Widespread marketing and misrepresentation have resulted in a glut of phony degrees, and you should check any alleged accreditations against the US Department of Education Database. Sometimes though, it is not only the phony college who benefits, as the list below will reveal.
8 Outrageous Frauds involving online degrees
Colby discovered that a qualification gave him more kudos amongst his peers
Craig and Alton Poe formed the Trinity Southern University (TSU) in January 2004 and offered “degrees” in a variety of subjects for a fee between $299 and $499. They hacked into 60 Pennsylvania businesses to distribute over 18.000 spam emails advertising the scam. Using a bogus résumé for the deputy attorney general´s cat, investigators were able to acquire an MBA degree for “Colby” with a 3.5 grade point average. In March 2005 the brothers were fined a total of $131.000 for their fraudulent actions. (Full Story)
Trenda Halton of Peoria, Arizona defrauded the government of nearly $540.000 by recruiting 136 people to pose as students and enrolling at the Rio Salado College in Tempe over a 15 month period from July 2006. By having her recruits participate in online “classes”, Ms Halton received federal student loans and Pell Grant money. The scam came to light when handwriting on application forms was found to be similar, and Halton, plus 23 other defendants, have now been ordered to repay $793.073. (Full Story)
Pellar was unable to use his yacht as often as he would have liked
Ronald Pellar was a hypnotist and fraudster who established the Columbia State University operation from an apartment in San Clemente, California. Peller offered degrees in a number of fields to people who had not finished college – claiming that they would qualify for their degree based on life, work and academic experience. At the height of the fraud, CSU was grossing $10 million per year. In 1998 Pellar was sentenced to 67 months in prison, ordered to pay $45.835 in restitution and forfeit his $1.5 million yacht. (Full Story)
Dixie E and Steven K Randock Sr. were the brains behind one of the biggest recent online diploma-granting rackets. Over a six year period from 1999, they masterminded diploma mill fraud on a grand scale – selling more than $6 million worth of phony degrees to students in over 130 countries. Using fronts such as Saint Regis College, All Saints American University and New Manhattan University, the Randock´s were indicted in 2005 and sentenced to three years imprisonment in July 2008. (Full Story)
Capinger´s "cure-all" was no defence against the strength of the Caribbean sun
Gregory Caplinger achieved his legitimate Biology degree from Indiana University in 1974. Over the next decade he acquired both a bogus medical degree from the Metropolitan Institute of Great Britain and a fake doctorate in Biochemistry and Immunology from Sussex College of Technology (UK). His “credentials” enabled him to set up a clinic in the Dominican Republic, from where he courted investors for his anti-cancer drug “Immustim” and swindled over 100 people out of sums of up to $90.000 each for their treatments. He died in July 2009 whilst serving a 12 year prison sentence for fraud (Full Story)
Dr George Reuter established the “International Accrediting Commission for Schools, Colleges and Theological Seminaries, Missouri” by marketing heavily amongst then-unaccredited colleges. His method of a quick visit to the premises, collection of a check and instant accreditation became unstuck when falling foul of the equally bogus “East Missouri Business College”. Set up by Assistant Attorney General Eric Vieth, and including such luminaries as “Peelsburi Doughboy” amongst his list of executives, Reuter was enticed to the bogus St Louis college, where he was slapped with an injunction and heavy fine. (Full Story)
Not the real Ann Armstrong - or is it?
Ann Armstrong, a 67 year old grandmother from Las Vegas, masterminded an online scam with her children and grandchildren, creating 66 fake identities to apply for numerous grants and student loans. Armstrong and her family netted almost $1 million from a large number of online universities before a financial aid officer at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno recognized a similarity in the voices of the (fake) applicants on the telephone. Mrs. Armstrong was sentenced in 2006 to 57 months imprisonment and ordered to pay back $662.081 in restitution. (Full Story)
Thomas James Kirk established the “World Christian Church” into which he placed ownership of his diploma mills to claim religious exemption from state education laws. One, the La Salle University of Louisiana, was raided in 1996 by the FBI and IRS. Kirk was charged with 18 fraud related offences and sentenced to five years imprisonment. At the time of his arrest, and despite his vow of poverty, the “World Christian Church” was found to have assets in excess of $45 million. Kirks wife now continues the educational work of the church from a rented mail box in Honolulu. (Full story)
