In an effort to help schools detect fraudulent degrees, the FTA has collected some tools in this article to help weed them out.

Detecting fake degrees is not difficult. The first place to look is here: 

List of Unaccredited Institutions of Higher Learning

If the school is not listed there, search google for the school and find out who the school is accredited with, then look here:

List of Unrecognized Accreditation Associations of Higher Learning

If their accrediting body is not on the list above,  check that the accreditation of the school is on this list:

List of Recognized Accreditation Associations of Higher Learning

If the degree is from a school with a recognized accreditation, then there's a good chance it can be verified as authentic. The next step would be to have the teacher sign an authorization form to allow the school to release the teacher's information to you. This will vary from country to country and school to school. Typically you mail in a form and within a few weeks they will reply with a "Yes" or "No" as to whether the degree is authentic. If it's a fraudulent degree, some Universities will launch an investigation.

The following are some signs to look out for in detecting fake university and college degrees:-

1) Dates of the degrees - The dates on the degrees are not in order and therefore are supicious. For instance, the qualification sequence should be: obtaining a high school certificate, then a bachelor degree followed by an Mba or Masters and then on to a PhD degree. If someone has a PhD degree or Masters degree without a bachelor  or has a higher degree before a lower one, then his degrees are certainly suspicious. However, someone may have this inconsistency because he had studied for degrees of different professions.

2) Imitation of branded universities and colleges- Some degree mills actually skimmed off names of famous and accredited universities. For example, Hamilton University is the fake version of the prestigious Hamilton College.

3) Errors on the degree - Check for errors such as spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. The university's seal should be embossed and not merely printed. Real universities and colleges take pride in their degrees and will not tolerate such mistakes.

4) Speedy degrees - Degrees earned in a very short time or several degrees earned at a short time are tell tale signs of fake university and college degrees.