A 19-year-old Indian student who secured admission to a US university through forged documents was deported after anonymously detailing his fraud on Reddit, a confession that ultimately unravelled his life in America.
In an anonymous post titled “I Have Built My Life And Career On Lies And Fraud” on Reddit, Arian Anand laid out how he manipulated academic records, financial documents and personal circumstances to gain admission to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania with a full scholarship.
A Carefully Planned Fraud
According to his post, Anand traced the origins of the fraud to Class 10, after board examinations were cancelled. He enrolled in science in Class 11 with plans to prepare for competitive engineering exams but soon lost interest in academics. He wrote that he spent nights watching horror films while his parents believed he was studying and struggled to understand physics and chemistry when he attempted to study.
As the idea of studying abroad began to appeal to him, Anand researched college applications, admission essays and documentation requirements. He admitted that he did not prepare seriously for his Class 12 board examinations and instead focused on creating a detailed plan to secure admission overseas with a full scholarship.
He claimed to have digitally altered his marksheets from Classes 9 to 11 and used generative AI tools to draft a compelling cover letter. While he received offers from several institutions, they did not meet his condition of complete financial coverage.
Fake Death Certificate And Full Scholarship
Anand said he eventually received an offer from Lehigh University, which covered tuition and accommodation but not meals. Although he could afford meal costs for a year, he wrote that he did not want to accept any financial support from his parents and was determined to achieve total financial independence.
To secure additional funding, Anand falsely claimed that his father had died of cancer and submitted a forged death certificate. He told the university that his mother would receive only half of his father’s salary as pension. The university subsequently extended his scholarship to cover meals and even included one annual round-trip ticket to India.
Anand reached the US in August 2023 without spending any personal funds.
Cheating And Forged Transcripts
In his post, Anand admitted that despite initially considering a fresh academic start, he again lost interest in studying and began cheating in college examinations, securing perfect scores. Seeking extra money for personal expenses, he edited his academic transcript to pose as a third-year marketing student and used it to secure a paid internship earning $1,500 a month.
He claimed to have lived in the US for nearly a year without being detected.
Reddit Post Leads To Exposure
Anand shared these details in February 2024 on a subreddit called “BTechTards”. The subreddit’s moderator, a 19-year-old from Faridabad, later told The Indian Express that he felt morally compelled to act after reading the confession. A former engineering aspirant himself, the moderator said the post trivialised the struggles of students who prepare for competitive examinations honestly.
Although the moderator could not initially identify the anonymous user, he deduced Anand’s identity by reviewing activity on the account and discovering references to Lehigh University. He then alerted the university to the Reddit post.
Arrest And Deportation
Lehigh University conducted an internal investigation and confirmed that the anonymous confession had been written by Anand. The disclosure proved decisive. Anand was arrested on 30 April and charged with forgery, tampering with records, identity theft by deception and theft of services.
On 12 June, he pleaded guilty to one count of forgery. The university agreed not to pursue recovery of the approximately $85,000 it had spent on him, on the condition that he be deported to India.
Legal experts noted that had the university chosen to press all charges, Anand could have faced a prison sentence of up to 20 years in the US.
A Cautionary Tale
The case highlights how digital footprints and online confessions can have real-world legal consequences. What Anand described in his Reddit post as a morally wrong but successful scheme ultimately became the evidence that dismantled it, turning his own words into the trigger for his arrest and deportation.
