UK: Welsh universities furious over fake degrees

08 June 2008

Fake degrees from every university in Wales are being sold on the internet for less than £40 each, a Wales on Sunday investigation has found. Carrying official university crests, printed on parchment paper and with authentic embossed seals, the bogus qualifications could easily be used to dupe a potential employer.

The website, called the Fake Certificate Factory, offers degrees from all of Wales' top universities - including Cardiff, Swansea, Glamorgan, Aberystwyth and Bangor. The website boasts: "We offer high quality and professional looking replicas - our fake certificates are VERY realistic. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3."

The website claims the certificates should only be used for 'novelty' value. But Chief Executive of Universities UK, Diana Warwick, said: "The suggestion by those selling fake degree certificates that these are sold as 'novelty' items that should not be passed off as qualifications is as absurd as it is dishonest."
Full report on the icWales site

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