How fake degrees get past verification in India

The next part of our scams series. A good fake won't be caught by looking at the paper, so employers ask the issuer. That check can fail too. In the 2025 and 2026 cases below, a false answer came from a fake website, from staff at a real institution, or from a record written after the event. Sometimes nobody checked at all. Here is where each check broke, and what to change.

1,800+students given fake documents in one university case, says the Enforcement Directorate
2,500documents confirmed fake so far in a case built around a website copying a state board
68,379Bihar teachers' folders still not with investigators in October 2026
15working days at least for a degree check at one central university

A clean report can still be wrong

A report that says "verified" tells you a reply came back. It doesn't tell you who sent the reply, or whether the record behind it is true. Tap a step to see what went wrong in a real case.

One clean report, and the real cases behind each line

Every line is green and the file is closed. Now look at what stood behind lines like these.
Kanpur police said in June 2026 that a gang arranged fake online verification through phishing websites, so forged papers looked genuine in employers' background checks.
In a Delhi pharmacist register case, the Anti-Corruption Branch said verification emails were sent from fabricated addresses. 47 people were arrested.
The same statement said employees of pharmacy institutes falsely verified fake certificates. The request reached a real institute, and the reply was still wrong.
A forensic audit at a private university in Madhya Pradesh found ledger entries made later and backdated, Rajasthan's Special Operations Group says. The case is being investigated.
The Telangana High Court noted letters calling certificates genuine, and later letters from the same universities questioning them.
In one Rajasthan recruitment, 243 candidates skipped document verification and were appointed, Patrika reported, with the department verifying later.
Choose the route yourself, know who answered, and ask about the record, not only for a yes. The steps are at the end of this post.

An illustration. No single candidate's file failed in all these ways. Each row comes from a separate reported case, and most are allegations still being investigated.

When the reply comes from the wrong place

The racket doesn't have to fool the university if it can stand in for it. In Uttar Pradesh, two men were charged with running a website that impersonated the state board, alongside a call centre. They are believed to have sold more than 7,000 documents, and about 2,500 have been confirmed fake so far. In September 2025, the same board warned of fake portals copying content from its official sites.

News reports rarely say who gave the employer the phone number, email or link used for a check, so we can't count how often it comes from the candidate. The risk is plain all the same: anything printed on the certificate, or handed over with it, can be false too. If a racket writes the paper, it can write the contact details.

CheckkboxEvery hiring check in one caseIdentity, education, employment and court records, run with the candidate’s consent. You receive results, not document copies.See Checkkbox →

When the answer comes from inside

Sending the request to the correct university is not always enough. In July 2026, the Enforcement Directorate alleged that a private university's name and official machinery in Uttar Pradesh were misused for the "preparation, sale and verification" of fakes. It says it found records of more than 1,800 students, and puts the proceeds at about Rs 37.66 crore. Its searches seized applications for verification of fake marksheets and degrees. These are allegations, and the case continues.

The Madhya Pradesh case shows a different weakness. A vice-chancellor, an exam controller and a computer operator were arrested. In one state recruitment, 66 candidates showed that university's degree, though it has 100 approved seats for the course. If investigators are right, a request to the university would have found a matching entry. Our reading: a confirmation can only be as good as the record behind it.

When nobody really checked

Many failures involve no clever forgery. The check was skipped, rushed or done long after joining.

Six checks that missed, or came late

Madhya Pradesh · Jan 20261 roll number
Officials on a selection committee did not spot the same roll number repeated across marksheets.
On 5–6 marksheets
Rajasthan · Reported Aug 2025243 candidates
Appointed without document verification first, in a physical training instructor recruitment.
Checked afterwards
Jabalpur · Sep 20268 booked
Postal staff hired on marksheets that failed when re-checked with the boards.
30+ more under review
Madhya Pradesh · Jun 202612 of 81
Alleged fake doctors found in government clinics across nine districts, in a review of 81.
State review ordered
Nagpur · May 202575 of 622
A police team said only 75 teachers followed proper procedure. It said the rest used fake IDs.
Hired properly
Uttar Pradesh · Oct 20263.5 lakh
Teachers' documents now under a statewide check, after a High Court order.
Being checked now

When the record is old or missing

A national record helps, but it has limits. By our count of the National Academic Depository's published tables, it held more than 6.6 crore degree certificates in data available on 25 May 2026. Only about 83 lakh of them are dated 2010 to 2014, and the tables begin in 2010. For an older degree, you still have to go to the university.

That is where delay sets in. One central university says a check takes at least 15 working days. We found no national figure for how long universities take. In one case that reached the Supreme Court, an employer asked about a degree in May 2022 and twice in 2023, and the report was still pending in July 2024. The degree holder was found to be a bona fide student. Our guide on how long checks take has more on timing.

A failed check doesn't prove a fake

This cuts both ways. Bad checks can clear a fake, and they can also accuse a genuine employee.

Allahabad High Court, September 2026. Teachers said earlier checks found their papers genuine, and a later check found no roll number. The court said forgery can't be inferred merely from an "inconclusive verification". It still dismissed their petitions, holding that they had not displaced the official verification.
Telangana High Court, October 2026. It ordered 35 removed lecturers reinstated, saying they couldn't be dismissed on allegations without an inquiry and a chance to reply. The order is interim, and proceedings can still start.
Bihar, October 2026. Investigators still lacked the folders of 68,379 of 3,52,927 teachers, and only 1,270 had arrived in about 10 months. A missing folder doesn't prove a certificate is fake. It means nobody can tell.

What to change in your checks

Pick the route yourself. Find the university's contact on its regulator's list or by typing its address yourself. Don't use a number, email or link from the certificate or the candidate.
Check who answered. Look at the full email address and domain. If a reply looks odd, call a published number and ask.
Ask about the record. Ask for the enrolment year, exam session and roll number, and compare them with the papers. A bare "yes" tells you less.
Look across files. In bulk hiring, search for repeated roll numbers, and for one institution appearing far more often than its size would suggest.
Keep the proof. Record who was asked, by what route, who answered and when. You will need this if a result is ever questioned.
Use three outcomes. Confirmed, not confirmed and no reply are different results. Treat "no record found" as a question, and give the person a fair chance to answer it.

Where TheRollNumber fits

No check catches everything, but the route matters. On Checkkbox, degree checks go to the university itself, not to a number on the paper, with an action-level audit trail. On Dygital.degree, universities issue certificates in the NAD standard format with a QR check against their own record. If your team checks degrees every month, talk to us.

How fake degrees get past verification in India

A clean report can still be wrong

When the reply comes from the wrong place

When the answer comes from inside

When nobody really checked

When the record is old or missing

A failed check doesn't prove a fake

What to change in your checks

Where TheRollNumber fits

Sources

More guides

Fake degrees in India: what they cost, who buys them, and what is stopping them

Job scams in India: part-time task scams and fake offer letters

Job scams in India, part 2: fake government jobs, jobs abroad and what's stopping them