesterday, born again today, and tomorrow you’re calling yourself an evangelist. I lean toward the shill option. In the meantime, you’re just an anonymous noobie who showed up out of nowhere and posted links to multiple mills. Nice try. Bravo, airtorn.
Imo, it's not a mill, it's a huge list of clone sites that most likely steal money and data, so I wanted to report it. I think they must be sued. But how can you say I'm a shill?
The links are no big deal. I'm sure anyone who wants to find this stuff can do so; this site wouldn't be facilitating that one little bit. But I can understand the point of view that supports taking them down. Selling fake diplomas that depict real schools is just one degree-related scam out there. The resources necessary to print these are negligible.
OK Etan, this is not my thing but let's walk through the first few questions. Who/what, specifically do you want to sue? If you have never been a customer, what grounds will you use as the basis to your suit? Are you alleging that a crime has been committed? What crime? Committed by who exactly? Committed against who exactly?. In what jurisdiction will you file this lawsuit? Will you hire a lawyer in this effort? How will the lawyer be paid? These questions are just the first thoughts of an not-so-legally educated human. I'm sure that there are people here who can come up with even more questions. If you can give some clear and accurate answers to these questions then you might be able to garner some interest but until them it's a little bt like saying "Hey guys, did you know that there's a guy in Mexico selling drugs!? We need to do something!"
But it would tend to raise the Millmeisters' Google ranking/results, etc. So, we don't want to contribute to SEO for the bad guys. What Kizmet said. Or, if you are really bent on being foolish, just go down to the courthouse and fork over some cash... but don't expect me to join you. Ill-advised lawsuits can be expensive, fruitless, backfire and go ka-boom ...just like fake diplomas. Speaking of Google ranking, I just Googled a site you should read, Etan. (link deleted by mod) :smile: J.
@ Rich Douglas Well, these sites are not selling replica diplomas at all. I suspect they're selling just nothing. @Kizmet Well, good point. What do I want to do? Just report them as possible. Just to warn, not necessarily to sue someone. If I'm right, this HUGE list of clone sites, is just distributed phishing. I don't like criminal websites last for many years. And I investigated a little, and a list of dozens clone sites (all similar and with the same FormStack.com form) are online since 2010 at least. They're the same of (deleted by Mod) one of those clone webistes that changed some weeks ago and no longer claims to sell degrees (the only clone that changed) but to sell some kind of "school consulting" using fake pictures of professors and other people (I looked deeply and those picture with names of real people, are pictures bought from picture-selling sites). This is not a simple "instantegree" stuff, this is real scam. And I don't see how can it be online so long.
@mods Please deactivate the link in the post above @Etan Quite a few sites similar to the one mentioned in your post are actually hosted on the same server in the Netherlands and some are registered through Whois Privacy Protection Services in Kirkland, US. Yes, it's a real scam but you probably can't do much about it as an individual unless you have good contacts with law enforcement agencies in both the Netherlands and the US. And even if the server is taken down, which is possible but not probable since it's located in the Netherlands, the sites would most likely be up an running again in a few days, hosted on a server in another country.
Etan - If you don't want to be called a shill then stop posting live links to degree mills in your messages.
But you DO read what I say, right? Does it look like a shill?? And the last link posted was NOT a mill, but a domain from the same owners, that was a clone of the other sites metioned above, and now this last one (and this one only) seems to be a fake-scam consulting service.
No, to me it looks like a naïve newbie that doesn't understand how the world, the internet or this site actually work.
@Etan If I were you, I wouldn't spend more time investigating those sites, unless you can find a way to report them to someone who is interested in fake degree sites. Not many law enforcement agencies are, unfortunately. If you can show a connection to other forms of crime, then maybe, just maybe, you could get some sort of reaction from Dutch LEOs. I had a quick look at the site you linked to: they say they sell fake degrees from accredited universities and some of the samples - there are many - make me think they have access to original templates from quite a few universities around the world. I don't know how that happened but it's not impossible that some of the original diplomas and transcripts were actually bought from graduates. Anyway, my impression is that this scam is operated out of Hong Kong, possibly with a Vietnamese connection. Other fake degree sites run by Chinese in Beijing and Guangdong have been around for ages.
Man, I don't really care. Btw, you said SHILL first. No, they don't claim selling FAKE degrees. Are you sure we're talking about the same sites? However I know someone who ordered and received nothing. And there are dozens clones of these sites, made with almost the same text, Wordpress-based and with Formstack.com page for orders.
I thought we were, but I somehow managed to get the fake sites all mixed up. You're right, they don't claim to sell fake degrees: my bad and I apologize.
