This seems to happen semi regularly. Congressman Santos, for example.

In a similar vein, Elizabeth Warren claimed to be Native American although DNA testing showed she had a statistically insignificant amount of Native American DNA.

Is it? I don't think DNA plays into who people elect/hire as much as a college degree. Also, people know which college they went to. People generally don't know what % of their DNA is Norwegian.

I guess you bounce between employers until you find one who doesnt background check and has a culture of appearances over all else

A good filter too if you want to fly under the radar and collect a paycheck without doing much work

As a person with a degree from a UK university that got married and changed her last name, never have I ever passed a background check for university education. Couple of companies asked me for a copy of my diploma, I just kindly reminded them that I am old and I moved many countries since graduation

This is way more common than people realize. Anyone can claim to graduate from anywhere. If top company executives and congressmen have been caught lying about their degrees, you can be sure that a large chunk of the regular population does it as well.

Easiest thing to do is just claim a degree from an accredited university that is now closed.

Even if someone did try and check, there’s nobody working to verify the records.

Next step, make sure MIT closes.

Those records will usually be transferred to a state government agency. It's still possible to verify them through that agency.

Its easy to fake and gives you street cred in the valley. VCs look at that and go "ah this is a company worth looking into"