Multi-billion dollar international fake diploma fraud

 A new Report published on 21^st  exposes a multi-billion dollar international fake diploma fraud.

The ‘Accredibase Report' by Eyal Ben Cohen and Rachel Winch of Verifile Limited,is a report based on an 18-month international research project into diploma and accreditation mills - fake Universities and Colleges which con students out of their money and supply fake degrees that deceive employers into offering jobs, sometimes  fatal consequences.

Up till  1,762 fake institutions have been identified , and a  further 1,545 are under investigation currently filed as ‘suspicious' co-author Eyal Ben Cohen

Alarmingly, the US was found to be the world's fake college capital, with 810 diploma mills already declared fake  and many more still under investigation as the Report went to press. More than 35 percent of the diploma mills operate in California, Hawaii, Washington and Florida.UK is the the world's second biggest hub  of fake colleges , the Report exposing 271 bogus institutions, making the UK the centre of Europe's bogus colleges scam.

The British government  has said that it  welcomes any innovative approach that further helps to disrupt the activities of bogus education providers, simultaneously  safeguarding legitimate education and the public."

Multiple ‘fake university businesses' are often run from one address - The ‘St. Regis University' network ran as many as 121 phony institutions all from a single office in Spokane, Washington. This allows the fraudsters to easily shut down one business if the authorities become suspicious, while suffering minimal disruption to the huge profits being generated. Official estimates that the fraudsters are earning  more than $100m every year in only one year of operation.

Fake degrees can help terrorists to infiltrate facilities by securing them jobs inside the country

The ‘con' becomes more sophisticated with fake universities setting up fake accreditation bodies in an attempt to make their qualifications look genuine. These accreditation bodies  may hide their location to make it more difficult to establish their legitimacy.