Do universities and scholarships double check credentials by?
Students are usually required to provide things like official transcripts when applying to a university, or for a scholarship - if the scholarship committee requests that information. In some cases, especially in international admissions, more stringent background checking might be done. However, people do sometimes slip through the cracks. I once knew a guy who showed up at my community college, ran for student body president, and won. He was always very confident, very busy with the job, and never seemed to have any schoolwork to do. However, he had a tendency to make enemies, and one of those enemies decided to background check him, and - to everyones surprise - it turned out he wasnt even enrolled! He managed to pull off that charade for about a year.