err... Some of us were suspicious, and did say things to other people. This is just the first time something less than benign came up.

I'm just surprised no one suspected anything before

Oh, some of us "suspected." OK, that's too strong a word. But some of us (at one of the Midwest f2fs) commented that he seemed "too good to be true" and we noted that no one had actually met him so it was possible it was all a fake identity thing. Speaking for me personally, it was just a tiny little doubt that sat at the back of my mind - until the whole car thing, when the doubt moved more to the center of my mind.

The schmoker theory sounds strange to me, as we suspected pretty quickly that mieskie had returned and no one suspected the same about Gus. I think the timeline is probably a coincidence.

Could be so. I don't really know.

I'm just surprised no one suspected anything before

Some people did. But there was no reason to call him on it. He wasn't scamming people out of money. When the whole Weremonkeyfest of '05 fell apart, that definitely pinged me. If you've read anything about long running pseuds in fandom, there were many red flags around Gus. His whole story is almost an archetypal pseud.

Mary-sueish backstory. Incurable illness that upsets face-to-face meetings. A separate, previously unknown entity announcing the death. Inability to corroborate anything online.

His synopsis bouncing back? He forgot about the Midwestern summer BBQ he was supposed to host? He's building a fucking aspirin replicator and he can't get his scanner to work? Phone numbers left which don't go anywhere? The entire pattern is all about evasion. Again and again and again.

.

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tommy, I don't think you look like an idiot. Also? I remember that picture. I've been keeping an eye on Gus, since that picture. It never sat right with me. It looked like he got it off a website.

Ok, to counter my "look like an idiot" statement... I really started having major doubts after Weremonkeyfest fell though. (Plus I was angry at Gus for a while after that.) Even when Gus first offered me the car, I was thinking "He's giving me a car? I'll believe it when I see it." And when I asked my boss (who's a car whiz) if he knew anyone who could work on a 20-year-old Mercedes, I was thinking, "I'm going to look like such an idiot to my boss if this car thing is fake."

tommy, do you have any old emails from him. Can you look at the header, and get his IP address?

tommy, do you have any old emails from him. Can you look at the header, and get his IP address?

I think all my emails from him are to my gmail accout, from his gmail account. Is there a way of seeing the source, routing info, etc. for gmail email? I couldn't find it.

I think all my old Gus emails are on my iBook that died. OK, it's probably all backed up but I don't feel like looking through the backups right now.

At the top right corner of the gmail message, there's a wee dropdown, and one of the choices is "show original" -- that'll give you the full headers.

At the top right corner of the gmail message, there's a wee dropdown, and one of the choices is "show original" -- that'll give you the full headers.

Oh, if someone's sending mail from a gmail account - is the IP address even theirs? or it it some gmail server? (Because of it being web-based.)