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The popularity of online education has increased a lot during the last decade. And so it is very easy to get caught into a scam and get robbed of your money. There are numerous websites that are taking advantage of people requiring online education by simply masking themselves as legitimate colleges and after getting their money, they handover false transcripts to distance learners. For this reason, you need to be careful before enrolling yourself into any online programs and losing a lot of money.
Various Types of E-Learning Scams
The demand of distance education is growing rapidly and so is the target for online scammers. The several forms of frauds in e-learning include:-
After your Money!!!
These criminals are after your money. They design a website that appears to be a legitimate institution with reasonable fees. Though, after you enroll and pay through your credit cards, you never hear from them. You lose your money and there is no degree waiting for you.
Unaccredited Institutions
These institutions do provide an education to its students; however, the education is useless. The school is not accredited from any reputable source such as the U.S. Department of Education, thus their credits are useless.
Degree/Diploma Mills
Degree/diploma mills are the worst scam as they sell you a fake degree by posing themselves as highly accredited institutions.
What is a diploma mill?
A diploma mill is a business that makes its profit by selling fake degrees. It disguises itself as being a legitimate college, university, or school. They reward their degrees without ever evaluating any academic work from its students; neither do they provide any academic knowledge. The degrees are sold at all levels, from associates to doctoral degrees.
The Establishment of Diploma Mills
Online education is quite new for students as well as many higher institutions. Online colleges and universities are constantly revising their programs to fulfill the needs of many students in U.S and around the globe. As the new programs are being launched everyday, it is fairly easy to create a phony school and offer fake degrees or diploma. A simple Web site with a .edu domain name, convincing writing, and attractive images, is enough to grant fake degrees and go undetected
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Ways to tell if a School is a Diploma Mill or a Scam
Selecting an online college or university of your choice can be difficult, especially since there are too many options to choose from that are available online. You should research well before enrolling yourself into any online degree program, to avoid being caught into scam. Presented are certain tips and tricks to figure out the legitimacy of your online college or university and its degrees:
Most often these online institutions have names similar to some famous college or university; nevertheless they do not mention an accrediting agency.
Tuition and fees are on a per-degree basis, whereas traditional colleges charge by credit hours, course, or semester.
Degrees can be earned faster than usual.
Unspecified degree requirements.
Lack of class description, more often they don’t even mention how many credit hours are required for the completion of program.
Grade point average (GPA) and academic honors can be specified at the time of purchase.
The institution is constantly changing addresses.
The program does not allow adequate communication with professors or faculty.
Numerous spelling and grammatical errors can be pointed out on the written material, including on the diploma itself.
Loads of emphasis is placed on how easily you can earn your degree.
No admission requirements.
No detailed academic records.
What to Do if You Get Scammed?
Report the Fraud
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, allows you to report fraud as well as view tips and warnings about specific sites.
Tell Your Story to Others
You can tell the World via many online forums and chat rooms and warn others about the site that cheated you.
Start a Blog
You might even write a blog about your experience, build an online community of people who are interested in learning more about new scams, or send out an e-newsletter to subscribers that includes alerts on the latest online degree con.
Fake degree mills are known for selling degrees by concealing themselves as accredited institutions. All those who plan on acquiring their degrees through an online college or university must make sure that their college is accredited by following the aforementioned steps.
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