The Internet is making it easier than ever to purchase fake college, law, and even medical degrees. How can you be sure the doctor you're visiting or the employee you're hiring is for real?

We've all seen those spam emails. They offer college degrees in a short period of time and for a set price based on life experience. Most people simply delete these emails. Some people, though, don't. It is interesting to see just how many people take the schools up on those offers. Researchers went to the job site HotJobs, logged on as an employer, and looked through candidates' resumes for some of the schools that bear lists as "degree mills." They found a surprisingly large number of candidates who claimed to hold degrees from these "mills," including 32 applicants -- several network engineers, a financial consultant, and a vice president of quality assurance -- with degrees from Columbia State University, which has already been shut down by federal prosecutors.

At first glance, it's easy to wonder how someone might hire a job candidate or go to a doctor who has a fake degree. However, many of these schools have very legitimate-looking websites, the diplomas from these schools can look very real, and often the schools' names are chosen so that they will be confused with legitimate institutions.

Organisations willing to hire a new candidate but curious about their education are best off relying on Pretection to investigate a degree or a school. It can be very difficult to find out whether a website is a professional website of a legitimate institute or just a very good imitation. Pretection can easily find out who an organisation is dealing with and if their resumes are "correct". More than 70% of the job applicants lie on their resume, but Pretection can detect who the real frauds are and protect your company from getting involved in a scandal or other very serious problems.