Students often build up portfolios of their achievements as they study and present them when they apply for jobs or for further study. Of increasing interest is the concept of an online “ePortfolio” which enables greater power and flexibility in displaying achievements. However, the issue of cheating needs to be addressed, especially where certificates of attainment are being presented. An eCertification project, named “eCert”, has recently been run at Southampton in order to explore these issues. This paper documents how we approach the validation of applicants' claims of attainment.