Diploma mills and now employment mills
Diploma mills and now employment mills, what an employer needs to know. Do you rely on a resume to determine candidate hiring decisions? Various studies have shown that there is often misrepresentation on the resume. Without a full confirmation of a candidate’s experience, an employer runs the risk of a bad hire and the associated costs, lost productivity and lower employee morale. Misrepresentations can include altering a past job title and experience to fit the available position or expanding dates of employment to hide either periods of unemployment or an employment that resulted in termination with cause. Other misrepresentations can include graduation from a college or university when in fact the kind candidate either never attended the school or do not complete their studies.
Diploma mills have been around for decades however there is an increase in candidates utilizing degrees from nonexistent colleges with websites that appear to be online schools when in fact they are a sham. Diploma mills have increased their visibility and often utilize a school name that is similar to a valid college, includes the name of a President, a historical figure or the name of a city or state as part of their name to add credibility to an unsuspecting employer. This writer received a Masters of Business Administration and a beautiful diploma from Jefferson ( full school name deleted ) after submitting a $500 payment. Any individual contacting the Registrar through the school website would have no idea that this university is just a shell without any courses or faculty.
A new fraudulent scheme has developed employment mills. Always ready to take advantage of a situation, individuals are creating multiple websites that are highly detailed and very convincing. The “fake” employer appears to be a valid company in any one of a number of various industries. Of course they are utilizing a name that sounds similar to prominent corporations. The employment mill will even include multiple locations in each state allowing a candidate to indicate one of the locations as their employment. For a fee, unscrupulous candidates can pay to create their title and dates of employment at a “fake” employer in their field and gain instant experience and credibility. Anyone visiting the website and calling the illicit phone number is directed to a call center that will confirm the dates of employment in title created by an unscrupulous candidate.
Our background investigation researchers are trained to confirm the legitimacy of a college or university through our extensive database of accredited schools prior to actually confirming attendance or degree. Our database also includes a growing number of employment mills that we developed through our fraud team specialists. Our researchers double check potential candidate employers with this database and they are trained to confirm the validity of the candidate’s employers.
Guard against resume fraud and the potential negative consequences of a bad hire. Our customer service representatives can discuss how to improve your hiring metrics by confirming a candidate’s employment, references and education.