In a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Government affairs, Ayoko Vias, Administrative Assistant, NASULGC (National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges) wrote, "Many consumers of diploma mills are unsuspecting victims, but not all. Some consumers are fully aware that they are simply purchasing a degree (and a fake one for that matter) that they have not earned."
"They know they got a fake degree, and they continued the fraud by holding it up as legitimate. You'd be amazed at how many actually display the thing on their office wall," said one investigator who did not want to be identified because of on-going investigations.
In Phony Degrees a Hot Net Scam, Wired News quoted John Bear, founder of Degree.net, "Some say that although people who sign up for diploma mills may be defrauded, the real victims are unknowing employers and the public."
"The majority of people know what they're doing," Bear said. "Diploma mills may also victimize the people who put their trust in physicians, psychologists, lawyers, and others with fake credentials. There are people out there with fake degrees doing terrible things. The human damage can be considerable."
Whether the Fort Bend County Clerk knew Kennedy-Western was unaccredited or not, it is unlikely she has broken Texas laws. Using a bogus degree to get a job or promotion is illegal only in Oregon, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota and Nevada, where it is a misdemeanor mainly punishable by fines ranging from $350 to $2,500. But, violators rarely face prosecution.
Texans might be protected from this type of identity deception if a law dating from 1975 is enforced, The thirty-year old law was supported in 2001 by the 3rd District Texas Court of Appeals in Austin.
In an article dated July 21st, 2003, Christianity Today Magazine reported, "Concerned about diploma mills, the Texas Legislature in 1975 passed a law barring unaccredited schools from using the word "bachelor, master, and doctor" in their degree titles." . . "In 2001, a judge supported the diploma-related fine, but threw out the "seminary" fine. Yesterday, however, the 3rd District Texas Court of Appeals in Austin supported both fines, and ordered Tyndale to pay all $173,000." It isn't clear if this law prevents purchasers of the degrees using the academic titles.
Kennedy-Western may also be free to continue selling degrees to Texans, at least for now. "Their degrees are illegal for use in Oregon and a few other states" noted Alan Contreras, administrator of the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization; in The Chronicle On Higher Education live chat forum - Fighting Fakery. "We think most people who get bogus degrees know what they are getting and hope to get away with it. Most are not victims, they are partners in falsehood."
When questioned by The Chronicle of Higher Education in States Struggle to Regulate Online Colleges That Lack Accreditation Kennedy-Western officials declined to reveal how many students are enrolled at the university or what percentage are from foreign countries. They say it also has offices in Jakarta, Indonesia; Moscow; and Singapore.
Kennedy-Western is based in sparsely populated Wyoming where they maintain a stark basement office in Cheyenne's sleepy downtown area. Last month, three of Wyoming's top education officials asked lawmakers to crack down on unaccredited colleges. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride, interim University of Wyoming President Tom Buchanan and Jim Rose, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission stated in a joint letter this month. They wrote to state Senator Tex Boggs, chairman of the Private School Licensing Task Force.
In an interview with the Associated Press McBride said he believes the schools exist mainly to provide foreign students with a diploma that looks as though it originates in the United States. Speaking of the 14,000 students state records show to be enrolled in Wyoming's 10 non-accredited private schools, Superintendent McBride said, ""Of those 14,000, I bet there's not even 200 who are Wyoming residents Most of them are not even in this country, they're in Pakistan, and in different places outside the United States. And, I think a lot of those students think that they're real degrees, and they're not. And, I think a lot of the students think that they're trained to be employed, and they're not."
"I'd say that because of the existence of these schools in Wyoming, we're often a laughingstock because they're not eligible to operate in other states,"
Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott is taking action against unaccredited post-graduate schools operating in Texas. March of this year Abbott obtained judgments against two brothers who operated Trinity Southern University, a "university" that issued fraudulent degrees. The case was the result of an investigation spurred by a consumer fraud lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. The Dallas-based school issued an MBA degree to a Pennsylvania deputy attorney general's six-year-old cat.
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