6Jul

10 Signs your Online University is a Diploma Mill

Categories: Background Check & Due Diligence
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by Melissa Rubin

Diploma mills are no laughing matter. They have caused hundreds of Americans thousands of dollars, fines, and abashed dreams of turning an online university education into a promising career. How can you make sure you aren’t one of the many whose been conned?

The following is a checklist of items you want to make sure your online university does not have. Remember, anything worth having is earned – and earned by hard work and perseverance.

Make sure the online university you’re looking at does not meet the following, and your online education s on the right path.

  1. They often have names similar to well-known colleges or universities, but fail to mention an accrediting agency or name a fake accrediting agency.
  2. The organization frequently changes addresses, sometimes moving from state to state.
  3. Written materials typically include numerous spelling and grammatical errors, sometimes on the diploma itself.
  4. Overemphasis on the speed and brevity with which someone can receive a degree (e.g. “Call now and have your degree shipped to you overnight!”).
  5. Degrees can be earned in far less time than normal (e.g. 27 days) or the diploma is printed with a specific backdate.
  6. There is no selectivity in admissions, or any questions about previous test scores or detailed academic history.
  7. No interaction with professors or faculty (e.g. only two emails are received from a professor).
  8. Degree requirements are vague or unspecified, lacking class descriptions and without any mention of how many credit hours are required to complete a program.
  9. Tuition and fees are typically on a per-degree basis.
  10. Grade point average (GPA) and academic honors (e.g. Summa Cum Laude) can be specified at the time of purchase.
Source: universityfacts
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29Jun

The Basics of Education Verifications

Categories: Background Check & Due Diligence
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Graduation

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Educational credentials can be an important part of an employer’s decision making process in hiring. Educational achievement tells an employer a great deal about an applicant’s ability, qualifications, and motivation. Many employers feel that educational qualifications are a critical factor in predicting success on the job. For many positions, education is a prerequisite in terms of subject matter knowledge or for obtaining the appropriate license for the position.

Surveys suggest that as many as 30% of all job applicants falsify information about their educational backgrounds. The falsifications can include outright fabrications such as making up degrees from legitimate schools the applicant never attended or valueless degrees from diploma mills.

An applicant can also falsify his or her educational achievements based upon some semblance of fact, such as claiming degrees from schools the applicant actually attended but did not obtain the degree claimed. Typically a candidate turns their months or weeks of attendance into an AA degree, or claims a BA or an advanced degree even if they did not complete the course work or fulfill all graduation requirements.

 

Colleges and universities also have a vested interest in confirming educational accomplishments. Confirming an applicant received a degree from their school helps their graduates and promotes the reputation of their school. Conversely, uncovering the fraudulent use of the school’s good name helps to preserve and protect the school’s reputation.

Background firms verify education in the U.S. in two ways. One way is to contact the school, usually through the registar’s office. Before doing that, however, a competent background firm will first run the name of the school against various databases to ensure that the school is legitimate and accredited, and not a phony degree mill. A number of schools will require a written release or a fee, which can delay the verification. Delays can also occur because schools operate on an academic schedule, which can mean the administrative offices are closed during holidays and the summer months.

The other options available to screening firms and employers are online services that have contracts with schools to gather degree information from schools, thus acting as the schools’ agents.

For some job applicants, getting a college diploma apparently no longer requires years of hard work, taking tests, paying tuition or even reading a book. Why bother going through the formalities when all a person needs is a credit card and a web browser in order to buy an authentic looking diploma that mimics real colleges, universities and even high schools across the U.S.? Go to any search engine and run keywords such as “Fake Diploma” and anyone can instantly “graduate” from nearly any school in America with a very handsome and authentic looking diploma suitable for hanging.

One such website advertises that it creates “very realistic diplomas/transcripts. These diplomas/ transcripts are extremely high quality printed on official parchment quality paper. You can show your employer and they will never doubt that you indeed attended college. You will not find better quality anywhere!!!”

Some of these sites “officially” caution that the diplomas and transcripts are intended for “Novelty and Entertainment Use Only.” However, the fake documents you receive do not have a disclaimer written any place on them. When presented with a physical diploma or transcripts, employers should fax a copy to the school to confirm its authenticity. Most background firms can tell stories of faxing copies of degrees, supplied by the applicant, to high schools and colleges only to be told the degree is a fake.

Verifying high school education can present particular problems, due to the fact that there are so many high schools, and the fact they operate on an academic schedule. The most difficult degree to verify is typically a GED, since it requires additional time and effort to track down the office that has the information.

Adding to the challenge is that some degree mills and fake online schools have even created fake accreditation agencies to falsely vouch for the fake schools. In the U.S. schools are generally accredited by private organizations, that are recognized as legitimate accreditors by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) found at www.chea.org. The U.S. government, in response to these issues, has created a web site where employers can look up a school to determine if and how it is accredited. The web site is at: www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/search.aspx which provides searches of schools by accreditation agency.

ESR goes through an extensive procedure to verify that a school is legitimate.  First, ESR compares the schools to schools that are known to be legitimate.  If the school does not pass that test, ESR examines numerous “diploma mill” lists. However, those lists are a moving target since new diploma mills can be easily created.  If a school is not on either list, ESR then carefully reviews the schools web site and in particular, looks to see what “accreditation” the school claims.

The problems with degree mills, however, should not be confused with legitimate vocational or trade schools. Each state has an agency in charge of certifying state-approved educational programs. If there are questions about the legitimacy of a vocational or trade school, then an employer should contact the appropriate authority in their state. There are numerous distance learning programs available on the internet as well. An employer should evaluate the program to determine if it has relevance to the job.

The bottom-line is that employers should not take educational accomplishments at face value without ensuring that the applicant actually has obtained the degree, and that the degree is from a legitimate educational institution.

 

Source: esrcheck

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24Jun

College diploma mills, degree scams increase slightly during recession

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College diploma mills, degree scams increase slightly during recession

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As the unemployed struggle to find jobs in a difficult economy, they might look for ways to improve their chances of landing that elusive job offer.

“It’s easy to see that people are looking for ways to make themselves more marketable, given the state of the economy,” said Sandra Chalmers, state Division of Trade and Consumer Protection administrator. “One way of doing that is going back to school.”

Those people can be vulnerable to scams, Chalmers said. Diploma mills offer degrees without requiring the time or effort of the student. The offers, usually coming from pop-up windows on the Internet or unwanted emails, sound too good to be true. As with most scams, that’s a warning that it probably isn’t true, Chalmers said.

 

Statewide, there were 78 complaints of diploma scams in 2008 and 83 in 2009, the most recent year in which statistics are available, Chalmers said. While the number of complaints has remained fairly steady, there has been an increase in the number of diploma mills nationally and internationally, she said.

A lot of people are buying degrees without doing the work, said Dan Kellogg, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point registrar. The diploma mills provide fake transcripts, along with the degrees.

“It’s just like counterfeit money,” Kellogg said.

Official records from known schools have watermarks and other security protection to keep them from being copied, Kellogg said. Employers need to be careful to check out applicants’ degrees and ask specific questions about school start and graduation dates.

There are numerous legitimate schools that offer good online programs, Kellogg said. However, it should take four or more years to get a bachelor’s degree, even if the degree is through an online program.

Potential students looking for an online program from a known college should call the school to verify the website, Kellogg said.

Wood County Investigator-Sgt. Dean Berres said he hasn’t had any complaints from diploma mill victims. However, he cautions people against clicking on the pop-up ads that advertise schools.

“In most cases, those pop-ups will also contain either spyware or malware,” Berres said. “You click on them and it’s going to install software monitoring activity (programs). Anything like that could do some bad stuff.”

People can take steps to determine whether a school is legitimate, Chalmers said.

The Wisconsin Educational Approval Board regulates post-secondary schools, and people can find information at www.eab.state.wi.us. The U.S. Department of Education also has a database of accredited schools at www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation. While not all legitimate schools get accreditation, it’s a good place to start, Chalmers said.

People should remember that trying to take a shortcut to getting a diploma or degree to get a job can have bad results, she said. If an employer learns a degree isn’t legitimate, the employee could be fired and find it difficult to get hired again.

 

Source: wisconsinrapidstribune
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26May

Do it Yourself – Run Your Own Employment Check Before Applying for a Job!

Categories: Background Check & Due Diligence
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pre-employment-check

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Posted by Khurram Zahid

“In today’s tight job market and in the era of rampant identity theft, it’s important to stack the odds in your favor and stand out from the crowd.”

All knows that these days most employers conduct background employment checks on their prospective and potential hires, often times, the results of these checks are find determinant on whether you get the job or not.

Well, in today’s economic environment, firms cannot afford to be side-tracked by employee problems such as workplace violence, theft, false resumes, embezzlement, lawsuits for negligent hiring, harassment, or trumped-up inquiry claims. The truth is that employers are very strict and conscious about making hiring decisions; they are not taking risks at all. They are running comprehensive employment checks on their employees to pick out the wrong ones on initial stages.

So, as the scarcity of employment persists with the double dip recession in past few years, we really need to assure ourselves that we get the best out of every employment opportunity we get around.

“A 2004 study by the U.S Public Interest Research Group found that 79% of consumer –credit reports contained at least one mistake”.

By taking the above example we can easily understand that minor discrepancies in our credit histories, educational documents, criminal records and in past employment records can cost us a job. So, It may be a very good idea for you to run an employment background check on yourself to make your job application secure!

It sounds a bit odd, but it’s possible to run an employment check on you. There are four essential pre employment background checks that you can run on yourself are as follows:

  • Education background checks
  • Credit History Checks
  • Criminal background checks
  • Social Security Number Trace


How to Do Education background Checks to Survive Strict Credentialing:

There are some important things which employers really want to look in is your authentic education background and credentials. Your university/college accreditations, Your study tenure (dates), Sometimes your grades are being verified

  • When verifying your college degree, the first place you want to look is The National Student Clearinghouse. They run the automated database that provides degree verification.
  • Typically, colleges and universities provide education verification over the telephone. Very few require signed released or verify on by mail. You can contact your institution administration office or the registrar office to confirm the accreditation of university/college with accreditation authorities. Then you can double check your admission and passing out dates.
  • If your institution cannot find your degree or the name on degree is changed to your current name, (an unusual situation, but it might happen), you have to take care of the problem. You will probably need to fax the school a copy of your diploma or any other documentation you have.

How to Run Credit History Checks on Yourself:

Credit histories are very essential in background employment checks and the employers are keen to know about your past credit endeavors to understand about your future in their organization. So it’s better to run a credit history check on yourself by adopting these five precautions to detect minor mistakes which can cost you a job.

Be aware of what is on your credit report, especially if you think a prospective employer might check it. That way, if there are inaccuracies on the report, you can take steps to correct them.

  • Contact your bank and ask them for your credit report.
  • If you find any mistake or discrepancy, point out and correct it right away.
  • Make your bank to certify you for clean credit history.

After these 3 steps to resurrection, you can notify your prospective employer of the inaccuracies and of the steps you have taken to correct them. Correction of inaccuracies on your credit report is something that may take time, but it’s worth-ed to secure a job.


Criminal Background Checks as Employment Checks:

Employers want to know about your background, and you can be assured that they will check to see if you have a criminal history.

  • Criminal conviction records can be invaluable source of information. For the most part, these records are public and available to anyone. In most instances these records can be obtained from the country criminal court clerk’s office.
  • Convictions for minor infractions to major felonies can be found there. Files include full details of the case and ultimate disposition. Statewide criminal record databases can also be helpful in criminal records search.
  • Criminal background checks be best searched by hand at the county/states level, with full names, date of birth, should be used as much as possible to confirm a positive identification.


Social Security Number Trace

An applicant’s social security number is used throughout the pre-employment screening process, so it is important to verify that the number is valid.

Checking your validity of the number accomplishes several things:

  • It confirms that the number belongs to you and it provides a list of current and previous addresses, as well as other names used.
  • Make sure each numeral is clearly written so no one has to try and decipher your handwriting.
  • If you had reason to change your SSN, provide both numbers and add a brief note explaining why you had to change your number. Also, indicate when you started using the newer SSN.
  • This verification also provides other last names associated with the SSN and a list of previous addresses.


Concluding Remarks:

There are many different things that need to come together when you’re searching for a new job. You need a professional-looking resume, strong interviewing skills, and a can-do attitude. These things will get you in the door and help you make the final cut.

But you have to get through the background check to get the job. Offers aren’t made to people when there background checks are red flagged.

Preparing yourself for a background check is one of the best things that you can do to help your job search efforts.

Not everyone knows what happens during a pre-employment screening. In fact, most people know very little about it. They go into a background check blissfully unaware of the possible pitfalls that might occur.

Consider hiring a background check company or try to check your background online with authentic sources and public record portals, they are extremely helpful and can easily detect you out of everywhere; they are reliable, cost effective and time saving.

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