Published Jun 5, 2004
Sheri257
3,905 Posts
Unbelievable!
http://www.phonydiploma.com/
They have a BS for Nursing. And check out the list of schools for "actual replicas." I didn't see mine there, but there were plenty of major universities listed. And, if your school's not listed, you can have an "in house" version made.
Even transcripts ... whoah.
Maybe it's just a scam to get people's money, but still ...
Kinda scary. Yikes!
BRANDY LPN
408 Posts
Add that to the fact that our licenses are so easily copied and it is VERY scary. A co-worker of mine made a copy of her license on her scanner for HR and it was identical, you absolutely could not tell the difference with your naked eye. I think the DMV should issue our licenses with a pic, they already do it for medicaid cards and a forged medicaid card isn't gonna be near as dangerous to the general public.
I don't know if this is a real problem for nursing but, check out this article about federal managers who used bogus degrees to get promotions and such. Some of them even charged the taxpayers for it.
Looks like these were unaccredited schools, but still ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18845-2004May11.html
studentnurse74, LPN, LVN
550 Posts
What's scary is that they must sell PLENTY of them to maintain a website for ordering. Yikes----worse than Sally Struthers.
gwenith, BSN, RN
3,755 Posts
There are more than a few who have scammed being doctors with a flase diploma - this has been around for a while and is still very very scary.
mattsmom81
4,516 Posts
Part of our background check services in my area include a records search for all education which is verified, so...this 'phony diploma' stuff sure wouldn't fly where I'm from. In fact I knew a nurse who got in trouble for lying about a BSN...she never had one and the facility caught her in this way. I'm surprised she still has a license but she does.
Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN
12,126 Posts
Well heck, wish i'd have known this before i sunk my money in tuition!!
(Kidding, of course)
How do they get away with this crap?
Yeah, you would hope that someone would check, and people couldn't get away with this. But you have to wonder ... people must be buying these things for a reason.
I know the phony diploma/transcript thing has been around forever, but I've never seen it marketed like this. I thought it was more of an underground thing.
Tony35NYC
510 Posts
Student nurse,
It actually takes very little to maintain a website like that. All you need is basic HTML skills, a computer, some software, and a color printer. There's lots of sources of high quality certificate paper that you can buy online for cheap, and website hosting for a small site can cost as little as $9.95 a month. So, for all we know, the "university" may be nothing more than a guy who's running the entire operation from a corner in his apartment.
elkpark
14,633 Posts
I work as a state and federal regulator/inspector of hospitals, and state and federal rules require that hospitals verify both academic degrees and licenses with the actual institution that issued the degree or license. Hospitals that don't do this get in trouble when they get surveyed. Just making a photocopy of the license or degree, and taking the person's word for it, is no longer considered acceptable in my state.