5 Scary Statistics: Damage of Diploma Mills.

With a very competitive job market and employers left with huge applicant pools to pull viable candidates from, it is a necessity now more than ever to require a certain level of education for key positions. As a result, some applicants may tend to “bend the truth,” when it comes to their educational history to make themselves more desirable to employers. Some job candidates have gone as far as purchasing a diploma online or obtaining fraudulent credentials through a “diploma mill.” Diploma mills are defined as an organization who claims to be a higher education institution even though they are not. The damage of diploma mills is that these types of organizations offer illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee.

Here are five scary statistics regarding diploma mills:

1. Roughly 200,000 bogus degrees are awarded to students, or “customers” around the world on an annual basis
2. The cost of these “fake” degrees on average is between $500 and $2,500
3. A college degree is the second most expensive purchase a consumer will make in their lifetime, second to their home
4. There are over 370 educational websites that offer fraudulent degrees
5. 30% of job candidates lie about their education on their resume or job application