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	AuthRight	A monthly e-newsletter on Background Screening brought to you by AuthBridge Research Services Pvt. Ltd, India
	VOLUME I, ISSUE 6	MAY 2006

	L E A D S T O R Y Faking Facts In our last edition we looked at education verification and frauds perpetrated thereof. This month we zero in on fraudulence from a totally different perspective. Applicants' fudging facts and documents for plum jobs and career growth though illegal is still fathomable. The whole picture however gets murkier when conjuring up fake degrees from even faker colleges and universities becomes a lucrative business venture for the unscrupulous. Diploma mills - companies that sell “degrees" or certificates on the Internet without requiring the buyer to do anything more than pay a fee charge a flat fee and award a degree based solely on “work or life experience." There are websites blatantly offering fake degrees for a small fee! The University Degree Program, which began operating in the mid-1990s offers diplomas from bogus institutions with names like the University of Wexford, Shelbourne University, and the University of Palmers Green. Fake campus, fake students, fake faculty. The task force on paramedical education headed by Dr C M Gurumurthy in Karnataka has come out with shocking revelations on the state of nursing education and has exposed the nexus between the fake institutions and the government. This nexus, it says, has helped the colleges thrive for decades. In Bangalore city you needn't have to do a course to get an MBA degree. You can simply buy a certificate for Rs.5000. The same goes for most degrees. Though the police exposed a major racket in manufacturing fake Bangalore University mark sheets and degree certificates recently, several smaller rackets are believed to be still running in the city. As good jobs become harder to find, growing number of applicants are doing whatever they can to increase their chances of finding the choicest employment. Unfortunately, much of "whatever they can" includes exaggeration and outright falsehood on resumes. False and misleading information has become relatively common. Verification specialists need to be extremely vigilant when checking education details and not get misled by the 'genuineness' of the degree or the University website. I N T H E N E W S - N A T I O N A L Fake nursing colleges thrive for decades Source: Times News Network Seethalakshmi S and Mathang Seshagiri Monday, April 24, 2006 Fake campus, fake students, fake faculty. Patron for such nursing colleges? The state government. Shocking revelations on the state of nursing education has exposed the nexus between the fake institutions and the government. Not just the staff, even the principals are 'imported' from neighbouring states during inspection. Senior students holding fake M.Sc (N)/B.Sc (N) certificates are shown as staff; even the maternity and earned leave letters are cooked up! This nexus, it says, has helped the colleges thrive for decades. Karnataka with 294 nursing colleges has more colleges than Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra put together which is 240. Among nursing schools, 352 are branded as not fit. In other words, it means less than 40% of the nursing institutes are fit for studying. I N T H E N E W S - I N T ER N A T I O N A L The University of Spam In the latest generation of diploma mills, nothing is real except for the money Saturday, March 4, 2006 By Thomas Bartlett and Scott Smallwood Want a bachelor's? Or maybe a Ph.D.? No problem. Call the telephone number mentioned in the e-mail message you have received selling degrees, listen to a well-crafted spiel, whip out your credit card, and within a few days a crisp new diploma will arrive on your doorstep. Congratulations! You are now a college graduate! Welcome to the University of Spam!! This diploma mill is speedier and more sophisticated than its fraudulent predecessors. It is also more secretive and better at eluding the authorities. Best of all for the operators, it's the most profitable, generating millions of dollars each year. Last year, after an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, its owners turned over $100,000 in profits and promised to stay out of the degree-selling business. But the e-mailing hasn't stopped. The call centres haven't closed. And the money hasn't stopped flowing. If anything, the business has grown. The Chronicle tracked down its reclusive owners; The University Degree Program was owned by Jason and Caroline Abraham, an American couple who usually go by the Hebrew names Yaakov and Chaya Rochel. Ms. Abraham, who earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1979, ran the Jerusalem office and Mr. Abraham, who according to the FTC, spent most of his time in Bucharest, Romania, running the University Degree Program's Eastern European office. Ms. Abraham according to insiders and investigators, helped transform the diploma-mill business from an old-fashioned scam into a well-oiled industry. The company also offered fake transcripts and phony recommendation letters that customers could use to bolster the fraud. There was even a telephone number that potential employers could call to "verify" a job applicant's degree. Customers of the University Degree Program were buying more than a fake diploma. They were buying a service.	FROM OUR PRESIDENT's DESK With the fine line between fact and fiction becoming hazier with technological advancement, the task of the screeners today is more challenging than ever before. If the fudging of facts only happened on the resume, fishing out the facts was an accepted challenge and part of a screeners work. But with the thread of fraudulence woven into the very fabric of the system, the challenges are tougher than one would imagine. With fake colleges functioning under government aegis, with fake degrees being granted from non-existent universities, with fake courses being offered under recognised degrees names, screeners need to be sharp and alert when either declaring a degree discrepant or clear. A Faridabad College claims to have a MBBS course which in fact is a degree for Bachelor of Medicine in Biochenic System whatever that means! The University Degree Program offered degrees from non-existent universities & colleges. Websites were created and contact numbers given for verification! FTC clamping down on the program and shutting down websites augurs well. As long as diploma mills flourish, the screeners have their work cut out for them. Ajay Trehan President, AuthBridge FROM AUTHBRIDGE CASE FILES In the course of our background checks, our operations team encountered some cases of discrepancies. Candidates have been known to submit degrees and mark sheets from either fake colleges or universities. There have been cases where two applicants have submitted mark sheets bearing the same enrolment number! In some instances applicants have stated an incomplete course as a completed one.

	A B O U T A U T H B R I D G E AuthBridge, India is an upcoming, professional pre-employment background screening firm, headquartered in Gurgaon, India's services hub situated next to New Delhi. With FCRA compliance and ethical business processes in place, AuthBridge provides authentic verification services to companies in India. Our pre-employment background screening services include: • Address Verification • Education Verification • Employer Verification • Criminal Records Verification • Gap Verification • Database Checks • Reference Verification With nearly 25% resumes carrying false or inaccurate data, ensuring safe recruitment processes is undeniably high on the priority list. Companies, healthcare establishments, educational institutions all need to guard against the chances of a inapt recruitment. Background Screening is conducted for freshers, for experienced recruits, for Staff & Administration of Educational Institutions, for Healthcare Staff & Administration among others.	This newsletter is brought to you by: AuthBridge Research Services Private Limited A 149 Sushant Lok I Gurgaon - 122002 (Haryana) India T: +91 124 4301000 E: enquiries@authbridge.com W: www.authbridge.com We're proud to be associated with NAPBS and ASSOCHAM

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The Chronicle tracked down its reclusive owners; The University Degree Program was owned by Jason and Caroline Abraham, an American couple who usually go by the Hebrew names Yaakov and Chaya Rochel.

Ms. Abraham, who earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1979, ran the Jerusalem office and Mr. Abraham, who according to the FTC, spent most of his time in Bucharest, Romania, running the University Degree Program's Eastern European office.

Ms. Abraham according to insiders and investigators, helped transform the diploma-mill business from an old-fashioned scam into a well-oiled industry.