Bear where I am from they call that being a phony and trying to pull a "Con".

Anytime there is a falsification of information or credentials to gain advantage toward an end favoring your position that is being a phony and a con. There are a lot of educated phony con men in the world and they would leave us all their wake to meet their own goals.

I am glad this one was called on his actions, and now he seems to have lost credibility and that's not such a bad thing.

Fishy