Fake degree printing on the rise

Nowadays there are many easily accessible websites that offer fake degree printing, it can be tempting to succumb to their offers. These phoney documents have become more sophisticated and harder to spot, but no matter how convincing they are there is only one outcome: unwitting people are scammed out of money while the legitimacy of higher education is threatened.

Who issues fake degrees?

Fake degree printing is offered by an organisation known as a ‘diploma mill’. These diplomas mills claim to be higher education institutions but are not in fact legitimate academic organisations and any degrees issued by them are not authentic and also give no indication of an applicant’s abilities or level of education.

Do not be fooled by diploma mills: no matter how many claims they make, for example they may claim they will evaluate a previously written diploma before they can issue a certificate, the degree certificate printing is not genuine and will not be accepted by a university or employer. None of these so-called diploma mills are accredited by a nationally recognised agency and no certificates issued by them will ever be considered legitimate.

How to spot fake degree printing

With the prevalence of fake degrees on the rise, it’s important for employers and universities to know how to spot them. There are a few indicators that can quickly indicate whether a degree is genuine or not, these are three things to look out for when presented with a degree which you may doubt the authenticity of:

• A real awarding body would never let a spelling or grammar mistake slip through the cracks. Always look out for poor spelling, inaccurate use of punctuation and any questionable grammar, these will more than likely indicate a degree certificate is fake
• All accredited universities will be listed on www.hedd.ac.uk. If you’re uncertain of an institution, simply head over to the website and type in the name of the institution. If it isn’t in the database then the certificate has most likely come from a diploma mill
• Look at the quality of the certificate: if the paper does not look and feel like it is good quality, there are multiple fonts used, there is no hologram or the signature is pixilated, it’s likely you are looking at a fake degree certificate

Here at Hague, we create secure certificates for over 100 universities and 100 awarding bodies around the world. All of our certificates include a range of security features to fight certificate fraud, from state-of-the-art security design to bespoke hologram labels.

If you need to print certificates, contact us and we’ll organise a free consultation to go over what you’re looking for and how we can help.