"Fleece & Release": Diplomas of the Dead Sold and Rewritten by "Graduates", in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 28 September 2024)

                 Don't forget to add "with high honors".

Diplomas of dead graduates (!) of  Yıldız Technical University 

(YTÜ) in Istanbul have been sold and rewritten by erasing the 

deceased's information to become the buyer's YTÜ "diploma".  

Recently, YTÜ diplomas have been sold to individuals with no 

links to YTÜ and even posted on "e-Devlet" (Turkey's record 

system for citizens).  It turns out that the systems of a software 

company that works with universities all around Turkey was 

supposedly hacked.  Gökmen Çiftçi, the founder of Proliz 

Software Company denied that his company's system was 

hacked and explained what happened.

"We put our system into operation in 2009 and a total of 101

universities in Turkey were using our system for their academic

activities.  After each university approved and confirmed 

diplomas we would send them to YÖKSİS" (computer system

of the High Academic Council).  So the information on e-Devlet

is from YÖKSİS, not from us."

"Our system wasn't hacked and there wasn't a leak from it. This

incident happened when the password of a YTÜ user was stolen.

Then, the hoodwinkers showed 8 people as having graduated

and sent this information to YÖKSİS.  Normally, a living 

person's data might be detected as fraudulent but not a dead

person's because they're not around to make a complaint.

In any case, the diplomas of deceased graduates can no longer

be changed in the YTÜ system."

YTÜ's two campuses...both near cemeteries.