Graduation selfies are easy pickings for degree fraudsters

Students who include their degree certificates in innocent graduation selfies could be helping to fuel the multi-million pound trade in fake degrees

Prospects Hedd, the official system for degree and university verification, surveyed 1,068 students preparing to graduate in 2018.

Survey aims

The aim of the survey was to understand how many students would consider sharing their degree certificates on social media, and whether they were aware of the consequences this can have.

Sharing a photo of a degree certificate may seem harmless, but it can give fraudsters access to the latest logos, crests, signatories, stamps, holograms and wording. Fake certificates can be produced using the latest designs, and passed off as genuine to unwitting employers.

Results

Findings show that 69% of students plan to take graduation selfies including their degree certificate, while 24% of students plan to video record the occasion.

Female respondents were much more likely to want to take a selfie with their certificate (73%) and share it online (74%) than their male peers (58% and 60% respectively).

The majority of students plan to share their graduation selfie/content on social media. Their most favoured channels are:

• Facebook (75%)
• Instagram (66%)
• Snapchat (40%)
• Twitter (19%)
• LinkedIn (19%).

Only 10.77% said they don't plan to share any graduation content on social media.

A significant proportion of students (73%) were unaware that someone could use a picture or video of a degree certificate to produce fakes, and 66% reported they were concerned about the issue.

Awareness is twice as high among males. 41% were aware of the risk, compared with 20% of women.

Tackling the issue

These findings show that more needs to be done to spread awareness of counterfeit degree certificates, and how fraudsters can profit from graduation photos.

It is advised that universities don't include images of certificates in their tweets, and students should be warned to do the same.

Jayne Rowley, Chief Executive at Prospects said: 'Don’t give fraudsters the opportunity to copy your degree certificate. You wouldn’t share a picture of your passport or your driving licence. Degree certificates are no different.'

'Degree fraud affects everyone. After investing time and money in a degree, genuine graduates should not be at risk of losing out in the jobs market to a candidate using a fake certificate.'

Written by

Laura Greaves

Information analyst

Prospects