Online Degree Zone

Online University Diploma Mills

Diploma mills are distance learning entities that make multiple claims of legitimacy and accreditation but in truth are fraudulent schools that "award" higher education diplomas with or without their students' knowledge of illegitimacy.

Whenever a student is not required to physically be in a location to earn a degree the risk of diploma mills should automatically come into mind.

It is always unfortunate when innocent victims fall prey to scam artists. Perhaps more unfortunate is when the scams become a vying profitable market. There have been some diploma mills that have earned millions of dollars a month! The reasons why they are successful are a compilation of their consumers, the media and differences in rules and regulations from state to state.

Scam companies could not exist if they did not have plenty of consumers to support their business. Some of their students are genuinely duped into believing they are earning a degree from a legitimate institution. Usually they are fooled by the fake schools clever marketing techniques. Other times students buy their degrees fully aware that the diploma they have paid for is bogus but are willing to take the risk for various personal reasons.

The media is one of the main contributing factors for the survival of diploma mills. By running ads for the fraudulent companies they help facilitate students to the fake schools. Many of the publications that have done this are respected and trusted sources of information, therefore, the reader who responds to the ads feel no cause to suspect the diploma mill program, especially when the ad is run next to prestigious institutions like Harvard.

It doesn't help that the word "university" is not clearly defined. Religious groups and other organizations can make claim to being a "university" leading people to automatically believe they are creditable. So why doesn't the proper authorities do something about this? The answer is that many state governments are hesitant to interfere with organizations who claim religious ties because of the constitutions separation between church and state. In addition by the time a governing body begins to pursue prosecution against the diploma mills the owners simply pick up and move to a different state with different laws. Therefore, differing and relaxed laws in varying states inadvertently allow the scams to continue.

In short, diploma mills are not a good thing. In order to safe guard yourself from falling prey to one of these scam artists it is prudent to do some research by utilizing the following suggestions:

• Learn about accreditation and follow up to see if the accrediting agency is legitimate.
• Ask professors names and contact information. What do they teach, what is their specialty, where did they receive their degree etc.?
• Use common sense. If an online PhD program only takes two weeks to earn your doctorate without a thesis dissertation or defense there probably is something fishy going on.
• Check with the Better Business Bureau and/or the attorney general's office to see the record of complaints for the school in question.
• Check with a school you know is accredited to see if credit's can transfer from the online university in question.