Chameleon · Audiochuck | Campside Media
Fake It 'Til You Graduate: The Honor Student Who Conned a Town
December 18, 2025·35 min·2 clips
The Ukrainian man deported for pretending to be a teenager finds himself fleeing Russian bombs in the very city America sent him back to.
As heard by us
A strange, careful fraud story about a gifted student's dream life and the town that wanted to believe it.
In 2012, a new student calling himself Asher Potts arrives at Harrisburg High with a story almost built to be embraced: a Russian Jewish teenager alone in America, brilliant in math, science, and language, and aiming for NASA-sized dreams.
Why you'd press play
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania gave a teenage Russian refugee his own city holiday. He was not a Russian refugee.
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