by Nick Fishman

Greetings from the booth #219 at ERE Fall Expo in sunny, but not so warm Hollywood Beach, Florida.  There appear to be a number of attendees at this conference, which leads me to my first question: Why is everyone waiting in line for food when they could be talking to us about background checks?  C’mon people, we’re raffling off a Nintendo Wii, and you know conference food usually stinks.

On a serious note, ERE decided to broadcast a live feed of the conference on their website.  Very innovative, but I wonder if doing so both now and in the future will discourage people from attending.  Why spend the money or the time at the conference, when you can just tune in for the sessions that interest you?  Of course, a live feed can’t replicate perhaps the most important part of any conference, networking.

I attended a great panel discussion about cutting technology in staffing, moderated by Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler of CareerXRoads and featuring Cheezhead’s Joel Cheesman.  They most technologies they mentioned most were Twitter, SMS messaging, and IM.  Wouldn’t it be great if background checks could be done that way?  Maybe in the future!

Anyway, back to the conference.  Things picked up since I started this post.  We’re going to be doing a podcast with Steve Curtis from iCIMS’ in a little bit.  I’ll keep you posted.

by Nick Fishman

Would you be surprised to learn that 1 in 10 job applicants lies to prospective employers about their education?  employeescreenIQ recently released results from our 2nd quarter, 2008 study on falsification of academic credentials and found just that.  Here are some other interesting findings:

• High School diplomas were falsified more often than college degrees
• Post Graduate and Doctoral degrees were the most infrequently falsified degrees
• Applicants’ false claims rarely involved an institution they never attended

What can employers do to insulate themselves from hiring people that lie about their education?

• Conduct Education Verifications with the schools the applicants claims to have attended
• Check the academic institution to see if it is known diploma mill.  We just published a our List of Known Diploma Mills which can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

Click here to download the full release.

by Jason Morris

Once again highlighting the use of background checks are two new stories about diploma mills.  The Flint Journal posted an editorial called: Flint Journal Editorial: diploma mills devalue meaning of education.  In it,  the author relates this type of fraud to larceny.  The Flint Journal also found:

• So-called diploma mills often claim to award degrees based on “life experience.”

• Prices ranged from $200-$700 depending on the level of degree, GPA and award purchases.

Over the past few weeks we reported several stories about the NJ Department of Education accepting degrees from schools that were questionable.  In an honorable move the Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent H. James Wasser and the Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista said they would stop using their Doctoral titles and relinquish their $2,500.00 annual pay raises.

Read: MONMOUTH COUNTY: School officials return pay raises tied to questionable diploma

by Jason Morris

I got an interesting email from our Director of Compliance titled “Ironic Spam!”  I guess this spammer didn’t know they were sending this to an expert in compliance in the pre-employment screening industry.  Her made up title, not the subject line of the email:

Subject:  Submit your nomination for a Degree

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

We provide a concept that will allow anyone with sufficient work experience to obtain a fully verifiable University Degree.

Bachelors, Masters or even a Doctorate.

For US: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Outside US: +1-XXX-XXX-XXXX
“Just leave your NAME & PHONE NO. (with CountryCode)” in the voicemail.

Our staff will get back to you in next few days!

These criminals will go to great lengths to sell you a degree.  According to an article in the SouthTown Star, the FBI set up an investigation in the 1980’s called Dipscam.  It was the largest federal effort to combat degree and diploma mills.  Before the internet the bogus industry went into decline.  “However, the internet has injected such schemes with steroids, and they’re grwoing feversihly.“  Fortunately, with the emergence of the employment screening industry, background checks are uncovering more and more diploma mills.  This is also leading to a more educated human resource professional, curbing resume fraud.

The consequences of this fraud can be serious, especially in the medical field. In 1997, an 8-year-old girl, Rose Kolitwenzew, was treated by a doctor who supposedly had a medical degree from the British West Indies Medical College, but no such college existed. The man’s instructions led to the girl’s death.

It appears the state of Alabama is learning its lesson from recent stories in New Jersey.  Last week we reported New Jersey educators benefiting from fake or online degrees. Now, Alabama education officials are looking into internet courses and degrees.  The state has also taken action against four Birmingham based online colleges.  All Unaccredited!

by Jason Morris

There are almost 10,000 job seekers out there using fake diploma’s from this one operation.  We have written about diploma mills before, there are hundreds if not thousands of them.  Conducting a thorough background check will identify if your applicant’s education is on a diploma mill list.  Just last week, employeescreenIQ uncovered several unaccredited universities for our clients.  A nice justification for the cost of a thorough employment background investigation!

Bogus Diploma Mill Bust Nets Almost 10,000 Buyers

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

(MCT) CHICAGO—The network of bogus universities was a family-run venture based in rural Washington state, but the criminal enterprise spanned the globe, with operators allegedly paying bribes to Liberian officials and selling fake Ph.D.s and M.D.s as far away as Iran.

They were arrested by state and federal officials with the help of a physics professor.

George Gollin, professor of physics and Fermilab physicist at Illinois, helped unravel the scheme that has resulted in eight guilty pleas this year.

The investigation could spark further charges against hundreds of people who may have bought and used bogus diplomas.

Dubbed “Operation Gold Seal” by federal investigators, the case exploded into the national news with the publication of the names of some 9,600 possible buyers of junk degrees from the phony “St. Regis University” and at least 120 affiliated institutions operated by Dixie and Steven K. Randock Sr.

Claims to advanced degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools are burgeoning, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year as state and federal employees use phony credentials to bump up their salaries, Gollin said.

More

by Jason Morris

It looks like the State of NJ Education Department has been getting a lot of heat since the diploma mill story hit the news!  In an update it appears they will be revising their policies.  Maybe they read all of the stories we have written on Diploma Mills??

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey’s Education Department says it will come up with rules to stop school administrators from getting extra pay after obtaining graduate degrees from so-called “diploma mills.”

Education Commissioner Lucille Davy announced the plans.

It was recently revealed that officials in Freehold, including superintendent H. James Wasser, had degrees from Breyer State University, a unaccredited university.

State Senate President Richard Codey is calling for the state Attorney General to investigate the issue.

Full Story

by Jason Morris

I guess you can’t technically call this resume fraud? This is a terrible and negligent practice by educators, but isn’t prevented by the NJ Department of Education.  A degree with no academic value gives educators and administrators a nice pay raise.  The only chance of this practice coming back to haunt them is a quality background check when they go to find their next job.

N.J. Educators Free to use Diploma Mills

Taxpayers foot the bill for tuition

By ALAN GUENTHER • Gannett New Jersey • August 17, 2008

Psst . . . Wanna buy a degree from a diploma mill and stick taxpayers with the bill?

If you’re a public school educator, New Jersey won’t stop you.

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said she is powerless to prevent local school boards from handing out tax money to administrators who boost their pay by obtaining degrees with little or no academic value.

When it issued a nine-page report last week, the department entered a growing national controversy about the value of online degrees. But instead of announcing tough new standards, the department made only a few suggestions.

“I feel sorry for New Jersey. Here they had an opportunity to step up to the plate, and they opted not to,” said former FBI agent Allen Ezell, who investigated diploma mill fraud for 11 years, then wrote three books on the subject. “I would have thought New Jersey would have had a little more brass than that.”

Freehold Regional High School District became the epicenter of the diploma mill controversy in New Jersey when the superintendent and two top administrators obtained degrees from an online school that has been deemed an “apparent diploma mill” by Alabama officials.

After completing an investigation into the administrators’ degrees, the education department’s report stated there was “no sustainable evidence” that the administrators “possessed the prerequisite intent to deceive when they obtained the degrees” from Breyer State University, which has been chased out of two states and an African country.

The education department report suggested — but did not require — that high school administrators, in the future, earn college degrees from reputable, accredited schools.

None of the three administrators investigated — Superintendent H. James Wasser, Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista and recently retired Assistant Superintendent Frank Tanzini — was required to pay back the $10,750 they received in taxpayer money to obtain degrees from Breyer State.

The board gave raises — $2,500 each per year — for their advanced degrees.

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