A Reddit post by a 19-year-old Indian student on how he had scammed his way into a top US university has landed him in trouble.
In the post, the Faridabad youth Aryan Anand had spoken about his ‘very structured fraud’ in which he falsified documents and even faked his father’s death to secure admission at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania on a full scholarship of around $85,000.
His carefully structured scam unravelled after he bragged about it in an anonymous Reddit post was titled “I have built my life and career on lies and fraud.” He revealed how he faked his Class 12 boards degree, his school principal’s email address and his father’s death certificate to study in the US.
He said his story began when his Class 10 boards were cancelled. “From that day till now, I haven’t seriously studied for even two hours,” he wrote. Anand said he opted for science in Class 11 but soon lost interest in studies again.
After barely passing Class 11, he decided to get serious in Class 12 and even studied hard for two or three days – but soon fell into old habits again. “There was a time in my life when I was just eating, sleeping and watching movies,” he wrote.
Soon, however, he realised he needed to get into a good college. Knowing he would never secure admission into an Indian college with his marks, Anand planned a “very, very structured fraud” to get into an American university.
In his post, screenshots of which have been shared online, the 19-year-old went into minute details of his unethical plan. He first faked educational transcripts by creating a fake stamp and seal of his school principal. Then, he bought a website domain with a name similar to his school’s name and created fake email addresses of the school and its principal.
Anand used ChatGPT to write his admission essay. He then applied to several universities in the United States and “as expected, I got rejected from every Ivy League,” he wrote. Anand did, however, manage to secure admission to one university.
“One college, I wouldn’t name for obvious reasons, it’s a top 25 in the US and a reputed college. I don’t know how they accepted me, but gave me a very very good financial aid package which covered almost everything except my meal plan cost,” he wrote.
Anand said his meal plan would have cost ₹5 to 6 lakh annually. He admitted that his parents could afford to pay that much, but still he wanted to pay nothing at all.
He then did something he himself described as “very very wrong.”
“I created a completely fake death certificate of my father (I know you all are like what), but I did and sent that to my college, saying my dad got cancer and is dead,” he said.
The university – which we now know is Lehigh – instantly agreed to increase his financial aid package. Anand therefore reached the US without spending a penny out of his own pocket. Once at university, he again used ChatGPT to pass his exams.
In his post, he bragged about how he used AI to cheat in his exams, came back to India during term break only to drink and party with his friends, and how he even managed to snag an internship with a fake CV.
“I made a complete fake resume, edited my transcript to look like a 3rd-year marketing student. I didn’t do a CS or any engineering student because then for internships there are technical interviews and all, so I did the marketing one which have normal interviews,” Anand explained.
Then, he prepared answers for every experience listed on his resume and learnt them by heart.
“I got a marketing intern position at a small insurance firm based in New York,” he wrote on Reddit. “It’s remote work, all I have to do is send some emails and sometimes make some phone calls. It’s part-time. I do it like 2-3 hrs a day, and most of the time, I just clock in and watch movies or do anything unless there is something assigned to me, and I make around 1500$ a month from it, like 1.2 lakhs in INR,” he said.
“I just spend it on getting drinks, getting some new electronics every month, and stuff like that. I know I should be investing and stuff, but I just don’t like to do anything in which my brain is involved unless it’s fraud,” Anand wrote.
However, his web of lies unravelled after a Reddit moderator came across his post, did some digging and realised he was indeed a student at Lehigh. The moderator alerted the university, following which an investigation was launched.
Although Anand could have been sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for his fraud, his university reached a plea deal where he would not face a prison sentence. Instead, Anand was expelled from Lehigh and deported back to India.
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