There is always going to be a fringe where bad papers get published and bad conference admissions accepted.  Regularly the CS colloquem gets speakers who do not know what they are talking about and should not be there.<p>The CS people are really polite,  the only people who will ask them hard questions are the refugees from the physics department.  Even though we are not speaking terms anymore sometimes I team up with the meanest physicist in the world to methodically disassemble such a speaker like two crabs on a starfish.<p>Your story shares a lot with the &quot;imposter syndrome&quot; in that you are failing to internalize the achievement because it is fake, you are a fake, etc.<p>L Ron Hubbard wrote some crazy books and managed to wreck the lives of millions.  Donald Trump could be president.  There are far worse scandals than anything here