We get a few emails a day from people who simply ask us, “are fake diplomas illegal?“
First, it’s a good thing to question a lot of what you read online. In fact, we found this one website where some guy was talking about how fake diplomas were illegal and the more you looked around his website, the more you realized that he was advertising online schools! Obviously, the guy had an agenda to scare people away from fake diplomas and pay for an online degree instead. I’m not arguing that there was zero truth to his claims, but he certainly did have an agenda.
There is a lot of “talk” going around on the ‘web, and I wish I had time to keep up with all of it!
It’s important to understand the different types of online diplomas that are being offered. There is a major difference between a diploma mill, online degree, and a fake diploma supplier.
Online degrees are degrees handed out by online universities or major universities that offer online degree programs that can be earned from the comfort of your home! Many of the online degrees are from reputable universities and colleges, making them accredited. By accredited, we mean that you can take classes at one school and then another school would accept those courses. Some courses, at particular schools, don’t meet a particular level of standards and aren’t accredited. It’s important that you ask any school you wish to attend what accreditation they offer and then research the validity of such an accreditation.
There are also degree mills and diploma mills, which are actually bogus schools setup to hand out fake degrees that they will verify on your behalf. Diploma mills or degree mills are 100% illegal and have been banned in many states including Virginia and Oregon. When mills are shut down, the schools are forced to release records of people who purchased degrees from them and the companies where those individuals work are often notified. Mills are also often hard to find online since they tend to get shut down rather quickly. Warren National “University” is an example that was recently brought down!
Fake diplomas that are sold as phony diplomas are completely different. Fake diplomas are novelty documents that look and feel real, but are designed to trick family and friends. In most cases, fake diploma companies don’t offer verification which prevents them from being a mill and therefore an illegal operation. Since fake diploma companies simply sell a document that the buyer may choose to do anything with, the actual company making the fake diploma accepts zero responsibility and allows them to operate as a 100% legal operation.
So, to answer your question, is it illegal to purchase documents from websites such as Phony Diploma, ND-Center, or Diploma Xpress? Absolutely not.