About Diploma Mills and Fake Degrees

The Know-How You Need to Avoid Being Duped

Before the mid-80s the global marketing of fake college degrees and high school diplomas was difficult at best. The Internet revolutionized the way business was done. Brick and mortar storefronts moved into a virtual realm where physical boundaries became transparent.

The business of phony college degrees is nothing new. The demand has been in place since higher education was created. Combine the robustness of e-commerce with the pressures to earn college degrees and you have a powerful motivator driving both fake degree suppliers and their consumers.

Business Booms Where There is a Demand

Diploma mills capitalize on the consumer desire for a more competitive career edge. For most professionals, the competitive leg up translates to more education. Those with an Associates degree want a Bachelor’s, those with a Bachelor’s want a Master’s, and so on. The quicker, the cheaper, and the less work involved the better. What if you could convince a consumer that a degree based on previous life and work experience is as valid as a college degree? What a business model that would be. But who would buy that message?

Diploma Mill Business Model

Modern day diploma mills have perfected just such a model. And it works. Experts who spend their lives digging into the deepest recesses of degree mills suggest that as elusive as the flow of money is, that the fake degree business rakes in over $500 million dollars a year. Sounds like plenty of people buy the message.

Online websites for diploma mills give the illusion that they are as substantial and solid as any brick and mortar college in America. Dig behind the domain name, however, and addresses in places like Liberia, the Virgin Islands, and the Middle East are common and expose the illusions for what they are: virtual houses of cards. There are no campuses and no faculty offices.

Diploma Mills on American Soil

Many diploma mills are located within the U.S.; in states like Wyoming, Mississippi, and Alabama. Fraud laws and higher education regulations are so flimsy in these areas that unaccredited and low-quality colleges and universities may flourish.

Are Diploma Mills Legal?

Laws on fake degrees—both manufacture and use of—are spotty across the States. In many other countries the practice is illegal, but loosely policed. In the U.S. the federal government largely puts the responsibility on each state. 

Marketing Fake Degrees

Parallel to the types of fake degree consumer, are two types of fake degree businesses:

• Fake degree suppliers make no pretense of being colleges or leading consumers to believe their resumes can translate to real degrees. They sell, advertise, and market “fake,” “phony,” “bogus,” and “novelty” degrees.
• In comparison, diploma mills go to great lengths to create an illusion of reality and authority. Savvy marketing ploys and misleading information draws customers that may believe an evaluation essay or exam, combined with their resume, earns them an academic degree.

The Cost of Fake Degrees

In monetary terms fake degrees cost from $50 up to thousands of dollars.