Hi -

Here is an email I got recently that should have ended up in my spam box but somehow got into my inbox. I would have laughed if it were not so potentially serious…

<—–Start——> 

Sorry to drop in on you, but you were referred to us by a friend / working associate.
As of January 2006 our University has started a work experience degree program.
We can offer you 3 of the following choices:

- Associate Degree
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Master’s Degree

Our work experience / life experience degrees are the same degrees we give our full time students, but we base them upon your past knowledge and therefore require no studying.

Due to back logs we will need 1-2 weeks to verify your information and send your degree with transcripts in the mail.

Our Education office has someone available 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week.

If you are still interested then call us at:
1-xxx-xxx-xxx

<——- End——>

Ads similar to this one not only flood people’s email daily but you’ll find them also in the tabloids and on some online auction sites.

Here is the unfortunate part - many people actually buy these fake degrees from unscrupulous schools -  also known as diploma mills. Diploma mills pose as legitimate colleges, often fabricating their accreditation.

Nonetheless, they are nothing more than scam artists that steal almost $300 million annually from either very naive, lazy or dishonest students who buy their worthless degrees and transcripts at $50-$5000 a pop.

Even worse, people have died as a result of these scams. Just ask Marion Kolitwenzew, whose 8 year old daughter in 1999, was given poor medical advice by a North Carolina man. He was practicing medicine without a license but had a host of medical degrees from diploma mills. Her daughter later died.

One of the hottest fake degrees on offer is the life experience degree. The “sell” is you can get a legitimate degree based on what you already know and consequently, no studying would be involved. Do not fall for this, it is a waste of time and money.

However, there are legitimate ways to earning college credits at accredited schools based upon your past work or life experiences. You will not be able to get a degree totally based on these credits of course but they could count towards earning your degree.

Run on over to my life experience degree report and CLEP report to get more details on how to do this.

Make it a great day

David

P.S - You would also want to read up on how to find out if a college or course  is accredited or not.