Academic Fraud

By Michelle Cheng for the ACFE Vancouver Chapter April Newsletter

Academic fraud is an area in need of urgent attention (Poisson, 2017). The impact of academic fraud is a serious issue because of how much weight society places on education including influencing an individuals’ ability to find employment in their desired field, and the associated salary expectations (The Economist, 2004). With the international mobility of Labour and students, it further incentivizes the academic fraud industry to expand into the behemoth that it is today (Poisson & Hallak, 2006). The current leading academic fraud methods that pose significant risk to professional and regulatory bodies include forged documents and degrees, diploma mills, and corruption in the accreditation of academic institutions. Of course, we have also heard about the recent admissions scandals in the news.

In the 1980s, the number of diploma mills and phony schools significantly diminished as a result of Operation “DipScam” led by the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) (Poisson & Hallak, 2006). During this operation, the FBI purchased fake diplomas and transcripts, and through postage tracking, led them to the leaders of the scam; however, the head of Operation “DipScam” retired and along with it, the task force behind it (The Economist, 2004). The rise of the internet and globalization led to the resurgence and transformation of diploma mills as printing technology, delivery services, toll-free numbers and other technologies became more accessible and inexpensive (Poisson & Hallak, 2006). Since then, the people behind diploma mills have developed their business acuity and leveraged modern technology in order to appear legitimate.    

Forged degrees and transcripts differ from diploma mills in that the issuing institution may be legitimate, but the document has been altered or modified; for example, a transcript with name and grades altered from a respected university like Harvard. The current methods used to create official-looking documents can be very sophisticated (Szeto & Vellani, 2017). There is not a lot of information shared to the public on how exactly official documents are altered or forged, as institutions who get deceived do not publicize the methods that the perpetrator used, perhaps to avoid copycat offenders or to avoid reputational damage or criticism of its internal procedures.

Another form of academic fraud in occurs during the accreditation process to ensure and improve education quality, and “[a]n institution or program that has successfully completed an accreditation review has in place the needed instructional, student support and other services to assist students to achieve their educational goals” (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 2010). It encourages confidence in an institution and that learning activities meet an accepted standard and is reviewed by an impartial authority but even the accrediting process can be vulnerable to corruption and fraud. When programs lack accredited status, rendering a degree essentially worthless, it opens an opportunity to another kind of deceptive practice in the form of “accreditation mills.”

The most indispensable defense against academic fraud is to ensure a strong authentication and verification process is in place. It is important to ensure that staff conducting verification are aware of the various fraud techniques, and the safeguards available. To reduce the likelihood of academic fraud there are three main steps including verification of Institution, Credential and the Documents.

Verification of Institution - Institutions attain official recognition as a degree granting institution through a government body or a national or international accrediting body. However, it is careful to note that recognition does not guarantee that a specific program is legitimate; usually individual degree programs, rather than whole institutions, obtain recognition with an accrediting body and in high-risk countries for fraud, institutions are often verified by government bodies and agencies (Park & Porter, 2016). The main issue is that foreign governance structures and lists of foreign reputable degree programs can change quite frequently, especially in developing countries.

Verification of Credential - In this step, the credential and the program of study should be scrutinized and as mentioned previously, accreditation often occurs at the program level. For example, the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) is the official committee that accredits undergraduate engineering programs in Canada, and it conducts reviews to ensure that engineering programs across Canada meet the standards for engineering education (Engineers Canada, 2018). This accreditation governance structure is also used in other countries, but it is important for staff that verify documents to be vigilant in researching not only the issuing institution’s accreditation, but the degree program’s accreditation.

Fraudsters can take advantage of this by using a legitimate institution’s diploma, such as UBC for example, and altering the credential and program (e.g., B.A.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering) that might not even exist. Very few people would doubt that UBC offers a Biomedical Engineering program (because it does exist) but it is little known that UBC, unlike other engineering disciplines, does not offer a B.A.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering. They only offer it at a graduate level. This serves as a reminder that organizations should conduct their own due diligence on the authenticity of credentials.

Verification of Documents - In many cases, institutions, organizations and professional bodies require that original transcripts and other academic documents be sent directly from the institution and this typically reduces the chance that the documents have been tampered with or altered. However, forged documents and credentials typically come from countries where public corruption, and political instability allowed fraudulent activity to flourish (Adan, n.d). Many document verification experts list red flags to identify potentially fraudulent documents, which according to (Park & Porter,2016), may include:

• Unusual and/or misaligned formatting,
• Inconsistent typefaces,
• Spelling errors,
• No official stamps/seals,
• Stamps and seals that cover important information.

While forged documents can be identified using the naked eye, techniques have become more sophisticated, requiring more robust verification and detection procedures (Trines, 2017). Canada is likely not at the forefront for fighting against academic fraud as Canadian organizations simply do not have as much exposure and experience as other countries (Transparency International, 2013). It is all the more important then for the Canadian government and organizations to be aware of various fraud schemes, and the steps outlined to combat academic fraud schemes especially as Canada accepts immigrants under skilled immigrant programs, which requires academic documentation for proof. Recently, an investigation uncovered a sophisticated scheme that fraudsters used to gain illegal entry into Canada. By using fraudulent acceptance letters to the University of Waterloo’s engineering program, fifteen individuals were able to obtain student visas, with allegedly no intention of studying in Canada (Mercer, 2018).

Michelle Cheng is a current student of the Graduate Certificate Program in Forensic Investigation of Fraud and Financial Crime at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

If you are interested in speaking at one of our Chapter events or submitting an article for our monthly newsletter or weekly fraud insights post, please contact me directly anytime at [email protected]. This is a great professional development opportunity. Lastly, I encourage everyone to make continuous learning a part of their lives and wish you all the very best in 2019.

Most sincerely, Steve Wilson, President, ACFE Vancouver Chapter, www.cfevancouver.com

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