The following email alerted me to a web site which lists many of our
institutions under the heading of ECDOL net (The European Council for
Distance & Open Learning).
This would appear to have been set up by the people behind Brentwick
University - http://henryheston.com/
(further information on them below) who sell "diplomas". Naturally their
phone number is an answering machine.
It's easy to spot the similarities in URL's and page templates between some
of these bogus institutions.
--
Bryan Martin
Web Editor
University of Edinburgh
www.ed.ac.uk
> Colleagues may be interested to visit the website at
> http://www.ecdol.org/index.html and the list of universities
> presented
> at http://www.ecdol.org/ecdolnet/ecdolnet.htm.
>
> If you then select either 'Shelbourne University' or 'University of
> Devonshire' and examine those pages you may find that material
> from
> your institutions' websites has been copied. There are photographs
> and text on the pages of both these 'universities' which have been
> taken from the University of Leicester website
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The following is by
Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 15, 2000
And what of the prestigious Brentwick University, whose letterhead indicates
it does business at 196 High Road, London, England?
I asked Adi Bloom, a Post correspondent stationed in London, to visit that
address. Here is her report:
"High Road is not a particularly friendly or attractive area. Mid-morning,
the streets are full of people loitering at corners or smoking at bus stops.
"Number 196 is the Express Dry Cleaning agency: unprepossessing and clearly
not new. Its large, yellow sign stretches across both the shop and a doorway
leading to the upstairs stories of the building. The doorway opens to a
narrow corridor, and a small sign informs visitors that the Cordon Bell
Accommodation Agency is on the second floor.
"It is a tiny room. According to one of the two people working there, CBAA
is what is known in the U.S. as a mail drop: Hundreds of private individuals
and businesses use it as their mailing address.
"The agency employee confirms that Brentwick University is one of the
businesses that operates under their address. 'Sounds a bit dodgy to me,' he
says, 'that they should be running a university out of here. You can try
writing to them to find out more. I wouldn't send them any money or
anything, though.' "
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
full article -
http://ww2.itoday.com/jobs-careers/transportation/wwwboard/messages/456.html
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