Not all UFOlogists are honestly mistaken.

Some are very knowingly after your money.

Full-spectrum UFO wooist Danny Sheehan is after your money, hoping to sell you a fake PhD for $15,000 in — what else? UFOlogy.

Danny Sheehan’s 12-year-old Wikipedia photo — apparently he shares the same hairdresser as Jeff Rense

Danny Sheehan is a lawyer with a long and checkered career, some of it honorable and some of it not so much; but evidently, some years ago he decided to go all-in on alien visitation. He notably represented John Mack, the Harvard psychiatry professor who was investigated for trying to persuade people who believed they’d been kidnaped by aliens that their experience had been genuine. He represented UFO prophet Lue Elizondo in his case against the Department of Defense. And he has represented Steven Greer, perhaps the nuttiest of all long-time UFO figureheads.

And now, Sheehan’s UFO-centric New Paradigm Institute has partnered with the woo-laden Ubiquity University to tech courses in UFOlogy, because that’s a thing. Ubiquity’s website says: “Ubiquity University is a registered university authorized to award degrees.” It seems to be accredited by the “Global Accreditation Council.” What’s that? Oh, reading more carefully, the website says “We have created the Global Accreditation Council.” Aaaahhh. That explains it. If you’re not accredited, simply create your own accreditation body, and accredit yourself.

But then why are they able to say they are “a registered university authorized to award degrees”? Well, there’s no law against giving away (or even selling) fake degrees so long as you do not represent them as being genuine. Heck, for 20 years I’ve had Thunderwood College online (it was a proof of concept I made for a consulting client for generating PDFs on the fly) — you can make all the fake degrees you want there. And optionally drop a couple of bucks in the PayPal thing if you had fun. It’s obviously a joke.

But Ubiquity doesn’t want your couple of bucks. They wants $5,000 for a fake Masters, $15,000 for a fake PhD, and $16,600 for a fake MA/PhD.

What’s the curriculum? One certification programs says “8 micro courses and an essay.” That’s the literal text from their website.

And while it’s perfectly legal to do joke things like my Thunderwood College which is open about being unaccredited and just for fun, there are very good laws against falsely representing your diploma mill as a legitimate accredited institution of higher learning. One dude busted out this tweet suggesting the text for an email you can send to the Federal Trade Commission to complain about Ubiquity (which claims to have victimized “300+” people already with fake diplomas). It says in part:

False Representation of Accreditation: Ubiquity University is apparently using icons and graphics associated with the "Global Accreditation Council" on its website and promotional materials. This is misleading as there is no recognized accreditation body by this name that is acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This misrepresentation may deceive prospective students into believing that the institution’s programs, including Masters and PhD degrees, are accredited and recognized.

Deceptive Marketing Practices: The university's use of such graphics is not only unethical but likely violates advertising standards by falsely implying a level of credibility and recognition that does not exist.

Consumer and Student Impact: Potential students might enroll in their programs under the false impression that they will receive a recognized and accredited educational qualification, which could affect their career, education, and financial standing.

Sheehan is a goddam attorney, FFS. You’d think he should know who to partner with and not to.

I’m no high-falutin’ lawyer, but my read of “Ubiquity University is a registered university authorized to award degrees” seems to be an attempt to persuade victims that it is a legitimate institution of higher learning.

I headlined this article “Not all UFOlogists are honestly mistaken.” I believe most are. Most are honest in their belief and wish that aliens actively visit the Earth; they’re just wrong — like all of us are wrong about things; I’m wrong about plenty of things — maybe I’m even wrong about aliens not visiting the Earth. But we’re not all consciously deceptive. Danny Sheehan is being consciously deceptive.

The UFO community should run him out of town on a rail.

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Thanks to Jason Colavito for some important corrections to this article, which originally had Sheehan listed as the founder of Ubiquity. That was some Creationists back in the 1990s.