You will always find deluded people to believe they have had some attainments while they didn’t. That’s relatively easy (there are set of questions in the EBTs) to discover they are fake.
The issue I’m raising is clear why was it known who was what (Arahat, …, Stream-enterer) at the time of the Budhha (and possibly after for a while) and why don’t we know that today, preventing us to go to those who have effectively walk the path.
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I would love to read these questions, if you would be so kind as to point them out with a link or reference!
Thank you, @alaber!
Not sure where I read the list of questions asked to verify someone is an Arahat.
Anyway have a look at Ajahn Brahm Mindfulness Bliss and Beyond from page 249 “The Essential Signs” that can help realising if someone has not crossed a Stage which is not enough but a starting point.
Perhaps this:
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Thank you SarathW1. It’s a good sutta that is relevent to the question but not sure it is the one I was trying to find which asks specific questions to the claimed Arahat.
Maybe SN35.87? (where Sāriputta is trying to assert the claim that Channa will use the knife blamelessly)
" […] We would ask the Venerable Channa about a certain point, if he would grant us the favour of answering our question." [58]
“Ask, friend Sāriputta. When I have heard I shall know.”
"Friend Channa, do you regard the eye, eye-consciousness, and things cognizable with eye-consciousness thus […]
Though I think there is another sutta which is even more explicit,… 
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AN9.7, AN4.192, and MN47. Those are the only ones I can think of, there’s probably others though.