Re: Almeda University Employee Expose Fake Program
Posted by to Joe Blow on 4/23/08
Why give your real name when you know Almeda University is a
fraud and the Florida State Government can issue you a
subpoena?
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On 4/23/08, Joe Blow (real name) wrote:
> How do you expect us to take you seriously if you won't give
> your real name, and offer some real evidence.
>
> On 8/04/07, Peter wrote:
>> Almeda University Employee Expose Fake Program.
>>
>> Emily Gardner (not her real name), who worked for the
>> company during two weeks in February as an office temp,
>> says the operation astonished her. During her first day on
>> the job, office managers explained that Blue Pearl was an
>> Internet fulfillment company that processed work for other
>> companies.
>>
>> “They said they had other customers, but the only orders I
>> ever saw were from Almeda College and University,” Gardner
>> recalls. She and another temp worker were asked to come up
>> with aliases to use whenever they walked into or phoned
>> the office. (Gardner asked for anonymity because she is
>> looking for work and fears legitimate employers won’t hire
>> her.) She also received a brief orientation in which
>> company managers explained that Almeda conferred degrees
>> for life experience.
>>
>> “They were trying to make it seem as legitimate as
>> possible, like, if you work hard your whole life, why
>> shouldn’t you be able to get a college degree?” says
>> Gardner, who, before moving to Florida, had worked in
>> human resources. “I thought it was hysterical,” she
>> says. “I have an HR background, and I wouldn’t have dared
>> to put something like that for college experience on my
>> résumé.”
>> Gardner says it didn’t take her long to learn that Almeda
>> was a very popular virtual school. One day, she was paid
>> to send hundreds of e-mails to Almeda graduates. “We were
>> looking for testimonials,” she remembers, “so we wanted to
>> know if their lives had changed after getting their
>> degrees.”
>>
>> She was also paid to fill out hundreds of requests for
>> college transcripts. She was taught to read the request,
>> pull up a template for the transcript that met the
>> qualifications for the degree and plug in the
>> information. “They had templates for hundreds of bachelor
>> of science degrees in everything and bachelor of arts
>> degrees in anything — I’m telling you, anything,” she
>> says. “All I had to do is plug in all the information in
>> the right space — I only had to do that much — and I
>> couldn’t even keep up.”
>>
>> Gardner was fired in February, but Blue Pearl Services is
>> still in operation. Its owners, Brett Loebel and Gerald
>> Enowitch, did not respond to requests for an interview.
>> Florida law requires any educational institution or any
>> business that does work for one to register for a license
>> with the state Department of Education. Blue Pearl
>> Services has not done so, and if it is indeed taking
>> orders for Almeda College and University, then it is in
>> violation of state regulations.
>>
>>
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