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December 1 2010

Verifile Accredibase Case Study Revelas UK Fake Degree Problem

Ahead of tomorrow 's House of Commons vote on tuition fees, CV verification and background screening expert, Verifile Limited, is concerned that an increase in tuition fees will lead to an increase in bogus universities and push more people to buy fake degrees from the criminals who run these organisations.Verifile Limited owns Accredibas, the world 's largest database of fake universities, or a ""Diploma mill"".

Since the release of the company 's comprehensive report in January, the number of confirmed bogus institutions claiming to operate from the UK, has risen by an alarming 24%, taking the number of degree mills to 337 in the UK alone. In addition, a further 219 institutions are suspected mills and are currently under investigation. The majority of suspected mills are later confirmed as bogus upon completion of the investigation.Eyal Ben Cohen, CEO of Verifile Limited said: ""It 's clear that fake institutions are on the rise in the UK and the Government is not doing enough to fight it. In costly education systems like the USA, degree mills are everywhere. We fear that pushing up the cost of UK education will only increase the demand for fake universities and encourage more people to use their bogus 'degrees ' as a way to improve chances of employment.""Ben Cohen continues: ""Whilst the use of fake qualifications puts a candidate 's personal honesty and integrity in question, the damage to an employer can be far more significant as proved in a recent court case involving BSkyB and EDS. The case found a senior EDS manager and key witness to have lied about the origins of an MBA degree. The judge ruled that EDS should pay £709 million pounds to BSkyB".

It is hard to believe that candidates are not aware of what they are doing when they originally purchase their 'degrees ' without taking classes or sitting in exams, yet tens of thousands of individuals are using degrees purchased from degree mills over the internet. And you find them from all walks of life from IT to security, health, education, management, government and more. If tuition fees are to increase, we must expect the incidence of fake degrees to also rise.