How a Faridabad boy busted a ‘fraud among geniuses’ in America

medium nocaption116885424On February 23, 2024, a post dropped into a Reddit group with 50,000 members called Btechtards.It was a long read. The chronicle of a crime in lurid detail. No bloodshed, but cold-blooded white-collar delinquency through which a boy who had barely passed his 12th boards had made it to a leading US university on a full scholarship to study computer science.The anonymous writer was making a full disclosure, one startling revelation after another like a Keigo Higashino-style ‘come, get me’ than Agatha Christie whodunit. Through a series of dexterous frauds, a boy with no interest in studying but desperate to go to an American university had managed just that and settled into life as a “fraud among geniuses”.He also wrote of the astonishment in his family when he broke the news of his US admission. “Tujhe to plus-minus bhi nahi aata, yeh kaise ho gaya? [You don’t even know how to add and subtract, how did this happen?]” his father asked.But why put it all out there?“I have built my career on LIES and FRAUD”, the post’s title, cried out for attention. What was this?A confession?A cathartic release?Bragging by an artful dodger?There were many thoughts that the post stirred up in MG (we’ll refer to him by his initials because he does not want to be named), who as moderator of Btechtards was among the first to read it. 3am, India time, MG was moving in and out of internet rabbit holes when he saw the post. He read it, and read it again, and again.Surprise turned into anger.MG is the polar opposite of the Reddit post’s writer. Nineteen years old and a BTech student himself, he is studying hard at a private tech campus in Faridabad for scores that let him go to the US for higher studies.MG is a data buff. He has no time or inclination for detective work, no hunger for thrillers. But he decided to get to the bottom of this. “It wasn’t an ordinary post. Generally, if any post has objectionable content or mentions trigger words such as nudity, sex, rape, etc, it gets flagged by filters. In this post, there were no such issues… but it caught my attention,” MG, who has a knack for reading and gaming, told TOI over a call.A series of dark choicesIn the post made from the account – u/TransportationOk4728 – the writer hadn’t just detailed his frauds but was also candidly honest about his dark choices. “I haven’t told anyone how I got to the point where I am right now. It would destroy everything I have,” he wrote.This is how it all beganSo, it all started when our 10th board exams got cancelled. From that day till now, I haven't seriously studied for even 2 hours. As usual, I took Science in 11th, dreaming of cracking JEE and all, but soon realized it wasn’t a piece of cake. I barely passed 11th with 49%. Then, in 12th, I thought I would restart everything and took admission in a dummy school. I might have studied seriously for like 2-3 days, but then again, I started repeating the same things. There was a time in my life where I was just eating, sleeping, and watching movies. I used to watch horror movies all night long for months, then sleep the whole day and my parents thought I was studying the whole night…The writer said he “edited” his exam marksheets from Class 9 to 11 and made the documents “perfect”, even buying a fake stamp and seal of his school principal to make them look authentic. Then he made a fake profile of himself. In his applications to US colleges, the teenager, who was studying at Ruby School in Rajasthan's Kota, said he belonged to Chandigarh. He added accolades to his name that “could not be verified” but were “impressive” nonetheless.He also planned how to sidestep any checks by colleges, which usually verify applicants’ details by writing to institutes. He bought a domain in his school’s name and with it an e-mail ID of his school principal to make correspondence between the school and the college he would apply to formal.In his words, this is how he did itSo, I planned a very very structured fraud plan.I got my result for 9-11 class edited them like in a very perfect way anyone would not recognize as if it's edited, then made a completely fake predicted result for my 12th class even bought a fake stamp and seal of my school's principal to make it look perfect. Then, as all these transcripts needed to be sent by my school's official email id. but my school only had a gmail.com email... So, I made a fake email id of my school, not any regular email like echcolname@amail.com, I bought a similar website domain of my school and got the email like if it's of principal then principal@schoolname.com so it looked exactly official, then I started preparing my application, they need your academic achievements in high school, outside of academic achievements, made a complete full fake profile of me, and I didn't mention any of the activities like won any Olympiad medal or anything I put on which cannot be verified but are still impressive, and even if they wanted to verify something, they would send an email to my school of which I had access to...With fake marksheets and essays written using generative AI, by copying pieces available on the internet and cloning the writing style but to different topics, he applied to Ivy League universities.When he did not hear from them, he thought they had seen through the bluff in his applications when suddenly, a leading university responded. “I don’t know what, but one college, I would not write its name for obvious reasons, it’s a top 25 In the US and a reputed college. I don’t know how they accepted but gave me a very very good financial aid package which covered almost everything except my meal plan cost. It was like 5k USD a year, which is about 4-5 lakhs a year,” he wrote.On paper, shining in boards, killing a parentAnd now that he felt luck was on his side, he decided to push for full scholarship. “I wanted my freedom at any cost, and if I could go to college without spending a penny of my parents’ money, only then could I get that. So, I planned another very wrong and fraud thing,” he wrote in the post.So, he wrote back the university saying his father had died of cancer, and he couldn’t afford tuition or living expenses in the US. “They took that very seriously, and instantly increased my aid package to over full cost of attendance, which means tuition, housing, meals, and even one round trip ticket to India every year,” the post read.It was now time for the final act. Forging the Class XII marksheet. He explained exactly how in the post: “I was worried that I might not even pass 12th. This was the only barrier now. I got my result. I scored 58%, and that too was more than enough for me. As soon as I got the result, I first edited the result page to 91% to show it to my parents, and for which they were really happy, and I was feeling guilty, and then got the copy from digi locker, edited that, made that 91%, and sent it to the college from school's official email which I created. They quickly accepted it and made my admission official, and everything was in place now.”He confessed he was surprised even by the 58% he scored in the final. During the boards, he wrote he realised how “messed up I was”. Referring to the physics exam, he wrote, “I remember there was a question, how are x-ray rays produced, I wrote x-ray rays are produced by x-ray machines.” And then, in maths, he “basically rewrote the questions”.This is what he wrote about his board resultsOkay, so for my boards, I was curious to know how I even passed, so I ordered the photocopies of my graded answer sheets from the CBSE website. When I received my answer sheets, I was literally shocked. I got like 10-15 marks in all the subjects except English and PE, it was written on the front of the answer sheet like 13 for maths, 15 for physics, 11 for chem, but on the result portal, they passed me by giving 29-30 in every subject and extra 20 with practical, so I got like 45-50 in every subject, so if someone who is giving boards rn, remember this, CBSE tries to pass you in every way possible...The visa interview was up next, and the writer was nervous because he knew bluffing would not work there. He wrote about seeing an applicant ahead of him getting rejected and getting further worked up inside but managing to look normal when his turn came. The session was brief. As soon as the visa officer saw he had a full scholarship from the university, his application, he wrote was cleared. medium nocaption112105502A fraud among geniusesAnd so, in August 2023, he landed in the US with his airfare paid by the university. Created through forgery, he could now live the American dream for real. “I got to know a few students from India who were like on full tuition scholarship and also from some other countries, and they all are like geniuses. They have done research in some fields, some are intl Olympiad winners and all that, and I am a fraud,” he wrote.But life as a fraud among geniuses wasn’t going to be easy. There were semester exams to clear and editing marksheets wasn’t going to work. A GPA of 3 out of 4 is must to retain the scholarship. So, he wrote, he began studying to make an earnest effort to pass, but made no progress. That’s when the next devious idea struck him.“So, I sat near the exit, and as soon as I got the paper and saw the invigilator was facing the other side, I left the room with the exam paper in my jacket wrote all the answers using internet, and at the end time, there used to be a crowd as people were going in and out and submitting the exams, so I came then mixed with the crowd and submitted it. I did all the exams like this and got near to perfect marks in all and got a 4/4 GPA last semester,” he wrote.By this time, he felt like teflon. So, for cash in hand to spend for a better lifestyle, he made a fake resume, edited transcripts to look like a third-year marketing student and managed to bag a remote work offer as a marketing intern from a New York-based firm for $1,500 a month. He used this money to indulge himself, like buying a new gadget and getting a drink. In a remarkably candid insight into his psyche, he wrote at the end of the post: "I just don't like to do anything in which my mind is involved unless it's fraud." medium nocaption112105536How he was caughtPoring over this Reddit post at his home in Faridabad, MG knew he could not let it go. “I felt it was serious and needed to be flagged,” he told TOI. So, he decided to probe. The post was anonymous. The account of the writer had no personal information. So, MG began scanning his previous posts for clues and activities.He found a photo of what seemed like a university building on his thread. Adept with online tools, he decided to carry out a Reverse Google Image search – a freely available feature that allows uploading a picture for the search engine to find the source or similar images to the one provided online.The results led him to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.MG was sure he had hit bullseye with a little more scanning. There was one giveaway on the writer’s account. “The only university he followed was Lehigh University in Pennsylvania,” he said. medium nocaption112105583By the afternoon of February 23, less than 12 hours after reading the post, MG wrote to the American university, flagging the admission fraud. He did not give away his identity and used an anonymous e-mail ID.“I am reaching out to bring to your attention a concerning post recently shared on our platform, which provides comprehensive details regarding an alleged case of admission fraud involving an Indian student… As a responsible online community, we feel a moral obligation to report this matter to the appropriate authorities to ensure a thorough investigation takes place,” he wrote.As methodical as he was in his search for the university, MG also pointed out clues that the college could use in identifying the student. These were:1. Indian2. Has given a fake death certificate named under his father (cause of death as cancer) to get a full scholarship3. Claims to have made a fake school result around 91%4. Make a fake school domain name and principal id5. Illegally doing a part-time job to earn 1500 usdAlmost a month later, a university official got in touch with him. The two got on a video call on March 20, and on May 13, MG got confirmation from the university that the student he had flagged was expelled and arrested. He now knew his identity. Another 19-year-old, whose initials are AA.After reaching a plea deal there, AA was deported from the US in June. Son of an officer in the armed forces, AA appeared for his boards from Ruby school in Rajasthan's Kota. Before that, he studied at Kendriya Vidyalayas in Kanpur and Hyderabad. His family is based in Chandigarh. medium nocaption112112128“It felt right to flag this problem because a many genuine students wait to get admission abroad every year. I am also a JEE aspirant, and I understand students’ struggle to pursue a good career,” MG said.Lehigh University, too, acknowledged MG’s role in bringing this fraud to their attention, saying in a statement that it “appreciates the report to its ethics hotline and the diligent investigation…”The university told TOI it “does not have any additional statement at this time” on the case. Education consultants who guide Indian students for applications abroad said foreign universities verify information provided by candidates by getting in touch with schools or colleges in the home country on official e-mail IDs.“Many universities also carry out the verification process through agencies. The chances of admission fraud increase when they don’t hire agencies to verify,” said Swapna Afroze, an overseas education consultant and counsellor. Afroze said action needs to be taken against such admission frauds because these aren’t just harmful for students’ record, but also malign a country’s name.In 2023, 28 Indian students were deported from the US, government had informed Parliament.Illustrations: Sajeev Kumarapuram/AI