In tough economic times, employment candidates will be desperate enough to try anything to get the edge on other job applicants. One ploy is to claim a degree from a school where they were merely enrolled for a couple of years or never attended at all. Another ploy is to obtain phony degrees from diploma mills, unaccredited colleges and universities.
And then sometimes employment candidates will buy counterfeit degrees from wellknown universities and try to pass them as authentic. This practice is pretty rampant in parts of the world. Which is why when conducting your education verification as part of your employment screening program, you have to view the diploma and graduation claims with a deal of scrutiny.
Make use of the background checks you order.
Here is the article from the Chennai News Network.
“The Central Crime Branch police on Sunday arrested a 33-year-old man who, with the help of a Andhra Pradesh-based gang, sold several youths fake degree certificates of Allahabad University, making lakhs of rupees from them.
The accused was identified as N Kathiresan of Gobichettipalayam near Erode, and he was arrested based on a complaint from Sunil Kumar Singh, 28, of Perambur.
Police said Singh had done a correspondence course and needed a degree from a recognised university which was mandatory to get a permanent job in computer firms.
Sunil was working with Kathiresan’s father Thangamani at a private computer firm a couple of years ago.
When he came to know that Sunil was looking to do a course, Thangamani had told him that Kathiresan had contacts in universities and he could help him get a certificate from a recognised university for a fee.
When Sunil contacted Kathiresan, he introduced him to one Sivakumar who was running an institute named Allahabad University Study Centre in Andhra Pradesh. He was asked to take up a one-year integrated course after which they promised to award BCA degree recognised by Allahabad University.
Trusting them, Sunil also took his friends Swaminathan, Ramji and Vijayasarathy to the conmen and they had paid between ` `50,000 to ` `1.5 lakh each depending on the degree.
“The victims became suspicious when they were told that they would get the certificates without writing the exams. They approached Allahabad University and found the certificates offered to them to be fake,” deputy commissioner of police S Jeyakumar told TOI.
Based on the orders of Chennai city police commissioner S George, a special team headed Jeyakumar launched a search and arrested Kathiresan on Sunday. Fake certificates, laptops and other items were recovered from him. Police are on the lookout for Sivakumar and others involved in the scam.
Police said Kathiresan had been running the racket for the past two years. Police have requested students not to get lured by brokers who promise degree certificates for money.”
