28 July 2021 –
In the world of fraud and embezzlement, con artists often fake their backgrounds to create the illusion that they are accomplished business executives. For example, someone may tell you they graduated from Harvard, Yale or M.I.T. They may portray themselves as a very successful businessman (or woman) and brag about owning multiple luxury cars, or country homes. All of these lies are carefully built into the con, to lure potential victims by creating a false persona based on success.
In reality, the fraudsters who do this are sad pathetic individuals with no education or accomplishments. They are often career criminals who have no skills other than making money via theft, embezzlement and fraud. Always be suspicious of any individual who tells you he graduated from Harvard, or owns 11 Ferraris.
Here we will share an example of such a fraud, where the perpetrator claimed a Harvard education — and teach you how to discreetly verify such a claim. The example we will use is the EZeeBUY Experiences fraud perpetrated by known fraudster David Estrada.
On his LinkedIn profile (and on several ICO websites) Estrada listed his education as follows:
- Harvard University: Bachelor of Arts, BA, Economics
- St. Edward’s University: The Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business (1991–1994)
Investors and co-founders of the EZeeBUY startup took this information for granted at first. But after working with Estrada for several months, and observing his stupidity and incompetence, began to wonder how such a half-witted simpleton could actually be a Harvard graduate. So they began to investigate.
Turns out, Estrada never attended Harvard University and probably couldn’t even find it on a map. Also, he never graduated from St. Edward’s University either. (We doubt he ever made it through High School.) Here is a great way to verify anyone’s educational credentials: The National Student Clearinghouse “DegreeVerify” system can be used to verify the educational background of any startup entrepreneur. This system can be used to automate degree verifications, and is incorporated into the EZeeFRAUD algorithms.
Here is what comes up when we tried to verify Estrada’s Harvard degree:
Using the same “DegreeVerify” service, we discovered his St. Edward’s degree was also fake:
After publishing this information on EZeeFRAUD, Estrada was forced to remove his Harvard degree from his LinkedIn profile:
CONCLUSION: NEVER TAKE ANYONE’S EDUCATION CLAIMS AS GIVEN. Always verify them using a service such as “DegreeVerify” — faking your educational background is a huge RED FLAG all investors should be aware of.