Hi all, I was wondering if members on the board wouldn’t mind emailing me the web links of any fake degree sites they have been monitoring, or have bookmarked. I am trying to collate a master list of all sites that offer copies of degrees from bona fide institutions. Once I have completed this, I am very happy to share. Cheers, George
Um... just wondering: Why email them to you rather than just post 'em here? Also, silly me, but shouldn't you include your email address if you want them emailed? Just... I dunno... wonderin'. Thirdly, I could be wrong, but I'll bet that the search results you get when you plug these search terms: +fake OR replica +degree OR diploma +replacement into the Google SEARCH box and press the [Enter] key on your keyboard will provide you a veritable wealth of information. And, finally, I agree with Peter: You'd think that asking this question over on the Crabby Forum would yield all kinds of good results. I mean... some of those guys must have the fake/replica degree site URLs memorized, for goodness sake. They are, after all, their alma mater.
Re: Re: Fake, replica degree websites In order to not promote their product, you silly, silly boy. See the funny little blue box in the bottom left had corner of my messages. Well, if you take that funny little thing you have in your right hand and move it across that funny little blue box it will bring up a funny little hot link. When you press that funny little hot link my funny little website comes up. And when you go into my funny little website there is a funny little button called email. And then you can send me a funny little email from there. I do this funny little thing so that funny little webbots don't trawl for my funny little email and use it for that funny little thing called spam. No shit, Sherlock! Now, if you agree with Peter, you really do have rocks in your head Dessie old boy. By the way, I still love ya, just yanking ya chain. Cheers, George
Re: Duh! Oops! Then I guess my Google search terms in my previous post kinda' goofed that up, didn't it? Seriously, though... I knew that would be your reason; and I guess I just don't think we should worry about that sort of thing too much around here. That's just my opinion, by the way... and I certainly respect yours on the matter; but I just think that our not providing the links is not really going to prevent anyone from finding such sites. They're a breeze to find... even without good Google search terms. That said, your way might be a good one, too. Who knows. Excuse me? How did you know I had my... er... oh... wait... you're talking about my mouse. Never mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah... enough already. I know all about that. But, in my defense, I have a good explanation for why you got me (or, more accurately, why I let myself look foolish) on that one: We're using an old version of vBulletin here at DegreeInfo, and on the newer versions -- to which I'm more accustomed -- there's a little "email" button down next to the PM button if the user's email-through-the-forum-software feature is turned on (as yours is); and there's no such button if it's not. In the profile area in this (older) version of vBulletin, the ability to email and/or PM is in the same section on the page. Turning on the ability to PM lights-up the PM button in all the user's posts. One could reason, therefore, that turning on the ability to send an email in the profile would cause an "email" button to light-up, too. But unlike the PM button, that doesn't happen here, with this particular version of vBulletin. In newer versions of vBulletin it does. That's what I'm used to. So when I didn't see an "email" button next to your PM button I wrongly assumed that you had the ability to send you an email through these forums turned off because I sometimes forget that that doesn't work here. My bad for forgetting where I was... and your bad for the extreme sarcasm... though it was funny, I must admit. Yeah, yeah... back to me screwing-up the "{i}n order to not promote their product, you silly, silly boy" thing. Got it. That's funny. In other places where I've seen you do that, I've wanted to say the same thing. (Just screwin' around, Peter... er... well... you know... sort of.) Whew! EDIT: Hey! Cool! Look... I just noticed something. You conveyed your Austrailian accent even in writing. You wrote, "just yankin ya chain." Americans would have written, "Just yankin' yer chain." Kinda' neat. (Ohgod... did I just write "kinda' neat"?)
ADDENDUM And yes, I know how to spell "Australian." The ability to edit timed-out before I noticed the typo. Sorry.
Well, Peter is correct that the folks at Jamesville know a lot more about what's going on than the whackers here.
Re: Re: Re: Fake, replica degree websites Ha..ha...ha..Well posted, George. DesElms does make some stupid posts. I for one get very bored with many of his innane posts...
Unique Universities Universities with unique accreditations. Lacrosse University http://lacrosseuniversity.com/accred.html Bircham International University http:www.bircham.edu Century University http://www.centuryuniversity.edu/ Columbus University http://www.columbusu.com/ I'm not saying these universities are fake for liability purposes. Judge for yourself.
I know that I'M the lawyer, but... I looked at a couple of these sites. They CLAIM to offer "novelty" or "replacement for legitimate earned credentials" diplomas that are indistinguishable from the genuine article, including seals and such. Not having the $300 or so to waste on an experiment, I cannot vouch for the accuarcy of these statements BUT I can't help but wonder... One site shows a young woman apparently lettering a diploma plainly marked "Harvard University" (my translation; the diploma is in Latin). SURELY this has to be of concern to Harvard? Isn't there a trademark violation here? I know that I sound like a neophyte but how CAN this be going ON???
Re: I know that I'M the lawyer, but... It's hard to stop them. They are like the whack a mole game. Hit this one, that one pops up. It's exhausting.
Re: Re: I know that I'M the lawyer, but... I remember viewing this site. The diploma is an exact replica of the Harvard diploma. Quite scary, actually. These people are all about violation. Why should trademark infringement concern them? Precisely. How much of Harvard's. Stanford's, RIT's, etc. endowment should be used in chasing down previously whacked moles. My opinion is that Congress should be able to pass some sort of "duplication of academic credential" law, levying a hefty fine and jail time for lawbreakers. Would it be difficult to get this through Congress? I mean, how big can the diploma replication lobby be? marilynd
It's hard to see who could possibly object to such a law but my thought is, it may AREADY be a federal criminal offense to advertise and sell fake Harvard diplomas. Weirdly, it would be an equal offense to sell fake Kennedy-Western or even Barrington diplomas...
I'm not a lawyer, of course, but . . . I thought trademark infringement was a civil matter. What federal criminal statute would be violated in this case? To my knowledge, private university diplomas do not have special credential status similar to a passport, driver's license, or medical license. What is the criminal violation here? [I'm always up for learning more about the law.] marilynd
Re: Re: Re: Re: Fake, replica degree websites I'm sorry to learn that operating the verticle scroller has been such a continuing souce of challenge and frustration for you. I don't know about federal law in this particular case (and I'm not going to bother looking it up to find out), but I know that some states give diplomas essentially what you're calling here "special credential status."
My own opinion is that the general topic of conversation here could be adequately housed somewhere under the heading of counterfeiting. Printing diplomas is not substantially different than printing money. With that in mind, I would think that the most moronic thing to do would be to buy a counterfeit document from a person who advertises on the internet. If you were seriously interested in obtaining a counterfeit passport would you buy one on the internet? Of course, there are people who truly buy these "products" as novelty items but then, that's not what we're talking about, is it. Jack
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fake, replica degree websites Hi Gregg: Yes, I know that there are some states that do this. Too few, to my way of thinking. I could not find in LexisNexis a part of the U.S. Code which specifically prohibited what we're talking about, but then again, my LexisNexis skills are not up to law school status. Jack intimates that counterfeiting is the place to look. Not sure that I agree with the analogy. Counterfeiting money is specifically prohibited by statute, as is counterfeiting of Federal employee IDs, passports, and the like. I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment of morons and the Internet, however. Could the practice fall under the same statutes that allow the FBI to comfiscate and close down Gucci, Hilfiger, Chanel, etc. look-a-likes? Perhaps John Bear can bring his expertise to bear D ) on this issue. Under what statute did the DipScam program function? Is it generally applicable or was it narrowly targeted? Curiosity reigns supreme around here. marilynd
