Fudging facts at Harvard: Professor Francesca Gino loses tenure over data fabrication
While Harvard is making headlines for its battle with 'Trump University' to effectively emerge as America's de facto opposition party, the Ivy League college has made news for another reason. It recently stripped behavioural scientist and till recently Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino of her tenure. The charge: fabricating research data. The irony of ironies being that her research topic was 'Honesty and ethical behaviour'.It all began with the blog, 'Data Colada', an academic research watchdog since 2013 that carefully reanalyses published data to identify irregularities or potential fraud. Data Colada released claims in 2021 of extensive evidence of alleged fraud in four scholarly articles that Gino had co-authored.
The blog had expressed their worries to HBS four years ago, adding that none of Gino's co-authors were involved in fraud. After concluding that the 47-year-old academic had committed 'research misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly', Harvard initiated an internal inquiry, placing her on unpaid administrative leave in 2023. While examining version control in Microsoft Excel, it appeared that different rows inside a spreadsheet had been altered. According to experts, data before the suspected manipulation didn't reveal the effect the researchers wanted to observe. But data after the purported modification did seem to indicate it.Also, participants were asked to complete insurance and tax forms in a study. It was discovered that people who were asked to sign declarations of truthfulness at the top of the page were more truthful than people who were asked to sign statements at the bottom.Gino, however, sued the university and her accusers for $25 mn, alleging defamation, gender discrimination and invasion of privacy. She claimed the accusations damaged her reputation. But last September, a federal judge in Boston rejected her defamation lawsuit, stating that, as a public figure, she was subject to scrutiny protected by the First Amendment. Since the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) established regulations regarding firings in the 1940s, Gino has now become the first Harvard professor to lose tenure.
This is hardly the first instance of academic misconduct involving data. A scandal involving Harvard Medical School's John Darsee shook the academic world in the 1980s. Darsee had published a significant number of papers in prestigious journals. However, by May 1981, his colleagues accused him of systematic and frequent fabrication. Investigators claimed that Darsee had presented data from experiments that were never conducted, and had 'expanded' other data to produce more significant results. Eventually, he had more than 80 papers removed from the literature. He was relieved of his posts at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Academic data manipulation is likely to be rampant today. An average of 2% of scientists admitted at least one instance of fabricating, falsifying or altering data, according to a 2009 paper published in PLoS One, 'How Many Scientists Fabricate and Falsify Research? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Survey Data'. Gino's - and Harvard's action against her - is a landmark case that could well serve as a model for how other academic institutions respond to allegations of academic dishonesty. On the flip side, excessively stringent enforcement could stifle creativity and run the risk of drawing unfavourable attention to organisations, thereby disincentivising them from taking action against unethical faculty members.Why is Gino's case, in particular, receiving so much public attention? She was one of Harvard's highest-paid professors, earning over $1 mn in 2018 and 2019. So, is it because the scam involves a star academic? Or is it due to the nature of the accusation - data manipulation? Does it have to do with data sanctity, integrity, dependability and trustworthiness? Does society care so much about data integrity? Apparently not.Falsifying data evidence is nothing new to people in other professions. However, very few of them have jobs taken away from them for falsifying. The academic community has certainly become stricter about research misconduct involving data, and Gino was undoubtedly punished because academicians are subject to more stringent codes of conduct and constant scrutiny from peers than in other professions. In a sense, a watchdog got bit by watchdogs. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.) Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. The answer to companies not incurring capex may lie in stock markets
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First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
Indians in US Colleges are in a crisis: One reason is that they have stopped learning
We, Indians, have to reject the models of learning we were drilled into by schools, colleges, corporate employers and peer groups which have turned us into mere employable robots and stop trying to force-fit our resplendent cultural traditions and expressions into the fringes and anonymous cubicles of modern society read more 'Vācālatvaṃ ca pāṇḍitye yaśorthe dharmasevanam' (In Kali Yuga, people think prattling is a mark of erudition and do dharma only for personal fame.) - Kalki Purana In the past few weeks, Indian-descent students in general and Hindu students in particular have been in the news once again. At UC Berkeley, a student request to observe a 'Hindu Heritage Month' was denied by student officials who said they were worried about 'Hindu Nationalism'. At Harvard, Hindu students spoke up about Hinduphobia when they found that the South Asia Institute there had hosted Pakistani government officials in a conference just days after the Pahalgam massacre, where Hindus and Christians were singled out and executed on the basis of their religion. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD If Berkeley and Harvard students were concerned about Hinduphobia, some MIT students were more worried, though, about Palestinian victims of war. Megha Vemuri, a computation and cognition student ('science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)' presumably, and not 'humanities'), won admiration and censure (from different quarters) after giving a pro-Palestine speech at the commencement. This article tries to analyse how Hindus typically respond to news concerning US colleges and identifies some institutional realities (and possibilities) which Hindu students, parents, and other stakeholders in US higher education from India should become aware of if they wish to ever acquire a little more clarity and influence. It comes from the personal and professional experience not of a political or community leader but that of an American liberal arts professor who believes that the emergence of a genuine Hindu voice in American humanities and social sciences is long overdue. It will be good for both American society and the well-being of Indian-descent students who are increasingly failing to find a purpose rooted in sanatana dharma for their lives and careers and pursue it instead in what they think is the most burning issue of the day, which is protecting Palestinians, Kashmiris, and other minorities facing persecution from 'Hindutvas' and 'Zionists'. Now, it may well be the case that these students are correct, and worried Hindu uncles and aunties on the internet are wrong. After all, these students and their parents are smart and accomplished and get into the most prestigious universities in the world. But, all the same, it is worth making the case that there might be things they don't know, just as there are things that their critics on social media, who are many, also do not know. On one side is the certainty that students who fight Zionism and Hindutva are on the morally righteous path of history. On the other side is the view that such students (and their parents or their teachers) are zombies or 'useful idiots' who are supporting imperialist religious bigotry and terrorist violence against Hindus, Jews, and others designated as 'Kafirs'. This is the reality of university life. There are a lot of different beliefs and opinions floating around, but as teachers and students, we have a duty to keep the focus on learning and on keeping learning open. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Anti-Establishmentarian Establishment The first theme to recognise is that the majority of Hindu parents in America quite likely do not share the frustration and anger that erupts in Hindu and Indian 'RW' social media circles whenever incidents like the above are reported. It is a folly on the part of those in the latter circles to assume otherwise. Most immigrant Indian parents in America are tightly focused on measuring their children's progress through the lens of career success, and their child giving a speech on an issue that half the country's cultural, educational, business, and political establishment backs will not bother them. They share that establishment's view that this is a moral issue and know deep down that it is also not a really dangerous or self-defeating view. The genius of 'woke' issues in recent times is that they allow people to think they are anti-establishment while actually doing the work of the same. For Gen X or older Millennial parents who have left 'religion' behind, STEM success and establishment-sanctioned moral politics are the new faith. And even for parents who still remain religious in some sense, there is a convenient discourse available now which argues that the ideal way to be a Hindu today is to support the human rights of persecuted groups like Palestinians, Kashmiris, victims of Hindutva and Zionism, and Brahmanism, and so on. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Then, there are other parents who do worry a little when they see incidents such as this but satisfy themselves that as long as their children get good marks and jobs, none of this will affect them anyway. A subset of them might get involved with some sort of voluntary work for what the community calls Hindu 'advocacy', educating lawmakers, canvassing voter support, and so on. Students and Teachers Should Lead the Change, Not Lobbies and 'Leaders' The second theme pertains to the patterns of response within this last subsection. No doubt, the numbers of people and the number of Hindu voluntary organisations trying to do something have grown in the last two decades. They face severe challenges in terms of resources and know-how, as well as 'know-why', a problem in social-historical self-knowledge, which we explain further below. But the pattern of response here is typically to host a bunch of online talks and then move from one gathering or 'awareness day' to the next. But we rarely see organising oriented towards securing long-term institutional changes in universities. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Right from the 1960s, most changes in academia have happened as a result of universities agreeing to set up tenured faculty positions for specific areas of study demanded by student groups. University administrators take student needs seriously in America, and so do faculty. If students point out a gap in a curriculum or systemic flaws in how a student constituency is being taught about in the relevant area studies or identity studies courses, they may well be invited to join in the conversation to create a course or program. If students make the case in a sustained scholarly manner (usually with help from sympathetic vanguard academic mentors), then the university will find the funds to create a position and fill it. If, say, a university agreed to create a tenure track position in Hinduphobia Studies or Hindu Human Rights, it will imply that every academic year, anywhere from 100 to 300 students (depending on the size of the campus) of all backgrounds, not just Hindus, will be educated, formally, in issues which so far have remained only in easily ignorable online spaces. And if that professor stays on and gets tenured, you are looking at a 30-year project or 30 multiplied by 100-300 students who have been exposed to their ideas over three decades. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of students can get educated on human rights issues faced by Hindus, and not just in a fleeting online or weekend gathering format, but in an in-depth seminar meeting for several hours every week for a whole semester. Learning is built in-depth, and so is a long-term legacy for this body of learning in society at large as students graduate and go to work in humanities professions like teaching, arts, writing, journalism, media, film-making, social work, politics, diplomacy, and so on. This basic reality is something most other communities in US colleges are aware of. For instance, in the last two years of sweeping pro-Palestine activism on campuses, one of the demands universities have acceded to is exactly this – more tenured positions and programmes in Palestine studies. Hindu organisations trying to offer moral and social support to Hindu college students, on the other hand, tend to approach campus Hindu issues in a top-down manner, completely bypassing the educational component of the Hindu student experience. They seem overly obsessed with framing the problem as a 'religious' need issue, ignoring the core academic elephant in the room, and demanding cosmetic 'student life' things like a prayer room or a 'recognition note' or a 'Hindu Chaplain'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Hindus Should Talk Human Rights, Not Multicultural Platitudes These demands don't pose any challenge to the academic status quo or its main product, which is a false story about Hindus, Hinduism, and India today. Demanding recognition or praise for a religion in campus life outside of the classroom merely skirts around the issue and often backfires too. 'Islamophobia' and 'antisemitism' are understood on US campuses by faculty, students, and administrators as human rights issues, whereas anything 'Hindu' comes across to them as a demand for just one religion to be treated like it's 'special'. That is one reason for the deep inertia on campuses when it comes to Hindu issues (based on personal experience, once again, of three decades in US universities and very specific conversations to this effect). On that note, one wonders, for example, how the Berkeley student officials might have reacted if the demand was made not for a 'Hindu Heritage Month' with a focus on how successful Hindu Americans have been in America (which often defeats the messaging about 'Hinduphobia' later) but simply and directly for an 'Anti-Hindu Racism and Genocide Awareness Month', forcing opponents to really reconsider which side of racism they want to be on. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Demonstrating bias, error, and egregious racism inside the institution's core product itself, its 'knowledge' about us, and demanding our right to speak to it, is the only duty we have if in a university. And on this point, one more nuance needs to be understood. There are many more subjects beyond just 'religion' or 'Hinduism Studies' in which proper, academically guided engagement needs to take place. Community leaders and groups have in the past taken a helicopter view, assuming that all they had to do was to raise donations to buy India or Hinduism Chairs, and the problem vanishes. Unfortunately, this did not win the grace of the Goddess of Learning, and it seems that at least that lesson has been learnt. The Tamas-Rajas Trap The third theme, a key one in understanding our diagnosis here, has to do with why the obvious path towards long-term change hasn't been sighted, let alone pursued with determination by the Hindu community here. Rather than the usual blame games or the usual clichés about 'lack of unity', one may gain from a yogic view. Hindu responses to the deeply entrenched problems of Hinduphobia in the academia, in the media, and in the world at large seem to swing between a state of 'Rajas' and 'Tamas.' In the past ten years or so, the following pattern has played out numerous times. There are long periods of silence, punctuated by very routine, low-key, non-controversial cultural events and gatherings by Hindu or Indian students. At this same time, other initiatives, often bearing the signature worldview and institutional legitimacy and heft of South Asia studies faculty and their allies, progress very quickly. Professors get other professors and activists and lobbyists to come to campuses to speak about Hindutva and caste. Documentaries are screened about Hindu patriarchy and violence (but never about, say, the devastating phenomenon of 'grooming gangs' in the UK). Peer pressure grows enormously on the vast number of silent, usually STEM-focused Indian students, to the point where even their non-controversial activities like celebrating Holi or Diwali suddenly become a political and moral choice they have to make. Usually around this time, a small group of students get emboldened. Their friends, from former students to community leaders, step in to advise them. Suddenly, there is a big-name event advertised, usually featuring a controversial speaker, usually a non-academic, and usually from India. Backlash ensues. After a brief bout of Rajassic assertiveness, the Tamas returns. For months, maybe years, students become overcautious and refrain from speaking up even when legitimacy and timing are on their side. In this Rajas-Tamas brashness and timidity cycle, the 'Satvic' moment rarely gets to stick, unfortunately. Truth: There is a Threat, and There is Fear The fourth and last theme to consider here is that of ignorance and fear. We do not say 'ignorance' in a judgemental manner, but to merely connote a lack of information, understanding, and experience in navigating educational institutions as a minority community and in surviving more generally in a host society where xenophobia and religious racism are clearly rising on both sides of their political divide. Hopefully, the first part of this problem, which is the fear of making institutional demands from universities that Hindu students, parents and community leaders (who are invariably from outside academia, or at least the pertinent fields of study in academia) seem to have, will be usefully mitigated by the facts shared in this essay. Most of the time, when we swing from aggressive posturing to timid self-erasure in our actions, it may well be because we haven't learnt enough about the ecology we inhabit so as to centre ourselves in the balanced middle. A satvic understanding of what Hindu students today can do while in college to their home of four (or more) years so as to make it better for their younger siblings and descendants will be a wonderful quality to cultivate and practice. Unfortunately, there is a deeper problem of fear among Hindus which really needs to be talked about as well. A lot of modern Hindu behaviour in America can be understood in relation to this. Brash, successful, pro-Palestine 'HINO' Hindus (as they are called), as well as more culturally rooted and concerned Hindus worried about Hinduphobia, all have one reality they share. Hindus live in a world that is non-Hindu at best and anti-Hindu at worst. We are all coping with it. 'HINO' Hindus believe they have achieved top-level cosmopolitanism and that there is no such thing as anti-Hindu bigotry or prejudice in the world. What they don't realise is that there is something in the social and political ecology of the world which has turned them, in just two or three generations from their grandparents' time, into whatever deracinated cosmopolitan far-right jihadist-supporting personas they now inhabit. They are, in a way, converts, not to the usual converting religions, but to the extremely superficial and shaky religion of selectively secular progressivism. It gives them an air of certainty and comfort and even superiority. But from the time of the Inquisitions to the present, a coercive system will always demand purity tests. Even someone as American, Californian, and culturally cosmopolitan as former Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, was accused of being a Brahmin supremacist by some activists. But for Hindus in America who still like to think they are spiritually and culturally active and would like to see the same in their otherwise materially successful children going to college, that fear plays out in a different way. They have found a way to cope by downplaying the threats which produce that fear and exaggerating the things which they think can counteract those threats: their education, economic status, model-minority good conduct, faith in liberal democracy, avoiding controversy and so on. They look at other immigrants who are successful and imitate each other, confining Hinduism to safe and tested routines like temples, hurried weekend classes for children, and, of late, a little bit of engagement with politicians, usually to get 'recognition' proclamations passed. With the rise of the internet and social media, they have become more aware of problems and threats but have also fallen into the inertia of false security and complacency in gatherings and numbers. But the fact that they rarely go beyond talking about problems to doing what actually needs to be done (in higher education, in the case of this article) shows they are perhaps paralysed by fear too, sometimes, quite literally. In a recent planning meeting for Hindu parents organising children's weekend classes for the coming year, a suggestion to include college experience 'reality check' orientation sessions for high school students by professors and old students from the program now in college led to some strangely confused, silent responses, with people staring down at the floor and freezing up in tension! No wonder some Hindu American parents lament that their children loved Hinduism and Indian culture when in school but turned viciously anti-Hindu in college. Colleges will teach your children in their Hinduism, South Asian history and politics, or diaspora studies classes that their innocent childhood memories of going to Bala Vikas or Bala Vihar were actually wrong and that these were Hindu nationalist indoctrination camps. That's what is published in peer-reviewed journals and books, and that's what is prescribed, and that's what will be taught (not always, but in most cases). The professors in many cases may not actually know better, and the students who do know better unfortunately have never been taught by parents or elders that they do have a right, indeed a duty, to speak up and assert the truth. And now, as more and more unhappy stories emerge, whether it is of extreme violence like Pahalgam or extreme self-censorship over it by Hindu students and parents, the elephant in the room has to be named. Maybe 'Hinduphobia' is a term that should be re-understood not as bigotry or aversion against Hindus but simply as the Hindu state of perpetual fear of being Hindu. Smash the Hinduphobia – at Home, First! The cause of that fear is not paranoia but the fact that there is a threat, and even those who avoid seeing it perhaps know it deep down in their hearts. To get out of this paralysis, though, is possible. Borrowed clichés from American liberalism or right-wingism won't do it. We must return to our ancient critical tradition of saying Neti, Neti. We have to reject the models of learning we were drilled into by schools and colleges and corporate employers and peer groups which have turned us into mere employable robots and stop trying to force-fit our resplendent cultural traditions and expressions into the fringes and anonymous cubicles of modern society. We must stop asking for small favours from modern institutions and rise to look at our role as the big favour we are about to do for all of them, given how much their 'brotherhood of man' dreams swinging between Left and Right extremes have failed and how we still carry the energy and purpose and protection of our 'motherhood of god' traditions in us. We must learn, however we can, to learn again. We have to become, each, our own cultural and spiritual revolutionary schools. A saffron storm must rise over these overrated racist hold-outs and teach them what it means to learn and to live under our mother earth's reign once again. Vamsee Juluri is Professor of Media Studies, University of San Francisco. He has authored several books, including 'Rearming Hinduism: Nature, Hinduphobia and the Return of Indian Intelligence' (Westland, 2015). C Raghothama Rao is a writer, podcaster and YouTuber. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Trump promised to welcome more foreign students, now, they feel targeted on all fronts
To attract the brightest minds to America, President Donald Trump proposed a novel idea while campaigning: If elected, he would grant green cards to all foreign students who graduate from US colleges. "It's so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT , from the greatest schools," Trump said during a podcast interview last June. "That is going to end on Day One." That promise never came to pass. Trump's stance on welcoming foreign students has shifted dramatically. International students have found themselves at the centre of an escalating campaign to kick them out or keep them from coming as his administration merges a crackdown on immigration with an effort to reshape higher education. An avalanche of policies from the Trump administration - such as terminating students' ability to study in the US, halting all new student visa interviews and moving to block foreign enrolment at Harvard - have triggered lawsuits, countersuits and confusion. Foreign students say they feel targeted on multiple fronts. Late Wednesday, Trump himself took the latest action against international students, signing a proclamation barring nearly all foreigners from entering the country to attend Harvard. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order the following day. (Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates) In interviews, students from around the world described how it feels to be an international student today in America. Their accounts highlight pervasive feelings of fear, anxiety and insecurity that have made them more cautious in their daily lives, distracted them from schoolwork and prompted many to cancel trips home because they fear not being allowed to return. Live Events For many, the last few months have forced them to rethink their dreams of building a life in America. A standout student from Latvia feels expendable' Markuss Saule , a freshman at Brigham Young University-Idaho, took a recent trip home to Latvia and spent the entire flight back to the US in a state of panic. For hours, he scrubbed his phone, uninstalling all social media, deleting anything that touched on politics or could be construed as anti-Trump. "That whole 10-hour flight, where I was debating, Will they let me in?' - it definitely killed me a little bit," said Saule, a business analytics major. "It was terrifying." Saule is the type of international student the US has coveted. As a high schooler in Latvia, he qualified for a competitive, merit-based exchange program funded by the US State Department . He spent a year of high school in Minnesota, falling in love with America and a classmate who is now his fiancee. He just ended his freshman year in college with a 4.0 GPA. But the alarm he felt on that flight crushed what was left of his American dream. "If you had asked me at the end of 2024 what my plans were, it was to get married, find a great job here in the US and start a family," said Saule, who hopes to work as a business data analyst. "Those plans are not applicable anymore. Ask me now, and the plan to leave this place as soon as possible." Saule and his fiancee plan to marry this summer, graduate a year early and move to Europe. This spring the Trump administration abruptly revoked permission to study in the US for thousands of international students before reversing itself. A federal judge has blocked further status terminations, but for many, the damage is done. Saule has a constant fear he could be next. As a student in Minnesota just three years ago, he felt like a proud ambassador for his country. "Now I feel a sense of inferiority. I feel that I am expendable, that I am purely an appendage that is maybe getting cut off soon," he said. Trump's policies carry a clear subtext. "The policies, what they tell me is simple. It is one word: Leave." From dreaming of working at NASA to doomscrolling' job listings in India A concern for attracting the world's top students was raised in the interview Trump gave last June on the podcast "All-In." Can you promise, Trump was asked, to give companies more ability "to import the best and brightest" students? "I do promise," Trump answered. Green cards, he said, would be handed out with diplomas to any foreign student who gets a college or graduate degree. Trump said he knew stories of "brilliant" graduates who wanted to stay in the US to work but couldn't. "They go back to India, they go back to China" and become multi-billionaires, employing thousands of people. "That is going to end on Day One." Had Trump followed through with that pledge, a 24-year-old Indian physics major named Avi would not be afraid of losing everything he has worked toward. After six years in Arizona, where Avi attended college and is now working as an engineer, the US feels like a second home. He dreams of working at NASA or in a national lab and staying in America where he has several relatives. But now he is too afraid to fly to Chicago to see them, rattled by news of foreigners being harassed at immigration centres and airports. "Do I risk seeing my family or risk deportation?" said Avi, who asked to be identified by his first name, fearing retribution. Avi is one of about 240,000 people on student visas in the US on Optional Practical Training - a postgraduation period where students are authorized to work in fields related to their degrees for up to three years. A key Trump nominee has said he would like to see an end to postgraduate work authorization for international students. Avi's visa is valid until next year but he feels "a massive amount of uncertainty." He wonders if he can sign a lease on a new apartment. Even his daily commute feels different. "I drive to work every morning, 10 miles an hour under speed limit to avoid getting pulled over," said Avi, who hopes to stay in the US but is casting a wider net. "I spend a lot of time doomscrolling job listings in India and other places." A Ukrainian chose college in America over joining the fight at home - for now Vladyslav Plyaka came to the US from Ukraine as an exchange student in high school. As war broke out at home, he stayed to attend the University of Wisconsin . He was planning to visit Poland to see his mother but if he leaves the US, he would need to reapply for a visa. He doesn't know when that will be possible now that visa appointments are suspended, and he doesn't feel safe leaving the country anyway. He feels grateful for the education, but without renewing his visa, he'll be stuck in the US at least two more years while he finishes his degree. He sometimes wonders if he would be willing to risk leaving his education in the United States - something he worked for years to achieve - if something happened to his family. "It's hard because every day I have to think about my family, if everything is going to be all right," he said. It took him three tries to win a scholarship to study in the US Having that cut short because of visa problems would undermine the sacrifice he made to be here. He sometimes feels guilty that he isn't at home fighting for his country, but he knows there's value in gaining an education in America. "I decided to stay here just because of how good the college education is," he said. "If it was not good, I probably would be on the front lines."
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Time of India
Indian student in US duped by fake ICE agents in $5,000 scam
Live Events You Might Also Like: Harvard vs Trump: As fresh salvos are fired, international students live in anxiety and fear An Indian student in the United States was tricked into paying $5,000 in gift cards by individuals pretending to be US immigration officers. The scammers convinced her that she had violated immigration laws and faced arrest and deportation , according to a report by Newsweek. Shreya Bedi , a Master's student in Human-Computer Interaction at Indiana University Bloomington, arrived in the US in 2022 on an F-1 student visa . She received a call on May 29 from someone claiming to be an officer from the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The caller gave a name and badge number and asked her to verify the details on the official ICE website. The phone number matched what was listed for an ICE office in after, Bedi got a second call from someone posing as an officer from the Olympia Police Department. They told her there was a warrant for her arrest. She was warned that her phone was being monitored and she could not contact anyone else.'I felt completely trapped because they kept me on the phone for three hours straight, repeatedly warning me that hanging up or contacting anyone would violate my case and make things worse. I was too scared to risk it,' said Bedi to Newsweek.(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)The callers instructed her to purchase Apple and Target gift cards worth $5,000 and share the codes with them. They claimed a police officer would collect the bond papers the next day, but the follow-up never came.'They put me through hours of psychological torture, making me believe I was going to be deported and arrested,' she added. The scammers also had detailed knowledge about her, including her entry into the US, her academic records, and the Indian city she came is now trying to recover her losses through a GoFundMe campaign. She advised other international students to be cautious. 'You always have the right to hang up and call a lawyer, government agencies almost never call you directly; they send official mail,' she said. 'No legitimate government agency will ever ask for gift cards, bank details, or your Social Security number over the phone. If someone asks for any of these things, it's definitely a scam.''As international students, we don't fully understand how the system works here, which makes us easy targets. I feel embarrassed that I fell for this, but I want others to learn from my mistake,' Bedi told Newsweek.
