MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian police have uncovered a criminal group that sold fake college diplomas, including from Harvard University in the United States, an Interior Ministry official said on Thursday.

"A criminal group that sold spurious university diplomas was discovered by officials of the Russian Interior Ministry's Economic Security Department in July," department deputy head Alexei Shyshko told journalists.

He said one could buy a fake Harvard diploma for $40,000, adding the criminals used bank cards to transfer money abroad.

Shyshko said diploma forgery is an international problem, with thousands of fake documents being discovered annually in many countries, including in Britain, the United States and Ukraine.

"Not only police, but society in general has to fight the problem," he said. "An employer must verify whether his employee's diploma is genuine or not."

Alexander Khazin, deputy chief of an Interior Ministry investigative department, said it was quite difficult to bring to justice a man standing on the street with a sign advertizing diplomas.

"A large group of fraudsters are involved in the business, and much time is required to discover them," he said, adding that one who was trying to sell a diploma of prestigious Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics for 300,000 rubles ($10,000) was detained in Moscow this summer.