Careers and qualifications
Build your career on a degree that holds up.
Employers check qualifications. A fake degree can cost a job, a visa or a career. We help job seekers stay clear of diploma mills, and help employers check the degrees in front of them. Free, and every fact links to its source.
Three ways we help
Whichever side of the interview you're on
Looking for work
- Check a school before you pay or enrol
- Spot diploma-mill ads and fake recruiter offers
- Know what happens when a fake degree is found
- Find an honest route if you have already paid
Changing careers
- Find what a new field really requires
- Check licensed professions with the regulator
- Avoid pay-to-work and "degree in weeks" offers
- Choose study employers accept
Hiring
- Verify a degree through the official channel
- Avoid "verification" services run by the sellers
- Check a CV's education line for impossible details
- Search government warning lists
The Fake Degree Lab
Seven free tools. No sign-up.
Most of them run entirely in your browser. Each result explains what it found and where the facts come from.
Government warning lists
Search the institutions that education authorities have officially named as fake or unrecognised.
Search the lists No. 2Ad and message scanner
Paste an ad, a WhatsApp message or a sales email. See the warning signs highlighted and explained.
Scan a message No. 3Website X-ray
Domain age, imitation of real university addresses, accreditation claims and sales phrases, in one report.
X-ray a website No. 4Verification trap check
Is that "degree verification" website or email really the university's official channel?
Check a verifier No. 5CV education check
For HR: spot impossible dates, unrecognised accreditors and listed institutions in a CV.
Check a CV line No. 6Real or Mill?
Ten quick rounds. Can you tell a real university from a fake? Share your score.
Play the game No. 7What a fake degree can cost
Laws, visa rules and real cases, country by country, each with its source.
Pick a country About the LabHow the tools work
What each tool checks, the data behind it, and what it cannot tell you.
How the Lab worksWhy it matters for your career
The degree has to be real all the way down
Employers check
Background checks confirm degrees with the university or its official verification service. A certificate that looks perfect still fails if the university has no record of you.
Fake degrees follow you
In many countries, using a fake degree for a job or visa is a crime. People have lost jobs, visas and professional licences years after they were hired.
Real routes exist
Accredited universities offer part-time and online degrees, and many give credit for prior learning. It takes real study, but the result holds up.
Who runs this site
Accredited University is run by a team that also operates paid admissions services, which help working adults apply to accredited universities. The checks and guides on this site are free, no school pays to be listed or mentioned, and we never call a school or website fake on our own judgment. How we work