Even with a master’s degree in biotechnology, Shermeen Masood, a 34-year-old living in Oman, struggled for years to find a job. With a baby on the way and an out-of-country move ahead of her, she thought a doctorate would set her apart and help her get hired.
When an online school called City University of New Orleans told her she had been awarded a scholarship to attend its virtual doctorate program — which it said was part of the University of New Orleans — she was overjoyed. After a phone call with someone who claimed to be performing a background check on behalf of Oman’s embassy in Washington, she gladly paid what the university told her was a greatly reduced fee: $1,750.
But despite make that payment and several more, Masood never got to take a class. She realizes she’s been had.
“It wasn’t just the money,” she said in an interview from Nairobi, Kenya, where she now lives with her husband and toddler. “It was my dream shattering into pieces.”
City University of New Orleans, a fake online university claiming to be an accredited virtual school affiliated with the University of New Orleans, has been scamming thousands of dollars from people since at least the beginning of last year, according to prospective students who say they paid fees but never began classes.
UNO officials are aware of the situation and say they’ve been…
