University of Northfield: latest name of the Romanian scam

It looks as if the latest name in the huge American-owned Romanian-based scam (starting with San Moritz, Palmers Green, Harrington, Devonshire, Brentwick, Glencullen, etc.) is the University of Northfield (www.northfield-university.net). The website is registered to an address in London (18 Great Tower St.), no name attached. The phone is answered "University Degree Program," which is what the Romanian group usually uses, probably since the same number is used for a number of university names.

 

Romanian workers

Could you tell us what the Romanian workers actually do? They don't print the diplomas, since that's done in Israel. And to deal with customers (phone or e-mail), they'd have to have a better command of English than the average Romanian.

 

According to the 'inside information' acquired by a consortium of a dozen or so DegreeInfo members last year (we agreed to pay the $1,000 fee asked by a Romanian employee, who sent a huge amount of stuff, and everything checkable -- the bank account information, Western Union passwords, etc. turned out to be valid) . . .

The Bucharest office has about 100 employees. A small number are Romanian-native clerks. A large number are Romanians (and South Africans) who do the telemarketing. Based on the evidence of hundreds of people who got calls, their English is excellent. Those with slight accents have, built into the start of their telemarketing script, "Please excuse my accent; I am phoning you from Europe."

When the sale has been made (to about 1 out 3 people called!), and the credit card approved or the tele-check approved, or the wire transfer made through Western Union, the printing information goes to one of the two printing plants in Jerusalem (one prints men's diplomas; one prints women's -- the entire operation is run under orthodox Jewish law, which is why they do no telemarketing on Saturday).

Printed diplomas are sent in bulk by Federal Express to southern California. The individual diplomas are sent by Federal Express from southern California. Funds all find their way to a bank in Cyprus.

Note: a significant subset of the telemarketers are South Africans, but apparently resident in Romania, as is the man who owns it all, an American rabbi (from Boston), who divides his time between Bucharest and Jerusalem.

We have all the names and (secret) addresses and bank account info and all . . . and have been unable to interest either law enforcement or major media. Wouldn't this be a fantastic episode for 60 Minutes, to arrive at the door in Bucharest, cameras blazing.

And as for Romanians and speaking English . . . I can only remember the time when Marina and I arrived in Sibiu, Romania in our French 2-CV car. Within minutes we were surrounded by a dozen or more small children, ages 7 to 10, speaking to us in excellent French (because of the car). We did our best to reply. And one said, in perfect English, "Your French isn't very good. We will talk to you in English." And so they all did.

 

Oh dear...

...they appear to be in business, and doing well:

http://www.mosterwynne.com/who/ron.htm

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/5679052.htm

http://www.westinghouselighting.com/pressroom.shtml

http://www.fatherhood.org/staff.htm

http://deepdale.ainspect.com/right.html (would you buy a home from this man )

And George Golling from the University of Illinois has done a quite fantastic job on tracking these entities - go to http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/diploma_mills/

Cheers,

George

 

> The Bucharest office has about 100 employees. A small
> number are Romanian-native clerks. A large number are
> Romanians (and South Africans) who do the telemarketing.

Thank you for that fascinating account. Amazing to think that "Mr Tony Kent", supposedly on the "London campus" of Glencullen University, (Irish Times, May 26, 2003); "Danny Ramalotti", supposedly in Dublin (Sydney Morning Herald, June 9, 2001); and "Michelle" (Gene Weingarten's correspondent in his October 15, 2000, Washington Post article), were all in Romania.

 

But I thought earlier posts told us that George Bush and Tony Blair had closed down the Romanian operation?!

 

> But I thought earlier posts told us that George Bush and
> Tony Blair had closed down the Romanian operation?!
>

No. Here is the thread that you're mis-remembering. Some of their Websites were shut down by a court order, not the operation itself.

As Dr Bear wrote at the time, "But we also need to remember that these Romanian/Israeli people operated very successfully for several years without benefit of websites, relying entirely on spamming (4 to 5 million a month) and very skilled telemarketing. So this will be a blow to them, but very likely not a death knell."

There's a similar comment at http://www.degree.net/news.htm.

 

What I'm really saying is that it is extremely difficult for George or/and Tony to shut down any commercial internet organisation. Surely as God fearing men they would have started with pornography if they thought they could stop it on the internet???????

 

You mean to say there is pornography on the internet?

 

Difficult to shut down, yes. And the US federal government is not showing as much political will as the state of Oregon is, either. As for pornography...

Quick quiz: When at the Republican National Convention in 1988, George W. Bush was asked by a Hartford Courant reporter what he and his father talked about when they weren't talking about politics, what did he reply?

 

> You mean to say there is pornography on the internet?

An Archbishop of Canterbury once arrived in New York by ship. A reporter asked him what he thought of New York nightclubs. Trying to avoid a controversy, the Archbishop asked, "Are there any nightclubs in New York?"

The next day, the newspaper headline read: "'Are there any nightclubs in New York?' Archbishop's first question on landing."

 

The following is from Google's cache of http://www.jews-for-allah.org/debateforum/ viewthread.php?tid=327. Most of it is also at http://www.overthrow.com/lsn/news.asp?articleID=3341, but the last part doesn't seem to be currently on the Web. Interestingly, it mentions a rabbi, but doesn't say that Abramowitz is one.

Neturei Karta Diploma Spam Scam

How The Neturei Karta Fake Diploma Scam Operates

1. They publish help wanted adds in the Anglo Saxon religious Jewish newspapers in occupied Jewish West Jerusalem. Looking for motivated salespeople willing to earn 40 sheqels an hour.(This is a VERY good almost unheard of salary in "israel".

2. They make an appointment for you and others to attend a meeting most times their will be about 10 other religious Jews there from English speaking countries. The owner Yakov stands up and explains the scam. He says he has Rabbinical permission (a heter) from a prominent Rabbi. He explains that most of us are "over qualified" for perspective jobs but do to circumstances beyond our control (having babies, financial difficulties etc.) many are unable to obtain the Diploma they require for a good job,, thus instead of wasting more time and $ to get a real Diploma, he is offering a "non accredited" Diploma at a low cost $1300. The Owner Yakov Abramowitz now states as all the religious Jews are laughing "hey so what these are stupid Goyeem (gentiles)", in his tangy native Boston accent. What Yacov failed to tell them is that he was adopted and raised by Catholic Gentiles before his soul searching led him to Judaism & his Notre Dame (gentile) Educated wife. His once normal looking wife is now clad in all black head & eyebrows shaved and looking like a holocou$t survivor.

Now Yakov hands out the script to read and asks potential scam artists( University Registrar ) as he refers to them. Yakov now carefully screens through all the religious Jews to take out anybody that has a non English accent (like Hebrew or Yiddish)*. He now asks all qualified scam artists to show up for work on a 4 week trial basis @ 40 sheqel an hour 8 hours a night, after which they will be forced to work on a commission of 20% ONLY.

3. The scam artist arrive at 4:00 pm and are asked to sit next to veteran religious Jewish scam artists. This is where they learn the ropes on how to talk with the potential victim on the telephone. How did they get the "clients" telephone #? Well Yakkov pays a second person to SPAM email accounts by the THOUSANDS. This way Yakov claims he is free of any criminal charges. The email states that you can contact them by a beeper, yaakov periodically changes the state the beeper is in so it looks as though the Diploma Mill Scam is in different states. The spam email also states that you can call 7 days a week *even Sundays, this is a Rabbinical trick as too say you didn't ask the customers to call on Saturday the Jewish Sabbath. (Work on Sabbath is forbidden by Rabbinical Jews). Now the victim that shows an interest leaves his name phone # and work # and the best time to have a "University Registrar" contact them. The office located at 31 Rechov Mea Shareem, in Jerusalem then has its crew of Bais Yaakov (Jewish Seminary girls) check the answering machines in the USA to collect potential clients. Yakov's wife Chavi now prepares the list of names and # and issues them to the sales crew., notes and updates are kept on EVERY caller. There are maybe 10 men and 10 women in there 2 offices, an average salesperson is expected to sell 3 diplomas a shift @ 1300$ USA or a bottom line of $350 . All money is sent to (at the time I worked there Lymosol, Cyprus) The senders name of course is NEVER Jewish*. Customers are told their will ALWAYS be someone to answer potential employees o verify there non accredited degree. Yakov who is a member of Neturei Karta and a self proclaimed hater of the "state of israel" always pays employees by checks of there "parent" company called Mountain View, a USA based firm. Yakov claims he wants no problem with "Uncle Shlomo" (The "israeli" Govt.)

* Yakov and his wife are scared to make Khilul Hashem (to desecrate God's name) by letting non Jews know its a Jew running this scam. I remember 1 day that Chavi, Yakkov's wife came in red faced because some customer in Texas USA asked where she is calling from, and she said "outside if London", the customer than asked why the caller ID says Jerusalem "israel" !!!!!

Well folks that's the story. The reason I write this is before I became a Muslim , I was a misguided Jew like this that operate this scam. The reason all this is allowed is because the Rabbis permit this and teach this. When I started posting information about this scam before Yakov sent a Rabbi and his Manager to speak with me @ Center 1 shopping Mall in Jerusalem. The Rabbi told me that Yakov has A LOT of $ and if he wanted could have me killed, but the Rabbi got nervous when I told him that Yakov should do this and i stood up to leave. The Rabbis than told me NO NO NO WAIT PLEASE!!! I am just talking in theory! We re willing to pay you 250$ USA to be quite. This is all on tape . So Ladies and Gentlemen here is the Rabbi's Name and address, please email him and contact him for he and Judaism are the key to this scam:

Yeshivat Toras Moshe
Rabbi Moshe Meiselman
Yoel 41, POB 5322, Jerusalem,
Phone: 582-6541 (office), 582-1000 (students), Fax: 582-2502
e-mail: [email protected]
Post High School - Men

Ever get this spam letter?

THE OWNER OF THIS SCAM IS YAKOV ABRAMOWITZ OTHERWISE KNOWN AS JACOB. HE IS A JOINT "ISRAELI" AND USA CITIZEN. B4 BECOMING A NETUREI KARTA MEMBER HE WAS A JEWISH SETTLER. HE RUNS THE DIPLOMA MILL KNOWN AS UNIVERSITY OF PALMERS GREEN, UNIVERSITY OF SAN MORITZ, HARRINGTON UNIVERSITY, ETC ETC HE CHANGES THEM LIKE BI MONTHLY. I USED TO WORK THERE PRIOR TO MY CONVERSION TO ISLAM. THE SCAM IS RUN IN JERUSALEM IN THE MEA SHAREEM AREA. BEING A DEVOUT JEW YAAKOV HAS SEPARATE OFFICES FOR MALE AND FEMALE SCAM ARTISTS. THE MOTHER COMPANY THAT USED TO PAY OUR CHECKS WAS MOUNTAIN VIEW. YAKOOV IS SUPPORTED IN THIS BY A LOCAL EVIL RABBI NAMED RABBI MEISALMAN. THIS SAME RABBI OFFERED ME $ AND TOLD ME THAT YAKOV HAS A LOT OF $ AND COULD HAVE ME KILLED IF HE WISHED , ON TAPE .

 

Here's the president of a medical technology company with a Northfield University Ph.D.:
http://www.lbti.com/summary2.html

 

I have a friend who interviewed at this company last year. I wrote him a testimonial letter. I looked up the company, and noticed that phony degree, and told my friend. Being an entrepreneurial sort, he immediately asked, "Do you suppose it would be legal to sell the company stock short, and then go public with the fake degree? Would this be considered trading based on inside information?" It's an interesting notion.

 

Of the web-sites shutdown in March last year, at least 2 were back in operation by May.

As far as I can tell most of the websites have been physically located on servers in the USa, so the US government can take action. If the they are located outside the US then the host Government will have to be persuaded to pursue them.

 

For information:- neither of the northfield URLs seem to be operating today (8/march/04) with the .net (as opposed to .org) having lapsed 17/2/04.

The correct post code for the address should be EC3R 5AT, however 18 Great Tower Street is part of the local telephone exchange. 28, however looks like it might be multiple offices or virtual offices.

 

"James DeSena, Ph.D., wrote Overcoming your Alcohol, Drug and Recovery Habits as a self-help guide to share the techniques of those who have independently quit their addictions and to expose the failed policies of America's addiction treatment industry and 12-Step recovery group movement. An addiction/recovery researcher, consultant and writer, Dr. DeSena completed his undergraduate work at Seton Hall University and earned his Ph.D. in Social and Cognitive Psychology from Northfield University."
-- http://www.recoveryfree.com/pages/1/index.htm

 

"Deepdale Building Inspections, Inc. provides professional home inspections for buyers, sellers, and lenders in the Long Island, Queens and Westchester areas of New York. [...] In addition, we provide expert witness testimony. [...] Michael Diesu received both a Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Civil Engineering from Northfield University in London, England."
-- http://deepdale.ainspect.com/right.html

 

Perhaps Mr DeSena could give us details of the location of the Northfield University he obtained his degree from?

It is not impossible that there may be a Northfield University somewhere outside the UK. It is quite clear, however, that there is no body in the UK by that name offering legitimate UK degrees.

(see DfES website)