
Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions - tysone
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/world/asia/fake-diplomas-real-cash-pakistani-company-axact-reaps-millions-columbiana-barkley.html
======
fmax30
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 interested should read[1].

They do give really good benefits, things like free lunch, return tickets to
foreign countries for vacation and they give a car to each of their employees.

There was also a rumour going around that axact made its money by making and
managing one of the largest pornographic websites on the internet. Don't know
how much truth is in that. But everyone i mean everyone talked about that at
one time in the industry here.

[1] [http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-services-does-Axact-
Pakist...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-services-does-Axact-Pakistan-
provide-May-I-know-their-clients-list/answers/7293642)

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

~~~
_delirium
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.)

~~~
vikramhaer
I believe you might be thinking about a non-compete vs. a non-disclosure
agreement?

~~~
coldtea
I believe he very precisely described a non-disclosure agreement.

------
abhishekg
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](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 if
the quality was good enough for students to not fail."

Jun 28, 2013: “Kills your market worth as a professional”

"Unethical businesses"

~~~
Rainymood
>“Kills your market worth as a professional”

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

~~~
derefr
I find the idea (that having particular job experience could kill my market
worth) intriguing, given that I could always just leave the job off my resume.

~~~
mauricemir
In the Indian subcontinent having what is called a "reliving letter" from your
previous employers is very important.

Have a look at the workplace stack overflow to see the sort of problems Asian
developers face "horrific" is how it was describe to me.

------
suprgeek
This corrupt river runs deep...

There is sustained speculation that this company is a front for money
laundering connected to the Pakistani ISI. Their use of lawyers & NDA's is
also well known in the subcontinent.

For a very similar degree mill of Indian Incarnation check out IIPM
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institute_of_Planning_an...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institute_of_Planning_and_Management)
run by the Slick shyster Arindam Chaudhury

~~~
sparaker
I don't think it has anything to do with ISI but i believe they do alot of
shady stuff, not just novelty degrees. I have heard about this in particular
from ex employees of this company.

~~~
marze
How would anyone know the extent of shady dealings?

~~~
selimthegrim
I think he's referring to the rumors that they're involved in low budget blue
movies as well.

------
20kleagues
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.

~~~
xerophyte12932
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.

~~~
20kleagues
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?

~~~
xerophyte12932
As the article says, "All the while, Axact’s role as the owner of this fake
education empire remains obscured by proxy Internet services, combative legal
tactics and a chronic lack of regulation in Pakistan."

------
navait
>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.

~~~
stevenjohns
Lots of different reasons, including but not limited to:

1\. Immigration

2\. Hiding wealth ("Where did you get that money from?")

3\. Hiding time ("What have you been doing for the last 5 years")

4\. Releasing inheritance ("Clause 24: [x] can only get his share once he
earns a Masters degree in [y]")

5\. Fraud

6\. Money laundering

~~~
brador
7\. Reputation and Respect. We all love those letters after our name.

~~~
lucaspiller
I live in a Middle Eastern country, and as I understand in East Asia it is
pretty much the same:

People here very much discriminate against candidates based upon race and
where they were educated. I would go so far as saying a Western candidate,
fresh from completing their course from a Western university would be chosen
over an Indian candidate with a similar level degree from an Indian university
and 5 years experience.

There isn't much you can do to change your race, so a lot of people opt to get
fake degrees from 'Western sounding' universities. The show they have setup is
pretty tight, you can even phone up to 'verify' that they were in-fact a
student.

(Just to clarify I'm a Westerner with a Western degree so this isn't jealously
or anything like that)

------
pki
What's worse than scamming people? Scamming the most desperate people, trying
to better themselves, and then continuing to hit their card from multiple fake
companies.

~~~
harkyns_castle
Very true, although I suppose most scams prey on vulnerable people. Be nice to
think there's a special circle of Hell for people that'd do this to other
people. Are there no laws in Pakistan that prevent this kind of thing from
operating? It sounds like its a fairly well known thing... I guess money is
greasing the corrupt wheels.

------
chris-martin
Was kind of surprised to find that this company had no Wikipedia article. Just
started one:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axact)

How in the world do you fit a scam this big so far under the radar?

------
pcurve
oh the CNN ireport links are nice touch.

[http://barkleyuniversity.com/about/newsroom/](http://barkleyuniversity.com/about/newsroom/)

the links still work too.

[http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1070836](http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1070836)

i guess there's zero editorial oversight in the iReport section.

~~~
ceejayoz
> 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](http://ireport.cnn.com/about.jspa)

~~~
sukilot
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!)

~~~
ceejayoz
Google penalizing a site for inaccurate user-generated content would be a
pretty awful precedent. Stuff on iReport is flagged as "not verified by CNN"
fairly clearly, as far as I can tell, and if CNN wants to sink its brand this
is hardly the first salvo in that attempt.

------
zodiakzz
Axact's response (lol): [http://www.axact.com/defamation-
response/](http://www.axact.com/defamation-response/)

~~~
mdurbar
Check out the legal notice sent to the NYT [http://www.axact.com/defamation-
response/pdf/ln-NYT.PDF](http://www.axact.com/defamation-response/pdf/ln-
NYT.PDF) (lol)

------
buyx
There seems to be a proliferation of dubious Masters degrees that, although
not as fake as this Pakistani diploma mill still seem more like money-making
schemes than worthwhile credentials.

I know a number of people who were in high school with me, who, although
academically quite average, and lacking Batchelors degrees are getting
"fluffy" masters degrees from overseas universities, including MBAs.

It looks like we are moving from the era of grade inflation to the era of
degree inflation.

------
asadlionpk
This is common knowledge for everyone in Pakistan. But they serve legal notice
to anyone who says something about it. Famously, Jehan Ara (president of
PASHA) was sued for exactly that. Today an acquaintance got takedown notice
just for posting link to this article on his FB/Twitter.

~~~
20kleagues
Did your acquaintance post it on his/her personal account? I find it alarming
that corporations can censor what you share on your own private space online.

~~~
asadlionpk
yes but with public privacy setting.

------
MichaelGG
Eh, something doesn't add up. The article says they were earning $4000 daily,
and it's now over 30x that. While that's a nice amount, it's only about 50M a
year. With lavish perks, media companies, salaries, etc., it's not a huge
amount, is it?

~~~
pcr0
The average living cost there is about 1/8th of that in the US. Those free
cars that every employees get? Probably like $5000 each.

------
mistermann
Many people say there is absolutely zero aggregate difference amongst various
countries in terms of both governance and culture. Could something like this,
on such a scale, actually fly in a western country?

~~~
GabrielF00
This Wikipedia article
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_mills_in_the_United_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_mills_in_the_United_States)
gives a number of examples of US authorities shutting down diploma mills.

~~~
joliv
Let me also make note of my fav Wikipedia article:
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with_fraudule...](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with_fraudulent_diplomas)

------
Animats
Here's one of their sites: Columbiana University.[1] The name is similar to
the Columbiana campus of Kent State University, but the two are unrelated.

CNN's IReport site, which publishes press releases without checking them, has
one of their bogus PR announcements.[2]

Our SiteTruth system is not happy with their site.[3] "No street address found
on site ... Secure certificate: No valid certificate. ... Rating: Site
ownership unknown or questionable (No Location)" When a site that's trying to
sell you something comes up like that, it's not good.

[1]
[http://www.columbianauniversity.com/](http://www.columbianauniversity.com/)
[2]
[http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-982469](http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-982469)
[3]
[http://www.sitetruth.com/fcgi/ratingdetails.fcgi?url=www.col...](http://www.sitetruth.com/fcgi/ratingdetails.fcgi?url=www.columbianauniversity.com&details=true)

~~~
enraged_camel
>>Here's one of their sites: Columbiana University.[1] The name is similar to
the Columbiana campus of Kent State University, but the two are unrelated.

Actually, they were probably trying to sound similar to Columbia University,
which is an Ivy League school.

~~~
marincounty
The guy(John Grey) who wrote Guys are from Mars, and Women from Venus got his
Phd form Columbia University, San Rafael Ca.

Personally, I think too many schools are essentially diploma mills. I waiting
for good Ivy League Internet school that has low tuition, or free. I believe
it will come one day? I understand a student wanting a Master's, but the
little extra knowledge gained with a Phd seems pointless?

Personally, if I was hiring a candidate and he told me he stuck around the
university 2-3 extra years working on a non-original thesis; I would hire the
guy with the masters.

I wish the U.S. Government did away with all degree requirements in hiring for
federal jobs, unless the job requires a license(medicine, engineering, law,
etc.) and only hired applicants on test scores.

I sometimes feel if a person can pass a series of tests designed to test
whether a person can do a job; they shouldn't be penalized for not going to
college? (The tests would have to be of high caliper like the California Bar
exam.)

~~~
enraged_camel
>>I understand a student wanting a Master's, but the little extra knowledge
gained with a Phd seems pointless?

I think you might be a misinformed. A Ph.D. does not give you "a little extra
knowledge" over a Master's. It allows you to deeply specialize in a small part
of a given field. By the time you get your Ph.D., you're one of the world's
foremost experts on that narrow topic. The value of that might be arguable
based on what you studied (e.g. linguistic history of languages in Tanzania
might be too obscure), but a Ph.D. is far more knowledgeable than someone with
Master's.

The primary difference between a Master's and a Ph.D. is that the former is
industry-oriented whereas the latter is research-oriented. That the latter is
a continuation of the former is a a common misconception.

------
yasoob
Axact has given an official response. Read it here
[http://www.techjuice.pk/axacts-official-response-to-new-
york...](http://www.techjuice.pk/axacts-official-response-to-new-york-times-
article/)

According to the response this article is baseless and Axact has threatened to
pursue this case through court.

~~~
MichaelGG
More hilarious is the claim that the NYT did this attack report because they
want to keep Pakistan down and feel threatened by BOL, a pro Pakistan media
outlet.

I always find it funny when organizations respond so vehemently and start
coming up with outlandish explanations. You rarely see big companies that are
on top of their stuff respond in such ways.

------
selimthegrim
If you want an idea of the milieu they're operating in, this might provide
some context (the former was published a couple of day before the NYT
article).

[http://www.dawn.com/news/1182200/more-lethal-than-
raw](http://www.dawn.com/news/1182200/more-lethal-than-raw)

[http://www.dawn.com/news/1182401/war-to-mould-
minds](http://www.dawn.com/news/1182401/war-to-mould-minds)

(the authors were colleagues at QAU)

Nothing is going to change until the people at the top realize power doesn't
flow from a big stick, 20 kanals of land in Lahore DHA and Okara and a bunch
of off the shelf American, French and Chinese military purchases without a
defense research establishment to speak of.

------
xerophyte12932
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?

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

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

------
_xcode
I wonder why they hire so much engineers then instead of Call Centre agents?

~~~
morgante
It's a lot of work to maintain hundreds of fake university websites.

------
iamspoilt
Traceroutes of Axact and fake university websites leads to the same servers!
This can't be a mere coincidence!

You can check this out at:
[http://pastebin.com/J3tDerkE](http://pastebin.com/J3tDerkE)
[http://pastebin.com/uhTFpJSM](http://pastebin.com/uhTFpJSM)

------
Ayaz
I cannot help but wonder at the timing of this revelation, coming almost on
the heels of Seymour Hersh's essay last week. It was shocking for me to read
about the alleged scandal, but for many, it's hardly news.

~~~
slake
Hmm. Are you suggesting that this is a hit back at ISI who may have fingers in
Axact for the revelation about ISI agent's role in Bin Laden killing? Very
interesting!

~~~
Ayaz
It's likely. I feel there's much more to it than meets the eye.

------
Taiko
I don't understand how technology didn't fix those kind of scams, yet. Seem
like a no brainer to me, to prevent fake documents add more securities on them
!

~~~
Taiko
I mean, when's the last time you saw a fake bitcoin around ?

------
sanj
I wonder if Google could put up fraud alerts as they do for malware.

------
sukilot
Why do NYT headline writers write like a dumb college freshman with a
thesaurus?

~~~
Myrmornis
Also not sure if this headline is a good example but I thoroughly agree with
your sentiment. NYT headlines are often florid, pretentious and
inappropriately "literary", even when dealing with serious and sad topics.

~~~
mauricemir
Broadsheets ie proper news papers do tend to use slightly more adult language
when compared to tabloids.

And the NYT is a very old fashioned newspaper.

------
Alex3917
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.

~~~
bayonetz
Hmm...I don't think I follow. Care to elaborate?

