Often referred to as "study the easy way", today fake degrees and diploma mills are easier to obtain that ever before. In fact, diploma mills are deliberately named to sound confusingly so people can believe that a prestigious, accredited academic institution has awarded them.
While a diploma mill can be obtained with very little or no fully credited academic study, fake degrees only require money and the right directions towards the people who can provide you with one of these "recognitions".
In the past, a fake diploma was only available through unscrupulous printing companies, or places were school and office goods are sold. Computers make it easier for falsification and put the possibilities in everybody's hands.
However, not all individuals know how an academic degree is "cloned". Others may know, but are not interested, staying honest to themselves. Certain groups may know the "how-to", but not the proper software or skill to do a "professional" fake job.
The last group of individual's disregards their knowledge or abilities, are just lazy to do the trick and prefer to pay. Where there is demand, there is an offer so is not strange that surfing the net or doing research people find the "cloners".
"Fake Associate Degree Template*, that's it. It seems that Internet anonymity enables anyone to announce in this way with all its words and details such as the following:
"Create the superior associate's "diploma" that you dream up, whatever fake community or junior college. This diploma is perfect for all of the available 2-year degrees and educational programs easily. Diplomas open in MS Word, just type in your personal information and print in seconds. Available for immediate download."
And if buyers do not have MS Word installed on their PC, worry not because there is a rich text format version to fulfill "everybody's dream". Sometimes promoted as "just for fun", makes the accessibility to anyone the template so they could create their diploma and the promoters often ignore the real purpose behind the buyer's purchase.
On the other hand, the buyer may ignore the "just for fun" purpose and pay between $5 to $15 USD to discover that each template has a watermark stating "just for fun". From one or another perspective, the seller or buyer is facing a scam risk.
In the above example, the seller has a disclaimer to protect himself/herself, from any dispute aroused from using fake degree templates: *by purchasing this product you agree to limit its use to offline activities and solely related to fun and entertainment"
There is no scam when a buyer knows in advance the real purpose of the fake document. Reading the seller's recommendation, the buyer should agree that "all junior colleges, community colleges or other institutions typed onto your template will be limited to fictional entities created by you"
If the seller seems to be offering fake diplomas in good faith, nobody knows the real purposes of the buyer, including unscrupulous personal use, or becoming a new diploma "issuer"
When it comes to diploma mills, they may be legit, but often without recognition by official accrediting bodies, make the studies worthless or with fewer success possibilities in comparison with real diplomas and degrees earned from accredited academic institutions.
Going for a dictionary definition you will find that diploma mills are awarded by "An institution of higher education operating without supervision of a state or professional agency and granting diplomas which are either fraudulent or because of the lack of proper standards worthless"
