It looks good but it's worthless

A certificate from St Regis University is printed on simple, marbled white paper. A faint school emblem of a horse and crown colours the centre of the document.

A gold sticker is affixed to the bottom. Two signatures uphold the certificate's legitimacy.

In all, the credential gives the bearer a full professorship at St Regis. The document, though, is worthless. The school doesn't exist.

Already eight people have pleaded guilty to various crimes for helping to run a Spokane, Washington-based diploma mill from August 1999 to August 2005, according to press releases from a US Attorney's Office in that state.

The operators sold nearly US$6.3 million in phoney degrees, transcripts and professorships to more than 9,000 people during that time, the office said. Buyers were not limited to the United States, and fake schools included St Regis University, James Monroe University and Robertstown University.

One guilty party also admitted to bribing several Liberian government officials with more than US$43,000 so a few of the mill's fake schools could obtain accreditation there, according to releases.