Someone who wants to have important friends? [duplicate]

Is there a word for a person who acts a certain way to become friends with others of a higher or more important social status? Someone who will act falsely to impress others for their own gain (i.e to then show off about it to "lesser" people, in a "look who i'm friends with" style)?

Sycophant — M-W

noun a person who praises powerful people in order to get their approval; a servile self-seeking flatterer
"when her career was riding high, the self-deluded actress often mistook sycophants for true friends"

Snob \Snob\, n. [Icel. sn[=a]pr a dolt, impostor, charlatan. Cf. {Snub}.]
1. A vulgar person who affects to be better, richer, or more fashionable, than he really is; a vulgar upstart; one who apes his superiors. --Thackeray.
[1913 Webster]

You could use Pretentious to describe such a person.

having or showing the unpleasant quality of people who want to be regarded as more impressive, successful, or important than they really are

Used in a sentence:

John used to be an alright person, but ever since he started hanging around with Roger he's started acting quite pretentious.