Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers

A network of sham scientific societies has been building apparent prestige by listing eminent researchers and issuing honors without consent. A high-profile computer scientist received three unexpected elections - European Academy of Engineering (EAE), Austrian Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI) - only to find her name posted in leadership roles she never accepted. Many other academics, particularly in China and Pakistan, list fellowships from these groups; the NAAI advertises dues up to US$600 and third‑party brokers on Chinese social media offer to facilitate applications. The apparent business model targets honor-dependent research-evaluation systems by selling or trading recognition to early-career researchers while bolstering a façade of legitimacy with famous names.

Detailed checks uncovered fabricated or plagiarized website content, doctored photos (including a doctored image of the University of Gothenburg), false histories and unverifiable partnership claims with bodies such as national academies. Dozens of university press releases celebrated affiliations later shown to be spurious. One individual, Michael Chu (Chaoyang Zhu), is repeatedly linked to these organizations and to multiple groups registered at the same virtual-mailbox addresses in Colorado; some entities are marked delinquent. Chu has defended the organizations and denied overlap with third‑party sellers, but meetings attended by international invitees were small and organized mainly by him, highlighting widespread digital deception that undermines trust in academic honors.