Axact degree mill scam INVOLVES Axact
The degree-mill scam involved Axact as the company operating the scheme.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“Axact created from thin air. There was no real university.”
Episode
06 February 2024 Official episode · Official transcript
cybercrime
The episode examines Axact, a Pakistani company described as operating a large fake-university and fake-credential scheme, including credential harvesting, social engineering, extortion, money-mule networks, and subsequent investigations and prosecutions.
Topics: Clear-text password storage, Credential reuse and credential stuffing, User activity tracking, Resume scraping and lead generation, Social engineering, Fake websites and fabricated online identities, Search-engine optimization and targeted advertising, Extortion, Money mules, Offshore movement of scam proceeds, Fraudulent online education platforms, Credential and identity harvesting
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Axact degree mill scam INVOLVES Axact
The degree-mill scam involved Axact as the company operating the scheme.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“Axact created from thin air. There was no real university.”
Axact DEVELOPED_BY Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh
Jack says Axact was founded by Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“Axact was found by a guy named Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh.”
Axact USES social engineering
Axact employees used persuasive and deceptive interactions to sell fake degrees and additional services.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“We’d then research that person, look for their social media profiles, try to find out their goals and ambitions, get to know them, then e-mail or call them”
Axact USES credential reuse
Axact employees tried users’ clear-text passwords on Facebook, LinkedIn, and email accounts to exploit password reuse.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“Axact employees could see the users’ passwords and try using those passwords on their social media accounts”
Axact USES User activity tracking
The fake school website tracked users’ interactions so agents could see clicking and hovering behavior.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“The website had some kind of tracker on the user”
Axact USES Resume scraping
Axact’s marketing team collected resumes posted on Monster.com and Indeed.com to identify potential students.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“the marketing team would pick that resume up and look at it”
Employees threatened victims with disclosure of photographs showing them with fake degrees.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“Pay me $8,000 or I’ll show this photo to your boss.”
Axact USES Money mule
Axact sometimes recruited scam victims to route web payments through their accounts while keeping a portion.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“set up a deal with that person to funnel the money through them”
Axact USES Offshore money movement
Money was routed through different accounts and often ended up in companies in Cyprus or Latvia.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“The money would get funneled through different accounts and would often end up in the account of a company in Cyprus or Latvia.”
Axact USES Google Ads
Axact’s marketing team spent heavily on Google Ads to attract prospective students.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“They would spend a lot of money on Google ads”
Axact USES Search-engine optimization
Axact used SEO campaigns to increase the visibility of its fake schools.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“running SEO campaigns to get their school ranked higher in the search results”
Axact degree mill scam TARGETS United States
Fazal says the scam mostly targeted students in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Gulf states.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“We mostly targeted US, UK, some of Europe”
Baytownuniversity.com DEVELOPED_BY Axact
The Bay Town University website was created by an Axact team, according to Fazal’s account.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“This was something that Axact created from thin air.”
Bay Town University USES Canvas
Bay Town University’s online courses were set up using Canvas.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“They set up courses using Canvas”
Bay Town University ASSOCIATED_WITH Clear-text password storage
The fake school website stored account passwords in clear text and provided them to call-center staff.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“that password was stored in clear text and given to me”
Newford University DEVELOPED_BY Axact
Newford University is described as a fake university created by Axact.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“Newford University, a fake university created by Axact.”
Drewmont University DEVELOPED_BY Axact
Drewmont University is described as a fake university created by Axact.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“Drewmont University, a fake university created by Axact.”
Axact USES Bay Town University
Axact used Bay Town University as one of its fake university operations.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Fazal EP 142 Details
“There was no real university. There was no learning, no classes, nothing.”
Shoaib Shaikh founded and controlled the Bol television network while running Axact.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“Shoaib not only started Axact but also started a TV network called Bol”
Bol DEVELOPED_BY Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh
Bol was started by Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“started a TV network called Bol”
Axact degree mill scam INVOLVES Declan Walsh
Declan Walsh investigated and documented the Axact scam through reporting.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“he spent two years investigating this story”
Axact degree mill scam DISCOVERED_BY Declan Walsh
Jack presents Declan Walsh’s investigation as exposing the Axact operation.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“published a really good article in the New York Times exposing all the shenanigans that Axact was getting up to”
Axact degree mill scam INVOLVES FIA
The FIA investigated Axact, raided its offices, and gathered evidence for criminal proceedings.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“the FIA was investigating Axact, and yeah, they found enough evidence to open a case”
Axact degree mill scam ASSOCIATED_WITH Saleem Qureshi
Saleem Qureshi was associated with the Belford litigation as the person who claimed responsibility for creating the website; later, the FIA reportedly found that Axact paid him to take the fall.
Uncertain Confidence 92% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“He admitted that Axact had paid him to take the fall.”
Umair Hamid MEMBER_OF Axact
Umair Hamid was the vice president of Axact.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“He was the vice president of Axact”
Axact ASSOCIATED_WITH Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority
PEMRA revoked or affected Bol’s broadcasting license after Shoaib’s legal troubles; the exact conditions are unclear in the episode.
Uncertain Confidence 86% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority revoked the broadcasting license that Bol had”
Axact degree mill scam ATTRIBUTED_TO Pakistan
The episode frames the operation as a Pakistani-company scandal and describes Pakistani authorities prosecuting it, but does not claim that Pakistan as a state operated the scam.
Attributed Confidence 78% · Jack Rhysider EP 142 Details
“It looked really bad for a Pakistani company to be so scammy”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T08:07:32.215501+00:00