ACEI: In this week’s blog post, our guest contributor, Allen Ezell, offers an update on Axact, the fake diploma company, which The New York Times exposed in May 2015. Unfortunately, as Allen demonstrates, Axact is back in business and morphed into a number of new companies. Caveat Emptor!
Written by: Allen Ezell 
Axact (Private) Ltd., Karachi, Pakistan, ceased existing in about January 2020. The Axact main office building is now the Crest Tower DHA (Defense Housing Authority) [Pakistan Army]. This is cosmetic only!! While ‘Axact’ was changing its name on the front of their building (cosmetic only), their employees inside never left their desks nor stopped selling fake degrees. As its employees sit in their cubes selling diplomas on both old and new fake schools, along with other scams, the name of their employer was being changed on their building ID cards. The game always remains the same! The old ‘Axact’ is now 7-10 new companies, with about two companies ‘call centers’ operating on each floor.
‘Axact’ is typical of fraudsters—it changes its colors (game) to blend in with its surroundings. The same is true today in the era of corona virus, social distances, and bans on groups of people congregating together. ‘Axact’ has increased its ‘Online Education’ business to accommodate the millions of students, who because of the pandemic, can no longer attend their traditional brick and mortar schools, now turn to the Internet. The students are looking for accredited online courses they can take back to their schools when this crisis is over—instead, they encounter ‘Axact’!!
Just to give you an idea of the numbers Axact is dealing with, here’s a quick snapshot:
- 5,000 student inquiries per month with about 40% ‘enrollment.”
- Monthly gross revenue is close to $2,000,000.
- As a sales incentive, a $10,000 bonus is being offered when there has been $1,000,000 in sales for a single school.
‘Axact’ has about 900 employees at their Karachi and Islamabad call centers working mainly on their ‘fake classes’ scheme. They advertise via pop ups and banners in social media including facebook. They lure their victims through ‘spider web’ type sites by type of profession, or field of interest, such as www.gulfonlineeducation.com, www.onlineengineeringguide.com, and www.onlinedegreeprofs.com.
Responding to these sites will probably lead the caller to the Karachi call centers and the school of their dreams which can provide the needed online classes. But it’s all smoke and mirrors! These persons impersonating university officials sell transcripts for the non-existent classes at $4,000+ each, then later offer the buyer ‘legalization’ at additional costs. It is a merry-go-round which continues until your pockets are empty!
In addition, ‘Axact” employees are also involved in other traditional telephone scams such as lower mortgage loan interest rate, home improvements, home security and anything else which will generate revenue for the boss, Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh, his CFO Adeel Arshad, and their newest manager in charge of all daily operations, Akash Ramchandani. With all the publicity Axact has received over the past five years, Sheikh, now a convicted felon, although wealthy, is probably an outcast in much of their society. So what has he really gained?
Apparently, the ‘rule of law’ does not exist in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan! I have notified Dr. Asad Majeed Khan, the Pakistan Ambassador to the United States of America, Washington, D.C., in detail about ‘Axact.” I even told him the number of fake degrees sold to Pakistan citizens, and to the residents of the District of Columbia, and the nearby States of Virginia and Maryland, but to no avail. Again, Caveat Emptor!!
I will be co-presenting a webinar on “How to Detect Fake Online Programs and Schools” with ACEI’s President, Jasmin Saidi-Kuehnert, on June 10th. Save the date and contact ACEI at acei@acei-global.org , for information on registering for the webinar.
Be aware and be careful.
Allen Ezell, FBI Agent (Retired), Education Consultant – Allen Ezell founded and was the head of the FBI’s DipScam diploma-mill task force. He is also the author of Counterfeit Diplomas and Transcripts and Accreditation Mills.
The Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute, Inc. (ACEI), was founded in 1994 and is based in Los Angeles, CA, USA. ACEI provides a number of services that include evaluations of international academic credentials for U.S. educational equivalence, translation, verification, and professional training programs. ACEI is a Charter and Endorsed Member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators. For more information, visit www.acei-global.org.
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