Kaboom! 4,367 time bombs.

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by John Bear, Aug 22, 2015.

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  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Somehow it hadn't really sunk in till now that Almeda College/University is part of the huge Axact Pakistani diploma mill conglomerate.

    A search on LinkedIn just now finds 4,367 people listing Almeda degrees including, from just a quick look (with identifiers removed, although they do appear in LinkedIn):
    Criminal investigator at a state Attorney General's office
    Chief of Investigations, Secretary of State of a large state
    Assistant college professor
    Police department, top 10 US city
    Manager, Air Operations at large transportation company
    Area Manager at huge online marketing company
    IT Manager for US Army
    Manager of Cardiology / Interventional Radiology, large regional medical center,
    Senior Vice President at a top five bank
    Clinical Director of Outpatient Mental Health at big city hospital
    Neurophysiology IOM Specialist at sizable Medical Center
    Bomb Squad commander
    Faculty, college Respiratory Care Program
    Program Chair at regionally-accredited college
    Social Services Administrator at hospital for the chronically ill
    Registered nurse at university health care center
     
  2. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    I know degreeinfo do not like to out cheaters except diploma mills. Maybe there should be a reconsideration of that position Some of these people hold some very serious positions and may have out competed honest and competent candidates based on their fake degrees. Degreeinfo as a community, I will say, have more current and relevant information about fakers than any HR departments may have.
     
  3. freddyboy

    freddyboy Member

  4. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I find it amazing that this can happen in 2015, especially in higher education. I've had to go through an educational colonoscopy for every adjunct teaching job I've had, and these people are assistant professors and department chairs with fraudulent credentials?
     
  5. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Of course this is just what these people claim, on LinkedIn.
    On the other hand, not everyone lists their degrees on LinkedIn.
    And on the third hand, Almeda is just one of more than 300 Axact fake colleges and universities.
    One person in Pakistan with access to a list of 65,000+ fake degree buyers claims he is negotiating with three buyers who want to purchase the list -- I have no idea who, or what for.
     
  6. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I'd like to cross reference the Axact list with the Ashley Madison list 'cause yaknow, cheaters gonna cheat.:chairshot:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 24, 2015
  7. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I love this forum. Nice work Dr. Bear. :)
     
  8. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    If I did not find this forum in January 2004, now I might one of Almeda's alumni. hahaha!
     
  9. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    This underscores the point that, like the "war on drugs," you can't win on the supply side. You have to diminish the demand. But until employers and other stakeholders decide to do something about it, people will continue to make these claims--and diploma mills will continue to feed their addictions...uh...er..."requirements."
     
  10. RAM PhD

    RAM PhD Member

    You will never convince me that the vast majority of persons obtaining and using a milled credential were deceived, thinking it was a legitimate academic/educational credential. I would think this is especially true at the M and D levels. A person who earns a legitimate M degree has to know a milled D is exactly that.
     
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I agree.:iagree:
     
  12. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Agreed . . . but there is a disturbing middle ground, in which a cautious person asks (or tells) his or her HR department, and gets an OK, sometimes including payment. In one of the highest profile cases, Laura Callahan, then a senior official at the Dept. of Homeland Security, told her boss before acquiring her fake BA, MA, and PhD from Hamilton University. No problem, she was told. When the merde hit le ventilateur, after a newspaper story, she lost her job and accumulated 19-year pension. (To her credit, she subsequently earned a regionally-accredited BA, MA, and, recently, Ph.D.)

    As Ezell and I point out in our Degree Mills book, this stuff is widely regarded as sumptuary crime, along with gambling, prostitution, and drugs: victimless crime; no big deal. And as Rich determined in his (first) doctoral research, an awful lot of senior HR executives are utterly clueless.
     
  13. Garp

    Garp Well-Known Member

    Good for her! Where did she get her accredited degrees from and what was her major?
     
  14. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

  15. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    I don't have details handy. Bachelor's was Edison, don't know about Master's, PhD was Northcentral. Dissertation apparently dealt with degree mill issues.
     
  16. Garp

    Garp Well-Known Member

    Good on her. Recovery all the way to the doctoral level.
     
  17. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Dissertation: Exploring Characteristics of Religious Affiliated Colleges Labeled "Diploma Mills": A Multi-Case Study of U.S. Court Decisions

    Abstract:

    "Over 600 higher education institutions have been identified as alleged diploma mills by governmental authorities based on criteria set forth in U.S. federal law. The characteristics of religious colleges exempt from State oversight varied based on each States' higher education legislation and implementing policy. The U.S. Constitution was the core document from which States established and defended their oversight requirements for religious colleges. The problem was governments could not effectively exercise oversight of religious affiliated "diploma mills" that invoked first amendment protections. The purpose of this multi-case explanatory qualitative research was to study unaccredited religious colleges in order to identify differentiating characteristics between schools government organizations determined were acceptable from schools they determined were unacceptable and alleged to be diploma mills in order to understand how alleged diploma mills defended their operations. Two unaccredited religious colleges government officials considered acceptable were studied for cross-case comparison with four unaccredited religious schools government officials alleged were diploma mills. The four diploma mill cases selected from a population of 19 diploma mill cases were from the States of Louisiana, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. The research design consisted of document analysis of public records and interviews of government officials to validate the document analysis findings. The key findings were: 1) variations in States' requirements that define religious schools made it difficult for government officials to assess religious schools across the States; 2) a religious school alleged to be a diploma mill may avoid higher education oversight by demonstrating the government impermissibly intruded upon its religious freedom protected by the United States Constitution; and 3) the definition of diploma mill victims has evolved and now includes students who can attain restorative justice by seeking reparation from diploma mill operators. The research found the number of variables States used to define religious degree issuing institutions made it difficult for government officials to identify and prosecute alleged diploma mills in order to suppress this type of education fraud. Future research is recommended to understand diploma mill recidivism and establish a uniform law for higher education."
     
  18. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    That's Callahan's, I assume?
     
  19. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Indeed. Northcentral University.
     
  20. RAM PhD

    RAM PhD Member

    Callahan's doctorate is a DBA.
     

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