There will always be con artists, people trying to make a buck on the shady side of the street. They prey on the unsuspecting and the ill-informed. Every year thousands of Americans are hoodwinked by direct mail scams that offer them great prizes and vacations. Some of these victims, many of them elderly or senior citizens invest their hard earned savings with unscrupulous crooks who fleece them of their money through promises of exorbitant returns. The bottom line in business is to know who you are dealing with and check them out if things they say or do raise concern.

Unfortunately these scammers have found the Internet to be a great and anonymous way to select new victims. One way they do this is by creating fake universities and colleges that grant bogus degrees.

A bogus online degree is one that will be worthless to you in the future and will not be accepted as proof of your credentials by any other institution or employer.

Some experts say that there are at least thirty "universities" offering bogus online degree programs and they are willing to sell you a degree, even if you never plan to attend classes. Be forewarned, a degree without the proper accreditation is only worth the piece of paper that it is written on and no one will give you any of the respect and rewards that you think you may deserve with a bogus degree.

The process of accreditation is supervised by a set of regional accreditation agencies across the United States. They examine all aspects of the online degree program to ensure that it meets or exceeds nationally established standards. They look at the curriculum, the instructors, the course material and the quality control processes that the institution has in place before they agree to accredit the program. This ensures that an online degree granted by one institution is as least as good as all of the rest and it protects students, the school and prospective employees from embarrassment or disappointment later.

There are over 750 online degree programs that are accredited and open to the public across the United States. Some are very small and highly specialized