Graduation selfies could lead to degree fraud, experts warn
The growing trend for documenting degree-success online is giving fraudsters access to the latest logos, crests, stamps, and wording used on degrees, fuelling the booming business of selling fake certificates
Freshly graduated students who take pictures with their new degrees are being urged not to share the images on social media, to avoid fuelling the multimillion-dollar trade in fake degrees.
Higher Education Degree Datacheck (Hedd), the British official service for verifying degrees, said that more than two-thirds of students plan to take “graduation selfies” this year.
The latest designs can be easily copied on to forgeries and passed off as genuine to unwitting employers, the organisation said.
Research conducted by Hedd shows that 69 per cent of students preparing to graduate this year are planning to document their achievement by sharing a photo with their followers on social media – with Facebook and Instagram the favoured channels. Meanwhile, 24 per cent plan to record a video with their degree.
Female students are much more likely to want to share a selfie than their male equivalents, Hedd found – 78 per cent for women, compared to 60 per cent for men.