Degree Mills ─ The Billion-Dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas

Ezell, who headed the FBI's DipScam diploma-mill task force, and Bear, an author, expose the growing number of fake universities and degrees, to help media professionals, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals uncover this fraud. They outline the history of the scam and what it is, the types of degrees and schools and deceptive tactics used, who buys the degrees, legal issues and enforcement, and how to check out a school or person. They detail cases from the FBI's DipScam operation, three major degree-mill operations, and people who have fake degrees in medicine, business, politics, therapy and psychology, academia, law and religion, the military, law enforcement, and sports, as well as federal legislation, what makes a degree real, and ethics, ending with a list of unrecognized schools and accrediting agencies, counterfeiting services, and suggestions for what can be done. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Allen Ezell founded and was the head of the FBI’s DipScam diploma-mill task force. He is also the author of Counterfeit Diplomas and Transcripts and Accreditation Mills.

John Bear, PHD, former head of new business development for Pearson’s educational division, is the author of the bestselling Bears’ Guide series of educational books, plus numerous books on consumerism, computers, and other topics.