“So, you see the masquerade depends on what you pay, it depends on what you pay.” 

-The Fantasticks 

When screening the background of a potential employee, many organizations will conduct their education verifications themselves rather than leaving that responsibility to their background screening provider. 

While cost-saving, this could be problematic.  Accepting a diploma at face value could potentially be detrimental to hiring procedures.  Sadly, in my experience in the background investigation industry, I’ve seen a lot of fake diplomas. 

It’s always best to go to the primary source for verification instead of just accepting a document that could potentially be fabricated. 

“How could a diploma be fake?” you may be asking yourself, but there are a lot of companies out there that market “novelty” or “replica” diplomas for people who either want to use them as gag gifts or to display instead of their actual document. 

What’s especially concerning is there are people out there who will purchase these diplomas and try to pass them off as actual academic achievement when searching for a job. 

Don’t believe me? Google “buy a fake diploma,” pick any of the numerous websites listed, and read their reviews.  It’s alarming how many people try to pass off these documents as authentic. 

In my own experience, I would claim to have seen it all, but I’m consistently shocked.  Just in the past week, I found two instances of fabricated diplomas.  The first was a General Equivalency Diploma (GED).

There are ways to verify a GED with primary source verification. For this particular individual, we initially tried a database that searches by social security number and date of birth.  There were no results, not even a failure notice. 

The individual had “received” the GED somewhat recently, so there was no reason for the results to not be in the database. 

When provided a copy of the GED, quite a few things struck me as odd.  New York State GED’s are extremely homogenous, and this one did not follow the pattern. 

For example, there was a full date of graduation. New York State GED’s only include month and year.  The watermark was too wide, and then there were the signatories. 

The commissioner of education displayed on the document was never actually a commissioner of education, and especially not one for the year of the document. 

In fact, you can easily look up who has served as the NYS commissioner of education and the dates they served that position.  Turns out, it was in fact purchased from one of the numerous sites referenced above. 

Another example occurred this week. It was for a high school verification in New York City, which has a unique style of diploma. The diploma was from many years ago.

I gave it the benefit of the doubt, perhaps NYC hadn’t changed formats yet. As I read through the verbiage, though, it wasn’t New York State verbiage. This one took a little longer to identify, it wasn’t one of the typical vendor’s fake diplomas.

It took Googling the verbiage itself, only to find that the individual had actually purchased the diploma from Amazon. That’s right, Amazon. The customer reviews and pictures were how I verified that information.

Sure enough, there was a photo of the same exact template, and the signatures matched.

The seller does have a disclaimer stating that signatures will be computer-generated. One review actually said, “My son got the job he wanted. It looks so real,” to which another person responded, “does this really look like the real thing?

I’ve received an offer for a new job, and they’re asking for a copy of my diploma, which I don’t have, and I would hate to give two weeks to my current employer and this not work.”

Previously, we had an individual take an existing diploma and “edit” it to reflect their information.

However, the signatories were again off. This person was to have graduated many years back but managed to have signatories that were currently at the school.

Besides that, the individual had used their current name - not the one they stated they graduated under - and the name was not straight.  It was crooked - severely crooked. 

This one wasn’t purchased, it was copied from a real one - thus, it shows how desperate individuals can be. 

What can you do to ensure you are hiring an individual with accurate credentials?  One way is to never accept a document as proof of education. 

Always use primary source verification - go directly to the school, or if the school utilizes a database, go to that database.  Another way is to pay close attention to verbiage and signatories.  If it seems off, it probably is, and you should verify that information. 

Using a background screening company (like a Consumer Reporting Agency) can help with this, especially if they’re very experienced in unmasking fraudulent degrees. 

CI has an eye for that!  And, we are licensed private investigators, as well.

If you wish to discuss education verification options, please reach out to us for additional information! We look forward to becoming Your Proactive Truth Partner™!

Written by Michelle Pyan