Masoud Molavi Vardanjani (; 28 April 1987 â 14 November 2019) was an Iranian fraudster, who claimed to be an elite scientist; He had fabricated a PhD degree and title from a non-existing university, referring to himself as "Dr.Masoud Molavi"; and used this forged degree in his attempts of fraud later on.
Mohammad Jorjandi, has published multiple evidence regarding details of Molavi's fraud, forgery, and malicious activities, on his Telegram Channel and website called "Webamooz"; which conducts investigative journalism on fraud & cybercriminals. Molavi was eventually killed allegedly by Iranian intelligence in Istanbul, Turkey. It was claimed he was part of Iranian cyber defense program part of IRGC and Iranian defense ministry; later on, then turned into a critic of the government he had a Telegram channel titled "blackbox" which claimed to release documents about corruption in office of the supreme leader, current Iranian judicial system and Iranian armed forces.
Reuters had reported that Iranian diplomatic officers of Iranian consulate in Turkey helped assassinate him.
He had a BS Bachelor of Science in construction engineering from Islamic Azad University Najaf Abad Branch and Artificial Intelligence and robotics from Tehran University.
According to Iran wire citing TRT journalist, Azari Jahromi, Iranian telecommunications minister had threatened him before he was killed.
In 2020, an Iranian embassy in Ankara staff member was arrested in this assassination case.