EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

I think this chart helps to explain the explosion of and prevalence of diploma mills and other misrepresentations of academic credentials.  In 2010, those without a high school degree are nearly four times more likely to be unemployed than those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.  Those with a high school diploma, but no college experience are twice as likely to be unemployed than their counterparts with college degrees.  And even those with some college experience, but no degree are nearly 38% more likely to be unemployed.

Remember, the best way to determine the authenticity of ones’ claimed academic qualifications is to conduct an education verification as part of your employment background screening program.

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While not really news to us at this point, we’re seeing an emerging trend of job applicants with fake job references.  We highlighted this issue a few months ago, referring to organizations that will sell fake references as “Employment Mills“, the evil twin to Diploma Mills.  To review, an applicant can pay these fake references providers to confirm employment, salary, dates of employment, etc.

I found a great Q&A highlighting this problem in the Anchorage Daily News and not to be glib, but you know this problem is spreading when it is hitting all corners of the country.  A local management trainer was asked by a company who was taken to the cleaners by an employee what more they could have done to prevent the bad hire, particularly after they checked her stellar references.  See response below.

A. I’ve learned never to trust reference letters.

Some employers write honest recommendations. Others write falsely positive letters out of guilt or to stem potential problems from laid-off or terminated employees. Some conflict-averse employers take the easy road out when departing employees press for a glowing recommendation. Further, an astonishing number of applicants “borrow” company stationary and write their own letters.

If you want to hire a solid employee, you need to personally call each reference listed and then call references not provided you by the applicant. In this Internet-accessible age, you can search for a former supervisor by name even when the company has dissolved or the supervisor has left the company. While we urge our clients to conduct background checks to uncover criminal and civil legal problems and phony educational histories, background checks don’t replace personal reference calls.

After hearing your story, I did an Internet search for phony references and foundCareerExcuse.com, one of several newly birthed Internet sites offering fake work histories and references. These services provide job applicants hard-to-see-through fake references from live receptionists.

Those using CareerExcuse.com can develop a completely fake yet validated resume with prompts such as “choose your career history”; “pick your start and end date”; “get rid of” a 3-year resume gap” and “choose your salary.” According to the site, it provides “a real company with a real address and a real 800 number” with “operators standing by” to field prospective employer calls. The site’s home page claims “bankrupt companies make a great previous employer” and offers that their “management company” has “dozens of bankrupt companies …ready to provide any inquirer your desired reference information.”

How can employers defend against resume and reference fraud? — by making extensive reference checking calls and exploring all danger signals before and after hire.

For example, your applicant badmouthed her most recent employer and then asked you not to contact him. By complying, you missed the other side of the story. Was it only bad luck that your applicant worked for three companies that bankrupted? Did she potentially speed these companies on their downward spiral with costs from a business manager who used antiquated work methods and piled up a fat overtime expense? And if you make a mistake — admit it.

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Our good friends from the UK, Verifile Ltd are clearly the international authority on all things related to diploma mills.  EmployeeScreenIQ has been working hand in hand with them to highlight the problem and give employers the tools they need to ensure that their job applicants are not misrepresenting their educational background.  They have exposed more than 3,000 fraudulent institutions across the world and are adding new ones every day.

They just released a product called Accredibase, which is a global database of unaccredited education institutions and unrecognized accrediting agencies, as a commercial product. We invite you to check it out.  They have also published a report designed to give an insight into the operation of diploma mills, the risks they pose and their global reach, and to propose solutions for tackling this important issue.  This report can be downloaded at www.accredibase.com/report

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Make no mistake, the use of diploma mills and other fake academic credentials is on the rise.  We recently highlighted this epidemic in our recent white paper, Smoke, Mirrors and Resumes: The Growing Threat of Diploma Mills (download your free copy here).  If the facts we presented weren’t enough, check out some of the real world examples shared by George Gollin, a board member of the U.S.-based Council for Higher Education Accreditation in a recent interview with CNN.

Among the examples cited in “Uncovering the Multi-Million Dollar Fake Degree Industry” are  the following:

• “According to a story in Wired Magazine, his interest turned to outrage after he stumbled upon news of a forensic psychologist who had purchased her degree. ‘Here’s this person who’s untrained doing therapeutic interventions,’he told Wired.”  “I thought, ‘Jesus, this is really bad.””
• “Gollin gave the example of one American who bought a Bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering, and who’s now working in the control room of a nuclear power plant.”
• “He also cited a U.S. degree mill that sells fake PhDs to real medical doctors for $10,000, and added that unqualified doctors have been jailed in the U.S. after attempting to practice medicine with a medical degree bought online.”

Read full article

It goes without saying that employers have to be ever-vigilant in their employment screening practices to ensure they have all the facts when it comes to hiring employees.

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The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that University of Notre Dame is asking all the right questions, performing thorough background checks and exercising careful due diligence as they search for a new football coach (Is Brian Kelly the Right Fit for Notre Dame).  Everyone recalls the embarrassment the school faced after their newly hired head coach, George O’Leary admitted to lying about his academic qualifications.  It appeared that their leading interested candidate was University of Cincinnati head coach, Brian Kelly, but that they may have had second thoughts after looking at his present and his past.

Let’s start with the past.  According to the Sentinel, “When Kelly was coach at Central Michigan in 2004, a fight involving at least four of his players outside a bar left a 26-year-old man dead. Kelly then seemed to defend some of his players, who may have perjured themselves in trying to protect a teammate.”  Should this give Notre Dame pause for concern?  Maybe.

I have also seen other reports that suggest the catholic school might have concerns over his ‘right to choose’ stance on abortion.  I can’t believe that the school would publicly admit to this, but we’d all have to fools to believe this won’t play a role.

Now on to some lighter things, Kelly’s present.  The fact is that Kelly is a great offensive mind, but his defense leaves much to be desired.  Cincinnati is among the lowest ranked defenses in the country.  Sound a little like Charlie Weis?

Okay, that comment might not have sounded like it had anything to do with background checks, but it certainly does.  Any thorough background check will include on the job performance as well as potential adverse information from the past.  Remember, it’s not just criminal records and resume fraud that determine whether someone is a good candidate or not.  It’s the whole picture.

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Notre Dame has fired their over-promising and under-performing head football coach, Charlie Weis.  Rumors are spreading like wildfire for who will replace Weis.  Especially after athletic director, Jack Swarbrick promised to return the school to the era of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Frank Leahy and Lou Hotlz.  We’ve already heard the names of some pretty heavy hitters as possible candidates: Tony Dungy, Bob Stoops, Jon Gruden, Urban Meyer, Kirk Ferentz, Gary Patterson, Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh.

Not a background check story? Think again.  Everyone remembers a few years back when Notre Dame hired an up and coming coach named George O’ Leary to return the team to prominence following a less than stellar performance by his predecessor Bob Davie.  Unfortunately, O’ Leary only lasted a couple days on the job and was unceremoniously terminated because the school found out through media reports that he committed resume fraud and lied about his academic credentials.  Doh!  A simple Education Verification would have saved them the embarrassment that followed.

Here’s hoping they decide to conduct a thorough background check on whoever they bring in.  It will save them time, money and unwanted media attention.

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I recently sat down with HRMarketer’s Kevin Grossman to discuss the the growing threat of diploma mills and the risk they pose to employers.  With more job applicants claiming to have these phony degrees, it’s more important than ever for employers to include an Education Verification in their background screening program.  We highlighted this issue and its impact in our recent white paper, Smoke, Mirrors and Resumes: The Growing Threat of Diploma Mills.

Check out our interview with Kevin below.

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They’re lurking in your mailbox – as many as 17 a day, or 70 a week. They are diploma mills, insidious companies that offer academic degrees and diplomas with little or no academic study and without recognition by legitimate educational bodies.

They feed on job applicants who will do anything to enhance their resume. Cheap, easy, and fast is their mantra, and their popularity is exploding in today’s marketplace. Employers that don’t act quickly face financial loss, litigation, and loss of reputation.

Read EmployeeScreenIQ’s new article, The Growing Threat of Diploma Mills, to learn about:
• The cost of diploma mill fraud
• Where the diploma mills are located
• How to determine a phony diploma
• Stacking the odds in your favor

The Growing Threat of Diploma Mills is required reading for employers who need to know whether a candidate is the answer to their prayers… or a product of smoke and mirrors.

Also, check out the video below which highlights just how easy it was for EmployeeScreenIQ president and COO Jason B. Morris to get a fake degree.

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Diploma Dog

Getting a fake degree online from a diploma mill is so easy, even Chester the pug could do it.  No offense, Chester. The aforementioned pooch just received his MBA from Rochville University.    Check out the story below.  Some one might want to perform a background check with an Education Verification.

Unmuzzling Diploma Mills: Dog Earns M.B.A. Online

How’s this for “hounding” diploma mills?

GetEducated.com, an online-learning consumer group, managed to purchase an online M.B.A. for its mascot, a dog named Chester Ludlow.

The Vermont pug earned his tassles by pawing over $499 to Rochville University, which offers “distance learning degrees based on life and career experience,” according to a news release from GetEducated. He got back a package from a post-office box in Dubai that contained a diploma and transcripts, plus a certificate of distinction in finance and another purporting to show membership in the student council.

GetEducated.com belives Chester is the first dog to get a diploma for life experience. But his bow-wow M.B.A. isn’t the first canine college degree: Witness this 2007 story about a police-department dog’s diploma.

Here’s GetEducated.com’s video about the stunt: “Dog Earns Online MBA: A Cautionary Tail.”

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Nurse of the Year is a pretty impressive feather in the cap of a health care practitioner.  That type of honor can place a nurse looking for a job in high demand.  In the case of Betty Lichtenstein of Norwalk, CT, she  claimed to have won the Connecticut Nurse’s Association’s “Nurse of The Year” award in 2008.  It turns out Nurse Betty wasn’t really a nurse, but she pretended to be one.   Oh, and the Connecticut Nurse’s Association doesn’t exist.  In the words of Homer Simpson, “DOH!”

Nurse Betty was hired on by a Connecticut doctor after committing resume fraud and had been treating his patients.  Word to the doctor: You might think about ordering a background check next time including a professional license verification and past employment references.

‘Nurse of the Year’ Charged with Not Being A Nurse

NORWALK, Conn. – A Connecticut woman who authorities say spent more than $2,000 to stage a dinner honoring her as “Nurse of the Year” has been charged with pretending to be a nurse at a doctor’s office. Betty Lichtenstein, 56, of Norwalk was charged Thursday.

Prosecutors say Dr. Gerald Weiss believed Lichtenstein was a registered nurse, especially after she was named the Connecticut Nursing Association’s “Nurse of the Year” in 2008.

According to the arrest warrant, that association does not exist.

The state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating after a patient complained about Lichtenstein.

She faces up to five years in prison if convicted of reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation charges.

Lichtenstein did not return a telephone message for comment.

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