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.

Wait -- that sounds very very familiar.

I added some more boards to the link i posted earlier. i found the outing post made by Margot and that should be on there. i'm having issues with runnng out of space though. i'm probably going to have to wait until i get home and upload them to my actual website that i have some of the archives on already.

here's another link to a few more boards.

here's another link to a few more boards.

I looked for just a few minutes - what a train-wreck!

And now I see why so many people hated the Bronze "shout-outs."

Penlind claimed to have a dying a child. The things she posted are actually really boring to me in the greater picture of what happened. They're interesting in that reading her posts it all seems so clear, and I think important to people who need the background, of course.

How the Bronzers reacted to the situation was just awesome. I believed her for a good long while, like most. But then for some reason, everything struck me as phony. I don't know why. Just looking at it from another angle. I'm no genius, is what I'm saying.

I posted, "Has anyone here ever actually met Penlind, or spoken to her on the phone?"

No posts. But my email box filled. Not just with friends but sworn enemies, yo. "I don't believe this is true" was pretty much the sentiment shared. HUH! See? I'm no genius. Tons of people caught on way before me.

Then came the invitation to a private board where a seekrit investigational team of about a dozen women were researching everything. She claimed her husband worked at Harvard and published papers on some oddly fascinating topic. One Bronzer called Harvard, got the department...and so on. Each piece was knocked down. She was traced back to a small community college, where she worked as a librarian before she was fired for stealing and selling computers. And the library told us some of the weird stories she was telling us that didn't add up. And that she had no children. Or a husband.

Once we had what we felt was enough evidence (i say "we" loosely, i contributed little) to convince all, we needed to decide who would break it to the board.

This was difficult. Most of us were in a controversial bitch cabal, seen as big meanies, hateful folk.

So we nominated the one of us who was neutral, kind.

We carefully laid the post out. Detailing the info that was false, with proof as to why it was false.

Once the info was out in the open, people felt the way you would think they would. Outrage, sorrow, embarassment, a stubborn need to believe despite the evidence. No one likes being duped, of course.

The methodical deconstruction, the being able to trace her back to a former workplace was just stunning to me. The BIT (Bronzer Investigational Team) disbanded soon after the uproar died down. They were so incredibly competent, and careful, always thinking, "what if she lied about this, but does have a sick child? we need to be sure, very sure."

People like her always seem to have enemies....

At online game boards, this is called the Little Brother Excuse. "My little brother got my password and logged into my account and did all that stuff, it wasn't me!"

Okay, I had forgotten half of this stuff. But I'm rereading the board and laughing because I think I was the tiny voilin.