The scam of Belford University

My dears,

This is a post steaped with warning and caution. I have a tale to tell you. Get comfy and I'll begin.

Yesterday, I heard from the BC that my application for the IELTS certification had been rejected because I do not have the minimum requirement - a degree. Illogical since I have just finished the Delta which is a post-grad, I worked for the BC in Roumania as you know, I have fourteen years experience as a teacher (a degree is equivalent to 145h in the classroom - I've spent three times that in a multitude of classrooms) and the BC IELTS office had originally told me that there'd be no problem - basically I had equivalence. So, you can imagine how I felt.

Over and over, not having a degree comes and hits me in the chops. Over and over again. Today, as much as I would like one, I cannot afford neither the time nor the money. And anyway, I have more experience through teaching all these years than a degree would ever give me. And with the Delta under my belt come August, well, sod the degree. I have better. Not so for the fossils of Cambridge. "Rules are rules. We can't make an exception for you or everyone will want us to make an exception." A myriad of obscenities sprung to mind - that is such a lame excuse. I spent a couple of hours batting emails back and forth between London and Paris...no give. That was it. My career an an examiner is over before it's begun.

One of the guys in the IELTS office, on understanding my desarroi suggested I try to get a life equivalency degree. He said I could do it in France but of course it would have to be in French, and they also exist in London.

A light of hope shone in my dark, uneducated, degreeless soul.

So, I started to look on internet. I keyed in 'Life Equivalency Degrees' and hit 'enter'. I thought it was wonderful that there could be a possibility of taking your years of experience, certificates, knowledge and ability built up during a professional life time (14 years for me is around a third of mine) and converting them into a much needed degree. It wasn't as if I wanted to fake a certificate in dentistry, psychology or rocket science. No, Teaching ESL would be perfect. That is what I have been doing for all these years. I love my job. Teaching is a vocation just as nursing was but doesn't involve doing your back in generally. How marvellous to know that all I have done, learned and acquired could be summed up in a certificate I could show allowing people to see how proud I am of my work.

Wow...there are a lot of crooks out there. Prices were off the ceiling, 'contact us' links didn't work and phone numbers didn't exist, but what amazed me most was how many there were. I knew I had to find something accredited, something that would show my worth, something I could hold up proudly and say, 'look, I earned this'...after maybe 8 hits, I fell on one, Belford University, that looked really good. And I mean really. Nice site, easy to navigate with a toll 1-800 number. Someone answered immediately. A nice man called Joey with a syruppy voice and a southern US twang. he asked how he could help me. I explained I'd been recommended by someone at the BC to look into a life equivalency degree becuase...and I gave chapter and verse of the IELTS story. I opened my heart up to him. Said I didn't understand why, when I have a post-grad equivalent (or will officially in August), I am not allowed to apply for the training to be a certified IELTS examiner. I do not have the minimum. I have more.

He was very kind, listened quietly, asked a few questions and then said that he needed to be sure that I was the level for a degree certificate so to tell him about my experience, qualifications etc. I did. The whole 14 years of teaching. He told me to email him all my certificates from O'levels and GED right through to my references from the Delta and my ex-boss which states the length of time worked. So, I did. Everything. I sent him every trace of my career from A to Z.

He asked me what date I would liek on the certificate. I said I didn't care. he said he'd give me a 'Cum Laude' because with all my experience, that was what I deserved. yes, I do deserve a cum laude for surviving in Paris as an ESL teacher, don't I? All you collegues, say you don't deserve a cum laude. Okay, I replied, not really caring.

Later on in the evening I was telling my beloveds across the pond all about it. Antennae went up, hackles were dressed. "Don't do a thing, do not pay a penny until we have checked this out!" they begged. I was determined to do this. What was wrong with it? Converting your life history into a degree? It was worth at least that. "Don't be impulsive. Wait. Give me 24h to check it out." Grudgingly, I agreed. But I was so impatient to get it out the way, paid and received and finally crawl out of my degreeless darkness to the awaiting sunlight of the intelligent, lauded, socially admired and professionally employable.

Moments later, an email from a friend who is professor of architecture at the university of Arlington, Texas. "Have nothing to do with Belfort University. They are a scam. You can tell at once if the address ends with 'org' and not 'edu'." He had dug out a couple of articles for me to read on Belford. They made shocking reading.

This one is from the NYT:

October 13, 2007
6 City Job Seekers Are Held in Sweep of Fake Degrees
By CARA BUCKLEY

Six people have been arrested since June and accused of submitting fake degrees in applications for jobs with the New York Fire Department, the authorities said yesterday.  According to the city’s Department of Investigation, the Fire Department’s candidate investigation division became suspicious of diplomas held by three men and three women who applied for jobs as firefighters, emergency medical technicians and a clerical associate. An investigation revealed that four of the candidates had submitted fake high school diplomas or equivalency certificates, and two had submitted degrees from Belford University, an online diploma mill, according to the Department of Investigation.

An investigator went to the Web site of Belford University and obtained a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in aerospace engineering for $509.15, the department said. After failing an “entry exam,” the investigator was urged by the Web site to take it again, and was sent the answers. The investigator had entered his age as 12 and had written, “I luv planes and rockets,” the authorities said.  One applicant was arrested in June, three in September and two on Thursday. A report released in January found that 14 members of the Fire Department had submitted fake degrees to be promoted or hired. The Fire Department said it rejected all but three of the fake diplomas and later fined all 14.  Charges in the latest inquiry include felonies of falsifying business records.
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and this from Wikipedia:

Belford University
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Belford University is an organization offering online unaccredited degrees for "life experience". The organization maintains a post office box in Humble, Texas, but its certificates are mailed from the United Arab Emirates.[1]
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Accreditation status
    * 2 Controversy and criticism
    * 3 See also
    * 4 References
    * 5 External links

[edit] Accreditation status

The school is not accredited by any accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDE) or Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Neither of the organizations from which Belford claims accreditation, the International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities (IAAOU) and the Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation (UCOEA), are recognized accreditation associations of higher learning.[2] Without recognized accreditation, Belford's degrees and credits might not be acceptable to employers or other academic institutions, and use of degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions.[3] Jurisdictions that have restricted or made illegal the use of credentials from unaccredited schools include South Korea[4] and the US states of Oregon,[5] [6] Michigan,[7] Maine,[8] North Dakota,[6] New Jersey,[6] Washington,[5] [9] Nevada,[5][10] Illinois,[5] Indiana[5] and Texas[11][12]. Many other states
are also considering restrictions on the use of degrees from unaccredited institutions. [13]
[edit] Controversy and criticism

A 2005 investigative report on WHEC-TV in Rochester, NY, characterized Belford as "just one of hundreds of diploma mills easily accessible online."[14]

According to David Linkletter of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Belford "is not a legitimate institute of higher education. No legitimate university offers a complete degree on the basis of one's life experience. I particularly like the 'order now' button on their Web site, which is another clue...To the extent that Belford University is in Texas, it is operating in violation of the Texas Education Code."[1] Furthermore, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has indicated that Belford, Rochville University, and the agencies from which they claim accreditation "appear to be operated by the same people."[1]

On 13 March 2006, Arthur Barnes, a former fire chief, was dismissed from his job for his Belford "degree". According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, "The Web site www.belforduniversity.org offers master's degrees based on 'life experience' for $479. Users are asked to submit their work experience on the Web to qualify for the degree. And if there is no work experience, they can still get a degree by finishing an online multiple-choice test." In fact, "The program even lets users choose their grade point averages. A 3.0 GPA is free, but they can earn a 4.0 for an extra $75. The program also promises to ship the degrees out within a week."[15]

In 2008, a candidate for sheriff in Mahoning County, Ohio, was removed from the ballot after the Supreme Court of Ohio determined that his associate's degree from Belford could not be used to satisfy the state's requirement that a sheriff have at least two years of post-secondary education.[16]

In a 2007 article, a Yale Daily News journalist reported that he had applied for a doctorate with what he described as a brief paltry life experience justification, and was approved for his requested degree 12 hours later. He said that the basic price for a doctorate was $549 and entitled the recipient to a transcript showing a 3.0 grade point average. Latin honors could be obtained for an additional fee of $25 and Belford offered to back-date a degree for an additional $75 fee.[17]

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Scumbags. It was a total scam. And they nearly got me. they nearly did. Needless to say I wrote them a letter I'd be ashamed if anyone else read, so full of obsceneties is it! If my hearts in Hamden hadn't insisted, I'd have been completely and utterly had. I had been completely taken in, totally fooled. If the Prof hadn't sent me the articles and given his grain of salt (he's a guy who knows what he's talking about and in whom I have great confidence), I'd be 500$ poorer and be risking jail for fraud. Unwittingly. because to me, it seemed fair enough. Never would I have imagined to ask for something I didn't deserve. The Fire Department indeed. Yes, sure, give me a degree in micro-biology or Outer Mongolian Harp Music....

I wake up this morning feeling stupid,; stupid, stupid. far stupider than I usually feel in my degreeless soul. As I coloured my hair earlier, I yelled at myself in the mirror for being such an idiot - also managed to squirt colour on one of my cats who was unimpressed. How could I have believed such a thing? As my very favourite member of the royal family says, 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is'. I feel humiliated. I feel tiny. I feel, well, yes, stupid. And embarrassed for having been so gullible when usually, I really am not. I know scams exist. Hell, a student of mine used to write them. They made me roar with laughter because I didn't think anyone could possibly be daft enough to believe them. Well, I was. Genius.

So, this just leaves me to warn you. Be careful. Scamming is a profession and they are getting better and better. Avoid these diploma mills. Check accreditation and even if, like Belford, they say they are accredited, check the accreditation body, then check the address - I found one this morning just for a laugh, Strassford University in GB who actually acted from Panama and the address given in WC1 was a computer work shop.

Belford is a cupboard somewhere and the certificates come from UAE. Exotic but illegal.

Thank God for my darlings who saved me from making a very dangerous move. Thank God for antennae and a natural suspicion of things that are too good to be true. beacuse as my heart would say, 'they probably are'.

Be wise. It's a jungle out there.

Love Sarah