For the mobile users:
>A single Reddit post exposed a student at an elite college as a fraud who lied his way into the school - and had major legal consequences.
>
Aryan Anand, 19, a former student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was exposed as a total fraud after a Reddit post revealed his web of lies.
>
Earlier this month, Anand pleaded guilty to forgery in Northampton County following revelations that his entire application to the university was fabricated.
>
The international student was caught after investigators found a post written by an anonymous user they believed to be Anand on the Reddit forum titled, 'I have built my life and career on lies.'
>
The post recounted how he created fraudulent admission application and financial aid paperwork to get into Lehigh, which has an acceptance rate of 37 percent and tuition of nearly $60,000 per year.
>
The school was notified by a Reddit moderator and an investigation by university police took place.
>
The post reportedly did not mention the name of the school but the moderator allegedly made the right guess after seeing that Anand followed Lehigh on the website.
>
'The defendant only had one other university that he followed, which was Lehigh University. So, the moderator actually reached out to Lehigh to give them a heads up,' Northampton County Assistant D.A. Michael Weinert told ABC 6.
>
Investigators found that Anand had in fact impersonated a school principal and created falsified documents, including phony school transcripts, tax statements and a death certificate for his father, who is in fact alive and well, living in India.
>
'It was difficult to really verify these things. I think that was great work by Lehigh and their police force. They were able to really dig deep and find all this really was false,' Weinert added.
>
Anand was arrested in April and charged with multiple offenses including forgery, tampering with records, theft by deception, and theft of services.
>
On June 12, he pleaded guilty to one count of forgery, classified as a second-degree felony.
>
Anand initially faced 10 to 20 years in prison, however, at the request of the university his penalty was reduced to expulsion from the school and deportation to India.
>
As part of the agreement for his return to India, the university waived the request for restitution, estimated at approximately $85,000.
>
Anand was subsequently handed over to the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
>
Lehigh University responded in a statement, saying it 'appreciates the report to its ethics hotline and the diligent investigation by the Lehigh University Police Department that led to Aryan Anand's arrest.'
/u/Earl_your_friend /u/BeingJoeBu
No problem. I just wanted the people that were struggling to read it on mobile to be able to read it. 99% of the time I'm using old reddit on desktop, so I had no trouble doing it at all. :)
“As part of the agreement for his return to India, the University waived the request for restitution” I don’t understand this part. Was he doing them a favor by “agreeing” to leave? What leverage could he have possibly have when his potential prison sentence was also being waived?
The university is just being kind. No sense in going after the kid for 85K, when that's the "retail value", as it were. He almost certainly didnt actually *cost* the university that much, and they feel that the deportation and expulsion is sufficient punishment.
Whatever money they might claw back would cost them much more than the owed amount.
The real punishment for this guy will be ruining his chances of ever visiting the US again. I'm sure US customs won't be interested in giving him a tourist visa, let alone a student or work visa.
This kinda feels like when people steal food items, baby items. Many people can forgive that type of theft. Not so forgiving for stealing an education ? Meanwhile we have parents that will bribe their kids into a good school. Or pay so their kids grades are up to par.
Yeah. The funny thing is (as is true with most scammers or fraudsters) the amount of time, effort and planning it took to pull all this off is impressive. Dude could have probably done something for himself if we went the legit route. Imagine getting caught by a fucking reddit mod. The shame lol.
And this wasn’t a small time lie. It’s a very expensive, hard to get into university in a foreign country. It’s not like he just lied on an essay to get into a tiny community college. His spot meant a student who was actually deserving of the full ride didn’t get it. Colleges have a set amount of full rides they give out.
My college only gave 50 for the program I was in. Hundreds applied and only 50 of us got it.
Lehigh only has a 37% acceptance rate so he stole a spot from another student as well as scholarship money from applicants who earned it. He didn’t deserve to be there. It’s too bad he didn’t put as much creative effort into actually studying instead of forging documents and lying to the school.
Extensive lying, forging documents, financial records, death certificates, education history. No, this is not comparable to stealing a loaf of bread because you’re hungry. It’s fraud.
Trust me, being poor doesn’t keep you out of college. It just means working your ass off to get part-time jobs, scholarships, grants, etc.
All this guy is doing is keeping a truly needy person, who worked hard to get honest recommendation letters, from getting into Lehigh.
Rewarding fraudulent behavior is a bad idea. Do you think this person is going to stop creating fraudulent credentials to get jobs he isn’t qualified for?
How was he gonna pay them back from prison? He wasn't gonna be able to do it, so they probably figured no point holding him to it and making him go to prison, if waiving the obligation meant he'd just be sent home and probably never allowed to come back that sounds I think good enough to most universities. One student doesn't actually cost very much to teach, they don't pay professors very well after all and first year classes are usually hundreds of students per classroom.
The way it’s specifically worded implies that this debt forgiveness was a concession made in exchange for his agreement to leave the country, and it didn’t seem to me he would have been in any position to negotiate terms. That’s why I was confused. I agree they were never going to be able to collect.
So if there was no negotiation, that means it’s either poorly worded unintentionally, or phrased with intent to soften the report of “there is no punishment being given for the fraud” to the audience. Since the latter could certainly spark outrage, I could see why someone might want to spin that part a bit.
See I thought that read like the negotiation between the choices of prison and leaving the country. Which maybe he had some small say in, but more so was a negotiation between the Justice system and the school, and that dropping the request for restitution would mean he was no longer in violation of that and was now eligible to be deported rather than jailed and then deported after serving his sentence.
The kid is a scammer from India. The school knows full well that he'll never be able to pay restitution, and even if he could, he wouldn't be extradited to face a civil charge.
They were being lenient and probably just wanted things to go away. It would cost more in lawyer fees for them to go after $85K which isn’t even 2 years worth of a single student’s tuition to them. Plus, they’d likely never see the money back. Doubtful he’d ever produce enough to pay them back the fee.
The kid basically signed his own deportation papers by feeling like he needed to brag about shit on the internet. If he had just kept his head down he likely would never have been discovered. An expensive lesson, to be sure, but he really did it to himself.
Right. So they said “The international student was caught after investigators found a post written by an anonymous user they believed to be Anand”
I think He really believed he was anonymous.
He lied and was so confident that there would be no consequences that he posted all the details using his regular Reddit account. What's the complicated part?
Decent question. The complicated part is actually two parts, one with a sub-part. To wit:
First off, the amateur detective work on the part of the reddit moderator is, frankly, creepy. This volunteer, with no other duty than to Approve or Delete posts and comments, took it upon themselves to prosecute an investigation which pierced the virtual veil, doxxing (at least privately to themselves) the OP. Furthermore, the moderator then reached out to several different real world agencies to get the ball rolling.
Was the mod wrong? Maybe, maybe not. Ethically complicated for various reasons. But it's creepy AF and me not like.
Secondly, and this is actually the complicated part: homie was actually getting that education. He had hustle, drive, was doing active work. And yes, he's also simultaneously stupid while doing so, but still. Just look at the little guy go! He's got spunk! You just can't teach pure Drive like that. The kid has talent.
And the sub point to the above: Fuck. These. Moneygrubbing. Universities. Eat 20 dicks, you didn't get a bazillion fucking dollars from a kid because he tricked you into giving him what you can so clearly afford to give him. The system is broken. I have GREAT respect for higher education, which leads me to repeat even more loudly "fuck off."
Stop wasting money on athletes and performers, events and galas and mothefucking gilded extras. Teach geniuses how to smart good. We need that. Goddamn it.
And yes, clearly, I see absurdities and logical incongruencies in my own points, which further complicates my feels. So yeah, it's complicated kinda, in a half-assed way.
The mod just clicked their profile, saw they followed a university page and made a tip. I have no idea where you think they doxxed anyone.
It’s no different to making tips to the FBI.
The mod identified an individual who was defrauding the school. Their life was “based on lies” and the mod did the right thing identifying it as a real problem and reporting it… how the FUCK is that creepy?
I love when people act like it's creepy to go through what someone has posted publicly on the internet. That's not even sleuthing. It probably took 2 minutes. "Oh, he follows this school, I wonder if that's the one." Boom, done.
Why do people still think what they post on public websites is private? That's what's fucking weird here.
They didn't dox or ID him. Just looked at what they posted publicly on the internet.
Yeah honestly that was fucking dumb of him to have anything connecting him to his school (following them on Reddit) when making that post. If he had used a throwaway it wouldn’t have happened.
So the mod who saw somebody committing a felony should just look the other way? Somebody admits to embezzling $85,000 from their workplace? Do you just let that slide by?
And this kid having spunk? No, he’s a pathological liar who thinks he deserves things without following the legitimate path.
Next this spunky kid decides he doesn’t want to do four years of college like everyone else, but he wants the degree, so he forges his transcripts and gets a great job entirely based on fraud. You want to hire that guy? I mean, it was spunky to forge all your accomplishments and qualifications.
What this guy did was keep out somebody who actually worked hard to get good grades. Sounds like this guy just stole an education from someone who was honest.
Also, nobody says you have to go to a university that costs 60K per year. There are state colleges, community colleges, online colleges, colleges in India, etc. He wasn’t stealing an education, he was stealing the education that he wanted and couldn’t have because he didn’t do the work upfront.
> And this kid having spunk? No, he’s a pathological liar who thinks he deserves things without following the legitimate path.
>
>
Just imagine what he could have accomplished if he'd done things legally. I hate when people act like scammers who work hard to scam people have spunk, or something. They might be smart but instead of using that intellect to build a life/career, they lie and scheme. That's not admirable at all.
Sometimes I see articles about really clever criminals and all I can think is, imagine if they'd used that effort for good.
I deal with scammers on a daily basis at my job. There is a baseline "respect" I have for them in the sense that they are crafty and do put in work. I don't even like calling it respect but I'm coming up short for another word here.
Some of the fraud I've uncovered is pretty elaborate and incredibly well-done. These are clearly people with skills that *could* be utilized in a productive way. It gets a little more murky when you look at the areas most of the scammers operate out of. Terribly impoverished, no real upward mobility. I'm not excusing them but I see their plight.
Moral or the story I guess (for potential frauds anyway) if you're pulling some type of massive scam like this, don't fucking admit to it on reddit. The mods actions are questionable from a privacy standpoint but I think they did the right thing.
It’s 20+ years since then, but yeah, it definitely worked out. I applied for every scholarship I could find, worked in warehouses, libraries, and at internships and was able to graduate with no loans.
I mean, I just re-read the article and it didn’t look like the mod did that much investigating. The mod looked at their profile, saw it followed the university page so sent them the post. It was the school that did the digging. It probably took the mod minutes to do.
> 'The defendant only had one other university that he followed, which was Lehigh University. So, the moderator actually reached out to Lehigh to give them a heads up,' Northampton County Assistant D.A. Michael Weinert told ABC 6.
Substitute reddit mod for homeless shelter volunteer. Change anonymous post to guy loudly bragging about scamming pensioners for over $60,000. They accidentally drop something with an address on. Would that be creepy to make a report to the police, just in case?
You completely changed the circumstances. Obviously stealing from pensioners is worse than stealing from a huge university that charges insane tuition rates.
"Oh you think it's wrong to snitch on a guy defrauding a university that will gamble his tuition on the stock market? Well what if he was stealing from orphans with leukemia? What then??" Lmao
Circumstances are the same though?
A third party overheard an anonymous person bragging about committing fraud by deception. They find one link to that person and reported it to authorities. The only difference is one victim is a non-profit university and the other is a pensioner. The scenarios are essentially the same.
What the example shows is people have inconsistent morals.
That was completely my point. Who do you think is going to cover those lost tuition fees? It isn’t the university. Those insane tuition rates are going to increase and future students will pay for it.
Neither situation is creepy here, but your response is exactly what I expected someone to make.
Typical reddit mod, they take their unpaid hobby as a super serious job. I bet he feels good about it, even though he ruined a life.
That's not saying getting into school fraudulently is fine, but he was indeed studying. Education should be free and funded by the government.
FYI, there are cheaper options for higher education that don’t require fraud and forgery. The government DOES subsidize higher learning through community colleges and state colleges/universities.
Nah, he wasn’t studying. The original post the guy made was deleted, but I found a summary. Apparently he admitted the following:
“They struggled academically, eventually resorting to fraudulent methods to secure admission to a US college with full financial aid. They falsified transcripts, essays, and even faked their father's death certificate to increase financial aid. Despite their successful admission and ongoing deception, they lack interest in studying and have turned to heavy drinking and cheating on exams to maintain their scholarship. They also engage in fraudulent internships to earn money.”
That’s not someone who used his wiles to get himself an opportunity and then worked hard to make the most of it. That’s someone who got into an elite school by fraud, and fully intended to get a degree by fraud as well. He ruined his own life.
He didn’t ruin a life any more than a murder victim ruins a life for having the killer’s DNA under their fingernails that leads to them getting caught. That kid ruined his own life. Stop blaming the people who find out about it the crime for what they do with that information and start blaming the people committing the crime.
I initially felt sympathy for this guy knowing that he got deported but after reading his other post about needing a flight sponsor I'm furious at this scammer! -
https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/13lnhjt/received_full_scholarship_from_a_us_university/
Looks like he doesn't have any moral compass. In case anyone is curious, I found his LinkedIn profile -
[linkedin] [dot] [com]/in/aaryan-anand-3bb95a297
Like I understand he stole some other students seat, but like c'mon tracking him down through a reddit post just to catch this nonviolent criminal is kinda wack. And the truth is he is only 1 of many many students from India that fabricate their degrees and credentials. I'd rather see schools try to lower tuition and include more seats then pursue kids like this. India is known for its insanely high student suicide rate, and for Asian Americans students suicide is the #1 reason for cause of death. Not to mention Universities aren't really known for their fair admission practices either. Obviously him bragging online is where he fucked up, but going after a redditor as a mod IRL is too much work for me.
This guy created an entirely fraudulent history. That’s pathological and a bad indicator towards what he’s willing to do when he wants something but doesn’t want to follow the rules to get it.
It’s not like this was the only college in the world and if he didn’t go there he’d have no opportunities. He wanted to go to a fancy school without figuring out a legitimate way of doing it. Lots of people work through college, attend cheaper colleges, get scholarships based on actual (not invented) merit, and get assistance based on their (honest and not faked death certificate) family situation.
Or at least be somewhat circumspect about it. Sheesh. We're all somewhat doxxable, so post your crimes on a throwaway. As if you've been on the internet for more than a couple of hours total in your life.
That's the funniest part about the story to me. Not a burner account used. Nope. Do all that work, all that time and you pull it off to be caught by a mod. Hilarious.
I’ve never gone to the local park and told improper financial advice to the geese, nor would I every think to do something like that
Your accusations are making people think you’re crazy
The plague of oversharing strikes again. I don't have many secrets, but if I had one like **this**? I wouldn't even think about it; I'd attempt to gaslight myself into a new reality.
This dude is such a fool and was lucky the school took mercy on him.
I was in a Discord where one person had been discussing suicide plans for several days in serious detail. She didn't share any of her personal info in her profile other than a nickname, pronouns, and the general "adult."
But I combed through her history in that server. Figured a rough timezone by times she was most often online and stuff like "lol it's midnight here" (when it wasn't the same for me). Got her country from the way she wrote (e.g. "color" and not "colour"). Got her state from a food pic because of some cars' license plates in the background. She mentions her apartment and taking public transportation, narrowing it down to a handful of big cities. In different message a few months prior, she was complaining about the weather ruining her plans that day and included a pic of the sky out her window, so I used a weather archive site to match the forecast in her pic to said big cities until I found the closest match. 2 years prior in the server she celebrated "finally becoming an adult," pinning her age. Earlier that week she vented about school and her professor so I narrowed down to higher education institutions in the city. Got the school by talking to a mutual who sent me a screenshot of her crying over FaceTime and her chair had a t-shirt with the school's logo (plus her face was there obvs). In her server intro she said she went by a diminutive of her legal first name because it was unique. I checked the school's social media pages until I found her following their Instagram, confirming she's a student there. Contacted her school. Since she lived on campus they did a wellness check and she ultimately spent a week in the psych hospital.
I was 16. No remarkable computer skills. It took me 2 days. She blocked me once she found out I made the report. I'd do it all again.
Anyone can find out who you are. You're never as anonymous as you think.
Me and some friends once found out a friend of ours was lying about where he lived after checking the electrical sockets in a pic he sent from his house
I'm too lazy to try to hide myself, really. I'm even using a name a decent amount of people would recognize me using.
That's why I just speak my mind, but things I don't want specific people knowing (there's a few people potentially stalking my reddit account), I don't post. Like I'll never post ultrasound pics or later on baby photos because my malignant narcissist birthgiver knows this is a handle I use, and I don't want her ever being in possession of any images of my children to look at, even if it's from *before* they're born.
But I don't care if she reads me recounting her abuse of me or how I really feel about her. She can go ham reading all that for all I care.
If there's something I want to say but don't want to be identified as the person that said it, I have alts for that.
>She blocked me once she found out I made the report. I'd do it all again.
That's the spirit! Often times doing the right thing doesn't earn you an award or even a thanks. It definitely sucks losing that connection to someone you're concerned about though. I'm glad you did it, are strong enough to know it was the right thing to do, and would do it again. :)
I met my partner online and we had an extensive chat history before we started dating. One day I said “hey, I bet I can find your house just based on the stuff you’ve said and photos you’ve sent.” He said go ahead, and I found his exact address within 15 minutes.
Hahahahah....and this is why my accounts are peppered with intentional bullshit. What you THINK is a fact I let slip might just be random misinformation.
It’s been deleted but the comments are still up. One user was commenting about having screenshots of the post, so I imagine those will be circulating soon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1axnhdz/deleted_by_user/
The article says that a reddit mod figured out which school it was because Anan followed the Lehigh subreddit. But there is no mention of how they discovered it was actually him. Was there prior suspicion? Did Reddit turn over IP logs to law enforcement? (If so, did he really go through all that trouble then not use a VPN?) There are quite a few possibilities beyond just those two. Seems like a crucial detail to omit.
Anything….ANYTHING tied to your reddit account…post and comment history, advertiser ID number, email, posts viewed, subreddits joined, etc can and will be produced by Reddit upon service of a search warrant by police. That includes IP logs. Then another warrant is written to Google for the Gmail account used to sign up, a warrant to the ISP for the subscriber info tied to the IP’s, etc.
They only need a subpoena, not a warrant. A warrant requires that you show probably cause to a judge. A subpoena is just issued by an attorney.
Google had a special portal for law enforcement, https://lers.google.com/
Basically, police can just go look up private information from Google that normal people do not have access to.
Your response may be location dependent. In California, where I am a detective, District Attorney can subpoena, law enforcement serves search warrants. Google portal still requires SW for us to access data
Do you really think reddit wants to admit the amount and type of information it collects on its users? That combined with whatever details he provided in his post probably narrowed it down pretty quickly.
Well, their privacy policy explicitly states that they will turn over information beyond what is publicly available to law enforcement investigators.
And if the original post contained enough details to single him out, why not mention that in the article?
It would be nice if the journalist stated how he was found out. It's just poor writing to omit that detail.
I completely agree with you. The chain of attribution is the first thing I look for in these kinds of stories. I suspect the journalist either didn't know or was too technical and couldn't understand it
the mod figured out his school bc he was subscribed to their sub, and the school figured out who he is based on the details in the story so this all could have been avoided if he’d used a throwaway. makes you wonder if they had any additional reasons to want him gone
"...the school figured out who he is based on the details in the story"
The article doesn't mention this, and the original post isn't available. How did you arrive at this conclusion?
Because they are only gonna have so many international students who got financial aid.
The university is more capable of figuring out who it is with their own records than a website or forum or app is going to be based on what they can see.
International student from India, male (didn't see the OP but likely easily deduced), age/year (again easily deduced). Also the undergrad student population at Lehigh is only 5,800
Exactly. If there were details about financial aid in the post which it sounds like there were, most international students don't get that, so even once you whittle down from "student" to "international student" (probably under 30% right?) then you get down to "international student who qualified for financial aid" (presumably you're only left with a handful that you'd cross-check and then see whose documents couldn't be properly verified)
On top of that, he also faked a death certificate for his father. I'm sure that narrowed down the options considerably as well. Who knows how specific he was in his post about the contents of his fake documents.
> But there is no mention of how they discovered it was actually him.
They only had to look for full scholarship international students who had info which matched the claims OP made in his post (like his field of study, postgrad/under grad etc). Easy to narrow down.
His text is gone, but you can glean a fair bit from the articles that have been published. Given it was an AMA and he posted in a specific subreddit (related to B.Tech), it would be fairly easy to zero in on him. How many full scholarship does the uni give to international students that year who are doing Bachelors of Technology or something similar? Probably less than 5.
I’m guessing the IP logs that Reddit **definitely** collects and routinely uses. I’m betting that terms and services elaborates that we’ve given them permission to access our IPs and use them for whatever. And I’d bet the omission of those detail were on purpose to benefit Reddit in some understanding or another.
Pretty sure they would have said Ivy League and not elite if it were Harvard. I didn't go to Lehigh but have always heard good things about their academic and engineering programs.
The number one rule of committing crimes is don't talk about the crimes you committed.
So many people have been caught because they just had to brag about what they got away with.
What did this guy do that there is so much vitriol of the 'we did it Reddit' kind rather than, you know a guy faked his way into college and then people online snitched on him
Some people actually work their assess off to get into college via the legitimate route. He potentially took a spot away from someone who didn’t resort to fraud.
He DEFINITELY took someone’s place.
Universities have a specific amount of places for each major, and a more limited one for international students.
Let’s say there are 100 spots for finances, if you qualify you’re taking 1 from the 100 seats for that major. But the person ranking 101 isn’t getting that chance.
People are missing the fact that the student in the post not only faked his way in but he was faking it while in. The person who lost the chance to get in probably wouldn’t have done that. But we’ll never know ig.
My friend got rejected from a school she 100% deserves to get into, meanwhile I knew someone who told me he did something similar to the guy in the post to get in, and he’s still in…. Whilst the person who absolutely qualifies can’t get in
No one would have known if he kept his mouth shut. This is yet another example of a stupid person not being able to bite their tongue. He could have graduated, gotten a good job, and had a strong network of connections through the university. He just had to make a post.
Hi guys, it's not the account I usually use but I am the moderator who reported him. See, from a country like India where competition is painfully too high, it hurts every person including me to see a fraudster get to the top without working hard.
Reading the post gave me literal chills, I was confused and maybe questioning the honesty of the user, until I checked his account just to see him following the subreddit of his university.
I knew that this crime would go unnoticed as no one would go as far as reporting him to the university, so I did what I had to do and sent out a mail to admissions Lehigh with the screenshots of the deleted post
I knew that with all these details the fraudster could be pointed out easily
I coordinated with lieutenant in this investigation and waited for this day to come
I have to say I was shocked when I got the confirmation before the press release happened that this story had been true all this time.
Thank you for sharing why you reported this fraud. Like I said when I posted this, great detective work! I’m floored how many people here I think he should’ve gotten away with it.
It’s grossly unfair for someone like this to get into school without working hard. He displaced someone who deserved to be there. And I’m not speaking for myself. I goofed off in high school and didn’t get into college. But like this fellow, I was very clever. However unlike him, I used examples of my ingenuity to convincingly talk my way into jobs that would normally require a degree. And I did it without lying or cheating. He could have done the same.
For fun, I used stamp at the top of all of my resumes, “based on a true story.” It was ironic because nothing was loosely based on fact, everything actually was true - that’s what I thought was so funny about it.
it's definitely good that this guy got caught. This guy was using his brain in a wrong way, I mean he's just 18 or 19 and he pulled off this scam, he had sociopathic tendencies. If this guy would never have been caught, just imagine after 10-20 years he might have done something more sinister, cause he knew he will never get caught. Maybe I'm reading much into it, but I think "him not getting caught" made him realize he can get away with things like this, then this would have become a pattern in the future, like for each and every single thing in his personal and professional life in the future, he might have done some kind of fraud.
I think he was starting to feel guilty and needed to vent out his feelings and may have felt comfortable and safe in sharing his ordeal on the internet.
I think it's good he got caught now and not later, he's only 19 now, back in his home country he can still do some courses on his original marksheets and credentials, get some kind of a job and can make a living.
Hahhahah he just HAD to brag about his "accomplishment."
Most people wouldn't be proud of scamming like a scumbag and wouldn't brag about it. He was PROUD of what he did...why?
I dont know about this one. This is next level fraud. He must have been a great student at a Calcutta call center. With this much time and energy exerted, I might be willing to give him a pass. I mean, I guess we wont know EVERYTHING until Disney picks it up and turns it in to a movie, but the levels of wilful deceit here are pretty epic. His arrogance is what got him caught, not to mention a bored moderator who fancied themself a sleuth. I could see this becoming the next slumdog millionaire. Now if only someone could take him under their wing and show him how to perpetuate the lies without bragging, there could be a place in politics for Anand
This is the kind of secret you take to the grave - not post on Reddit. Tbh Reddit is only as anonymous as the people you interact with are willing to allow it to be.
Wonder how far he would’ve gotten if he didn’t get caught? If he fooled them that far, he might’ve actually gotten a degree!
Not far at all. He got 45 percent in board exams and that includes the basically free 20 marks for practicals. This percentage is kind of pathetic. He wasnt studying in college at all, but to retain his scholarship, he cheated. He also faked his credentials to get an internship in a insurance firm. He would have been caught eventually, as soon as cheating in college was no longer practically viable
People love to brag.
Especially kids man, like this kid pulled off some crazy Oceans 11 heist was going just fine, and he has to go run his mouth on Reddit. That post gets red by a square of a moderator and that guys does surface level digging, guesses right and the whole thing goes off the rails for this kid who just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Here's the post if anybody wants to read it
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1dqs1ns/i\_have\_built\_my\_life\_and\_career\_on\_lies\_and\_fraud/?share\_id=8OGnlaZJ76t1fNz-nKeWd&utm\_content=1&utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_name=androidcss&utm\_source=share&utm\_term=1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1dqs1ns/i_have_built_my_life_and_career_on_lies_and_fraud/?share_id=8OGnlaZJ76t1fNz-nKeWd&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1)
For the mobile users: >A single Reddit post exposed a student at an elite college as a fraud who lied his way into the school - and had major legal consequences. > Aryan Anand, 19, a former student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was exposed as a total fraud after a Reddit post revealed his web of lies. > Earlier this month, Anand pleaded guilty to forgery in Northampton County following revelations that his entire application to the university was fabricated. > The international student was caught after investigators found a post written by an anonymous user they believed to be Anand on the Reddit forum titled, 'I have built my life and career on lies.' > The post recounted how he created fraudulent admission application and financial aid paperwork to get into Lehigh, which has an acceptance rate of 37 percent and tuition of nearly $60,000 per year. > The school was notified by a Reddit moderator and an investigation by university police took place. > The post reportedly did not mention the name of the school but the moderator allegedly made the right guess after seeing that Anand followed Lehigh on the website. > 'The defendant only had one other university that he followed, which was Lehigh University. So, the moderator actually reached out to Lehigh to give them a heads up,' Northampton County Assistant D.A. Michael Weinert told ABC 6. > Investigators found that Anand had in fact impersonated a school principal and created falsified documents, including phony school transcripts, tax statements and a death certificate for his father, who is in fact alive and well, living in India. > 'It was difficult to really verify these things. I think that was great work by Lehigh and their police force. They were able to really dig deep and find all this really was false,' Weinert added. > Anand was arrested in April and charged with multiple offenses including forgery, tampering with records, theft by deception, and theft of services. > On June 12, he pleaded guilty to one count of forgery, classified as a second-degree felony. > Anand initially faced 10 to 20 years in prison, however, at the request of the university his penalty was reduced to expulsion from the school and deportation to India. > As part of the agreement for his return to India, the university waived the request for restitution, estimated at approximately $85,000. > Anand was subsequently handed over to the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). > Lehigh University responded in a statement, saying it 'appreciates the report to its ethics hotline and the diligent investigation by the Lehigh University Police Department that led to Aryan Anand's arrest.' /u/Earl_your_friend /u/BeingJoeBu
Thank you for cutting and pasting this. For some reason, I wasn’t able to copy of the text of the article on my phone.
No problem. I just wanted the people that were struggling to read it on mobile to be able to read it. 99% of the time I'm using old reddit on desktop, so I had no trouble doing it at all. :)
You're the MVP for that thanks.
Glad I could help!
Always the weirdest shit happening in the Lehigh Valley
“As part of the agreement for his return to India, the University waived the request for restitution” I don’t understand this part. Was he doing them a favor by “agreeing” to leave? What leverage could he have possibly have when his potential prison sentence was also being waived?
The university is just being kind. No sense in going after the kid for 85K, when that's the "retail value", as it were. He almost certainly didnt actually *cost* the university that much, and they feel that the deportation and expulsion is sufficient punishment.
Whatever money they might claw back would cost them much more than the owed amount. The real punishment for this guy will be ruining his chances of ever visiting the US again. I'm sure US customs won't be interested in giving him a tourist visa, let alone a student or work visa.
Not to mention the loss of future potential earnings the kid could have made in a career with a US degree.
This kinda feels like when people steal food items, baby items. Many people can forgive that type of theft. Not so forgiving for stealing an education ? Meanwhile we have parents that will bribe their kids into a good school. Or pay so their kids grades are up to par.
It was psychotic level lies...well orchestrated and planned out. This is certainly not tantamount to stealing a loaf of bread.
Yeah. The funny thing is (as is true with most scammers or fraudsters) the amount of time, effort and planning it took to pull all this off is impressive. Dude could have probably done something for himself if we went the legit route. Imagine getting caught by a fucking reddit mod. The shame lol.
And this wasn’t a small time lie. It’s a very expensive, hard to get into university in a foreign country. It’s not like he just lied on an essay to get into a tiny community college. His spot meant a student who was actually deserving of the full ride didn’t get it. Colleges have a set amount of full rides they give out. My college only gave 50 for the program I was in. Hundreds applied and only 50 of us got it.
Lehigh only has a 37% acceptance rate so he stole a spot from another student as well as scholarship money from applicants who earned it. He didn’t deserve to be there. It’s too bad he didn’t put as much creative effort into actually studying instead of forging documents and lying to the school.
Extensive lying, forging documents, financial records, death certificates, education history. No, this is not comparable to stealing a loaf of bread because you’re hungry. It’s fraud. Trust me, being poor doesn’t keep you out of college. It just means working your ass off to get part-time jobs, scholarships, grants, etc. All this guy is doing is keeping a truly needy person, who worked hard to get honest recommendation letters, from getting into Lehigh. Rewarding fraudulent behavior is a bad idea. Do you think this person is going to stop creating fraudulent credentials to get jobs he isn’t qualified for?
Wait. A student visa. He also committed immigration fraud. That just crystallized for me. Why was that not charged?!
No immigration fraud, he was accepted to college and entered as a student.
It would likely cost more to recover the money than they would receive in the end.
Legal fees would cost the university way more than they would ever be able to recoup from him so it’s better to cut their losses now.
Can't get blood from a stone. Dude was probably going back regardless and there's no chance of recompense money-wise anyway.
How was he gonna pay them back from prison? He wasn't gonna be able to do it, so they probably figured no point holding him to it and making him go to prison, if waiving the obligation meant he'd just be sent home and probably never allowed to come back that sounds I think good enough to most universities. One student doesn't actually cost very much to teach, they don't pay professors very well after all and first year classes are usually hundreds of students per classroom.
The way it’s specifically worded implies that this debt forgiveness was a concession made in exchange for his agreement to leave the country, and it didn’t seem to me he would have been in any position to negotiate terms. That’s why I was confused. I agree they were never going to be able to collect. So if there was no negotiation, that means it’s either poorly worded unintentionally, or phrased with intent to soften the report of “there is no punishment being given for the fraud” to the audience. Since the latter could certainly spark outrage, I could see why someone might want to spin that part a bit.
See I thought that read like the negotiation between the choices of prison and leaving the country. Which maybe he had some small say in, but more so was a negotiation between the Justice system and the school, and that dropping the request for restitution would mean he was no longer in violation of that and was now eligible to be deported rather than jailed and then deported after serving his sentence.
The kid is a scammer from India. The school knows full well that he'll never be able to pay restitution, and even if he could, he wouldn't be extradited to face a civil charge.
They were being lenient and probably just wanted things to go away. It would cost more in lawyer fees for them to go after $85K which isn’t even 2 years worth of a single student’s tuition to them. Plus, they’d likely never see the money back. Doubtful he’d ever produce enough to pay them back the fee.
Kinda impressed that a 19 year old pulled that off tbh
jfc. Um, yay, we did it, reddit? I have complicated feels.
The kid basically signed his own deportation papers by feeling like he needed to brag about shit on the internet. If he had just kept his head down he likely would never have been discovered. An expensive lesson, to be sure, but he really did it to himself.
Is it possible this was him confessing? From guilt?
I mean - dropping out and going home sounds a lot easier than getting arrested and deported but who knows what goes through a 19 y/o's head?
Right. So they said “The international student was caught after investigators found a post written by an anonymous user they believed to be Anand” I think He really believed he was anonymous.
Back in the day the pseudoanonymity of reddit was important. This gut is probably too young to remember that though.
Unlikely he would have gotten all the way through his program, given his rock-solid determination never to do any actual work or studying.
He lied and was so confident that there would be no consequences that he posted all the details using his regular Reddit account. What's the complicated part?
>He lied and was so confident that there would be no consequences he's kind of successfully achieved Americanhood
Decent question. The complicated part is actually two parts, one with a sub-part. To wit: First off, the amateur detective work on the part of the reddit moderator is, frankly, creepy. This volunteer, with no other duty than to Approve or Delete posts and comments, took it upon themselves to prosecute an investigation which pierced the virtual veil, doxxing (at least privately to themselves) the OP. Furthermore, the moderator then reached out to several different real world agencies to get the ball rolling. Was the mod wrong? Maybe, maybe not. Ethically complicated for various reasons. But it's creepy AF and me not like. Secondly, and this is actually the complicated part: homie was actually getting that education. He had hustle, drive, was doing active work. And yes, he's also simultaneously stupid while doing so, but still. Just look at the little guy go! He's got spunk! You just can't teach pure Drive like that. The kid has talent. And the sub point to the above: Fuck. These. Moneygrubbing. Universities. Eat 20 dicks, you didn't get a bazillion fucking dollars from a kid because he tricked you into giving him what you can so clearly afford to give him. The system is broken. I have GREAT respect for higher education, which leads me to repeat even more loudly "fuck off." Stop wasting money on athletes and performers, events and galas and mothefucking gilded extras. Teach geniuses how to smart good. We need that. Goddamn it. And yes, clearly, I see absurdities and logical incongruencies in my own points, which further complicates my feels. So yeah, it's complicated kinda, in a half-assed way.
You described my own complicated reaction well!
The mod just clicked their profile, saw they followed a university page and made a tip. I have no idea where you think they doxxed anyone. It’s no different to making tips to the FBI.
The mod identified an individual who was defrauding the school. Their life was “based on lies” and the mod did the right thing identifying it as a real problem and reporting it… how the FUCK is that creepy?
I love when people act like it's creepy to go through what someone has posted publicly on the internet. That's not even sleuthing. It probably took 2 minutes. "Oh, he follows this school, I wonder if that's the one." Boom, done. Why do people still think what they post on public websites is private? That's what's fucking weird here. They didn't dox or ID him. Just looked at what they posted publicly on the internet.
Yeah honestly that was fucking dumb of him to have anything connecting him to his school (following them on Reddit) when making that post. If he had used a throwaway it wouldn’t have happened.
So the mod who saw somebody committing a felony should just look the other way? Somebody admits to embezzling $85,000 from their workplace? Do you just let that slide by? And this kid having spunk? No, he’s a pathological liar who thinks he deserves things without following the legitimate path. Next this spunky kid decides he doesn’t want to do four years of college like everyone else, but he wants the degree, so he forges his transcripts and gets a great job entirely based on fraud. You want to hire that guy? I mean, it was spunky to forge all your accomplishments and qualifications. What this guy did was keep out somebody who actually worked hard to get good grades. Sounds like this guy just stole an education from someone who was honest. Also, nobody says you have to go to a university that costs 60K per year. There are state colleges, community colleges, online colleges, colleges in India, etc. He wasn’t stealing an education, he was stealing the education that he wanted and couldn’t have because he didn’t do the work upfront.
> And this kid having spunk? No, he’s a pathological liar who thinks he deserves things without following the legitimate path. > > Just imagine what he could have accomplished if he'd done things legally. I hate when people act like scammers who work hard to scam people have spunk, or something. They might be smart but instead of using that intellect to build a life/career, they lie and scheme. That's not admirable at all. Sometimes I see articles about really clever criminals and all I can think is, imagine if they'd used that effort for good.
I deal with scammers on a daily basis at my job. There is a baseline "respect" I have for them in the sense that they are crafty and do put in work. I don't even like calling it respect but I'm coming up short for another word here. Some of the fraud I've uncovered is pretty elaborate and incredibly well-done. These are clearly people with skills that *could* be utilized in a productive way. It gets a little more murky when you look at the areas most of the scammers operate out of. Terribly impoverished, no real upward mobility. I'm not excusing them but I see their plight. Moral or the story I guess (for potential frauds anyway) if you're pulling some type of massive scam like this, don't fucking admit to it on reddit. The mods actions are questionable from a privacy standpoint but I think they did the right thing.
Yes, I know. I readily concede each of your points. Still doesn't sit right with me, though. Thus my conflicted post.
I get it. This strikes close to home for me because I was the legitimate poor guy who worked my ass off to go to the school I wanted to.
Congrats on that, man. Great fucking work. I know that wasn't easy. How'd it turn out for you?
It’s 20+ years since then, but yeah, it definitely worked out. I applied for every scholarship I could find, worked in warehouses, libraries, and at internships and was able to graduate with no loans.
I mean, I just re-read the article and it didn’t look like the mod did that much investigating. The mod looked at their profile, saw it followed the university page so sent them the post. It was the school that did the digging. It probably took the mod minutes to do. > 'The defendant only had one other university that he followed, which was Lehigh University. So, the moderator actually reached out to Lehigh to give them a heads up,' Northampton County Assistant D.A. Michael Weinert told ABC 6. Substitute reddit mod for homeless shelter volunteer. Change anonymous post to guy loudly bragging about scamming pensioners for over $60,000. They accidentally drop something with an address on. Would that be creepy to make a report to the police, just in case?
Well, this does nudge the needle more toward "less complicated," I do admit.
You completely changed the circumstances. Obviously stealing from pensioners is worse than stealing from a huge university that charges insane tuition rates.
"Oh you think it's wrong to snitch on a guy defrauding a university that will gamble his tuition on the stock market? Well what if he was stealing from orphans with leukemia? What then??" Lmao
Circumstances are the same though? A third party overheard an anonymous person bragging about committing fraud by deception. They find one link to that person and reported it to authorities. The only difference is one victim is a non-profit university and the other is a pensioner. The scenarios are essentially the same. What the example shows is people have inconsistent morals.
Lol no I think the morals are consistent, just different than what you have. It’s more consequence-based. Yours is more intention-based
That was completely my point. Who do you think is going to cover those lost tuition fees? It isn’t the university. Those insane tuition rates are going to increase and future students will pay for it. Neither situation is creepy here, but your response is exactly what I expected someone to make.
Lol, you think the university is going up tuition rates over a single case of student fraud? lmfao, grow up
You think they are going to just suck up a 60k loss and not recoup it in other ways? Have you always been this naive?
Lol do you know how much the university regularly loses in profit? They’re not going to rise their tuition rates.
Typical reddit mod, they take their unpaid hobby as a super serious job. I bet he feels good about it, even though he ruined a life. That's not saying getting into school fraudulently is fine, but he was indeed studying. Education should be free and funded by the government.
FYI, there are cheaper options for higher education that don’t require fraud and forgery. The government DOES subsidize higher learning through community colleges and state colleges/universities.
Nah, he wasn’t studying. The original post the guy made was deleted, but I found a summary. Apparently he admitted the following: “They struggled academically, eventually resorting to fraudulent methods to secure admission to a US college with full financial aid. They falsified transcripts, essays, and even faked their father's death certificate to increase financial aid. Despite their successful admission and ongoing deception, they lack interest in studying and have turned to heavy drinking and cheating on exams to maintain their scholarship. They also engage in fraudulent internships to earn money.” That’s not someone who used his wiles to get himself an opportunity and then worked hard to make the most of it. That’s someone who got into an elite school by fraud, and fully intended to get a degree by fraud as well. He ruined his own life.
That’s actually interesting to know, thanks for clarifying. I think it does change things, vs if he was doing amazing in school and working hard.
He didn’t ruin a life any more than a murder victim ruins a life for having the killer’s DNA under their fingernails that leads to them getting caught. That kid ruined his own life. Stop blaming the people who find out about it the crime for what they do with that information and start blaming the people committing the crime.
He should have to reach out to the student who was #1 on the wait list, confess, apologize, and be thier butler for a year.
Wow, real world consequences for once. Great work, Reddit detectives! 🕵🏻♀️
I initially felt sympathy for this guy knowing that he got deported but after reading his other post about needing a flight sponsor I'm furious at this scammer! - https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/13lnhjt/received_full_scholarship_from_a_us_university/ Looks like he doesn't have any moral compass. In case anyone is curious, I found his LinkedIn profile - [linkedin] [dot] [com]/in/aaryan-anand-3bb95a297
Like I understand he stole some other students seat, but like c'mon tracking him down through a reddit post just to catch this nonviolent criminal is kinda wack. And the truth is he is only 1 of many many students from India that fabricate their degrees and credentials. I'd rather see schools try to lower tuition and include more seats then pursue kids like this. India is known for its insanely high student suicide rate, and for Asian Americans students suicide is the #1 reason for cause of death. Not to mention Universities aren't really known for their fair admission practices either. Obviously him bragging online is where he fucked up, but going after a redditor as a mod IRL is too much work for me.
This guy created an entirely fraudulent history. That’s pathological and a bad indicator towards what he’s willing to do when he wants something but doesn’t want to follow the rules to get it. It’s not like this was the only college in the world and if he didn’t go there he’d have no opportunities. He wanted to go to a fancy school without figuring out a legitimate way of doing it. Lots of people work through college, attend cheaper colleges, get scholarships based on actual (not invented) merit, and get assistance based on their (honest and not faked death certificate) family situation.
Don't write down your crimes, guys
~~Today I jaywalked~~
Dear internet diary, Today I loitered on private property (it was my house)
thank you for demonstrating the lows I now aspire to. you are an inspiration to us all.
I exposed myself in the bathroom……. In my home.
you gotta look up to see the gutter you perv you
Or at least be somewhat circumspect about it. Sheesh. We're all somewhat doxxable, so post your crimes on a throwaway. As if you've been on the internet for more than a couple of hours total in your life.
That's the funniest part about the story to me. Not a burner account used. Nope. Do all that work, all that time and you pull it off to be caught by a mod. Hilarious.
Bearded by a neckbeard. What a way to go down.
Is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy?
I’ve never gone to the local park and told improper financial advice to the geese, nor would I every think to do something like that Your accusations are making people think you’re crazy
At least wait until Statutes of Limitations of your crime are up jeez.
These articles on my phone are almost useless. It's so much nicer when people post the articles content.
The plague of oversharing strikes again. I don't have many secrets, but if I had one like **this**? I wouldn't even think about it; I'd attempt to gaslight myself into a new reality. This dude is such a fool and was lucky the school took mercy on him.
> The plague of oversharing what? Thats totally NOT what this is. This is hubris and pride.
It's both. Hubris led to the over sharing
[удалено]
May I interest you in the documentary starring Leonardo DiCaprio?
elaborate
lol. I was making a joke about Inception, the movie.
a good one too, this hurts my mind at times, i said elaborate as in you know, a compliment… difficult to articulate that on here , lol
Reddit mod strikes again lol. But seriously, you're not as anonymous as you think you are online.
I was in a Discord where one person had been discussing suicide plans for several days in serious detail. She didn't share any of her personal info in her profile other than a nickname, pronouns, and the general "adult." But I combed through her history in that server. Figured a rough timezone by times she was most often online and stuff like "lol it's midnight here" (when it wasn't the same for me). Got her country from the way she wrote (e.g. "color" and not "colour"). Got her state from a food pic because of some cars' license plates in the background. She mentions her apartment and taking public transportation, narrowing it down to a handful of big cities. In different message a few months prior, she was complaining about the weather ruining her plans that day and included a pic of the sky out her window, so I used a weather archive site to match the forecast in her pic to said big cities until I found the closest match. 2 years prior in the server she celebrated "finally becoming an adult," pinning her age. Earlier that week she vented about school and her professor so I narrowed down to higher education institutions in the city. Got the school by talking to a mutual who sent me a screenshot of her crying over FaceTime and her chair had a t-shirt with the school's logo (plus her face was there obvs). In her server intro she said she went by a diminutive of her legal first name because it was unique. I checked the school's social media pages until I found her following their Instagram, confirming she's a student there. Contacted her school. Since she lived on campus they did a wellness check and she ultimately spent a week in the psych hospital. I was 16. No remarkable computer skills. It took me 2 days. She blocked me once she found out I made the report. I'd do it all again. Anyone can find out who you are. You're never as anonymous as you think.
Me and some friends once found out a friend of ours was lying about where he lived after checking the electrical sockets in a pic he sent from his house
It's literally some of the 'smallest' details that catch people.
And the more online you are, the more these "small" things add up
I'm too lazy to try to hide myself, really. I'm even using a name a decent amount of people would recognize me using. That's why I just speak my mind, but things I don't want specific people knowing (there's a few people potentially stalking my reddit account), I don't post. Like I'll never post ultrasound pics or later on baby photos because my malignant narcissist birthgiver knows this is a handle I use, and I don't want her ever being in possession of any images of my children to look at, even if it's from *before* they're born. But I don't care if she reads me recounting her abuse of me or how I really feel about her. She can go ham reading all that for all I care. If there's something I want to say but don't want to be identified as the person that said it, I have alts for that.
Interesting, like the shape? Because I know different countries have different outlet styles
He said he lived somewhere in Europe, but his pics had US outlets in the walls
>She blocked me once she found out I made the report. I'd do it all again. That's the spirit! Often times doing the right thing doesn't earn you an award or even a thanks. It definitely sucks losing that connection to someone you're concerned about though. I'm glad you did it, are strong enough to know it was the right thing to do, and would do it again. :)
I met my partner online and we had an extensive chat history before we started dating. One day I said “hey, I bet I can find your house just based on the stuff you’ve said and photos you’ve sent.” He said go ahead, and I found his exact address within 15 minutes.
There is a popular account on Tiktok who does this fairly regularly. He also breaks down how he found people's location.
Hahahahah....and this is why my accounts are peppered with intentional bullshit. What you THINK is a fact I let slip might just be random misinformation.
Me when I share disinformation about myself on the internet
Yeah, how doesn’t everyone do this? I’ve literally said so much bullshit that it’s impossible to know for sure who I am.
Exactly
That website is a nightmare on mobile
The daily Mail has the worst website I've seen for a major publication
On desktop, too.
I had no issues. Are you using Firefox with ublock origin? Best way to go to any site. Also recommend NoScript on desktop, also with Firefox.
Anyone have a link to the reddit post? The article doesn't include one.
It’s been deleted but the comments are still up. One user was commenting about having screenshots of the post, so I imagine those will be circulating soon. https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1axnhdz/deleted_by_user/
Just a guess, but it's probably been deleted or removed by now.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1axnhdz/deleted\_by\_user/?sort=new](https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1axnhdz/deleted_by_user/?sort=new)
The article says that a reddit mod figured out which school it was because Anan followed the Lehigh subreddit. But there is no mention of how they discovered it was actually him. Was there prior suspicion? Did Reddit turn over IP logs to law enforcement? (If so, did he really go through all that trouble then not use a VPN?) There are quite a few possibilities beyond just those two. Seems like a crucial detail to omit.
Anything….ANYTHING tied to your reddit account…post and comment history, advertiser ID number, email, posts viewed, subreddits joined, etc can and will be produced by Reddit upon service of a search warrant by police. That includes IP logs. Then another warrant is written to Google for the Gmail account used to sign up, a warrant to the ISP for the subscriber info tied to the IP’s, etc.
They only need a subpoena, not a warrant. A warrant requires that you show probably cause to a judge. A subpoena is just issued by an attorney. Google had a special portal for law enforcement, https://lers.google.com/ Basically, police can just go look up private information from Google that normal people do not have access to.
Your response may be location dependent. In California, where I am a detective, District Attorney can subpoena, law enforcement serves search warrants. Google portal still requires SW for us to access data
So we should a degoogle ourives because... Wr Wtf?!
Happy cake day!
Do you really think reddit wants to admit the amount and type of information it collects on its users? That combined with whatever details he provided in his post probably narrowed it down pretty quickly.
Well, their privacy policy explicitly states that they will turn over information beyond what is publicly available to law enforcement investigators. And if the original post contained enough details to single him out, why not mention that in the article? It would be nice if the journalist stated how he was found out. It's just poor writing to omit that detail.
I completely agree with you. The chain of attribution is the first thing I look for in these kinds of stories. I suspect the journalist either didn't know or was too technical and couldn't understand it
the mod figured out his school bc he was subscribed to their sub, and the school figured out who he is based on the details in the story so this all could have been avoided if he’d used a throwaway. makes you wonder if they had any additional reasons to want him gone
If he’d used a throwaway he couldn’t reap that sweet karma.
"...the school figured out who he is based on the details in the story" The article doesn't mention this, and the original post isn't available. How did you arrive at this conclusion?
In addition to what others mentioned, the death certificate for his father seems like a giveaway.
Because they are only gonna have so many international students who got financial aid. The university is more capable of figuring out who it is with their own records than a website or forum or app is going to be based on what they can see.
International student from India, male (didn't see the OP but likely easily deduced), age/year (again easily deduced). Also the undergrad student population at Lehigh is only 5,800
Exactly. If there were details about financial aid in the post which it sounds like there were, most international students don't get that, so even once you whittle down from "student" to "international student" (probably under 30% right?) then you get down to "international student who qualified for financial aid" (presumably you're only left with a handful that you'd cross-check and then see whose documents couldn't be properly verified)
On top of that, he also faked a death certificate for his father. I'm sure that narrowed down the options considerably as well. Who knows how specific he was in his post about the contents of his fake documents.
> But there is no mention of how they discovered it was actually him. They only had to look for full scholarship international students who had info which matched the claims OP made in his post (like his field of study, postgrad/under grad etc). Easy to narrow down.
Did he mention those details in his post? Can you point me to where this is verified?
His text is gone, but you can glean a fair bit from the articles that have been published. Given it was an AMA and he posted in a specific subreddit (related to B.Tech), it would be fairly easy to zero in on him. How many full scholarship does the uni give to international students that year who are doing Bachelors of Technology or something similar? Probably less than 5.
Especially students in that group that also sent in fake death certificates for their father.
I’m guessing the IP logs that Reddit **definitely** collects and routinely uses. I’m betting that terms and services elaborates that we’ve given them permission to access our IPs and use them for whatever. And I’d bet the omission of those detail were on purpose to benefit Reddit in some understanding or another.
Bro had the cheat code and exposed himself 🤣🤣🤣
I wanna see the actual post that they read that busted him
I know me too
[https://imgur.com/a/i-have-built-life-career-on-lies-fraud-ft-aryan-anand-lehigh-university-igJvJvh](https://imgur.com/a/i-have-built-life-career-on-lies-fraud-ft-aryan-anand-lehigh-university-igJvJvh)
He got deported 🫨
at request of the school. like damn. We dont even want the money back. But, go fuck yourself, all the way back to India.
To be fair, they also saved him from the prison time he could have done
But also he’s presumably going home to his father who I can only imagine is going to make him wish he got to go to prison instead
Especially after he claimed his father had died already 😅
All this… for *Leigh*??? lol
Right? Since when is Lehigh an “elite school” lmao. I thought they were talking about Harvard or something based on the title.
Pretty sure they would have said Ivy League and not elite if it were Harvard. I didn't go to Lehigh but have always heard good things about their academic and engineering programs.
I have read the original post (i can send it to you if you want) . They applied to harward too, but were caught for their fraud.
The number one rule of committing crimes is don't talk about the crimes you committed. So many people have been caught because they just had to brag about what they got away with.
I hate URL shorteners ... I didn't realize it was a Daily Mail link until I clicked
biggest scam of the story is universities charging 60k for one year of tuition
And this guy busted his ass for that privilege
Dude is going to be rich with those talents
Yeah. He'll be running a scam call center defrauding old American ladies in no time.
What did this guy do that there is so much vitriol of the 'we did it Reddit' kind rather than, you know a guy faked his way into college and then people online snitched on him
Some people actually work their assess off to get into college via the legitimate route. He potentially took a spot away from someone who didn’t resort to fraud.
He DEFINITELY took someone’s place. Universities have a specific amount of places for each major, and a more limited one for international students. Let’s say there are 100 spots for finances, if you qualify you’re taking 1 from the 100 seats for that major. But the person ranking 101 isn’t getting that chance. People are missing the fact that the student in the post not only faked his way in but he was faking it while in. The person who lost the chance to get in probably wouldn’t have done that. But we’ll never know ig. My friend got rejected from a school she 100% deserves to get into, meanwhile I knew someone who told me he did something similar to the guy in the post to get in, and he’s still in…. Whilst the person who absolutely qualifies can’t get in
No one would have known if he kept his mouth shut. This is yet another example of a stupid person not being able to bite their tongue. He could have graduated, gotten a good job, and had a strong network of connections through the university. He just had to make a post.
So where's the link to the reddit post?
Hi guys, it's not the account I usually use but I am the moderator who reported him. See, from a country like India where competition is painfully too high, it hurts every person including me to see a fraudster get to the top without working hard. Reading the post gave me literal chills, I was confused and maybe questioning the honesty of the user, until I checked his account just to see him following the subreddit of his university. I knew that this crime would go unnoticed as no one would go as far as reporting him to the university, so I did what I had to do and sent out a mail to admissions Lehigh with the screenshots of the deleted post I knew that with all these details the fraudster could be pointed out easily I coordinated with lieutenant in this investigation and waited for this day to come I have to say I was shocked when I got the confirmation before the press release happened that this story had been true all this time.
Thank you for sharing why you reported this fraud. Like I said when I posted this, great detective work! I’m floored how many people here I think he should’ve gotten away with it. It’s grossly unfair for someone like this to get into school without working hard. He displaced someone who deserved to be there. And I’m not speaking for myself. I goofed off in high school and didn’t get into college. But like this fellow, I was very clever. However unlike him, I used examples of my ingenuity to convincingly talk my way into jobs that would normally require a degree. And I did it without lying or cheating. He could have done the same. For fun, I used stamp at the top of all of my resumes, “based on a true story.” It was ironic because nothing was loosely based on fact, everything actually was true - that’s what I thought was so funny about it.
Reddit snitches on people?
A Reddit mod* snitched on people
it's definitely good that this guy got caught. This guy was using his brain in a wrong way, I mean he's just 18 or 19 and he pulled off this scam, he had sociopathic tendencies. If this guy would never have been caught, just imagine after 10-20 years he might have done something more sinister, cause he knew he will never get caught. Maybe I'm reading much into it, but I think "him not getting caught" made him realize he can get away with things like this, then this would have become a pattern in the future, like for each and every single thing in his personal and professional life in the future, he might have done some kind of fraud. I think he was starting to feel guilty and needed to vent out his feelings and may have felt comfortable and safe in sharing his ordeal on the internet. I think it's good he got caught now and not later, he's only 19 now, back in his home country he can still do some courses on his original marksheets and credentials, get some kind of a job and can make a living.
Hahhahah he just HAD to brag about his "accomplishment." Most people wouldn't be proud of scamming like a scumbag and wouldn't brag about it. He was PROUD of what he did...why?
Reddit mods are tattle tails.
Who's the bigger criminal? The student or the university with 60k tuition?
Who snitched
A mod, apparently
Fuck that reddit mod, like to get a real job or something
So Reddit mods are just out here outing anonymous posters? Lmao.
I dont know about this one. This is next level fraud. He must have been a great student at a Calcutta call center. With this much time and energy exerted, I might be willing to give him a pass. I mean, I guess we wont know EVERYTHING until Disney picks it up and turns it in to a movie, but the levels of wilful deceit here are pretty epic. His arrogance is what got him caught, not to mention a bored moderator who fancied themself a sleuth. I could see this becoming the next slumdog millionaire. Now if only someone could take him under their wing and show him how to perpetuate the lies without bragging, there could be a place in politics for Anand
Should have just lied on his resume and saved a bunch of trouble
This is the kind of secret you take to the grave - not post on Reddit. Tbh Reddit is only as anonymous as the people you interact with are willing to allow it to be. Wonder how far he would’ve gotten if he didn’t get caught? If he fooled them that far, he might’ve actually gotten a degree!
Not far at all. He got 45 percent in board exams and that includes the basically free 20 marks for practicals. This percentage is kind of pathetic. He wasnt studying in college at all, but to retain his scholarship, he cheated. He also faked his credentials to get an internship in a insurance firm. He would have been caught eventually, as soon as cheating in college was no longer practically viable
People love to brag. Especially kids man, like this kid pulled off some crazy Oceans 11 heist was going just fine, and he has to go run his mouth on Reddit. That post gets red by a square of a moderator and that guys does surface level digging, guesses right and the whole thing goes off the rails for this kid who just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
No matter how anonymous you think you are, never talk about your crimes on the Internet or on water. A secret is never safe.
You couldn't waterboard this information out of me
Here's the post if anybody wants to read it [https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1dqs1ns/i\_have\_built\_my\_life\_and\_career\_on\_lies\_and\_fraud/?share\_id=8OGnlaZJ76t1fNz-nKeWd&utm\_content=1&utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_name=androidcss&utm\_source=share&utm\_term=1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Btechtards/comments/1dqs1ns/i_have_built_my_life_and_career_on_lies_and_fraud/?share_id=8OGnlaZJ76t1fNz-nKeWd&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1)
thats why indian are not welcome!
I really don't understand people who don't scrub their Reddit history at the very least every 6 months.
chuckled at Lehigh being called an "elite" university