John Bear asks for help: Central Western University, Texas

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by John Bear, Jun 1, 2020.

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  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    I have an inquiry from a military officer about his boss, who claims her Ph.D. from Central Western University, Arlington TX. I had not heard of this school, and am having trouble learning anything. The website (www.cenwest.education) hasn't been updated for years. The phone given is a fake number in England. No address given. No website info on betterwhois.com or archive.org. Website links don't work. Website says no degrees given after 2014. Person with this degree insists on being called, "Doctor."
     
  2. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Here's something I wrote in a post to another thread about four years ago.

     
  3. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I don't expect this is much help, but the address is/was 835 East Lamar Blvd Arlington TX. If you Google the University, a Google Map picture of the outside appears on the Google page. I guess it once occupied premises now used by a store called Royal Panda. Doesn't look like a University.

    Not to be confused with the very legit Lisandro Alvarado Central Western U. in Venezuela.
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I don't suppose it had anything in common with Central Western Advanced University either. IIRC that one was an Axact school. Those fools might likely have copied the Central Western name and pimped it up a little - wouldn't put it past them.
     
  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I exhumed the thread mbwa shenzi referred to. Just checking to see if I could connect Central Western to Vanridge or the other schools mentioned - or to a person or company. No such luck. There was a note that Vanridge had used boilerplate from another mill named ISR University. That site still exists - what a strange one. ISR stands for Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance. Pages are full of paramilitary jargon suggesting that's what they teach/taught. Is there an extremists' air force?

    BTW - if you google Central Western U. the Google listing page will show not only a photo of the um-premises on East Lamar Blvd but also a US phone number for the place. Probably not current but better than the broken UK phone number.

    A rabbit-hole for sure - but hey, I can get along with rabbits. Nice critters.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2020
  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Further down the rabbit-hole. mbwa shenzi's quoted thread revealed that the diplomas of some "universities," including Central Western were being hawked by an outfit called American Degrees, a Panama-registered thingy. No English. Strictly Arabic. Prologue starts out (Google Translation):

    "A university degree is awarded based on the concept of modifying the experiences that you have and that you have gained from work or through your experiences in life..."

    So we can assume that Central Western degrees were sold as no-study life-experience degrees by third parties. Were they sold on the same basis by Central Western itself? Likely so. Was the school completely without meaningful accreditation? Sure. We can pretty well rule out any chance it was ever accredited by a USDoE or CHEA-recognized accreditor. No evidence the school ever operated or was domiciled outside the US - just third parties selling the diplomas - so not a snowball's chance of some chump waving a foreign accreditation cert. or similar - at least, not one with any meaning..

    As Levicoff might say - it's a scam, a sham, a mill and a ripoff, to boot - and boot it we shall. If I were the holder of this bad paper, and I knew John Bear was on the case, I'd be squirming already. - or packing my kit. Just haven't found yet who ran the place.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2020
  7. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    They teleported to 2041 :)

    From thir web site:

    [​IMG]

    Small
    seminars

    (Posted on 20 Aug 14 , 2041)
    Learn in small groups and in a personal environment.
     
  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    A jail cell?
     
  9. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Try http://centralwestern-edu.com

    CWU was like Columbus and Lakeport, minus the convenience.

    http://www.columbusu.com

    https://lakeportuniversity.com/about-us/

    Und so weiter.
     
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I did. All there on betterwhois.com - but no company or individual names. Es tut mir leid.
     
  11. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Yes, by someone in Finland, to customers in the Middle East, through the American Degrees Corporation and another company called Scandinavian Center for Business & Development. Apparently, fake diplomas from CWU were also available but in a 2014 court case, the court came to the conclusion that in Finland, it isn't illegal to forge degree mill diplomas.
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Se on kauhea! (That's awful!) No, I guess it's not. Forging something of zero value - not a crime, I suppose. even if you can sell the forgery. Having a forged mill-diploma is just like having the real thing. You could always attach a fake apostille that said it's genuine. No. That would probably be a crime, in Finland or anywhere else.
     
  13. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Thank you so much for this research and the comments. The person in question seems to have indeed claimed the PhD from three different fake universities, based on her LinkedIn and other postings. The officer who brought this to my attention has made a presentation to the relevant HR people who now seem to be quite interested. (As it happens, Allen Ezell worked many cases at this particular Marine installation in North Carolina during his FBI years.)
     
  14. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    There are resumes etc. of about 20 posers listed on Google who claim degrees from this school. On a cursory glance, I didn't see even one of them who claimed any "real" degrees from known schools. Some Americans, some overseas. Executives, people in education, public sector, plus low-level grunts and unemployed. Not unusual at all.
     
  15. Life Long Learning

    Life Long Learning Active Member

    The person in question seems to have more than one LinkedIn account. The University of Maryland is a fake university?
     
  16. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I'm not qualified to respond to this -- not a LinkedIn member - but such things have never stopped me. Can't resist.

    There is more than one definition of "fake" degree. It could be

    (a) A degree that is from a "school" known to sell degree-looking papers requiring no work
    (b) A forged degree - purporting to be from a known school.
    (c) A claimed degree (from a real school) that was never actually earned - no record at the school.

    John Bear knows what he's doing - and what he's talking about. He's a professional. Leave it in his hands.
     
    Tireman 44444 likes this.
  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Not that Dr. Bear requires defense or assistance from yours truly - or ever would - but here goes again:

    It seems on one Linkedin page, a person with name of the likely suspect celebrates "finally" gaining alumni status at U. Maryland. Graduation in 2020 with a Bachelor's degree in Marketing. Probably true- who knows at this stage. Down below, the page lists instead a Ph.D. earned at the same school - nothing about Central Western on that page.

    A mistake or omission (intentional or otherwise) by the poster, no doubt. And no - I cannot believe for a moment Dr. Bear would EVER brand U. Maryland as a fake school. Not even remotely possible. I think it likely that the suspect has LinkedIn and other web-records claiming the Ph.D. from other "schools" - maybe a couple that swam with Central Western - Vanridge etc. Or possibly unrelated mail-order monstrosities.

    At the very least - if Dr. Bear said there were fake schools - there were fake schools and U. Maryland is not one of them. Nor did he desire U. Maryland to be misconstrued as such from his post, I'm sure.
     
  18. Life Long Learning

    Life Long Learning Active Member

    You do NOT need to defend Dr. Bear. His book in the 1980s saved my career!

    One LinkedIn page shows Ph.D. from CWU

    The second Linkedin page shows the PhD University of Maryland and a BS from the University of Phoenix (Engineering).
     
  19. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes, the pages show as described. Here's what you left out: The second page also shows (post at top) the message about 2020 graduation with a Bachelor's from U. Maryland, College Park. - with a picture (stock photo?) of a young African-American woman in grad cap-and-gown. This was a bit of a surprise to me because elsewhere the "suspect's" photo is of a White person, considerably older, who claims 34 years of work experience and writes that she is contemplating retirement and a career change. Inconsistencies galore, here - not unexpected. I'm sure Dr. Bear has seen some other web-pages that we haven't and knows 'way more than we do.

    So why, if you value Dr. Bear's work as you say - are you being so sarcastic as to ask him if U. Maryland is a fake University, when it is clearly not?
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2020
  20. Life Long Learning

    Life Long Learning Active Member

    It was a simple question? U. Maryland has strange names like the University of Maryland University College which I think is now changed. You seem quite defensive.
     

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