André Hesselbäck has spent the past 22 years hunting down fraudulent organizations that sell phoney degrees with no academic requirements or proper accreditation. The practice, Hesselbäck says, has links to organized crime – and according to one estimate, it generates several billion US dollars each year.

Hesselbäck is matter-of-fact about the huge scale of academic fraud. He estimates that, in some sectors including economics and engineering, "10–15% of the workforce are graduates of degree mills or unrecognized, substandard schools" in certain countries. Costs tend to rise with the degree level. People pay up to tens of thousands of dollars for fake doctoral or medical degrees from such companies. 

According to Hesselbäck, in Sweden it’s not illegal for a job applicant to submit qualifications from a fake university, although it is a crime to forge an academic transcript or degree from a legitimate university. The relevant laws vary by country. In Norway, he adds, it is a criminal offence to submit credentials from a fake university, but the burden of proof has to be strong. At the federal level, the United States does not explicitly prohibit the issuing, holding or advertising of bogus degrees, although some states have laws banning them.