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

HR Recruiting Alert has a posting of the most ridiculous resume lies.  I found it fitting considering our latest press release.

Some job applicants exaggerate previous accomplishments or fudge dates to cover unemployment gaps. Others use fibs that are much less subtle.

Here are the 10 most ridiculous lies recruiters have caught, courtesy of a recent CareerBuilder survey:

1. Claiming to be a member of the Kennedy family.
2. Listing a degree from a fake school.
3. Including a photograph — of someone else.
4. Claiming to a member of Mensa.
5. Listing military experience dating back to before the candidate was born.

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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

EMERYVILLE — Stephen Wesley, the Emery Unified School District superintendent who resigned Wednesday over allegations he falsified his resume, publicly apologized Thursday for embroiling the district in controversy.

Wesley’s apology came during the public comment portion of the previously scheduled district Advisory Committee meeting, a day after school board trustees voted unanimously to accept the superintendent’s resignation.

Wesley admitted his mistake and said he still wants to be part of this community, according to school board vice president Kurt Brinkman.

Brinkman said Wesley told the crowd at the meeting that he was on his way to Arizona when he decided to head back.

“That took a lot of guts. I have more admiration for the man than I ever had before,” Brinkman said.

Wesley’s appearance, which was not scheduled, didn’t come as a surprise to supporters, who credit Wesley with strengthening the tiny district wedged between Oakland and Berkeley.

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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 Nick Fishman

Poor Regis University; the institution itself, its faculty and its students.  By now millions of people across the country and the world have learned about the diploma mill in upstate Washington who sold false degrees from the bogus institution of “St. Regis University”.  Well, one could understand how Regis University and St. Regis University might get confused for one another. Unfortunately, the legitimate academic institution, REGIS UNIVERSITY is taking an unfortunate hit.

Earlier today, we posted another story about this St. Regis University diploma mill and we received a comment from the president of REGIS UNIVERSITY in Denver, Colorado, Reverend Michael J. Sheeran.  He wrote:

“As the President of Regis University in Denver, Colorado, I am especially aware of the damage done by degree mills like St. Regis, which has injured the reputation of my school. Founded in 1877, the real Regis has 15,000 students seeking legitimate degrees at our American campuses and online.

In contrast, St. Regis was a fraud masquerading as a legitimate school. It is important that potential students, regulators, and employers differentiate between the legitimate institutions of higher learning and the criminals who cheat the public by using names that trade on the good reputation of real schools.”

In light of this message, we thought we might help the good people at Regis University spread the word.  If you are a prospective employer who receives a resume from someone that claims to have graduated from Regis University, don’t automatically assume that the applicant is lying.

Of course, you should still remember to conduct an Education Verification.

by Jason Morris

Be wary of who you are hiring!  When hiring someone from a foreign country a title of “doctor” can mean many things.   Utilizing a solid global screening or international screening program is more important than ever.  Simply verifying a professional license or checking the equivalency of a license could make a big difference.  Imagine the embarrassment of hiring a doctor only to find out he is a doctor of nothing!

Highly “Educated” Dictators of Tehran

The fiasco of the clumsily forged Oxford doctoral diploma of the Iranian interior minister is comically tragic. Unfortunately for the interior Minister Ali Kordan, he will not be able to join the elite group of Dr. Ahmadinejad, Dr. Larijani, Dr. Khatami, Dr. Maleki, Dr. Rezaii, Dr. Motaki, Dr. Jajili and a thousand other officials with a PhD degree any time soon. However this debacle raises the question, why Tehran´s rulers feel the need to carry the title of “Doctor” to govern?

More than anyone else, these inept executives are conscious of their own incompetence. Most of them have climbed up the same four step career ladder: Revolutionary Guard, prosecutor/torturer/executioner, provincials governor, city mayor or division director, and finally minister/MP/president. Their busy vocational path has left little time for learning skills needed to run the government. Purchasing a PhD diploma has been the logical choice for these rulers to purge intellectuals and educated workforce, and place themselves better to rip off the county´s wealth.

The popularity of the doctoral title among the theocratic dictators is also due to the ill reputation and disgrace associated with religious titles such as “Hojatoleslam” and “Ayatollah” among people. Such religious titles in Iran are now symbols of demagogy, brutality, and despotism.

For those officials who are engaged in interactions with the international communities , such as nuclear negotiation teams, or ambassadors, the doctoral title is used to conceal insincerity and deceitful intents and cunning tactics.

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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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by Jason Morris

This article does not focus on background checks.  It does however give great tips to hiring professionals on how to deter the applicant from lying to you.

3 WAYS TO CATCH JOB APPLICANTS WHO LIE TO YOU

Dr. Michael Mercer

You can use pre-employment tests, interview tricks and more to uncover if a job applicant is lying to you or embellishing the truth.

Question: Did you ever have a job applicant lie to you or, to be charitable, embellish the truth?

Answer: You probably answered, “Yes.”

This is important. In my third book, “Hire the Best and Avoid the Rest,” I often have been quoted as writing, “Whatever behavior you see from an applicant in the screening process is likely the best behavior you will see from that person.” So, if an applicant lies on your tests, interviews and forms, that person also may be dishonest in work he or she does, if you hire the person.

But, don´t worry. Reason: I will reveal to you methods you can use to

a. discover if an applicant lied to you

b. make an applicant hesitant to lie to you

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by Jason Morris

The moral of this story; Hiring managers will do background checks and uncover resume lies!

Résumés are a critical part of any job search. They are the most effective marketing tool any of us have about who we are and what we can do. And all of us want our résumé to be the best possible representation of our work.

But some workers turn their résumés into a work of fiction instead of a representation of fact. A CareerBuilder.com survey of hiring managers and workers looked at the tall tales and bold lies used on résumés.

Story Highlights:

• Many job applicants get too creative on resumes, making false claims

• Highest rate of resume dishonesty reported in hospitality industry

• College attendance, graduation is easy to verify; don’t claim degree not earned

• Most companies disqualified candidates after discovering their dishonest

Here are the 10 most outrageous whoppers, as reported by hiring managers:

1. Candidate claimed to be a member of the Kennedy family

2. Applicant invented a school that did not exist

3. Job seeker submitted a résumé with someone else’s photo inserted into the document

4. Candidate claimed to be a member of Mensa
Don’t Miss

5. Applicant claimed to have worked for the hiring manager before, but never had

6. Job seeker claimed to be the CEO of a company when he was an hourly employee

7. Candidate listed military experience dating back to before he was born

8. Job seeker included samples of work, which were actually those of the interviewer

9. Applicant claimed to be Hispanic when he was 100 percent Caucasian

10. Candidate claimed to have been a professional baseball player

Modifying your résumé is a lot like airbrushing a photo, and many of us may have made minor tweaks to our résumés. You may have revised a job title that sounded uninspiring or omitted a hellish work experience from your list.

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