Scam Certification Programs

I found an interesting piece of spam in my inbox recently promoting a certification for "virtual professionals." Since certification and working virtually are two issues I deal with daily I couldn’t resist taking a look.

What I found was a decent looking Web site that offers a "certification" for "virtual professionals" that was developed after "extensive research." Of course, it was no surprise that within a minute or two of opening the Web site I found a few red flags.

First, there was no basic information about the organization sponsoring the certification, not a mission statement, "about us" section, and certainly no address or phone number (although I did find an e-mail address). Then, I tried to locate some information about the certification exam. Other than learning that the exam is 80 multiple choice questions delivered online as soon as your credit card payment is processed, I couldn’t find a thing. They did have a link to a membership directory and I laughed when the link went to an "under construction" page. I could go on about the many red flags on this site, but I’m sure you get the point.

The SPAM email and Web site did get me thinking about how many of these "programs" exist out there. In this case there are legitimate certification programs out there that certify virtual workers in several industries. I wonder how many other legitimate certification programs are faced with competition from this type of scam? The example I use here is so extreme that I can’t imagine it would ever present a serious problem to a reputable certification. It’s hard to imagine anyone would ever buy into it at all. But there must be many other cases where a less than reputable program causes real headaches and maybe even damage for a program that has worked hard to do everything the "right" way.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Has your organization ever dealt with a program like this?

If so how did you respond?

What lessons did you learn?

What advice would you pass on to other organizations that will face a similar challenge in the future?

Please feel free to comment here or send an email. If we gather enough comments we will write an article to share here.