Ezell, who headed the FBI's DipScam diploma-mill task force, and Bear, an author, expose the growing number of fake universities and degrees, to help media professionals, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals uncover this fraud. They outline the history of the scam and what it is, the types of degrees and schools and deceptive tactics used, who buys the degrees, legal issues and enforcement, and how to check out a school or person. They detail cases from the FBI's DipScam operation, three major degree-mill operations, and people who have fake degrees in medicine, business, politics, therapy and psychology, academia, law and religion, the military, law enforcement, and sports, as well as federal legislation, what makes a degree real, and ethics, ending with a list of unrecognized schools and accrediting agencies, counterfeiting services, and suggestions for what can be done. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)