Education Verification: Fake Degrees Are Costing Millions Of Dollars

Fakes and scammers have existed for all time in virtually any scam they can possibly attempt to pull. One cash cow for these scammers has been in creating fake diplomas. They make them for everything from a high school education up to graduate degrees. This means that education verification plays an important role in the pre-employment process.

High Rates Of Fakes

A scary part about diploma mills is just the scope of how many there are. Ebiinc.com points out this unnerving statistic about the number of fake diplomas in circulation,

“The number of earned PhD degrees in the United States is 40,000 to 45,000 each year. The number of fake PhDs bought each year from diploma mills exceeds 50,000. In other words, more than half of all people claiming a new PhD have a fake degree.”

Numbers like this mean that the odds are better that a PhD degree is fake than it is real. It is fortunate that programs exist which help employers determine if a diploma is legitimate or not.

Never Give The Benefit Of The Doubt

Though it is tempting to do so, never give someone the benefit of the doubt. Even if the job a person applies for is a high-powered job, this does not mean they are being truthful on their resume. Countless stories exist of CEO’s, politicians, and even football coaches lying on their resumes in order to get a job. Applicants for these professions may seem to have a moral backbone, but you should trust no one.

What A Fake Degree Looks Like

There are a few ways that a fake degree can potentially be caught early. The name of the university is typically the first sign. If it is unusual or similar to the name of a well-known and established school, this is cause for concern. This is what diploma mills like to do.

Determining the physical location of a university is another way to figure out if it is legitimate. Schools without a physical address, or ones that are simply a P.O. box number may not be legitimate.

Keep these ideas in mind and contact us for more of the latest about education verification.