Online University Hears the Cat's Meow in Consumer-Fraud Lawsuit Over Bogus Degrees By DANIEL ENGBER
A jet-black cat with short hair received an M.B.A. from an online university a few months ago, on the basis of its several semesters of course work and an impressive 3.5 grade-point average. Now the cat's owner -- Kathryn H. Silcox, of the Pennsylvania attorney general's office -- has organized a civil lawsuit against the university, alleging both consumer fraud and illegal e-mail marketing.
Colby the cat, who just turned 6 years old, contributed to the investigation by applying for a $299 bachelor's degree from Trinity Southern University, based in Plano, Tex.
Ms. Silcox, a deputy attorney general, helped Colby with his self-evaluation, for which the cat listed working in retail-sales, being an Eagle Scout, and completing three courses at a community college.
A few days after submitting his application, Colby heard back from the university. His life experience was sufficient for not only a bachelor's degree but also an M.B.A. (for an additional $100).
"We were very proud of him," said Ms. Silcox, who agreed to pay $99 more for a copy of Colby's transcript. When she received the diploma and transcript a few weeks later, she was pleased to discover that her cat had taken four semesters' worth of business classes, including management accounting, organizational behavior, and total quality management.
"I have an M.B.A., and I didn't take these classes," she said on Tuesday as she read over the transcript.
Ms. Silcox became involved in the case after officials at the Microsoft Corporation approached attorneys general from around the nation with leads from its own research into illegal spammers. "I followed up with them," she said, "and asked, Do you have anything in Pennsylvania?"
Investigators at Microsoft captured 18,000 misleading e-mail messages and dozens of Web addresses and Web sites from Pennsylvania. Many of the messages had been given false headers, such that they appeared to be coming from some 60 Pennsylvania businesses, including the Adelphia Communications Corporation and the Bell Atlantic Corporation, now Verizon Communications Inc.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Pennsylvania state court, names as defendants Craig Barton Poe, of Frisco, Tex., and Alton Scott Poe, his brother, of St. Cloud, Fla. Neither could be reached for comment on Tuesday.
The Web site for the university, of which Alton Poe is the dean of admissions and vice chancellor, no longer exists. Another institution, called Prixo Southern University, still seems to be operating. It advertises exactly the same services as Trinity Southern, but in Spanish.
This is not the first time that Mr. Poe's university has made headlines. In November 2003, Ralph J. Timperi, an assistant commissioner in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health, apologized for claiming to have earned a doctoral degree from Trinity Southern. At the time, The Harvard Crimson reported that Mr. Timperi's appointment would be reviewed at the end of the year.
According to the Harvard course catalog, however, Mr. Timperi will continue to teach at the school in 2005.