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Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions
Last edited Mon May 18, 2015, 04:11 PM - Edit history (1)
Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps MillionsAsia Pacific
By DECLAN WALSH
MAY 17, 2015
Seen from the Internet, it is a vast education empire: hundreds of universities and high schools, with elegant names and smiling professors at sun-dappled American campuses. ... Their websites, glossy and assured, offer online degrees in dozens of disciplines, like nursing and civil engineering. There are glowing endorsements on the CNN iReport website, enthusiastic video testimonials, and State Department authentication certificates bearing the signature of Secretary of State John Kerry.
“We host one of the most renowned faculty in the world,” boasts a woman introduced in one promotional video as the head of a law school. “Come be a part of Newford University to soar the sky of excellence.” ... Yet on closer examination, this picture shimmers like a mirage. The news reports are fabricated. The professors are paid actors. The university campuses exist only as stock photos on computer servers. The degrees have no true accreditation.
In fact, very little in this virtual academic realm, appearing to span at least 370 websites, is real — except for the tens of millions of dollars in estimated revenue it gleans each year from many thousands of people around the world, all paid to a secretive Pakistani software company. ... That company, Axact, operates from the port city of Karachi, where it employs over 2,000 people and calls itself Pakistan’s largest software exporter, with Silicon Valley-style employee perks like a swimming pool and yacht. ... Axact does sell some software applications. But according to former insiders, company records and a detailed analysis of its websites, Axact’s main business has been to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale.
....
A screengrab taken from the website Columbiana University. This and other Axact sites have toll-free American contact numbers and calculatedly familiar-sounding names.
{Yes, the globe is reversed.}
....
One Egyptian man paid $12,000 last year for a doctorate in engineering technology from Nixon University and a certificate signed by {John} Kerry. He acknowledged breaking ethical boundaries: His professional background was in advertising, he said in a phone interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid potential legal trouble.
By DECLAN WALSH
MAY 17, 2015
Seen from the Internet, it is a vast education empire: hundreds of universities and high schools, with elegant names and smiling professors at sun-dappled American campuses. ... Their websites, glossy and assured, offer online degrees in dozens of disciplines, like nursing and civil engineering. There are glowing endorsements on the CNN iReport website, enthusiastic video testimonials, and State Department authentication certificates bearing the signature of Secretary of State John Kerry.
“We host one of the most renowned faculty in the world,” boasts a woman introduced in one promotional video as the head of a law school. “Come be a part of Newford University to soar the sky of excellence.” ... Yet on closer examination, this picture shimmers like a mirage. The news reports are fabricated. The professors are paid actors. The university campuses exist only as stock photos on computer servers. The degrees have no true accreditation.
In fact, very little in this virtual academic realm, appearing to span at least 370 websites, is real — except for the tens of millions of dollars in estimated revenue it gleans each year from many thousands of people around the world, all paid to a secretive Pakistani software company. ... That company, Axact, operates from the port city of Karachi, where it employs over 2,000 people and calls itself Pakistan’s largest software exporter, with Silicon Valley-style employee perks like a swimming pool and yacht. ... Axact does sell some software applications. But according to former insiders, company records and a detailed analysis of its websites, Axact’s main business has been to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale.
....
A screengrab taken from the website Columbiana University. This and other Axact sites have toll-free American contact numbers and calculatedly familiar-sounding names.
{Yes, the globe is reversed.}
....
One Egyptian man paid $12,000 last year for a doctorate in engineering technology from Nixon University and a certificate signed by {John} Kerry. He acknowledged breaking ethical boundaries: His professional background was in advertising, he said in a phone interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid potential legal trouble.
Avoid These 300 Shady Online Colleges Operated by One Pakistani Company
Andy Cush
5/18/15 2:53pm
Did you get your degree in nutritional and health sciences from James Adam University? Your cyber crime bachelor’s from Brooklyn Park? Or did you attend Hansford University, or Harvey? A graduate of Mary Grand High School or West Coast High? You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but you wasted your money.
The New York Times published a thorough investigation into Axact, a Pakistani company that reportedly operates at least 370 scam online schools and bunk accreditation bodies. Many of the schools have stock photo-laden websites like the one pictured above and names that are just a shade away from those of actual American institutions and college towns, like Barkley University, Chapel University, and Columbiana University. (Others, like Panworld University and Accredited Online Degrees Now, are more immediately fishy.)
5/18/15 2:53pm
Did you get your degree in nutritional and health sciences from James Adam University? Your cyber crime bachelor’s from Brooklyn Park? Or did you attend Hansford University, or Harvey? A graduate of Mary Grand High School or West Coast High? You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but you wasted your money.
The New York Times published a thorough investigation into Axact, a Pakistani company that reportedly operates at least 370 scam online schools and bunk accreditation bodies. Many of the schools have stock photo-laden websites like the one pictured above and names that are just a shade away from those of actual American institutions and college towns, like Barkley University, Chapel University, and Columbiana University. (Others, like Panworld University and Accredited Online Degrees Now, are more immediately fishy.)
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