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Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

nytimes.com

21–30 of 81 posts

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#21

This company is very well renowned in Pakistan for its perks and many engineers rush to apply here. I had absolutely no clue this is what was going on behind the scenes. There is no talk about Axact operating shady universities back in Pakistan, and a scam of this scale is astonishing. Eye-opening article.

Eh? Everyone knows they have a shady business. People have known that for years in Pakistan. The Pakistan Software Houses Association condemned Axact to be a diploma Mill long ago.

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#22
post #11
post #4

I always knew that they were doing something shady. Also their employees have to sign NDA's to work. I know quite a few people who worked at Axact. And no one is willing to tell me what kind of work he/she did there. I naturally assumed that it had the backing of the pakistani intelligence agencies guess i was wrong. There is also another thing that i would like to add here, there is an answer on quora which those in…

In the US at least, an NDA is generally a standard part of an employment contract.

It's common in some industries, yes, but in California at least, many of them aren't actually enforceable. A company can write an enforceable NDA, but it can't be a blanket agreement. It has to clearly delineate which information is confidential vs. nonconfidential, and establish credible policies for handling confidential information.

(Since employment is at-will, a company could still fire an employee for talking about anything the company doesn't like, confidential or not. But that's a different matter from having an enforceable confidentiality agreement.)

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#24
post #7

If the Department of Education just gave everyone a college diploma for free when they turned 18, that would probably do more to improve the quality of the education system than any actual reform over the last fifty years. As it stands, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that the government is trying to shut them down.

No. All that would do is make a diploma worthless. Employers would find some other way of determining where you went to school and how well you performed there.

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#25
post #3

>One Saudi man spent over $400,000 on fake degrees and associated certificates, said Mr. Jamshaid, the former employee. What on earth is the point of buying that many credentials? At that rate you might as well spend the time getting a real one.

I see Saudi students daily who drive Ferraris and Bentleys. That is to say $400,000 is not meaningful at all to some, which is exactly the point. Why go to America and spend $100,000 a year on education (as in one degree) for 4 years when I can buy 10 with a couple of wire transfers.

Edit: I should say Middle Eastern and not Saudi since many are from the UAE.

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#26

This company is very well renowned in Pakistan for its perks and many engineers rush to apply here. I had absolutely no clue this is what was going on behind the scenes. There is no talk about Axact operating shady universities back in Pakistan, and a scam of this scale is astonishing. Eye-opening article.

Eh? Everyone knows they have a shady business. People have known that for years in Pakistan. The Pakistan Software Houses Association condemned Axact to be a diploma Mill long ago.

I had absolutely no clue. But in my defense I have not been in the local job market for some time. If it is such common knowledge, why has not anything been done so far?

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#27

Interesting - a quick search of reviews on Glassdoor for Axact found multiple employees complaining about the company's unethical business: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Axact-Reviews-E333658.htm July 27, 2013: “Great benefits, great learning but ethically wrong! ” "Also the company deals in fake online university degrees and also providing research papers to students. The research paper part would not be so bad i…

>“Kills your market worth as a professional”

That is the most brutal review on an educational programme I've ever read

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#28

Question, if their employees signed NDA's so does that prevent them from testifying in court against Axact? Impersonating a US govt official is a federal offense. Does the NDA prevent them from reporting that as well?

In USA, a contract about illegal activity is not enforceable.

And judges can compel secret information and seal the info in private court documents.

Re: Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions

#29
post #5

oh the CNN ireport links are nice touch. http://barkleyuniversity.com/about/newsroom/ the links still work too. http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1070836 i guess there's zero editorial oversight in the iReport section.

> i guess there's zero editorial oversight in the iReport section. That's explicitly stated. "The stories here are not edited fact-checked or screened before they post." http://ireport.cnn.com/about.jspa

Yet they are under the CNN.com domain name, not cnnusercontent.com . therefore CNN.com 's reputation should suffer for it. (hello, Google PageRank team!)
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