Cheating with fake degrees is so rampant: more than 2 cases a day!

blackmondy said:

Which dictatorship cuntry doesn't take bribes?

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Those places it is called a clean wage. All cleaned.

Two women jailed for submitting fake university certificates to MOM for employment passes​

Torres Alyssa Riva Fernan (left) and Conol Almira Joy Torres were jailed for four and six weeks respectively on July 17.


Summary

• Two foreign women, Fernan and Torres, submitted forged university certificates to Singapore's MOM to obtain employment passes.
• They worked at CL Enterprise for 15 months before MOM discovered the fraud during a random inspection.
• MOM seeks a strong sentence to deter others from exploiting the work pass system with false statements.

AI generated

Jul 17, 2025

SINGAPORE – Hoping to get employment passes so they could work in Singapore, two foreign women submitted false university certificates to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

After they secured the passes, their ruse went undetected for 15 months as they continued working for CL Enterprise, a firm which operates multiple Mr Fix retail outlets carrying items such as kitchenware and appliances.

On July 17, Torres Alyssa Riva Fernan and Conol Almira Joy Torres, both 29-year-old Filipinas, were jailed for four and six weeks respectively.


Fernan pleaded guilty to one charge under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

Torres admitted to one similar charge, with two other charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

Asking the judge to impose a strong sentence, MOM prosecuting officer Teo Sijing said others were deprived of the jobs the two women had secured by deceiving the authorities.

Some time in September 2020, Torres contacted an unidentified Philippine agent known as “Cory” to look for a new job after her previous employment at another Singapore firm ended.

Cory informed Torres about a job as assistant sales manager with a monthly salary of $2,200. Torres was keen and went for the interview.

After the interview, CL Enterprise submitted an application for an employment pass for Torres to work as its assistant sales manager.


As part of the application process, Torres submitted a forged certificate indicating she had a bachelor’s degree in science from Ateneo De Manila University, and signed a declaration form affirming it was true.

She also stated that her monthly salary would be $5,800, although she knew this was false.

She did so on Cory’s instructions as she believed it was necessary for her employment pass application to succeed.

Meanwhile, Fernan heard about Cory through a relative while she was still in the Philippines looking for a job.

Cory required Fernan to pay her $4,500 before processing her job application.

Fernan took a loan to pay Cory.

Fernan then interviewed for the position of assistant operations manager at CL Enterprise and was hired.

In her employment pass application, she similarly submitted a forged bachelor’s degree in science certificate from De La Salle University in Manila, and signed a declaration form affirming that she had this qualification.

Both Torres and Fernan worked at the company from November 2020 to February 2022.

Their offences were discovered when MOM conducted a random inspection of CL Enterprise.

Court documents did not give more details about the inspection.

MOM’s Mr Teo said educational qualifications and salaries are important considerations when determining whether to grant an employment pass application.

Had the authorities known that the details submitted by the women were untrue, the pair would not have been granted the passes, said the prosecutor.

“The sentence sought would impose a strong deterrent message to offenders who seek to exploit the work pass system by making false statements and creating backdoors to facilitate illegal employment,” said Mr Teo.

NUS students with fake admissions will be expelled; NTU students will face disciplinary action​

Observers said the high ranking of both universities is a contributing factor for fraudulent applications.

Summary

• NUS and NTU warn applicants about agencies on Chinese social media platforms offering "guaranteed" postgraduate admissions for high fees, targeting those with low GPAs.
• Both universities state they don't work with third-party study-abroad agencies for admissions, and applications with falsified documents will be rejected; they are also enhancing verification.
• Experts highlight increasing cases of admissions fraud due to competition and technology, urging stronger deterrence, while also noting foreign students are a lucrative market for graduate degree programmes.

AI generated

Nov 02, 2025

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s two largest universities have put up advisories cautioning prospective applicants against purported study-abroad agencies on Chinese social media platforms offering paid services that claim to help applicants secure “guaranteed” admissions to their postgraduate degree programmes.

The National University of Singapore’s (NUS) advisory on its website said the agencies will typically employ fraudulent means such as fabricating academic qualifications and other credentials in application packages to mislead universities.

The university said candidates need to fulfil stipulated qualifying criteria and all applications are reviewed based on merit. “There are no ‘guaranteed’, ‘fast track’ or ‘direct’ admission routes to NUS,” it added.

Checks on Xiaohongshu found many such agencies offering “direction admission” to NUS and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Most of the agencies target those with poor high school grades or low undergraduate GPAs, and who have yet to pass English proficiency tests such as the International English Language Testing System.

One agency, Zhongsheng International, offers to help students enter NUS and NTU, among other top universities worldwide, at fees starting from 300,000 yuan (S$55,000).


Zhongsheng International offers to help students enter NUS and NTU, among other top universities worldwide, at fees starting from 300,000 yuan (S$55,000).

PHOTOS: ZHONGSHENG INTERNATIONAL

On its website, the agency claims it was set up in 2017, and that it works with universities to serve more than 1,000 customers annually.

Another account called Flying Career also offers university applicants recommendation letters from professors at top universities, and purports to be able to help applicants pass background checks.

Both agencies did not respond to queries from The Straits Times on the legitimacy of their services.

In response to queries, NUS said it will terminate the candidature of any student found to have gained admission through fraudulent means, and is enhancing its systems to verify credentials.

NTU will take disciplinary action against any students who breach its codes of conduct, including through falsification, fabrication and facilitating academic dishonesty.

The university said it has previously invalidated applications containing falsified documents, adding that the number of fraudulent applications “remains very low”.

Both universities said they do not work with any study-abroad agencies for admissions purposes.

NTU said applications for its coursework-based postgraduate programmes, which are popular with foreign students, have risen by about 30 per cent a year since 2023. The institution has received about 48,000 applications for postgraduate courses in 2025, it said.

In coursework-based postgraduate programmes, students follow a prescribed course of study comprising several courses, as opposed to postgraduate research programmes, which focus on independent, supervised research.

NUS also said in its advisory that it is seeing “increasingly intense competition” in gaining admission to its postgraduate programmes.


In a post on its official account on social media app WeChat in January, NUS said any enrolled student or graduate found to have obtained admission through fraudulent means will have his student status or awarded degree revoked.

NUS said it conducts verification checks with universities and institutions awarding the academic qualifications. It added that it will be enhancing its systems with secure authentication software to verify credentials.

The university’s website also states that when international applicants arrive in Singapore to enrol in NUS, they must bring along original copies of their identification, high school results, and other documents that they submitted in their application.

According to its website, NUS reserves the right to expel students who fail to turn up for the verification of documents or provide required documents.

NTU said applicants who present overseas credentials must obtain an official verification report from one of its approved credential verification agencies. For universities from China, these include China Qualifications Verification and China Higher Education Student Information and Career Centre.

Applications found to contain falsified documents will be rejected, NTU said.

Observers said the high ranking of both universities is a contributing factor for fraudulent applications.

NUS kept its eighth place in the latest Britain-based Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings 2026, released in June, while NTU rose three places to 12th.

Dr Jason Tan, an associate professor of policy, curriculum and leadership at the National Institute of Education, said academic fraud is a longstanding issue that is being made worse by technological advancements and an increasingly competitive job market.

He cited the admissions scandal in 2024 at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), where more than 30 master’s students were found to have forged academic qualifications to secure their places at HKU’s business school.

According to Hong Kong daily The Standard, HKU has since affirmed its commitment to tackle admissions fraud, reporting cases of suspected fraud to the police.

Associate Professor Tan said universities need to go beyond rejecting fraudulent applications, and send a strong message of deterrence to prospective applicants and fraudsters.

He said academic fraud threatens the legitimacy of genuine credentials, the reputation of the universities involved, and even Singapore’s standing as an international academic hub.

The penalising of academic fraud should extend to the use of fake credentials in the workplace, he added.

In one case, a woman forged a certificate for a bachelor’s degree in engineering from NTU and cheated at least five companies into hiring her between 2005 and 2021. She was jailed for eight months from December 2023.

Her offences came to light only when her employer, Walt Disney, sent her fake certificate to a third-party validation vendor, who checked with NTU about her qualifications.

Singapore Management University associate professor of law Eugene Tan said that for Singapore’s autonomous universities, foreign students are a lucrative market for graduate degree programmes where admission numbers and tuition fees are not as tightly regulated as for undergraduate programmes.

He added that given the academic reputations of Singapore’s universities, the desire to secure admission to them could tempt some applicants to resort to unethical, or even illegal, ways to make their applications stand out.

Professor Tan said efforts must be made to collaborate with overseas institutions to verify applicants’ academic credentials.

“The question is not whether there will be attempts by applicants to commit academic fraud, but rather, how to manage it so that the integrity of the admission process is not compromised,” he added.

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laksaboy said:

Hah! That's just the tip of the iceberg.

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The epitomy of ugliness!

Sideswipe said:

this has been going on for ages.

the university sold the fake degrees. wtf.

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Only Upton University Degree are the most valuable, prestigious and highly respected by the Pappies

cockie said:

Only Upton University Degree are the most valuable, prestigious and highly respected by the Pappies

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I asked my HR to only hire Uptron graduates, nothing else!