A recent Wired story
discusses a government report on diploma mills.
Not to be confused with well-intentioned distance education programs
or the less sophisticated crime of forged diplomas,
diploma mills
are fake universities
with an online presence, sometimes even sporting credentials from bogus
accrediting agencies
(a meta-crime reminiscent of escrow fraud).
Professional resumes claiming degrees from what are actually such diploma mills
can be found everywhere: online job boards, organizational web sites,
doctor’s offices,
and even within the federal government.
A need to unveil these deceptive practices,
both by diploma vendors and those using their products for gain,
seems just as urgent as the plagiarism
problems that librarians often help ferret out.
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