MCIPS or MFibs

I have discussed 'fakes' before and the need to be cautious on taking 'experts' at face value, but what about this wonderful list of achievements on a CV - none of which were true:

• LLB (Hons)(First Class) University of East Anglia;
• Bachelor of Arts (First Class) Balliol College, Oxford University;
• Bachelor of Civil Laws (First Class) Balliol, Oxford University;
• Doctor of Philosophy, Balliol College, Oxford University;
• Master's degree, Faculty of Law, Harvard University.

It also appears even more bizarre that some of this celebrity's colleagues wondered why his lies hadn't been uncovered sooner. Yet, were his former colleagues not in the business of exposing liars and fakes?  Given the dominance of Oxford Uni in this fake's CV do you really need a Morse or Lewis to expose the truth?   

I had originally thought of blogging on this just for completeness of my previous discussions on 'fakes'. Then I thought about our own profession and wondered how easy it would be to verify whether or not someone was either FCIPS or MCIPS when either selecting a new member of staff, an interim, or indeed a consultant. Given that many of us have invested a reasonable amount of effort and money, I'm sure you'll be pleased to learn that there's a free online public search facility of CIPS membership - so hat's off to CIPS for that one, I guess I should keep paying my membership fee!