Here are the F-1 CPT guidelines for University of Michigan students [[this is the same visa type offered to "university of Farmington" students)

https://internationalcenter.umich.edu/students/f1-students/cpt

If you scroll down to the requirements for a "Full-time CPT", it does not seem to require any physical presence on-campus [[compared to Part-time CPT) and/or class attendance, provided a "Reduced Course-Load" is obtained.

How is this program any different from the one offered by the [[fake) university of Farmington?

I haven't made up my mind about this yet, so I am just trying to understand how the students were supposed to know that the whole thing was a scam vs. a real program.