Has anyone actually read the GAO Diploma Mill report? One employee attended a diploma mill named Kent College (never heard of that) but then WENT ON TO EARN A LEGITIMATE master's degree. Also, most of the other employee had regionally accredited degrees at one level or another. My question is this - what percentage of American students (I know that a good portion of their money is built on dolt foreigners) that attend diploma mills have been to a regionally accredited school?
Kent is another name for the phony LaSalle. The probably safe answer to your question is: Zero, except in cases where (1) the admissions office made an error, or (2) the program in question did not necessarily require an earlier degree. My year 2000 survey of registrars had the crystal clear find that not had a policy of accepting LaSalle (or comparable) degrees. But they are not infallible. As for the nationalities of victims . . . this would be a good research project. But the Romanian "University Degree Program" apparently experimented some, and focused almost entirely on Americans and Canadians, to whom they sold more than 200,000 fake degrees.
I guess I read DistanceEd's question differently, thinking he/she asked whether or not people using degree mill have also attended accredited schools. If that's the case, we don't know the magnitude of it. It would seem, however, there is a mix. People buying fake doctorates to decorate their resumes, along with firefighters, cops, and others buying fake bachelor's degrees to get raises they didn't go to school to earn. But no one knows for sure what the mix is. As for using a degree mill degree to get into an accredited school, I'd say John's remarks are spot-on: only by accident.
