The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.”
Groucho Marx
here is every reason to fake your education. Only 40% of companies T
regularly verify degrees earned, according to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, and even then, they might miss diploma mills. Also, when it comes your previous educational history, the longer you've been in the work force the less likely your prospective employer will check to verify it. There is a powerful assumption that most hiring managers seem go by; ―if you have been in the workforce for a while, you probably have the education that your resume says‖. Maybe they think no one that age would be stupid enough to ―risk‖ faking their education and that most of the liars get weeded out with the college kids. Who knows? The fact is that the general assumption is there, capitalize on it!
If you have a high school education put down that you have a bachelor's degree. If you have a bachelor's degree put down that you have a Masters degree. Why? Because if a prospective employer has to choose between you and another candidate, small things like your education, or where you went to school can be the deciding factor in your winning or losing the job. Keep in mind also, that the higher education you have, the better pay you will receive. This may not work out so well for recent college graduates, all education and little to no experience, but if you have the experience it just means a bigger paycheck for you.
Chapter 10 – Diplomas, certificates & Education
www.fakeresume.com Page 71
If you are going to lie about your education please be very careful to avoid using the following techniques to go after a job that’s obviously over your head. Don’t get intoxicated with the idea of earning a huge salary. Believe me, this is a formula for disaster. Unless you’re absolutely sure that you possess the skills and experience necessary to be successful in your new position – stay within your capabilities.
If you are sure that you have the abilities necessary and just lack the
paperwork, there are a couple things you need to consider. First, make sure that the date of your education makes sense. Degrees just don’t happen instantly, they require long years of work. Always remember to leave enough time in your resume to allow the required college attendance. An average Bachelor’s degree takes four years to get on a full-time schedule, therefore, if your work history shows that you are working full-time and going to school full-time, you may raise a red flag if you say that you got your degree in four years. You can, however, claim that you attended college while you worked but you’ll have to allot an even longer period for it to make sense. Be well prepared to explain how and when you earned your listed degree.
Secondly, fake a school that you are actually familiar with in some way.
Maybe you know people on the campus or are familiar with the instructors at the school itself. If you can, visit the campus of your new alma mater. Stroll around, taking particular note of the streets and bars in the immediate
vicinity. Get a copy of the school’s catalog and study it carefully. Commit to memory two or three of the more prominent professor’s names and faces. It is a very small world, and you don't want to find out that the person
interviewing you for the job is a graduate of the school you are claiming to have a Bachelor's or Master’s degree from.
Be realistic about what college or university you claimed to have graduated from. Saying that you attended, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, etc., is guaranteed to put you under a microscope. Be realistic about which college or university
Chapter 10 – Diplomas, certificates & Education
www.fakeresume.com Page 72
that you’re Keep your ego in check and just put down a college that is reputable but not Ivy League.
Another thing that an HR Manager will look for is the job you got right after college. Does the job title and pay make sense for someone with the degree you claim to have? An example of a mistake would be to say that your first job out of college was as a manager, making US $75k per year. Be careful not to go too far the other way either. Putting down a job that is excessively low in stature and prestige for a recent college graduate can cause you to leave thousands of dollars on the table. Do not propose to have a Masters degree and claim that you managed a car wash. Everything you write down has to flow together and make sense. Congruency is key. Just like a great fiction book has a plot that builds on itself in a sensible way, so too should your job history flow, make sense and be believable.
When it comes time to actually prove your education they will usually ask for a photocopy of your degree or copies of your transcripts. The
photocopied degree is easy to forge with a good printer and the help of some good imaging software like Adobe Photoshop. If you are not proficient in art programs you may need to get a friend to help you or hire a freelancer.
If they ask for your transcripts from a school it’s still not a problem. College transcripts are extremely easy to forge. Here is exactly how to forge a
transcript.
How to for faking transcripts
1. Simply get a copy of someone else’s legitimate transcript and a copy of the college catalog for the period you’ll be claiming that you attended. Ask a friend that is indeed a college graduate and your approximate age to loan you your transcripts.
2. To find these you can look in one of the larger libraries as they usually have past school catalogs.
Chapter 10 – Diplomas, certificates & Education
www.fakeresume.com Page 73
There's a whole college industry around transcripts, college degrees, transcripts. You can Google ―fake college degree‖ and you will be overwhelmed with places that will provide you with: transcripts, diplomas, what GPA you want, you’re your Master was, the whole 9 yards and they will give you a list of what universities they will do and what they want.
Some great keywords to get you started would be: college degree transcripts, college degree, diploma, fake college degrees, replica college degree, replacement transcripts, etc.
3. Once you have the transcript, decide how you will doctor it. You can either do this manually or digitally.
a. To do this manually, use cover up strips to block out your name and other personal information. Then use a computer or
typewriter to replace the previous personal information with your own.
b. To do this digitally skip to step three.
4. Now make as good a copy of the real transcript as you can. If you chose manually replacing information you can just find a good photocopier and turn up the black& white ratio. (you don’t want the outline of the cover up strips showing) If you chose digital, the better way to go in my opinion, purchasing a $100.00 scanner or using a scanner at Fed ex/Kinko’s works well.
Chapter 10 – Diplomas, certificates & Education
www.fakeresume.com Page 74
5. For the scanned files just open your art program and find a similar font. Erase all personal information and type new information from the art program. Save to a jpg or other image file and reprint.
If your transcripts come back from the college in PDF format, you can always purchase or download a pdf converter. Moreover, be sure to include that all-important raised seal. This may all seem like a lot of work but for most it just takes a bit of determination, it’s when HR asks you to sign the form for a transcript request, and want to mail it, that you have a problem.
Make sure when forging a transcript for mailing, to mail it back from the same city that the school is located. You’d be amazed how many people have been tripped up on something as simple as an incorrect postmark or return address. If necessary, hire a mail drop service. Never forget that those friendly folks who run mail drops will gladly open a box for you through the mail. You can then use this new box as the college’s official mailing
address. This means that the degree verification form will be sent directly to you so that you can then provide the verification yourself.
Check out these mail drop services to see what I’m talking about.
https://www.executivemaildropservices.com/maildrops_international.
html
http://www.pomaildrop.com/maildrop.shtml
http://www.mailboxforwarding.com/index.php?src=google&kw=mail drop&gclid=CNL2teamoKgCFcW5KgodjjehIg
As far a choice of school when faking our education, several of the larger Universities are international in scope. They maintain locations both here in the US and overseas. One of the largest of these is located in the state of Maryland.
There are also completely new spectrums of degree programs, which due to long-distance learning, don’t require physical classroom attendance for a set number of years. Many of these video, web or long-distance programs can
Chapter 10 – Diplomas, certificates & Education
www.fakeresume.com Page 75
be quite legitimate, such as The University of Phoenix, now recognized as the largest university in the U.S. because of its aggressive marketing for distance learning. The stigma of distance learning is rapidly disappearing thanks to the Internet, so even if you claim that you got your degree from a web based school you’re still going to be credible.
If you do end up claiming a degree from one of these international schools and your future employer should experience problems when they attempt to verify your degree, you could claim that the university has so many different operations that the verification process is rather unreliable. I’ve known several people who have successfully used this approach. It’s a common and therefore believable story. You can also claim that the university’s server crashed and lost all your info. Say that they have to dig through old paper records in order to get your transcript to you. It may buy you enough time to get hired on anyway and companies often forget to follow up regarding transcripts.
Here’s the ―how to‖ when choosing a fake education.
1. Choose either a school you can visit or have previous knowledge about to have attended, or choose an online degree program.
2. If they want to mail off for the transcript or degree verification, open a mail drop service in the correct state and give them that address, changing the P.O. Box part to Suite number and so on.
3. You will receive their request and can send back forged documentation through the mail drop service.
4. If it is an internet school you can always claim unreliable verification services to numerous departments.
5. Don’t put down that you went to a top Ivy League school like Yale, or Harvard . Remember the old adage, that if it’s too good to be true it
probably is. Case in point, Adam Wheeler, who faked his way into Harvard
Chapter 10 – Diplomas, certificates & Education
www.fakeresume.com Page 76
At age 23, Adam Wheeler was accepted into Harvard when he provided such outstanding merits such as, a 1600 SAT score, being a published author, and fluency in 4 languages.
It wasn’t until Wheeler applied for his post-graduate scholarship that the lies caught up with him and revealed everything from forged letters of recommendation, to misrepresented college attendance and claims that he worked in a hospital.
While initially his impressive resume produced $45,000 in grants and scholarships, in the end, he faced a long court battle, jail time and huge fees. He could have avoided this by applying to a slightly less
prestigious school, with less resources and not such a massive reputation to uphold.
The former CEO of MGM grand claimed that he had an MBA from USC. It turned out later that not only did he not have an MBA from USC, he didn’t even have the BA that he claimed, but he still walked out with almost $10 million in compensation when he was kicked out. He got caught but it was worth it.
Even the would be minister of defense from Germany resigned after
admitting he plagiarized his doctoral dissertation! The most important thing to remember is that education makes a difference on paper. In the real world it can be questionable how valuable it actually is, but on paper it means the difference of thousands per year and sometime who gets a callback and who does not.
Chapter 11 – From Background Checks to Employment Gaps
www.fakeresume.com Page 77