Not everyone successfully graduates from university: some are expelled for student debt or poor academic performance. Someone recovers and still receives a diploma of higher education, while others buy a fake diploma and think that “they can get away with anything.”
We tell you what responsibility awaits buyers of a “fake” document and the dangers of working with a fake diploma.
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In some places we sometimes...
According to Article 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, when concluding an employment contract, a person applying for a job, among others, presents to the employer a document on education, qualifications or the presence of special knowledge (when applying for a job that requires special knowledge or special training).
As practice shows, the most common forged documents include documents on higher professional education, falsified health certificates, and work records.
Professional knowledge confirmed by a specialist’s diploma with higher professional education, bachelor’s, master’s is one of the most common requirements imposed by employers on potential employees today. The presence (or absence) of higher professional education is often a determining factor for hiring. The absence of the phrase “higher education” in a resume can become a significant obstacle to career growth and salary growth. Some companies and institutions provide a salary bonus for having a higher professional education.
Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to study honestly and pass exams for five to six years. For many, it turns out to be much easier to buy a fake diploma and present it to a potential employer. For those who think so, there is a criminal market operating in Russia...
What kinds of higher education diplomas there are, what to look for when independently examining it, as well as the consequences of using false educational documents will be discussed below.
Diplomas of higher professional education are of state and non-state standard. State-owned enterprises and public service bodies recognize only state-issued diplomas, and non-state enterprises are given the right to decide for themselves whether or not to accept non-state-issued diplomas as proper higher education diplomas and whether to employ applicants with such diplomas.
Fragment of the document
Federal Law of August 22, 1996 No. 125-FZ “On Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education”Article 6. Levels of higher professional education, terms and forms of its receipt
2. In the Russian Federation, the following levels of higher professional education are established:
— higher professional education, confirmed by awarding a person who has successfully passed the final certification the qualification (degree) of “bachelor”;
— higher professional education, confirmed by the assignment of the qualification “certified specialist” to a person who has successfully passed the final certification;
— higher professional education, confirmed by awarding a person who successfully passes the final certification a Master’s qualification (degree).
3. The education of persons who have not completed the basic educational program of higher professional education, but have successfully passed the intermediate certification (at least two years of study), is recognized as incomplete higher professional education and is confirmed by the issuance of diplomas of the established form. Persons who have not completed the basic educational program of higher professional education are issued academic certificates of the established form.
4. The time frame for mastering the main educational programs of higher professional education is:
- to obtain a qualification (degree) “bachelor” for at least four years;
- to obtain the qualification “certified specialist” for at least five years, except for cases provided for by the relevant state educational standards;
- To obtain a Master's qualification (degree) it takes at least six years.
…
Article 7. Documents on higher and postgraduate professional education
3. The following types of documents are established that certify the completion of higher professional education at various levels:
- Bachelor's degree;
- specialist diploma with higher professional education;
- master's degree;
- diploma of incomplete higher professional education (in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 6);
- certificate of the established form about unfinished higher professional education.
However, in order to get a “fake diploma”, it is not at all necessary to pore over textbooks for 5–6 years. By paying a certain amount, “interested parties” can become either a graduate of the Tyumen Industrial Institute, or a graduate of the Moscow Road Institute or another equally prestigious university.
Example 1
The Stavropol Regional Prosecutor's Office referred to court cases against two traffic police officers accused of using false diplomas of graduation from Stavropol State University. The preliminary investigation established that two employees of a separate battalion of the traffic police traffic police service number 1 of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the SK of the city of Lermontov presented deliberately forged diplomas of higher education to the battalion personnel service. Based on forged diplomas, they were awarded the rank of police lieutenants and the additional payment for the rank was increased accordingly. These facts were revealed by the Internal Security Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Southern Federal District. Employees accused of using false diplomas were dismissed from the internal affairs bodies.
Obviously, having bought a diploma, it is impossible to acquire knowledge along with it. The deception will sooner or later be revealed: a person who does not have real professional knowledge and skills will not be able to professionally fulfill the duties assigned to him, even if he has at least three or four diplomas from the most prestigious universities. The work activity of such a “specialist,” even taking into account possible experience in this specialty without education, will sooner or later make itself felt in the employee’s failure to fulfill his job duties. This can affect the activities of the entire enterprise, especially if the employee works in a responsible position.
According to scammers, the main requirements for a diploma are:
- presence of a signature in black ink, black paste or ink of the chairman of the state certification commission,
- presence of the official seal of the higher educational institution and
- registration of the diploma in the university archives.
“Interested” people believe that if all these rules are followed, then you have in your hands the most real document on higher education, forgetting that the presence of a forged document does not compensate for the lack of the necessary baggage of theoretical knowledge.
Responsibility for forging a diploma
Falsifying a diploma is a criminal offense. A criminal who produces falsified educational documents for the purpose of their further sale. This act is qualified under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and provides for punishment in the form of:
- imprisonment or restriction of freedom for up to 2 years;
- up to 24 months of forced labor;
- arrest for up to six months.
Important!
According to Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, they can be punished not only directly for forging a diploma, but also for acquiring a false education document for the purpose of its further resale.
How much will it cost?
In Moscow and other large cities of Russia, there are many scammers operating on the Internet who offer diploma production services. The cost of these services is approximately the same for different scammers. It depends on what form the “fake” will be made on - typographical or State Sign form, whether it is important for you to register the diploma in the university archives. A diploma of higher professional education, executed on a state sign form, with an attachment of the old sample before 1996 and a new sample after 1996 costs approximately $400, with a new sample attached after 2003 - $550. You can even order a “guest from the future” diploma with the year of graduation, for example, 2006. Prices for services do not depend on this, as well as on the name of the university and specialty. In the “blue” diploma, you can assign grades to your taste. And if you want a diploma with honors (with honors), you will have to pay extra. Its price is from $700 and above.
Example 2
A distributor of fake diplomas from the Moscow Institute of International Economic Relations was detained not long ago by employees of the 6th Department of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate. The cost of the document ranged from 10 thousand rubles to 5 thousand dollars, depending on the wealth of the client. The holders of the “diplomas” were satisfied - in addition to the “crust”, they received a certificate of completion of the university, an evaluation sheet and a badge. For complete reliability, the client was also provided with information about which stream and which teachers he allegedly studied with, who was the leader of his group...
Although the “fake diploma” will be absolutely identical in appearance to the original, it will remain a “fake”, since it will not be registered in the archives of the higher educational institution. Although under certain conditions this becomes possible. True, the cost of a “conducted” (registered in the university archives) diploma is very high. This is explained by the fact that in order to enter a diploma into the database of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, to open a personal file on you with a record book at the university, to write coursework, a thesis, it takes a certain amount of time and very large financial costs. The cost of such a diploma is from 10 thousand USD. Green colour. It is noteworthy that most companies and specific scammers promise that they will be able to obtain a “validated” diploma from any university in Russia, including Moscow State University, which causes some irony.
Example 3
Employees of the 7th Department of the Operational Investigation Bureau of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the North-Western District detained the deputy head of the Faculty of Law of the Russian Customs Academy named after V.V. Bobkova.
A 30-year-old employee of the academy was exposed for offering his services to a 26-year-old St. Petersburg woman who was unemployed in producing a forged diploma of higher education. He demanded 7 thousand dollars as a reward. During operational search activities as part of Operation Fatima, the deputy head of the law faculty was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe in his office. The above amount was seized from the scene, and the owner of the office was detained. A criminal case was initiated under Article 290, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (taking a bribe).
Some companies claim that “wired” diplomas are a complete scam. “How can you graduate from college and be registered there without ever appearing there? For an amount from 1 to 3 thousand dollars - this is unrealistic. 20–50 thousand USD “I’ll still believe it, and only if I get to know the rector closely,” say knowledgeable people.
Sometimes they say the production time for a “fake diploma” is only 2–3 days plus delivery time. For example, you live in Tyumen, but ordered a “fake” in Moscow. There are two delivery methods. Firstly, delivery by cash on delivery (payment is made at the post office before receiving the order). Secondly, urgent postal delivery (the order can be delivered by express postal delivery, which will significantly speed up the delivery time, but this requires 100% prepayment of the order, and you cannot view the diploma before paying for it). You can also receive your diploma upon meeting the courier. If you don’t like the fake in any way, you have the right to return it to the manufacturer and not pay for the service. True, in this case you will have to name specific reasons for your refusal, however, they may simply “dump” a particularly picky “client”.
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You will also be able to see green “twigs” (or “tails”). But watermarks in ultraviolet light should no longer be noticeable.
An example of a diploma verification in ultraviolet
We recommend checking your diploma before you pay for it.
Method 4 . The diploma number must be built according to a certain algorithm. The first two digits are the code for the country or subject of the Russian Federation, for example, 01 - Adygea, 03 - Buryatia. Then comes the series:
- BO (basic level with honors);
- BA (baseline);
- PO (advanced level with honors);
- PA (increased level);
- CA (academic certificate).
The remaining digits of the number are the serial number of the diploma assigned to the document upon registration in the Unified State Register.
An example of a genuine diploma with a real number
A similar structure is typical for diplomas issued since 1993
Method 5. The most reliable method to determine the authenticity of a document is to send a request to an educational institution or check it against the database on the Rosobrnadzor website.
What should you pay attention to?
When considering documents of applicants and (or) applying for a job, determining the authenticity of most documents confirming higher education is quite difficult, but quite possible. An experienced specialist has seen hundreds of diplomas in his life and, of course, remembers what diplomas from the USSR and now the Russian Federation looked like in certain periods.
Sometimes we encounter the use of documents from non-existent or exotic educational institutions. For example, a diploma of higher education from the Russian-American Educational Center with the seal of the organization “SULIKO INTERNATIONAL” is unlikely to inspire confidence in you. The assigned qualification “automotive engineer with the right to start your own business” also speaks volumes.
Since it is easier for a fraudster to make one matrix with the same number and series and enter only the data of the interested person into such a form, it is possible that he has already issued dozens of such diplomas. If your organization employs a large number of employees and has a data archive, the audit may identify several employees who graduated from different educational institutions in different years, in different specialties, in different cities, but have the same number and series of higher education diploma. But this is not possible, due to the fact that each State Sign form is unique. Forms of state diplomas of higher education are printed only in separate editions in the Gosznak printing house.
When checking records in higher education diplomas, you need to pay attention to the presence of grammatical errors. When studying seals and stamps, you should check the coincidence of the name of the organization on the form itself, written by hand, and on the imprint of the round seal.
Example 4
When considering the documents submitted by one of the applicants to our company, we drew attention to the diploma of higher professional education, which was the seal of the institute. Instead of a double-headed eagle, it depicted a creature vaguely reminiscent of a bird of the gallinidae order.
Some diplomas of higher professional education of a non-state standard have a photograph of the graduate, which is also unusual and, although it does not indicate 100% forgery of this document, it makes you think about the essence of the education of the person who received it in this educational institution.
It is necessary to pay attention to the presence of all records, seals, signatures, dates and other special marks. Special marks can be anything.
It is quite difficult to verify the authenticity of a signature on a higher education diploma, but it is possible, especially if the organization has employees who graduated from the same university and in the same years.
The easiest way, of course, when checking, is to compare the verified diploma with certified photocopies (photocopies) of diplomas available in the personal files of employees, the authenticity of which you are sure of. In this case, you should pay attention to the period in which whose signature was affixed to the diplomas.
Example 5
A forged diploma of higher professional education from a prestigious institute was signed by a dead man. If you believe the date, the graduate received it two years after the death of the rector who signed this document. The fraudster who made it, of course, did not master the art of reviving the dead and was not interested in spiritualism. He simply took out a diploma from a person who actually graduated from this university four years ago and replaced the last name and date of issue.
The combination of several signs can eliminate any remaining doubts about the need to verify the diploma in question.
An interview by a manager or personnel officer can help identify facts that need to be verified.
Example 6
A graduate of a prestigious university came to apply for a job. Everything is fine, but his diploma is fake. The young man went through a series of interviews and was hired. On the very first day, he got into a conversation with a colleague, and then it turned out that his interlocutor graduated from the same university at the same time. And the most unpleasant thing for a new employee is that his colleague was the head of the course.
Sometimes, though less and less often, erasure, addition, reprinting and etching occur.
Erasing is the mechanical removal of strokes in order to change the content of records. Most often, individual fragments of text, numbers and symbols are deleted in document numbers, in impressions of seals and stamps, dates of events and documents, last names, first names, patronymics and initials.
Addition - changing the content of a document by making new entries (individual strokes, letters, numbers, words and their combinations) in the empty spaces between characters, words and lines. A type of addition is dorisovka - changing the content of letters or numbers by adding individual strokes.
Reprinting is a change in the content of a typewritten document by typing new entries (individual letters, numbers, words, sentences) into the free areas between existing characters, words, lines and under the text.
Etching is the discoloration and destruction of the coloring matter of text strokes under the influence of chemical reagents. Etching can be complete (over the entire surface of the document) or partial (in individual areas).
Unconditional proof of the “falsity” of the diploma is the expert’s opinion.
A forged document is a false document prepared in compliance with the established form, or a genuine document with partially changed details.
How to independently recognize a fake education document
A thorough examination often helps to identify a fake even without special skills. If you have a magnifying glass, a microscope, or better yet, a money checking device (with an infrared detector), then you can independently recognize some types of fake diplomas.
Key places to pay attention
Method 1 . If you make a photocopy of a diploma using conventional technology, the inscription “Copy” will appear on the copy in several places (element 1 in the picture). This effect is provided by ink that reacts to temperature increases during photocopying.
Example of a photocopy of a diploma
But the paint is not so expensive that counterfeiters cannot buy it, so this verification method is not the most reliable
Method 2. Through a magnifying glass, you can notice several nuances on a real diploma.
Microfont forming the inscription “Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation” with a height of 0.5 mm across the entire form (element 5 in the picture).
Thin curved lines present on almost 80% of the form (element 2 in the picture). The lines are always different colors, they change in shades and directions. Therefore, it is almost impossible to copy them: either the line will be the same color, or consisting of individual points.
Method 3. Look at the diploma against the light to see if there are “RF” watermarks on the paper.
Shine the diploma paper with an infrared detector. The coat of arms of the Russian Federation with detailed details should be visible near the inscription “diploma”, and the background around it should remain black (elements 3 and 4 in the picture).
conclusions
A fake diploma cannot be distinguished externally from a real one. They are bought by those who need a “crust”, but do not want to waste time and effort on training. A diploma on a real university letterhead will cost more than a fake one without watermarks.
There are industries in which applicants' diplomas are mandatory checked. Most often, a request is sent to the university.
Depending on the employer, if a counterfeit is discovered, an employee may face various penalties: from simple dismissal to a police investigation and trial. The maximum sentence for such a violation is up to 1 year or forced labor.
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In some cases, the employer is not interested in reporting the discovery of a counterfeit to law enforcement agencies. But if you still apply, an examination may be appointed to check the authenticity of the diploma.
Verification is not needed if the answer from the educational institution is: “This person has not been trained.”
Important! The statute of limitations for diploma verification is 2 years. That is, the employer discovered a fake diploma on you, and can file a complaint with the police within two years.
The fact is also important whether the owner of the diploma knew about the forgery or not. As a rule, helping the investigation find a seller of diplomas can have a positive impact on the court's decision.
What does the Job Qualification Handbook say?
Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated August 21, 1998 N 37 “On approval of the qualification reference book for positions of managers and specialists” states that persons without special education or work experience can sometimes occupy these positions on an equal basis with those who have special training and experience.
So, according to paragraph 10 of this Handbook, such a case concerns those who, according to the decision of the certification commission, have the necessary competencies and practical experience. These employees perform their job duties fully and efficiently.
But this paragraph describes an exceptional situation. In general, having a certain list of qualities to perform job functions is necessary.
