University Degree Program
1990s diploma mill consortium
University Degree Program (UDP) is or was an unaccredited consortium of diploma mills run by Americans Jason and Caroline Abraham (of Brooklyn, New York; also known by their Hebrew names Yaakov and Chaya Rochel) beginning in the 1990s. In 2004, The Chronicle of Higher Education called UDP the "granddaddy" of diploma mill operations.
Operations
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the University Degree Program recruited "students" over the telephone from call centers in Romania (where the call center also sold fake international driver's licenses) and Israel. Telephone salespeople, who were paid on commission and received performance-based bonuses, could offer degrees in any field requested. The Abrahams created websites for a diverse variety of bogus institutions whose names were printed on diplomas. Customers were not told which of these "universities" would issue their degrees. According to the Chronicle, UDP sent a letter to customers stating: "The policy of not disclosing the name of the University protects you against unscrupulous individuals who do not approve of self-study and lifestyle improvement." The letter also said that this was done to avoid "bad publicity".
The operation was estimated to have sold more than 30,000 "degrees" and received proceeds totaling $50 million to $100 million or more.
Early in 2003 the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and British government authorities took action against UDP and related businesses, including the illegal sale of fake international driver's licenses. The FTC filed a preliminary injunction in January 2003 and amended complaints in February and May 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “University Degree Program” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.