2010

Providor Magazine reports how the United States has become the phony degree capital of the world. They base their report on a landmark study conducted in the UK be Verifle ltd. The report which wsas published in  the January-February 2010 journal of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners, identified 1,762 bogus “institutions” with the United States’ having 810 confirmed Diploma Mill.

With the advent and confluence of personal computers, scanners, laser printers, and Internet marketing, employers must verify the authenticity of degrees and the accreditation of the institutions that offer them by looking up and contacting not only the schools themselves, but also the appropriate accreditation agency in order to verify that both the degree and the school are legitimate.

Diploma mills provide authentic-looking degrees in virtually any field of study, without the need to actually attend any classes or lectures or even peruse any textbooks. Some of these mills market the diplomas as legitimate degrees based on the “life experiences” of the students. Charges for these degrees range from under $100 to as much as $1,000. Of course, transcript, bibliography, and verification services are available for additional fees. Needless to say, employers also cannot rely on simply using verification phone numbers or even online services provided by these purported institutions any more than they can rely on the authenticity of a diploma based on its appearance.

Health Care Vulnerable

It is hard to imagine a profession more susceptible to harm due to phony credentials than health care. Alarmingly, a recent Government Accountability Office study found that more than 11 percent of bogus degrees go to the health care field and include doctors, nurses, and other health care practitioners. One phony doctor was responsible for hastening the death of a teenage cancer patient, while another was convicted of rape. In addition to the needless suffering of the victims, the blame and liability for these bad acts will fall on the shoulders of the employer. Notwithstanding the potential for economic damages, the reputation of the facility could suffer irreparable harm, and the loss of accreditation is a real risk.
 
Some may feel that just relying on a job applicant or employee’s statement of education credentials puts the onus for liability back on the individual. But a plethora of negligent-hire lawsuits have proven that not to be the case.  Consider the California county that hired an individual based in part on his false statement that he held a PhD in public administration. He was put into a position with access to Medicare funds, and when accounting irregularities began to surface, the ensuing FBI investigation determined that the individual would not have been hired if a check of his credentials had been conducted. The county was then held liable for negligent hiring and fined $20 million by the federal government.

New Incentives For Screening

Another recent development, this time coming from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), provides incentive for health care providers to implement more rigorous screening processes.  FTC issued new rules last year that will hold financial institutions and creditors—including nursing facilities—accountable for implementing formal programs for preventing identify theft. In this case, nursing facilities will be responsible for ensuring that residents are protected.
 
The rules require that any consumer account, or other account for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft, develop and implement an identity theft prevention program (ITPP) for combating identity theft in connection with new and existing accounts.  Additionally, the creditor’s board of directors or appropriate individual/owner must certify that all ITPP processes will be effective in preventing or reducing the chances of identity theft, periodically review the ITPP for updates, and ensure that all appropriate staff are properly trained.  These rules, which have been delayed several times, are set to go into effect on Dec. 31, 2010.
 
Attempting to find information on individuals through social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or even Google can sometimes do a lot more harm than good. For instance, it is very hard, if not impossible, to determine if information on the site is accurate or even that it actually belongs to, or is properly attached to, a particular individual, as opposed to someone with the same or similar name.
 
Additionally, accessing these sites for employment purposes may expose information such as age, marital status, race, religion, and other information protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act, which may not legally be considered in making employment decisions.
 
Courts have come down with decisions that say, for the most part, “you can’t unring a bell.” And if an employer has been exposed to certain information, it may be very difficult to prove it was not a factor in the employment decision-making process, thus making the employer susceptible to being sued for unlawful discrimination.
 

Outsourcing An Option

The U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation are probably the most legitimate accreditation bodies in the United States. However, many bogus institutions use names very similar to the real ones and even falsely add legitimate schools to their lists of accredited members, making it very difficult to be sure what’s real and what’s not.
 
There are currently no reliable shortcuts to determining the authenticity of education credentials. The personnel performing verifications need to be dedicated to the task and be as suspicious as a detective. Outside assistance is one way to reduce the possibility of hiring or retaining an individual with bogus credentials. Organizations that employ fewer than 1,000 skilled personnel will usually achieve more efficiency by outsourcing. Every company that requires education and/or training credentials for employment purposes should always verify those credentials to the best of its abilities.
 
What’s more, checking the references and credentials of screening firms is as important as checking the credentials of job applicants.
 
Screening In Other Countries

According to Verifile, international background screening is becoming more critical to businesses as borders open up and the battle to hire the best talent intensifies. A large number of direct care staff in nursing facilities are foreign-born U.S. citizens, and facilities must effectively verify credentials to ensure potential employees have been honest and truthful in their applications.
 
To start, screening them in each of the countries in which they have lived is necessary. Verifile recommends criminal record searches to verify that the prospective staff member does not have a record. Each country has its own system for collecting and releasing criminal record data, and it is important to take local regulations into consideration.  Rules on the release of consumer credit information also differ from country to country.
 
In the United States, obtaining credit information through a credit bureau is normal, legal, and widely understood, but in countries such as Italy or Malaysia, credit information is not available for preemployment screening purposes even though credit bureaus do operate there.  In the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia, credit bureaus will only provide for preemployment screening purposes basic information on court judgments and bankruptcies. Although employment verification in the United States often takes place through a verbally conducted check, this is very different from the rest of the world. Verifile notes that in Europe, written requests for employment references are preferred.
 
The reality is that many people are willing to pay for, and will jump at the chance to take, a shortcut to further their careers and bolster their images.  This, coupled with the billions of dollars to be made by those who are happy to sell them the bogus tools with no regard for the potential consequences, means that this is going to be an ongoing and ever-worsening problem.

Another dubious degree popped up in the background checks of another of Verifile 's City financial clients recently. The candidate in this case, applying for a job in the IT department of a London based mortgage company, claimed to have a BSc in Computer Science - this time from University of Northwest. The candidate claimed he studied for his ""degree"" through a local agent in the UK, Stratford College London. Verifile 's researchers routinely ran both University of Northwest and Stratford College London through Accredibase and alarm bells started ringing when a match was returned.

University of Northwest was based at a New York address which appeared on a transcript provided by this candidate. The ""university"" is not and has never been accredited by a US recognised accrediting agency.  The
University of Northwest is also not listed as a recognised New York University or College by New York State Education Department (NYSED). According to NYSED 's website, to establish a college or university in New York State and to confer degrees, an entity must be authorised by the Board of Regents or its charter. In addition, use of the terms ""college"" and ""university"" is generally restricted to institutions chartered by the Regents or the State Legislature.  What 's more, University of Northwest has also been blacklisted in four US States - Texas, Oregon, Michigan and Maine.

According to Oregon 's Office of Degree Authorization, University of Northwest has been actively selling invalid degrees in Afghanistan this summer.  Neither the University of Northwest nor Stratford College London is a UK recognised institution with the legal power to award their own UK recognised degrees. Stratford College London is, however, currently licensed under Tier 4 by the UK Border Agency to sponsor overseas students.  When Verifile 's researcher contacted Stratford College London, they were able verify that the University of Northwest degree was attained through their college, however, they also stated that they no longer offer University of Northwest courses.  

University of Northwest also claims to be accredited by several agencies that have been blacklisted as unrecognised in the United States. Degree mills will often use - or even invent their own - bogus accrediting agencies, known as an Accreditation mill, in an attempt to make their qualifications look genuine. Accreditation mills tend to choose names similar to those of recognised accrediting agencies and will even falsely add well respected universities to the list of institutions they ""accredit"".

This particular candidate had also lied about his A Level grades on his CV which made Verifile 's report regarding his bogus education even harder to ignore.  It is hard to believe that either of these candidates was not aware of what they were doing when they originally purchased these ""degrees"". Those of us who have been to university know just how tough it is to get a degree and the amount of work that is required. We would expect that anyone claiming to have a degree has gone through the same demanding process and that their degree is recognised in the country in which it was awarded. Regardless of whether or not having a degree is essential for the job itself, it is an issue of honesty, integrity and trust. If someone has knowingly set out to deceive in this way, they may not stop there and the potential risk to unsuspecting employers is huge.

Employers should also consider the bad publicity involved if these cases come into the public light, or the consequences of failing an audit from a regulator. Take the recent court case involving BSkyB and EDS. The Times reported that Joe Galloway, a senior EDS manager and key witness in the case, lied in court about the origins of an MBA degree. He was exposed when BSkyB 's barrister purchased the same degree on the internet from Concordia College and University for his dog, Lulu. As a result, the judge ruled that EDS should pay over £700 million to BSkyB.

Often it is the case that when conducting a background check, high importance is given to protecting against applicants who present fake certificates. Checking if a certificate has been faked is fairly simple and is done by contacting the institution who has supposedly issued it. Therefore, if a job applicant is claiming to have a degree from a well known university (eg. Harvard), it is good practice to contact the Registry department and ask if they have issued the qualification to the candidate.  However, this approach does not help when trying to spot and protect against degree mill qualifications. The examples discussed in this report highlight the importance of understanding how education systems around the world work when conducting a thorough CV verification. Armed with this knowledge, the background screening agency would be able to check the recognition status of the university and confirm if they are genuine or fake - and whether a degree from the university should be taken seriously.

A recent report by Barry Nixon of the Preemploymentdirectory.com and someone Verifle works closely with details the risks to busines bought on by degrees obtained from a Diploma mill.   For those of you that saw the movie Catch Me If You Can that is based on the real life adventures of Frank W. Abagnale Jr., you know that getting a job with fake credentials is real. This becomes very significant in today 's employment marketplace when employers have very specific needs that they are trying to fill and each hire needs to be filled with the right person with the right qualifications. Also in these times of increased competition and an under performing economy something as mundane as not checking the educational credentials of an applicant can have a devastating effect not only on the organization that hires a person, but also the company that gave them the green light on the person 's credentials.

The concept of screening individuals ' criminal records has become an integral part of the hiring process for most organizations. Major studies by the Society for Human Resource Management and Preemployment Directory.com conducted in the last several years confirms that well over 80% of firms conduct this type of employment record checks. Less prevalent were firms that conduct educational verifications. With fake Diploma mill and accreditation operations proliferating, the need to verify education and credentials has become a necessity.

So what exactly is a diploma mill? It is a business that offers a diploma or degree for completing high school or post-secondary education without requiring appropriate academic achievement and is not accredited by a recognized accrediting institution. A diploma mill is where you can purchase a degree for money without putting any time into studying academically-a short cut to getting an academic credential and the person has not gained the knowledge that academic study produces. A fake degree comes in two types:

•  A degree that is purchased from a diploma mill that has little or no commensurate academic achievement associated with it that is purchased from an unaccredited institution and
• Or a degree that is purchased from a legitimate accredited institution, but the purchaser did not attend the institution.

These two fake degrees require different verifications. The fake degree from the unaccredited institution requires verifying that the issuing institution is fake. While this seems straightforward, many diploma mills also operate fake accreditation businesses that will verify that the degree-offering institution is legitimate and also accredited (Accreditation mill).

Background investigation firms have to be sophisticated enough to understand the deceitful web that these companies can weave. For the degree from an accredited legitimate institution that was not earned by the applicant this requires verifying that the person actually attended the institution and obtained the degree or credential claimed. Incidentally, accepting a copy of the person 's degree is dangerous business these days with services now available that replicate degrees at the level that the actual institutions in many cases cannot tell the difference.

One company learned this the hard way when they hired a controller who indicated he had a financial degree and was a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA). After several months, the president of the company noticed several mistakes and many questionable decisions made by the controller. An investigative firm was hired to conduct a background check and found that the individual did not possess a degree. While in this case the company did not experience a significant financial loss, one can only imagine the potential damage that an unqualified controller could inflict on an organization.

Another example involved a nursing assistant who was hired by a convalescent home and subsequently raped a patient. As it turns out, the nursing assistant 's license to practice has been suspended and the company never checked the validity of their credential. In the ensuing lawsuit, the company was ordered to pay $750,000.00 to the victim and went out of business. More and more cases are starting to indicate that background investigation firms are being held culpable for providing inaccurate or incorrect information on applicants.

However, a new trend is going to emerge where background investigation firms will need to set a minimum requirement of records to be checked including educational verifications. To do otherwise will leave the background investigation firm wide open to reputational damage because when the news hits the paper and Internet that the applicant you referred had a fake degree or one from a diploma mill, the fact that the client did not want this service is going to get lost in the small print. People will remember that your firm was the one that referred the candidate who committed some atrocious act, or robbed their client blind, and this will cost you business.

While opinions vary widely about the real threat that organizations face from filling jobs with applicants who have purchased a bogus college degree, the question that you have to ask yourself is what level of risk do I expose my company to by hiring someone who has misrepresented or outright lied about their academic achievements? Will we simply be embarrassed or could it pose real danger and risk?

Consider the following example to help you decide whether there is real risk: A Connecticut woman claimed to be the 2008 Connecticut Nurse 's Association's "Nurse of the Year."" At least one doctor was impressed by this achievement and hired her on the spot. The problem is that there is no Connecticut Nurses Association. Even worse, the woman wasn 't even a nurse, yet she was providing care to the doctor 's patient. The risk to the employer in these examples are very obvious since if something goes wrong the employer is clearly on the hook and looking down the barrel at a negligent hiring lawsuit.

But what about the firm that provided the background investigation, are they too at risk? A recent case illustrates the point: A very well known background screening firm recently gave the green light on an applicant for a client and it turns out the person had a criminal record and did not possess the educational credentials claimed. The client fired the background screening firm and won a lawsuit against them for fifty thousand dollars. Not only was the company sued and forced to pay damages, but they incurred legal costs and their reputation was tarnished. When an organization looking for a background investigation firm starts vetting them, lawsuits of this nature will become known and are likely to dampen the organization 's enthusiasm to do business with them. In the competitive world of background investigations, your competitors will be more than happy to volunteer to a prospect your history of lawsuits and lost business.

Just in case you are thinking to yourself that a fake degree may be an issue, but how big of a problem can it really be-consider that it is estimated there are as many as 3,000 such firms worldwide and more than 800 in the U.S. A recent comprehensive report on fake diploma mills and accreditation operations released by Verifile Limited company, identified the U.S as the world leader in this dubious business practice. The groundbreaking report is the result of an 18-month international research project into diploma and accreditation mills - fake Universities and Colleges. The research was carried out by Verifile 's research team with the support of Cambridge University and the East of England Development Agency. Alan Contreras of Oregon 's Office of Degree Authorization, one of the national leaders aggressively challenging fake universities, calls the Report: ""An excellent job assembling facts about the degree mill problem in the world today. In the murky world of bogus credentials and dubious evaluators, The report provides an example of how research in this field ought to be done."" Another study showed that one diploma mill was issuing 500 fake degrees a month. With the number of diploma mills in operation this is a lot of people with smoke and mirror degrees. Also current research indicates that approximately one out of ten job applicants misrepresent or lie about their educational credentials.

Lies come in many different forms. It could be the person that says they are a CPA, but actually just has a bachelors degree in finance, or the person who just completed one year at a community college, but says they have a degree from Harvard, or the person who says he or she graduated cum laude, but actually was an average student. The real impact of the misrepresentation has to do with the nature of the work that is to be performed by the person and the level of risk goes up.