How Easy is it to Fake a certificate? How to Stop it?

by | Aug 19, 2022 | All Articles, Blockchain, Documents, Education, Marco credentials, Micro credentials, Trending

In a world where competition for employment, pay raises, status, and academic success continues to increase, acquiring certificates has become crucial for individuals to secure a comfortable life.

Unfortunately, not everyone diligently pursues a degree or follows a program, as some prefer to attain these certificates in a not-so-legal way, making certificate authenticity a visible problem.

This fake certificate phenomenon has become a multibillion-dollar industry. It is a crime that shatters the present and future. It threatens what we know about competency, merits, fair competition, and diligence, touching all types of certificates, from Academic to Quality certificates and even professional ones. 

What’s exceptionally alarming is how easy it has become to fake soft copies of certificates, especially with today’s technology. Counterfeiters only need the minimum amount of skills in using photoshop, access to the internet or similar software apps to create identical copies of the original.

Physical certificates aren’t safe either, as they also succeed in faking them by cloning the same materials used on the original copy. 

Another popular method for acquiring fake certificates is through Fake Certificates sites or Diploma mills providers. 

These illegal organisations and websites sell all types of fraudulent certificates in paper and digital format for a meagre price range. 

If you google search “Buy Fake certificate” alone, you’ll get over 25 million search results of fake certificate providers that sell degrees at any level, ranging from bachelor to PhD. They also offer prices ranging from $150 to $900 depending on the university and level of experience they sell. Some even boast about creating them in under 24 hours.

But at what cost?

The way I see it, the sole purpose of getting milled diplomas is to deceive others. As such, the consequences of getting caught have to be sufficiently severe, as these fraudulent acts not only damage the reputation and the credibility of the original certificate issuer but also are unfair to those who earned the degree rightfully.

Now that you know how easy it is to fake certificates, you might wonder why it is so? and why can’t they be verified.   

The main issue with the current physical certificates is that they only use serial numbers as a security measure, which makes them relatively easy to counterfeit. Moreover, to verify credentials, most requesters need to contact the certificate issuer, either personally or through a reference check agency. That is not always that simple as reaching them can be somewhat challenging, and even if you do, it still takes valuable time, effort, and sometimes even money. 

In short, it’s not efficient. 

What’s even shocking is that many people believe that fake certificates aren’t that big of a deal, as employers don’t usually check them and that nowadays, anyone can learn anything and everything on the internet.

Undoubtedly that is wrong! 

Yes, some skills can be learned and excelled on the internet, but there are other fields, such as medical, manufacturing and safety, Where you must have genuine certificates. So that people know you are competent to do the job, especially with people’s lives being at risk.

If you’re still in doubt about this, ask yourself: Are you okay with being treated by a fake doctor? What about having your house built by an uncertified contractor?

I’ll confidently predict that you’re answer is no! So what can we do about it? 

 

 How to put an end to fake certificates  

A solid solution is a must for this problem, and we’ve developed our latest solution, DocuTag. 

DocuTag is a simple-to-use solution for organisations looking to digitise their certification process efficiently and secure their certificates’ authenticity.

How? Docutag uses the latest technologies such as blockchain to give each of your certificates a unique QR code that can’t get copied and that anyone can scan to verify the authenticity of the certificates in seconds.

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