Others ostensibly posting on behalf of the individual (eg, familymembers) have identical patterns of writing, such as grammatical errors, misspellings, and stylistic idiosyncrasies.
That's how Evie Whiting got outed. Her "sister", posting outraged in response to questions about the funeral (a Roman Catholic/Buddhist burial presided over by a rabbi in India, or something like that), had the same highly idiosyncratic punctuation that Evie did.
When she finally came back, she claimed an "enemy" had stolen her laptop and made all these posts to the board in order to discredit her.
The Nikita plagiarist was generally easy to spot, at least in the early days, because she liked names with "Y". Nyky, Dydy, Jasmyne...
No, really.
Evie Whiting
Oh now I want to hear this story too. It's so fascinating. And sad.
The Nikita plagiarist was generally easy to spot, at least in the early days, because she liked names with "Y". Nyky, Dydy, Jasmyne...
Ok, I suppose this is a serious thing, but the above? Just makes me laugh and laugh.
And then she threatened to sic the Internet Police on us.
Dana....stop.....tears.....cheeks.....can't....breathe....BWAH!!!
And then she threatened to sic the Internet Police on us.
Bwahahaha! Heeheehee...that's better than the Phone Cops. Hee.
Now I feel like a crap friend.
Don't feel bad, Heather. It happens to all of us. On the bright side, I've sometimes connected with friends that I hadn't seen for years and didn't know how to reach. This usually seems to happen by accident in an airport, or via a mutual friend.
Oh now I want to hear this story too.
Oh, she was a ficcer from Australia, who claimed 2 children, born (oddly enough, people determined later) on DD and GA's birthdays, who was 21 and was getting her masters' in literature. She posted a lot, which after the fact seemed kind of odd too for a mother of two in grad school. Who has that kind of time?
I think her ailment was pneumonia, but she claimed she brought her laptop to the hospital and continued posting, because she had a WIP she was working on. Then there were some kind of complications, and "her husband" posted using her account, claiming that she'd died but she'd asked him to tell all her friends on the board what had happened. Which, ya know, kind of a red flag: you're suddenly widowed but you have enough emotional energy to post a very long statement to an internet board dedicated to The X-Files? The hell?
Big uproar. Lots of questions about where to send sympathy notes, etc. Her "sister" showed up and gave some information about the funeral, which is when people got suspicious, because it was a really elaborate thing which meant the funeral would be in India, not Australia -- and there *were* Australian Havenites.
People started to ask questions. The sister came back, all outraged, and then the husband, I think. Then people began asking more questions about the legitimacy of *any* of what Evie had said. There were no obituary notices or any indication that much of what she claimed about herself was truel. The address someone gave was dubious at best.
After about a week Evie slunk back, and claimed that her enemy had stolen her laptop and done the whole thing to make her look bad. It was quite remarkable, really.
After about a week Evie slunk back, and claimed that her enemy had stolen her laptop and done the whole thing to make her look bad.
Why did she even bother to "show her face" again?
People like her always seem to have enemies....
This has nothing to do with the internet, but in college, a friend of a friend created this whole false identity.... she claimed to be Jewish, with Orthodox parents, and that she grew up in NYC. And how, when she was in Israel, she was gang-raped by a group of Arab men. Turns out none of that was true - she grew up in Milwaukee, with Chrisitian parents.
