7 ms·

For the curious: this emerged as a twitter thread back in Jan https://twitter.com/mattlodder/status/1350192856154198016 https://twitter.com/mattlodder/status/13

For the curious: this emerged as a twitter thread back in Jan https://twitter.com/mattlodder/status/1350192856154198016 https://twitter.com/mattlodder/status/1350192856154198016 . In it, Dr. Lodder posts a comparison between his tattoos and his imposters, as well as a talk his imposter gave based on his work, while dressed as him. Creepy.

nchelluri 6y ago
Interesting how the test score is 80% in the twitter thread and 95% in the article.
- Sebb767 6y ago
  I thought the same thing. Through the twitter thread references a magazine article, while the original article on talks about "something [he] wrote", so they might be different pieces. EDIT: Or the imposter gave the interview and added a mark up ;)
- ajcp 6y ago
  Given he's a UK prof if he was told the paper was given an 'A' in the UK that can be anywhere from 70-100, while in the US it is 90-100. He might have initially split the difference, and then corrected it/was corrected for the article.
  - worker767424 6y ago
    > in the US it is 90-100 In a science or engineering class, it might be everything above 40%.
    - joejerryronnie 6y ago
      In a high priced private US university, you may get an A just for showing up.
      - ajcp 6y ago
        I assure you neither "high priced" nor "private" are necessary for this. In fact, those institutions have more to lose for doing so than a "low price public US university"
      - astrange 6y ago
        Those private US universities are actually free. Their endowments are large enough they can provide 100% tuition aid if you can't afford them. The problem is getting in.
    - cammikebrown 6y ago
      I really did not enjoy getting 40% on every test in math and physics and receiving a B. I do not feel like I learned the material that well. My very first freshman mechanics midterm grade, a 67, was an A+, and gave me a false sense of adequacy. Maybe they could figure out how to teach better?
      - lupire 6y ago
        You aren't supposed to learn everything in one semester. You are supposed to make adequate progress, and the tests are broad enough to catch as much as possible of what you've learned.
        Aeolun 6y ago
        That sounds silly. Give me a test that I can actually reasonably learn the material for any day.
      - samatman 6y ago
        It's perfectly human to want to pass with a perfect score, but this undermines the purpose of a test. A test which has a significant fraction of scores at the right side of the distribution has saturated the range: there are differences in comprehension and mastery between one 100% and another, which aren't being measured by the test. The platonic form of a perfect test would have exactly one student per class who got every question correct, but that's impossible to reach except by luck. So a teacher is stuck between writing a test which is too difficult for everyone, and one which is too easy for a substantial fraction of the class. They should pick the first over the second. While that can feel frustrating (I know, I've been there!) it's likely that you in fact learned the material better than you would have in a class where your level of mastery allowed you to score perfectly for an A+ and in the mid 80s for a B.
        kortilla 6y ago
        > So a teacher is stuck between writing a test which is too difficult for everyone, and one which is too easy for a substantial fraction of the class. No, the teacher is not stuck here. It is rarely the purpose of an academic test to plot students on a wide distribution. That’s just something fun for teachers to do to look for exceptional students. If the purpose of a test is to determine if an individual student passes some bar of understanding, then there is absolutely no reason to make it extremely difficult and then give A’s to those who got >50% correct.
    - spfzero 6y ago
      Boy it sure wasn't when I was an undergrad EE.
      - felipemnoa 6y ago
        don't forget about the curve
- Gimpei 6y ago
  Having done tertiary coursework in both the UK and the US, I can tell you that it's much much much more difficult to get an 80 in the UK than a 95 in the US. Even a 70 is hard. A 70 is like an A in the US thirty years ago.
- breakingcups 6y ago
  In the original Vice article it's even 90%! https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-by-stalker-identity-theft-plagiarism https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-b... So, we've slowly grown from 80%->90%->95%.
kergonath 6y ago
That’s some dedication. And some nerve. I wonder why he’d try that in academia; there are probably other jobs in which his skills would be more useful.
- vletal 6y ago
  Nice burn. Joking aside, I agree. There is so many things you could achieve while successfully impersonating someone. Seems like the best you can do in academia is to ruin someone's career. In this case it seemed fortunately "harmless" though.
  - bombcar 6y ago
    Academia is one where the chickens won’t come home to roost - as in you won’t actually be called to DO what you’re impostering to be able to do. Fake being a surgeon and they’ll assign you to surgery, etc.
    - foobiekr 6y ago
      You should listen to the “dr death” podcast [1]. Season one was actually terrifying and is, in fact, what happens when an imposter pretends to be a surgeon. [1] https://wondery.com/shows/dr-death/ https://wondery.com/shows/dr-death/
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - green_space 6y ago
      Psychiatry is a field where you can get away it. Zholia Alemi successfully masqueraded as a qualified psychiatrist for 23 years https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17230748.doctor-faked-will-west-cumbrian-widow-led-life-deception/ https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17230748.doctor-faked-wil...
      - chki 6y ago
        Gert Postel (a German mailman) also managed to be a fake psychiatrist for 17 years; it's a very unsettling story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel
IshKebab 6y ago
Classic article about a picture without showing the picture.
brandonmenc 6y ago
> a comparison between his tattoos and his imposters There is nothing very special or original about his tattoos. Just about everyone has tattoos that look like this nowadays. Anyone can walk in and select these out of a flash book. This is like complaining that someone is wearing the same t-shirt. Yes, I realize the imposter is mimicking other aspects of his personality, but I see a dozen copies of this guy walking around every day.
- anoncake 6y ago
  Where do you live that just about everyone has a hand tattoo with some sort of rose and the word "more" on the knuckles?
  - soylentgraham 6y ago
    Moredore
  - brandonmenc 6y ago
    Any major city? These are trends. It's like asking where do you live where just about everyone is wearing a Nike shirt. Do an image search for "more knuckle tattoo" and "hand rose tattoo" you'll see tons.
- zck 6y ago
  The tattoos weren't a coincidence. The imposter was specifically impersonating him. The imposter went so far as to get the _same exact words_ tattooed on both hands. The dedication to impersonating Dr. Lodder is why it's concerning. The imposter wasn't just submitting Lodder's work as his own; he _permanently altered his body_ to appear more like Lodder.
  - luckylion 6y ago
    > The imposter wasn't just submitting Lodder's work as his own; he _permanently altered his body_ to appear more like Lodder. That might be a coincidence though. He didn't submit only Lodder's work & bio, but also that of others in tattoo studies. From the article: We discovered he’d also taken magazine articles I’d written and added footnotes to them, stolen catalogue essays I’d authored, and taken other people’s work from old books and paraphrased it. He might steal work from everyone but because Hipsters All Look The Same, Matt Lodder feels like that guy is copying his personality when they've just read the same magazines and books and then selected the same tattoos out of the catalogue.
rincebrain 6y ago
I was very confused when I clicked this article, as I recognized a lot of the details - then looking in my browser history, this also turned up as a story on Vice in February [1], where I had read it. [1] - https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-by-stalker-identity-theft-plagiarism https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-b...

nchelluri 6y ago

Interesting how the test score is 80% in the twitter thread and 95% in the article.

Sebb767 6y ago
I thought the same thing. Through the twitter thread references a magazine article, while the original article on talks about "something [he] wrote", so they might be different pieces. EDIT: Or the imposter gave the interview and added a mark up ;)
ajcp 6y ago
Given he's a UK prof if he was told the paper was given an 'A' in the UK that can be anywhere from 70-100, while in the US it is 90-100. He might have initially split the difference, and then corrected it/was corrected for the article.
- worker767424 6y ago
  > in the US it is 90-100 In a science or engineering class, it might be everything above 40%.
  - joejerryronnie 6y ago
    In a high priced private US university, you may get an A just for showing up.
    - ajcp 6y ago
      I assure you neither "high priced" nor "private" are necessary for this. In fact, those institutions have more to lose for doing so than a "low price public US university"
    - astrange 6y ago
      Those private US universities are actually free. Their endowments are large enough they can provide 100% tuition aid if you can't afford them. The problem is getting in.
  - cammikebrown 6y ago
    I really did not enjoy getting 40% on every test in math and physics and receiving a B. I do not feel like I learned the material that well. My very first freshman mechanics midterm grade, a 67, was an A+, and gave me a false sense of adequacy. Maybe they could figure out how to teach better?
    - lupire 6y ago
      You aren't supposed to learn everything in one semester. You are supposed to make adequate progress, and the tests are broad enough to catch as much as possible of what you've learned.
      - Aeolun 6y ago
        That sounds silly. Give me a test that I can actually reasonably learn the material for any day.
    - samatman 6y ago
      It's perfectly human to want to pass with a perfect score, but this undermines the purpose of a test. A test which has a significant fraction of scores at the right side of the distribution has saturated the range: there are differences in comprehension and mastery between one 100% and another, which aren't being measured by the test. The platonic form of a perfect test would have exactly one student per class who got every question correct, but that's impossible to reach except by luck. So a teacher is stuck between writing a test which is too difficult for everyone, and one which is too easy for a substantial fraction of the class. They should pick the first over the second. While that can feel frustrating (I know, I've been there!) it's likely that you in fact learned the material better than you would have in a class where your level of mastery allowed you to score perfectly for an A+ and in the mid 80s for a B.
      - kortilla 6y ago
        > So a teacher is stuck between writing a test which is too difficult for everyone, and one which is too easy for a substantial fraction of the class. No, the teacher is not stuck here. It is rarely the purpose of an academic test to plot students on a wide distribution. That’s just something fun for teachers to do to look for exceptional students. If the purpose of a test is to determine if an individual student passes some bar of understanding, then there is absolutely no reason to make it extremely difficult and then give A’s to those who got >50% correct.
  - spfzero 6y ago
    Boy it sure wasn't when I was an undergrad EE.
    - felipemnoa 6y ago
      don't forget about the curve
Gimpei 6y ago
Having done tertiary coursework in both the UK and the US, I can tell you that it's much much much more difficult to get an 80 in the UK than a 95 in the US. Even a 70 is hard. A 70 is like an A in the US thirty years ago.
breakingcups 6y ago
In the original Vice article it's even 90%! https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-by-stalker-identity-theft-plagiarism https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-b... So, we've slowly grown from 80%->90%->95%.

kergonath 6y ago

That’s some dedication. And some nerve. I wonder why he’d try that in academia; there are probably other jobs in which his skills would be more useful.

vletal 6y ago
Nice burn. Joking aside, I agree. There is so many things you could achieve while successfully impersonating someone. Seems like the best you can do in academia is to ruin someone's career. In this case it seemed fortunately "harmless" though.
- bombcar 6y ago
  Academia is one where the chickens won’t come home to roost - as in you won’t actually be called to DO what you’re impostering to be able to do. Fake being a surgeon and they’ll assign you to surgery, etc.
  - foobiekr 6y ago
    You should listen to the “dr death” podcast [1]. Season one was actually terrifying and is, in fact, what happens when an imposter pretends to be a surgeon. [1] https://wondery.com/shows/dr-death/ https://wondery.com/shows/dr-death/
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - green_space 6y ago
    Psychiatry is a field where you can get away it. Zholia Alemi successfully masqueraded as a qualified psychiatrist for 23 years https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17230748.doctor-faked-will-west-cumbrian-widow-led-life-deception/ https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17230748.doctor-faked-wil...
    - chki 6y ago
      Gert Postel (a German mailman) also managed to be a fake psychiatrist for 17 years; it's a very unsettling story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Postel

IshKebab 6y ago

Classic article about a picture without showing the picture.

brandonmenc 6y ago

> a comparison between his tattoos and his imposters There is nothing very special or original about his tattoos. Just about everyone has tattoos that look like this nowadays. Anyone can walk in and select these out of a flash book. This is like complaining that someone is wearing the same t-shirt. Yes, I realize the imposter is mimicking other aspects of his personality, but I see a dozen copies of this guy walking around every day.

anoncake 6y ago
Where do you live that just about everyone has a hand tattoo with some sort of rose and the word "more" on the knuckles?
- soylentgraham 6y ago
  Moredore
- brandonmenc 6y ago
  Any major city? These are trends. It's like asking where do you live where just about everyone is wearing a Nike shirt. Do an image search for "more knuckle tattoo" and "hand rose tattoo" you'll see tons.
zck 6y ago
The tattoos weren't a coincidence. The imposter was specifically impersonating him. The imposter went so far as to get the _same exact words_ tattooed on both hands. The dedication to impersonating Dr. Lodder is why it's concerning. The imposter wasn't just submitting Lodder's work as his own; he _permanently altered his body_ to appear more like Lodder.
- luckylion 6y ago
  > The imposter wasn't just submitting Lodder's work as his own; he _permanently altered his body_ to appear more like Lodder. That might be a coincidence though. He didn't submit only Lodder's work & bio, but also that of others in tattoo studies. From the article: We discovered he’d also taken magazine articles I’d written and added footnotes to them, stolen catalogue essays I’d authored, and taken other people’s work from old books and paraphrased it. He might steal work from everyone but because Hipsters All Look The Same, Matt Lodder feels like that guy is copying his personality when they've just read the same magazines and books and then selected the same tattoos out of the catalogue.

rincebrain 6y ago

I was very confused when I clicked this article, as I recognized a lot of the details - then looking in my browser history, this also turned up as a story on Vice in February [1], where I had read it. [1] - https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-by-stalker-identity-theft-plagiarism https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp4gx/professor-catfished-b...