Home / Learn / Checking a degree / Real or fake diploma?
A self-test
Real or fake diploma? Test yourself against the forgers
You've held it to the light and run a thumb over the seal. Before you decide, sit this test. The quickest way to learn how to spot a fake degree certificate is to find out first why your eye can't.
Before you pick up the magnifying glass
Most advice on how to spot a fake college degree sends you to the paper: the seal, the signatures, the spelling. Forgers read that advice too.
Get it wrong one way and a forger gets the job. Get it wrong the other way and a real graduate doesn't.
Seven exhibits, three verdicts: Real. Fake. Can't tell from this. Pick one before you open each answer.
Seven exhibits on your desk
Exhibit A: the heavyweight
Thick cream card, a raised gold seal, a foil strip that shimmers when you tilt it, signatures in real ink and the degree title in Latin.
Open the verdict on Exhibit A
Can't tell. The forger was counting on your thumb.
Hedd, the UK's official degree verification service, warns that watermarks and holograms can be reproduced without difficulty. Even university registry staff sometimes struggle to spot a fake. Quality measures a printing budget, not a degree.
Exhibit B: the gold stamp
On a certificate from a US college, in gold: "Fully accredited by" an international council with a grand name.
You spend two minutes on the US Department of Education's DAPIP database and the directory of CHEA, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The college is in neither, and neither recognises the council as an accreditor.
Open the verdict on Exhibit B
Fake: the accreditation is false, and two minutes proved it. The forger was counting on you not looking.
The FTC, the US consumer protection agency, warns that many diploma mills invent official-sounding accreditors. Only accreditors recognised by the Department of Education or by CHEA count.
Outside the US the test is the same: is the school on its own country's official list? An accreditor no official body recognises can't make a degree recognised.
Exhibit C: the plain one
A different design from others you've seen from this university, crest included, signed by a vice-chancellor who took office years after the date of award and marked as a duplicate.
Open the verdict on Exhibit C
Can't tell, and every flaw fits a genuine reissue. This time the trap is your own suspicion.
Universities often reissue lost certificates in their current design, signed by current office-holders and marked as copies: "Replacement Copy" at Nanyang Technological University, "Official Replacement" at Ohio University.
Whether this one is genuine, only the record can say.
Exhibit D: the code in the corner
A QR code: "Scan to authenticate". You scan it, and a smart page shows the crest, the graduate's name and a green tick: VERIFIED.
Open the verdict on Exhibit D
Can't tell, however green the tick. The forger was counting on your phone.
A code goes wherever its maker points it, and the FTC warns that some diploma mills run their own "verification service". Test any verification site with the verification trap check.
Exhibit E: no certificate at all
The holder lost the certificate in a house move. With their consent, you ask the university through its official route, and its records say: awarded, on the date they gave.
Open the verdict on Exhibit E
Real. No paper, so nothing for a forger to work on.
A certificate is to a degree what a bank statement is to your savings. Only the bank, or here the university, can tell you what's really there.
Exhibit F: the perfect match
Online, you find a graduate's proud photo of this university's certificate. Line by line, it matches: same crest, same wording, same signatures, same layout.
Open the verdict on Exhibit F
Can't tell. The forger was counting on you finding that photo.
Hedd has warned graduates not to post pictures of their certificates on social media. What you can find, a copier can find. A perfect match says the copy is good, nothing more.
Exhibit G: the near-miss name
The university's name is almost the one you know. Say the certificate reads "University of Elmshaw City", and the school you know is "Elmshaw City University": the same grand words, in a slightly different order. Both names are made up for this test.
Open the verdict on Exhibit G
Can't tell from the paper, but your unease has earned a check. The forger was counting on your memory.
The FTC lists sound-alike names among the signs of a diploma mill, and Hedd calls reordered names one of the commonest misrepresentations, and one of the easiest to check.
In the UK, a degree counts only if it comes from a body with the power to award degrees, or is on the government's list of recognised awards. GOV.UK shows how to check in each of the four nations.
Real universities merge and rename too, so ask an official list: GOV.UK's check for UK degree-awarding bodies, a search for the institution on Hedd's homepage, DAPIP in the US or our warning lists search.
Your fake diploma test score, and what it says
A point for "Fake" on B, the gold stamp, "Real" on E, the missing certificate, and "Can't tell" on the other five.
- 7: you think like a records office.
- 5 or 6: your doubt is well placed. Re-open the one that caught you: the check in its verdict is the habit to keep.
- 4 or fewer: open the verdicts you missed. Each one shows what to check instead.
Called the heavyweight, the perfect match, the QR code or the near-miss name "Real"? Those are the certificates the forgers made for you.
Called the plain one "Fake"? That hunch could cost a genuine graduate a job offer.
"Can't tell" on the gold stamp or the missing certificate? Lesson learnt a little too well. Doubt the paper, never the record.
The two you could call weren't the best-made. They were the two where someone asked a record. For another round, try Real or Mill?
What's in your hand, and what settles it
| You're holding | It can tell you | What settles it |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | What the holder claims, as with the heavyweight or the plain one | The university's records, as with the missing certificate |
| A QR code or link | Where its maker wants you to go, as in Exhibit D | Nothing on it. Find the university yourself. |
| A My eQuals link or PDF | Who issued it, and whether it was altered | Its link, opened on My eQuals' own site, or the PDF's signature. Not a printout. |
| A transcript | Courses and grades, if it came from the college | An official transcript the college sends you directly: see the tells of a fake transcript |
Holding a CV too? Our CV check catches impossible dates.
How to spot a fake degree certificate without looking at it
The way to spot a fake college diploma isn't to stare harder. You check it, as you did with the gold stamp and the missing certificate. Degree from abroad? See how foreign degrees are checked.
Before you trust any degree
- Ask the register. Find the awarding body on its country's official list (GOV.UK, DAPIP), never through the certificate. If no official list knows it under any name, it isn't a recognised degree.
- Ask for consent, without accusing anyone. "I check every degree with the university that awarded it. Could you give me your consent to ask them?" Not hiring? Ask them to have their university confirm it to you.
- Ask the record. Use the service the university's own website names, reached through the official list.
Hedd for UK degrees (organisations anywhere, not individuals), the National Student Clearinghouse for participating US colleges, My eQuals in Australia and New Zealand, or the registrar. - No record? Not proof of fraud: Hedd says details that don't match the records are the commonest cause. Check them, including any former name, and ask again.
- No consent? Then the degree stays unconfirmed, and an unconfirmed degree is nothing to rely on.
Forgers count on your eye. A record doesn't care how good the paper looks.
Sources
- Cifas: Focus on degree fraud, by Hedd: holograms, registry staff, certificate photos
- Prospects Luminate, by Hedd: 7 ways to spot a fake degree certificate: reordered and former names
- Hedd: FAQs: for organisations, not individuals; consent; merged and closed providers; unmatched details
- FTC: Avoid Fake-Degree Burns by Researching Academic Credentials: warning signs, invented accreditors, CHEA
- CHEA: Find accredited higher education institutions and programs: CHEA's searchable directory
- US Department of Education: DAPIP: accredited institutions, recognised accreditors
- Nanyang Technological University: Replacement of degree certificate: appearance changes, current format and signatories, "Replacement Copy"
- Ohio University: Replacement diploma: current signatures, "Official Replacement"
- My eQuals: FAQs for verifiers: links, signed tamper-evident PDFs, printouts
Check it before you trust it. The free tools in the Fake Degree Lab look at a CV, a school's website, a message or a "verification" service and show the warning signs, with links to the official registers.