US warns Qatar of bogus universities
A US embassy official has cautioned Qatar residents against spurious “America-based” universities that offer online degrees and advised them to verify their bona fides before they part with their money.
In response to a query from a Doha-based victim, Nahid Lawson, student adviser, Public Affairs section at the US embassy, said many similar universities “mislead people and get their cash for a no good piece of paper.”
While suggesting to report the university and the case on http://www.geteducated.com, Lawson lamented that they cannot offer any help concerning such cases.
The victim, Turkish national Yusuf Ilker Karaaslan wrote to Gulf Times that he was among those who were duped by a certain “Thompson University.”
Karaaslan said he paid $1,639 (QR5,967) as fees for a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration but ended up getting a fake diploma and bogus certificates.
He said it was too late when he realised he was cheated. However, he said he was hopeful the Qatar authorities might be able to identify the “local contact” of the fraudsters to whose account he had transferred the money.
It is very simple. If you check out the registration of the university website and the 'accreditation' they claim you will find the domains are registered at the same place.
Interpol are not interested as the sums are so small, as soon as they get caught the website is shutdown and they just set up a new one.
What I don't understand; Since the transactions are traceable, why US government or Interpol is not looking after? Perhaps these scums are linked with international terrorism and fund rising for those terrorists... Why the hell on earth the authorities are just sitting there and allowing such to happen? Leave it, cheating and basically steeling money whatever the way it is, not considered crime? These are internationally organized criminals, and all free out there to target their next victim. Ridicules!
Rip Cord and Acchabaccha; First of all I want to tell the people here that I am Yusuf Ilker Karaaslan and I have been the victim of subject degree mills - academic fraud. I agree with you that it takes hard work to get a degree and those who sweat for that deserved to have it. No pain no gain. BUT: Consider that I am 42 years old, not a young man anymore... I have studied pre-degree and economics back in Turkey, however as my parents divorced when I was 24 I had to look after my 2 younger sisters, mother and grandmother. Obviously I had to discontinue my study in order to support them. I was ready to sweat my ass to get a Master degree on some subject but I was not fortunate enough like many others who had all the support and all they had to do to study hard to achieve their goals. I did not have my father or anyone else to look after my family and or to pay the fees for me to continue on my study. Luckly I carried on and developed a career as I have over 21 years of experience in business - work life by now and I am a multilingual individual with ability to speak 6 foreign languages as my mother tongue. However I can not go back and study in a physical school by the conventional means any more. I neither have time nor I am any longer young to do such. Therefore I was looking for an opportunity to enroll in a distance learning school. When I came across with this add on facebook claiming that Qatar and UAE approved degrees now available from US university with a chance to get scholarship, I thought that this was the opportunity. There are many others similar to my situation who wish to continue their study on line. And yes there are in fact genuine institutions that avail such study mediums. Besides; Do not think that I was simply stupid enough to fall in their trap just like that. These people are using really sophisticated methods to cheat. They are linked with several consultancy services on the net, having on-line chat service links. Crawling on internet and finding no negative comment about such schools is another thing. You can not easily verify and conclude for such schools since there are different types of accreditation agencies, it is difficult to distinguish which are fake which are not. US education system as well is not very clear, there are state, regional and international recognitions, all monitored with different bodies and authorities so you can not know which is what if you are not familiar with the system. List of international schools on official sites are not up to date (in my case I came across with no record that Thompson University was a scum and conducting academic fraud. Moreover when you see the government agencies (UAE) are implementing policies for such schools (genuine ones) that are converting work experience of those with enough previous academic background to academic credits after some sort of evaluation, one may easily fall in trap. So I did not basically told myself "Ok Ilker, you are a stupid, so you lost your moneys for nothing", I am trying to create the public awareness, therefore I contacted the media and US authorities in Qatar in order to prevent the others to be cheated.
My dear friends. Please do some research before writing a cheque. There are so many resources online to find out if a university its real. For example, Wikipedia provides a complete list of US colleges by state. Another source is national university rankings and many more. Another way to verify is that no US college will offer admission much less a degree to an international student without TOEFL, GMAT etc. Trust me I know because I went to two different US universities for bachelor's and master's.
These SCAMS are not in the USA. Most of them are in Dubai even here in Qatar. They only use USA to scam people. My advise is say NO to online studies.
Totally agree acchabaccha, these people are thieves and cheats themselves. They want to commit fraud against future employers pretending to have a degree, which they neither earned or deserved.
The problem is not just those "universities" that churn out fake degrees. It is also the people who want to earn a degree at low cost the easy way without having to sweat for it. They yearn for such degrees that are being offered as they know very well they will be unable to get hold of one the hard way from a genuine university. Why do such people cry when they are part of the crime as they are supporting it?
My friend land lover, these websites are like bit torrent sites, shut one down and they just create another.
The problem is a number of these degree mills as they are called in the US are run by non-Americans, mainly Arabs and Asians preying on the insecurity of their own people who want an American degree. These are just websites set up to look like American universities .
If you are too stupid not to be able to spot a fake university or at least do a background check then you don't deserve a degree in the first place.
Great.. i had also in touch with a few 'experience to certificate' so called univetsitie. i googled the names of such universities with good people comments and reviews. I had made a lot searches and trackings find me all these so years of experienced firms got a website hardly a couple of months ago in 2014. i registered with these universities with my mobil no. Once iam getting calls from usa, i will raise my findings and questions. They will raise their voice first, then excuse with a convenient time another day.. there after nothing...
They try to cheat me as well with the name of Rellington University, they posted their adds in Facebook, saying that they are legal by the Qatar Ministry of Education. They said they can convert my work experience as a class attendance then release a bachelor degree for me. Fortunately I was only playing with them and remit them nothing, but they keep calling me with this number +1(777)279-0608 from Prof Usher Preston. You can also reach this guy in 1-866-898-9631 Ext. # 8077. They also give me this websites which we will never found when we search in Google, www.rellingtonuniversity.com
I think they are also giving support to such fraud activities.Mr. Snowden reveal the facts about US & their activities.
I think they are also giving support to such fraud activities.Mr. Snowden reveal the facts about US & their activities.
Dear,
I am also One of the victime. I paid total 1500 USD to Brooklynpark university. and after completition the MBA course the still not send me the certificate which should be attasted from US embassy and Qatar Embassy. now they are asking another 400 USD for this last 4 months and i stop to pickup their call.......so be ware from Brooklynpark university.. i loss all my money but no autherisied cerficate....
What is FBI, CIA and NSA doing? If they can monitor millions why not they shut these bogus universities down, right away?