The National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists is a Scam.

As this is going around and not apparently there isn’t a lot of coverage on it, so I figured I would make this so people know exactly what’s going on.

To preface, I got a message in the mail addressed from some NASA guy named Buzz Aldrin. At first I thought it was just a regular friendly letter, as me and Buzz go way back and he hasn’t really gotten used to the whole “internet” thing yet. However, upon closer inspection, this wasn’t a friendly hello at all -- it was actually an invitation.

I was pretty confused at first, as I’m pretty stupid when it comes to school smarts, but as I read it through I came under the realization that what I was reading was entirely genuine, and I myself was reading to take my first steps in joining this prestigious group.

Haha, just kidding. It’s a fucking scam. Here’s why:

First, let’s start with the name. Sure, there’s a lot of pretty well known Academies. There’s the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academy of, uh -- Well the point is that there’s plenty. However, the name “National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists” doesn’t really ring a bell, which it feels like it really should speaking of its apparent importance and my accumulated knowledge via various college/scholarship searching. Not only that, but -- and like I said, I’m stupid -- I’m pretty sure “technologists” isn’t even a word.

But look! Right there lay the signature of Buzz Aldrin himself, and his message that he decided to personally recommend me. Certainly they wouldn’t put THAT much work into a fake?

It’s true, they wouldn’t -- and its not a real signature. Upon closer inspection of it, you can see that it is made up of individual sets of squares; not very common for natural human brushstrokes, but very common for a printer. Hey, at least they paid for the color!

Another pretty egregious detail on here is the requirements. Normally for high quality scientist/engineer academies, the GPA requirement is around 3.7-3.8. However, for this, it’s only 3.5 -- something you know is bad when its the minimum requirement to join ASU’s engineering school. No, seriously, if something is set at ASU standards, you know something is up.

Taking down these major points, you start to find little problems between the lines. The ridiculous price, the various grammar mistakes, and my personal favorite, the News Release section:

“You will be able to create your own news release using an easy to follow program the Academy has developed. Included are instructions on how to distribute this release to local newspapers and television stations so you can get the maximum recognition for your achievements.”

Wow, I never knew getting on TV was so easy! Unfortunately, this easy media guide was in fact not included with the rest of the papers -- must have been cut out of the final product at the last minute.

So, these are our ways of seeing through the fraud on paper, but what’s the proof outside of it? Well, it turns out these are the same people behind the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists, who had this nice little message written for them by NY Times writer Diana Schemo.

Now, I’m going to embarrass myself a little here, but its for the good of all of us -- for a short time, I genuinely believed this message was true. Now, if I thought it was real, how many other students and parents think it is, and for longer than just a few minutes? How many families could this end up preying upon? I’m writing this in hopes that we can minimize these numbers as small as possible.

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