Case Study

The Fake Degree Problem

Document Verification Saving SA
from Fake Degrees during COVID-19

How can Universities Ensure their Document Verification Process Protects them from Fake Qualifications During the COVID-19 Crisis?

In recent years, there has been a global crisis of candidates with fraudulent CVs with a responsive increase in document verification efforts by prospective employers. Major harm is being done to the education providers who are being misrepresented. The document verification at these institutions, however, remains expensive, outdated and slow. The potential damage to a university’s brand by fake degrees is astronomical. Education like any other business is focused on their public perception. The impact on the provider's branding can be enough to cause an otherwise respected institution's name to be brought into disrepute.

Document Verification Saving SA from Fake Degrees during COVID-19 — Image: Unsplash

Fake qualifications do not only threaten the reputations of universities but the safety of our society, as melodramatic as that may seem. Recent events have shown us that we can no longer ensure that our doctors, pilots and lawyers are who they claim to be. A new document verification system is far overdue. In South Africa, and many other countries, the April Graduation season has been cancelled due to the international COVID-19 outbreak. This means that graduates will be without certificates. This presents two problems. Firstly, graduates are unable to verify their degrees with their employers. Secondly, the environment has become ripe for qualification fraud because document verification is greatly delayed.

The Fake Degree Problem

One of the main sources of fake degrees in circulation is so-called ‘degree mills’. These are illicit businesses that generate falsified qualifications, not limited to degrees but also diplomas, certificates and other qualifications. In 2015, the New York Times reported over 3300-degree mills making a billion-dollar industry. This problem, unfortunately, is ever-increasing. The South African people are not exempt from this rampant worry. SAQA (The South African Qualification Authority) has shown a 2000% increase in the number of reported fake qualifications between 2011/12 to 2017/18.

Show more

Small businesses are not the only victims of these fake degrees. There have been several sensational scandals regarding important members of large companies having faked their degrees. In 2012, the former CEO of Yahoo, Scott Thompson, was found to have faked his computer sciences degree. This scandal happened at a very difficult time for Yahoo, which was already falling prey to the increased competition from Google and Facebook. This resulted in a major crash in Yahoo shares. Further proof that qualification fraud directly affects the bottom line. In South Africa, former SABC chairperson, Zandile Ellen Tshabalala falsely claimed to have a Bcom degree from UNISA (the University of South Africa). Additionally, it was discovered that Hlaudi Motsoeneng, SABC chief operations faked his matric qualification. Several other high-powered South Africans including a member of parliament have admitted to having faked their qualifications.

Because fake degrees have become such a major industry there are thousands of different methods that these criminals use to create fake degrees, below are some examples.
● Individuals claim to have degrees from universities that do not exist. Many of these false institutions have very persuasive websites and other web presence. It is very difficult to determine which of these universities are real, as a simple search may appear extremely convincing.
● People that have never attended a known university and generate a fake degree from that institution.
● Some people who were once enrolled for a qualification but never finished, often present fake certificates of completion.
● This problem is not limited to degrees, other tertiary qualifications such as short courses and diplomas are often faked.

Show less

Fake degrees may sometimes present with certain flaws. These may be in their websites or on the physical degree parchment. Some telltale signs of these falsified qualifications are:
● When degrees are awarded in the wrong order, this is a common fault in fake qualifications. An example would be a postgraduate degree being awarded before a bachelor’s degree. The dates should make sense in chronological order.
● University names that sound similar to real universities but are incorrect. An example here would be Cape Town University instead of The University of Cape Town.
● Security measures that may be present on the physical degree parchment such as official watermarks should all be present.
If compared to a legitimate degree parchment from the same university one may find that the forgery is identical and thus these small errors cannot always be relied upon to help distinguish which certifications are real.

In an effort to crack down on this fake qualification culture, parliament passed the National Qualifications Framework Bill. This new law states that any person found guilty of falsifying qualification can be sentenced to up to five years in jail and/or liable to pay a fine. This law punishes those who lie on their CV and those who post lies on Facebook or LinkedIn about having a tertiary qualification. Furthermore, SAQA has been mandated to investigate any and all cases of reported fraud adding a further strain on this already overstretched national body.

SA Government increases Document Verification Protocols — Image: Unsplash

Graduates only receive their certificates on the day of their graduation. In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the universities across South Africa have shut down their activities. Moreover, the country as a whole has been placed under a twenty-one-day lockdown. This means that no mass gatherings can take place. Therefore, graduations have been postponed for the foreseeable future. It will, therefore, be impossible for graduates to verify their degrees if needs be. They will not have their physical degree parchment and the manual document verification systems will not be functioning. The opportunity for qualification fraud has bloomed under these conditions. If a fraudster decided to claim they had a certain qualification, no one could prove that they did not in fact have one. Thus qualification fraud becomes the perfect crime, untraceable, and therefore, unpunishable.

Why does it matter that Graduation has been Cancelled? — Image: Unsplash

The most wonderful thing about this technology is that it can be used for any kind of certificate, not merely degrees or qualifications. The potential applications are endless. Throughout South Africa, there are countless regulatory bodies that work to ensure that businesses and individuals follow correct procedures. An example of this could be the liquor licence board that controls which companies are allowed to sell alcohol. Qualifying businesses are furnished with a licence certificate. These certificates are vulnerable to the same time of forgery as degrees. Using the Veri-Quick document verification system to secure these licences could greatly increase the detection of fake certificates and make them more difficult to manufacture.

Counterfeit medicines are a huge problem worldwide. Although the WHO (World Health Organisation) states that there is no accurate the massive impact of counterfeit and substandard medications. It is estimated, however, that over a quarter of a million children die of preventable disease such as malaria each year due to substandard or counterfeit medication. Veri-Quik can be used on the labels of products such as pharmaceuticals to verify their authenticity.

The Veri-Quik Solution

Each degree parchment is marked with a QR code, which can be scanned by any smart device. Upon scanning the user will be redirected to the Veri-Quik website which then provides verification of the document’s authenticity. The watermark and micro-text present on the degree parchment provides further security. This makes physical fake degrees harder to manufacture.

The Veri-Quik Solution — Image: Unsplash

This new document verification software has many advantages. Not in the least, moving to an online system will bring down the document verification system cost dramatically as there is less need for human resources and physical storage space. The speed of verification is additionally much faster than the old manual system. Furthermore, this system is less easily fooled than the current outdated system.

In light of the cancelled graduation season and the effect that it will have on the already ill-equipped South African qualification verification system, Veri-Quik offers the ideal solution. With the Veri-Quik online document verification system universities will be able to send the Veri-Quik qualification verification link to the graduate. Limiting the need for face-to-face contact with graduates and mass gatherings until the danger of COVID-19 is over. This serves as the perfect interim measure to address the need of graduates to be able to offer proof of their degrees to employers as well as universities to protect their good reputations.

Many large institutions stick to their outdated document verification systems because they want to keep control of the verification process. The client has complete control of the Veri-Quik process. Our design team will ensure that all of your needs are met. The client administration port allows the client to be involved with every step of the document manufacturing process.

Impressive

I'm interested

Please enter your name and email address. We will be in touch.