The question of the hour: Can we check educational background of the subject and how this can be done in accordance with Russian legislation?

For several years since mid-90th the problem of educational background check of Russian employees is a terrible headache for professional investigators and background screeners. “What’s up, man, what’s the problem with it?” – that’s what we often hear form our international partners and even local HRs and security managers.

The problem has several sides:
1. Fake Higher education Diplomas are available on the black market and even on the Internet. Average price of the fake Diploma is 500 USD; add another 1200 USD and you can even register it in the list of Diplomas of several private or even State Institutes or Universities.
2. There are a lot of small private Institutes in every region of Russia. Sometimes it is a problem to identify the Institute where the Subject got his Diploma.
3. There is no Federal or even local database of Higher education Diplomas.

How we can manage this situation and get reliable data about Subjects’ educational background?
Step 1 Check University or Institute Diplomas database.
Ask your potential employee to make a copy of his Diploma. This copy will be in need when you apply to the University for Validation. Please pay attention that it is not allowed by most State institutes to validate the number of the document without written permission of the Subject and at least a fax copy of his Diploma. It is strange but some institutes can’t trace back their students Diplomas issued in 70-90th years of XX century.
If the reply will be positive there is 80% probability that the Subject was in fact graduated from this institute.
Step 2 Check social networks accounts of the Subject to identify if there are classmates from the same institute in his friends list.
If results of steps 1 and 2 are positive, the probability that the Subject was in fact graduated from this institute is 90%
Step 3 Get in touch with potential classmates of the Subject (it is better to choose some not from his friends list) and ask them if they had studied with the Subject and did he really graduated from the institute.
If results of steps 1, 2 and 3 are positive, the probability that the Subject was in fact graduated from this institute is 99%.

I often see public offers from Russian PIs that they are ready to check educational background of the Subject in two or three days. I can assure you that results of these investigations can’t be accurate or reliable – there are no legal (and even partially legal) databases of Diplomas of governmental or private higher education institutes of Russian Federation.

How to use SNA during background screening in Russia?

Method of data mining in social networks was widely discussed in LinkedIn Group “ProP.I.” in March 2010. Most questions were about pretexting in social networks and ability to use the data collected in the court. I paid attention, that there are many approaches to problem solving, depending on regional traditions and regulations where PI operates.

That’s why I think it is reasonable to say a few words about the way data collected in social networks can be used in background screening in Russia.
First of all lets’ divide the law and the ethics. According to the law one can use any data collected in public accounts unless he is trying to use this data against the owner of the account. Most PIs I know is working on the edge of the law and it is reasonable to take for granted that reliable expert will find the way to get information he needs in compliance with local regulations.

Taking into consideration the above statement, pretexting in social networks is the matter of ethic, not the law.

There are 2 different situations:
1. PI uses unknown for the subject name and personality asking him “add me as a friend”. Pretty girl in bikini or sales person with “unique opportunity” are good examples of these fake pages. If the subject accepts this offer I see no reason to speak about unethical behavior or offense against the law. The subject made his own decision and thinks that the data on his page can be given to the stranger.
2. PI uses fake page of the subject‘s classmate or relative. Even if this way gives PI the data he needs I think that it is unethical. This practice must be stopped and may be even prosecuted by professional community.
In my practice I met several “subject’s fake accounts” where competitors or detractors of the subject publish compromising materials.

How can we use social networks’ pages as a valid data if we are not even sure that this page actually belongs to the subject of the investigation? – There’s no other way except validating this data through other informational sources or during investigation.

Social networks can give us only preliminary information, nothing else.