1083 – Don’t get scammed: Tom talks Fake Schools

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Main Idea
Many online education businesses use terms like university, college, academy, or school without meeting regulatory or accreditation standards. Regulations are mostly state-based, but the Federal Trade Commission can intervene if consumers are being misled.
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Key Term Differences
• University – Usually the most regulated
o Requires state authorization
o Often must offer multiple degree levels and accreditation
• College – Also regulated in many states
o Typically must grant degrees
o Misleading people into thinking degrees are offered can be illegal
• Academy – Loosely regulated
o Commonly used by training programs and course creators
o Problems occur if they imply state approval or degree status
• School – Broadest and often least regulated
o Often just branding unless granting degrees or operating K–12
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How Fake Schools Operate
Common tactics include:
• Registering in states with loose naming laws
• Operating offshore
• Offering certificates but implying degrees
• Closing and reopening under new names
• Counting on public confusion about accreditation vs certification
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What Consumers Should Check
• State approval or authorization
• True accreditation status
• Complaints with the Better Business Bureau
• Reputation and history
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Regulatory Example
Antion highlights his own school as being certified by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, which requires:
• Annual review
• Strict refund policies
• Detailed compliance audits
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Bottom Line
The episode is both educational and promotional:
• Educates listeners on spotting misleading education providers
• Encourages verifying accreditation and regulatory status before paying
• Emphasizes that terms like “academy” or “school” alone do not guarantee legitimacy

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Episode 1083 – Fake Schools
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1083 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about fake schools and universities and colleges and so forth. Most of them are unregulated that are using those terms. And we'll talk about the legalities of that and what you might be in for if you fall for some of that stuff. All right. Let's see. Hope you didn't miss episode 1082. That was Larry, my right hand man that was talking about VPNs, virtual private networks, which will help you stay safer online and with your banking and stuff like that, and also allow you to appear to be somewhere else, legitimately, not for necessarily for nefarious purposes. All right. Pick up a copy of my automation book. screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Make sure you get version 3.0. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org. The only licensed dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world. And listen to this part. Certified to operate by SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning. But we went through a vigorous process and have to do it every year to get and keep this license. See? So the standards are extremely high. But that's what we're going to talk about today.
[00:02:03] See the different terms people are using. For instance you got university, you got college, you got academy, you got school and whatever else they came up with. So we're going to go over these and talk a little bit about the legitimacy of using such terms. And the thing is this is not a national thing. This is state by state. So some people find out whether the states that don't care and they go open their schools or universities there and nobody does anything about it. But the Federal Trade Commission can get involved if you're doing bad things with your school. And we'll discuss that too. All right. Let's take the first term university. It's usually the most regulated term. So in many states for you to call yourself a university, you got to be authorized by the state's higher education authority. For me, that's like SCHEV offer multiple degree programs. Well, I don't do that, so I'm not going to call myself a university. You usually offer graduate level degrees and you are accredited, which means you have a dot edu. This is like a high level stuff. See, I'm not the highest level, all right? But I am higher than most of the things you see online by far. So State Council on Higher Education, Virginia is the one that oversees these things in Virginia. And like, say, Texas, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is, you know, handles Texas.
[00:03:46] Say, okay, now, if you are in one of the regulated states and call yourself a university without the proper authorization, You can get civil penalties and cease and desist orders. All right, so that's university. Okay. Let's talk about the word college. When you see the people saying, hey, we're a so and so college. Well, in many states you must award an associate a bachelor's and master's or doctoral degrees, and you must be state approved. Now, if you're not granting degrees, the word college still might be restricted. If it implies this is where you can get in trouble. Well, I don't want you to get in trouble by falling for some of these things, but if they imply that they're degree granting and call themselves a college that's against, you know, that's, uh, enforceable, you know, because they're they're trying to hoodwink you to make you think that their degree granting and they haven't passed any of the muster to get that ability. So that's the word college. Now one that gets is more loosely regulated is the word academy. Now you'll see real, uh, anything like K to 12 schools, but you'll also see online course creators and martial arts schools and real estate training programs and all kinds of YouTube gurus calling themselves an academy. So it's less highly regulated.
[00:05:22] But if you imply licensure with that word academy, and if you imply that your state approved or if you imply that your degree granting, then that's, uh, you know, somebody can come after you say, but that's the word academy is much more loosely regulated. And then the word school that's extremely broad. Now it is regulated. If you are running a K to 12 private school or if you're granting degrees Now, if you're doing online courses and coaching and workshops, it's often not regulated at all. That's why you see all the time, okay, entrepreneur school or crypto school or marketing school, you know, that's just basically that's branding. That's not really regulated. But from your point of view, if you want to attend one of these things, you should dig a lot deeper to see. Have they had any scrutiny at all? Are there complaints with the Better Business Bureau? Has anybody ever heard of them? Okay. So don't fall for these things. So the legal line basically is if you're granting degrees, if you're implying that you're accredited but you don't have it, are you claiming that you have state authorization that you don't have and are you misleading consumers? That's where the Federal Trade Commission can can step in as a federal, not a state thing. But you do see a lot of these universities online.
[00:07:00] And some of the some of the common scenarios are that they're incorporated in states with looser naming rules. They they might operate offshore where there is no regulation. They never actually grant degrees. Maybe they give you a certificate. That's what my school is, a certificate granting adult education school. And it is certified to operate by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia 13 years each year. Got to re-up to make sure that it's a good school and no complaints and all that stuff. But a lot of these places, you know, they're just fly by night and they might be violating the regulations, regulations, but nobody challenged them on it. And if they did, they just close up and open up under something else, like the learing center in Minneapolis, right? If you don't know what I'm talking about there. Look. Look at the leering center. L e a r I n g is supposed to be learning center. And most of these places rely on the dumb public not to know the difference between accreditation or state authorization. Licensing, certification. They have no idea what what it is. It just sounds good. And then once they plunk their money down and they get a crappy education, if they get anything at all, then it's too late. And with me, I got such. With this SCHEV, I got extremely strict refund rules.
[00:08:33] If somebody drops out after so much time and just all these rules and regulations, they even had an FBI agent was the last guy they had checking on schools, which sits down with you and goes over every line of your student catalog and make sure that you're doing what you say you're going to do. And, and they, uh, and at least as good as what they claim you have to do, like you can they have a strict refund policy? Well, you can have a better, uh, more strict one, and that's fine. But if it doesn't meet their strict one, you're screwed. You don't get your license. And that's just one thing out of this whole book. Full of things I got to do every year. So anyway, this this episode is, of course, I want you to come to my school, but I don't want you to get and waste your money on fake schools. That's the the point here. Okay, so check my school out, IMTCVA.org. You've heard a couple times we're certified. And of course, if you've listened to this, you know me. I'm going to I'm not going to put my name on anything. That's not great. All right? That's my story. I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.