How a Reddit post exposed Indian student who faked father's death for US university scholarship

Aryan Anand, 19, was deported from the United States and his admission was also revoked.

An Indian student who fabricated his entire application, including his father's death, to secure a full scholarship to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, is being deported from the United States. Aryan Anand, 19, has been charged with multiple counts of forgery and theft of services, according to Lehigh Valley News and ABC News.

Anand's elaborate deception included forging transcripts, financial statements, and even creating a fake death certificate for his father. He detailed his fraudulent activities in a Reddit post titled "I have built my life and career on lies," confessing that his entire application was falsified to gain admission to an American college.

"I haven't told anyone how I got to the point where I am right now. It would destroy everything I have," Anand wrote in his post, before explaining at length how he manipulated the system. Besides falsifying documents, Anand also created a fake email address to pose as his school principal.

Although Anand did not identify himself or the university in his post, a vigilant Reddit moderator noticed the post and conducted some research, uncovering that he was a student at Lehigh University.

"The defendant only followed one other university, which was Lehigh University. So, the moderator actually reached out to Lehigh to give them a heads-up," said Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Michael Weinert.

The moderator alerted the university and provided all the evidence they had gathered. As a result, Anand was arrested on April 30 and charged with second-degree felonies for forgery and tampering with records, as well as third-degree felonies for theft by deception and theft of services. He pleaded guilty to forgery on June 12, 2024.

Lehigh University has since revoked Anand's admission. In a statement, the university expressed appreciation for the report to its ethics hotline and praised the thorough investigation conducted by the Lehigh University Police Department, which led to Anand's arrest.