When 35-year-old Daniel Hartman applied for a job recently in Ames, the business owner smelled something fishy. The owner placed a call to the university, and police said they believe Hartman was falsely asserting he was an ISU graduate.

Loras Jaeger, director of Iowa State’s Department of Public Safety, said Hartman, 2019 Hunziker Drive, was charged with using a false academic degree. Hartman denied any connection to the charges.

Jaeger would not say which business Hartman applied to, but he said the degree was obviously a fake.

“It was not difficult to tell,” he said. “It was not similar to other degrees.”

Cases of forged diplomas aren’t unique though, as ISU Registrar Kathleen Jones said her office receives a couple hundred of calls each month to verify degrees, although calls about suspicious diplomas are less frequent.

Jones said employers should always be checking to make sure that what an applicant says on paper is true.

“We would strongly encourage employers to verify degrees,” she said. “A transcript [instead of a diploma] or calling the institution would be best.”

Both ISU diplomas and transcripts are made with unique security features, making duplication almost impossible, Jones said.

Another problem, Jones said, is employers who check on applicants’ degrees often have the wrong information or call the wrong university, which makes it difficult for the Registrar’s Office to verify the degree.

Jones said if a student’s file shows he or she has not obtained an academic degree from Iowa State, the Registrar’s Office will inform the employer.

The busiest time for employers to call the Registrar’s Office is in May, but calls are received almost every day, Jones said.

As for Hartman, Jaeger said he was given a citation for the alleged offense, although using a false academic degree is a serious misdemeanor punishable with up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

The lesson learned, Jones said, is that if people say they graduated from Iowa State, they better be telling the truth.

“These kinds of calls can come one day after someone graduates or 20 years,” she said.