Actually I say it's the other way around. In academia you're most likely to get caught. The communities are just to small for things to get unnoticed. You have

Actually I say it's the other way around. In academia you're most likely to get caught. The communities are just to small for things to get unnoticed. You have many people reading everything related to the field, so people are likely to notice at some point. I'd say if the imposter would have gone for a PhD it would have come out at the latest. Judging by some of the revelations in other business it seems not exceptional for people to add things to their cv's they've never done. And it's much less likely to ever come out, because people are less likely to check (and it might also be more difficult to check)