Fake certificates are the business end of a $7billion international degree fraud industry. There are millions of them circulating the global job market, many of which sit happily in HR files for years without ever being detected...
That's because many recruiters still take a degree certificate, whether printed or digital, at face and value and don't check it with the awarding body, the only secure way to verify that it is the real thing.
In a survey carried by the degree verification service Hedd and YouGov in April 2025, 67% of large companies said they had seen an increase in job application fraud, attributing the trend to AI tools being used to enhance or fabricate experience or qualifications.
That's why it's more important than ever to know what to look out for. Here are seven surefire ways to spot a fake certificate.
1. Certificate design and wording
This florid-looking certificate was sent to the Hedd degree fraud reporting service by a charity which was looking into the educational background of a recently hired director. We were able to say immediately that Marylebone University is not a real institution. But as with many bogus universities, it sounds like it could be real.
The old-fashioned lettering style and ornate wording may have been chosen to communicate a traditional impression redolent of the world of Sherlock Holmes, Marylebone's most famous resident and just as fictional as its eponymous university. But this style went out of fashion decades ago. If a certificate purporting to be from a UK university looks and reads like this, it's probably a fake.
2. Location
Some fake certificates are impersonations of real universities and some are for outright bogus institutions, like the example above. But even fake universities need an address if they are to present themselves convincingly.
Ridgeshire University is an example of made-up institution in a made-up county. Two frauds for the price of one!
As a recruiter, if your knowledge of English shires and counties isn't great you might think that Ridgeshire is real. It sounds like it might be in the Chilterns or next to Wiltshire.
The Ridgeshire website was saturated with images and language suggestive of traditional education in a rural English setting. The address given for the establishment, however, was in Hawick in Scotland and turned out to be this doorway between a natural pet food retailer and a butcher.
It's certainly not a centre for the delivery of higher education or an institutional head office. Checking locations on Google StreetView is an easy way to rumble a fake institution.
3. Certificate components
At the high end of degree fraud, all the technology and sophistication that is harnessed to produce genuine certificates is employed to create fakes. This includes paper and print quality, watermarks and holograms.
If in doubt, check the insignia on the certificate with the university website. Always ask to see the original certificate, not a photocopy. The only sure way of not being conned by a fake certificate, of course, is to check the authenticity of the certificate with the university that issued it.
4. Accreditation
We have seen an increase in the last couple of years in real-world providers claiming to be able to award degrees when they do not have the authority to do so. An example of this trend is RB College, a UK-based pathway provider that delivers diploma-level education that may lead the student to progress onto a university programme.
This doesn't stop RB College from issuing degree certificates under its own name, however.
The Office for Students Register is the standard reference for checking if a provider has degree-awarding powers. If a provider isn't on the Register, they cannot award degrees. A degree may be delivered by another provider on behalf of a university but the certificate would always be issued by the university, not the franchisee.
Uncertainty over the institution name on a certificate isn't necessarily a sign of fraud, however. Mergers, name changes and rebranding have been the norm in the HE sector since the evolution of polytechnics into universities after 1992.
For example, if you are shown a degree certificate from Manchester Polytechnic and you haven't heard of that institution, Hedd's institutional database will tell you that Manchester Polytechnic is now Manchester Metropolitan University.
5. Domain
Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed the 'ac' domain on the Ridgeshire University home page. Ascension Island is a popular domain choice for fake website providers because the ac suffix is as close as it's possible to get to ac.uk.
With the exception of some private institutions such as BPP University, genuine UK degree-awarding bodies have ac.uk domains which are carefully restricted. The fundamental rule is, if it doesn't look like a university website address, it probably isn't.
6. Order of words
Although in conversation people may to say, 'I went to Manchester University' or 'Manchester Uni', on paper it's The University of Manchester (the uppercase 'T' is the correct mode). Any degree certificate that says 'Manchester University' is a fake. The same principle applies to Leicester University, Surrey University, Liverpool University and so on.
But to an employer who is not familiar with naming conventions for UK universities, a Manchester University certificate, if it is well produced, will look convincing. This is one of most common forms of misrepresentation that can easily be checked at Hedd.
7. The ultimate check
And the best way to spot a fake certificate? Verify it! Degree fraud is only detected when a recruiter has taken the essential step of checking that the data provided by the candidate is correct. The only way to do that is to go to the awarding body and check against its records.
Degree fraud will only be eradicated when 100% of recruiters check their employees' degree credentials 100% of the time.
For more information on how to identify fake certificates and bogus universities, and to download toolkits for employers and higher education providers, visit Hedd
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