Friday | February 10, 2012
Website Offers Fake Diplomas
| Rate Center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today's Average Rates Across the Country* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
By
Jason Gallagher
11 March 2004
(U-WIRE) KENT, Ohio. University students who fail to graduate from school can still receive a diploma. A fake one.
FakeDegrees.com offers fake diplomas for hundreds of colleges across the country. All it takes is $75.
FakeDegrees.com claims the diplomas are replicas of the real thing. A customer can design everything on the diploma from the layout and template, to the type of paper used to the university seal. But Kent State associate university counsel Jim Watson said he thinks the website poses no real threat to schools.
"They don’t make fake degrees. They basically give you a template that sort of looks like a degree," he said. "I don’t see this as anything that’s going to cause anyone to defraud a university."
And while the thought of paying $75 for something that most people pay thousands for is enticing, FakeDegrees.com offers a disclaimer on its website to discourage illegal activity. It reads: "These certificates are extremely high quality and are intended for novelty purposes only. They are not intended for, and we take no responsibility for, their use in any matters perpetrating fraud or dishonesty."
Still, some colleges are upset with the website and have threatened to sue for forgery and copyright infringement. These colleges have issued orders for the site to stop using the colleges’ names and likenesses.
The website has started to respond to cease-and-desist orders issued by the universities, but that isn’t good enough for some.
College officials say they haven’t heard of anyone having tried to use phony diplomas from FakeDegrees.com to get a job or for other fraudulent behavior, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
While that may be the case, some college officials feel uneasy about Web sites like FakeDegrees.com
Terry Kuhn, Kent State vice provost for undergraduate studies, said he recalls an incident where he caught a student claiming to have earned a fake degree. Kuhn said he went to a graduation party where a student had a doctorate degree from a university in England on display. The student claimed to have earned the degree during the same time he was earning a master’s degree from Kent State.
"Obviously, it was a bought and paid-for piece of paper," Kuhn said. Kuhn added that while the use of fake university documents is not rampant, Kent State has had to deal with the issue in the past.
"We have had instances where transcripts have been altered," he said.
FakeDegrees.com, which according to its IP address is located in Spain, could not be reached for comment. As of now, FakeDegrees.com only offers diplomas. But according to its website, the company will soon be offering "fake transcripts, references and letters of recommendation to paying members."
Copyright 2003 Daily Kent Stater via U-Wire
Tag Cloud
Financial help Center
Newsletter Sign Up
Enter to win a Young Money Career Package by signing up for our newletter.
