*head scratch*

[ash48]

I really don't know what to make of this. I found out today (via a heads up from a flistie <3) that a person that I have been following (though not intently) is not only a fake but a serial LJ plagiarist and sock. It weirds be out because if this is true this person had created a very elaborate back story of his life. The person is micamonroe and it seems that some of you are already aware of this person - and the allegations that he's stolen stories and art.

I read a story of his (maybe his?) quite a few years ago. It was interesting to me because he claimed it was based on his own life experience. And I believed him.

But it seems it's all false. Well, according to this post (and the many links providing evidence).

His death was announced in a post recently (there's no point me linking it as it's friends locked) and of course many left condolences. He's also claimed to have been abused and has even been in a coma.

I have no idea what's truth or not. It's pretty damn sad if it's all been fake because - holy crap! Why?!!? Just to gather comments and gain sympathy? How sad a person must you been to create such an elaborate "other" life. His stories get A LOT of comments. I'm not sure how I missed the news that he's not who he claims to be.

Anyway. I'm not losing sleep over it. It's just freaking weird.

Comments

[xenia-27.livejournal.com]

people can do weird shit. :) once, long time ago when my elder kid was very little, I read one Russian community about women and children. There was a woman, she told stories about herself: that she had fought cancer, and after that got two perfect kids, that she is a university professor and she has a perfect husband and she was giving advice left and right. And she also said that she does cross stitching and showed pics. :) And people recognized those pics as their own, because many girls may stitch the same kit, but no two frames are alike. So it turned out the whole story was totally fake. :) I don't know why someone will create a fake personality and maintain it for years, but some people seem to have nothing better to do

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's about finding acceptance. Or maybe feeling like you matter in some way. I find it hard to understand how anyone could get any satisfaction from it though. Maybe it's knowing that you're fooling people. *shrugs* I'll never understand that.

[sam-dean-lover.livejournal.com]

i dont understand, i knew of him, i read his stories, left comments, am friends with a liar and a thief?i didnt know that he died or... are you saying that he was never abused, in a coma or dead at all? i... dont understand why *is confused as hell right now* i never knew none of this until now.... thanks for bringing this to my attention

[ash48.livejournal.com]

That's exactly how I'm feeling. I just assumed it was all true. And really, I don't know. That's years of deceit if it's true. ;/ (and false accusations if it's not…)

[tebtosca.livejournal.com]

He got exposed years ago, actually so to see him (or more likely her, let's be honest) coming back in interesting. In fact, I based a character off of him in the fandom meta crackfic I wrote back in 2011! Played by Misha, of course lol

It not that odd. People on the internet looking for attention. Looks at those people on tumblr recently faking suicides-- they managed to get attention from Misha, Mark, and others who took it seriously.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Really? I'd heard a bunch of stuff about 'him' and thought it was true - that he'd been beaten up for being gay and was in a coma... And he/she isn't even real?

Why do people do that? You are right, it is just weird.

I just looked at that list of this person's alter egos - how the hell do you keep track of so many different journals??? And comment on yourself? That is more than weird.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

So has all that tumblr kerfuffle been exposed as a fraud then? Were there no trolls targetting people?

I admit, I was inclined to believe that because I've encountered recently a real life troll who had a go at a friend of mine and who has caused problems in fandom in person at Asylum conventions. So these crazy nasty pieces of work do exist...

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

I heard about this...it is so weird! I saw a post that mentioned s/he may have Munchhousens, which kinda makes sense I guess, but still...really?
I would love to know what the hell they're thinking.
I have enough difficultly trying to keep track of the real me, let alone making up a fake me! x

[gooferdusty.livejournal.com]

The mind boggles. The motivation for acting this way completely escapes me, let alone the time it must take to keep up the illusion on so many different fronts. I tell you something else I worry about. There seems to be an influx of fundraising sites or people appealing for money. Now, I don't want to sound hard hearted, but just handing over cash to a username with a sob story that i've no way of knowing is genuine? No. I'm sorry, but No. Maybe that makes me sound like a bitch, I don't know. Sad as it is I think people are far too naive and trusting online. A shared fandom, and a few exchanged comments doesnt mean we really know each other does it? Am I even making sense? Probably not! (No change there then!) Having said all this, there are some unquestionably kind and genuine people about. I just wish it was easier to spot the ones with ulteria motives.

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

From what I can gather, not a single bit of anything, re. the faked suicides, was true.

Back in high school, I had a friend who had bulimia. At the time, we weren't sure but she clearly had food and self-esteem issues. She supposedly went to the doctor many times to figure out why she "couldn't keep food down." Eventually, we figured it out and offered her support. At that point, she admitted she'd considered telling us she had cancer, just to see what we'd do, but obviously changed her mind because of how cruel it would be. We were still aghast she would even think about doing that, but here we are ... umpteen years down the line ... and high school kids haven't changed that much.

But now they have the internet. They can lie, deceive, bully and play make-believe with alarming ease. Sadly, not odd at all, Amb. And more alarming yet, adults are using the internet to not only send fake emails to bilk people out of money, but to create elaborate fake identities for their own amusement, or to fill some hole in their lives.

So what happened at Asylum??

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

This is not that uncommon behaviour mostly in girls/young women but occassionally in males with mental health issues like borderline personilty disorder.

It's a bit like Munchhausens/Munchausen's by proxy in that it serves a pathological need to elicit care, sympathy and connection with others. But unfortunatly ultimately it's never enough, because the person knows that none of that attention is directed to the 'real me' which just further amplifies the need.

Although the deceit can be very upsetting and hurtful to the victims, I think your approach is the right one - to think of the individual as a very sad, unhappy and lonley person.

[badbastion.livejournal.com]

God, I hate pseudocides. They sicken me. I had it happen to a good friend of mine - someone who was supposedly her best friend "died" and "her brother" posted to her journal sharing the news, and my friend was devastated for weeks. Until she found her friend posting on another site, alive and well. I was kind of friends with her too, but not so close, so it didn't affect me as much.

But still. It's a terrible thing to do to people.

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after I got poking around LJ (and seeing what other folks had to say about him), I realized I HAD heard of him before as this enormous fraud. The amount of energy he devotes to fabricating stuff indicates some serious dysfunction.

I'm super-skeptical of people on the internet. Before I buy anyone's sob story about anything, I research as much as I can and listen to my instincts about them.

Actually, I have a friend on-line who I met 15 years ago in a White Wolf vampire-themed rpg chat, and she faked being a 'he' for ages, to really sell the idea that her character was male. She was also trying to protect her real-life identity; back then, it wasn't nearly so accepted to live RPG chat stuff. I caught onto it early on and asked her point-blank, and she admitted it to me. Eventually, she admitted it to all the rp folks she actually cared about. We're still friends today, but she never tried to milk anyone for sympathy or attention or money. We had a mutual friend in this same circle who got taken for a lot of money (and hand-made gifts) by a guy claiming to be Italian and in love with her. We tracked his IP to Florida. SO not Italy. And there were other things too, but fact is, people do this crap to each other all the stinkin' time.

You're a good soul, Ash. He (or she) took advantage of a lot of good souls. Don't stop being kind-hearted! Just do a quick google if someone's life seems so fraught with misfortune, it's the stuff of soap operas. :)

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

The recent rash of pseudocides on tumblr coincided with all the American kids out on winter break for the holidays. IMAGINE THAT.

What's particularly distressing about this is that yes, depression DOES escalate during the winter holidays and people who genuinely need help might get lost in all those little shits crying wolf.

[ayane42.livejournal.com]

I heard about this maybe a couple of years ago and I thought, hmmmm? Really?

But then I remembered that about 15 years ago I was a moderator on a pretty big social forum and 2 of the people on the forum, a younger boy and an older women were having an online romance, then when the younger boy went to meet this "women" it turned about he was a 30's man. So after investigating it as best I could, the IP addresses showed that neither were where they said they lived. I banned them because no one needs that drama.

The internet is awesome for being anonymous and you can make up whatever you want about yourself.

I didn't know that Mica was stealing stories and art. I read a couple of his stories and thought they were pretty good. I was sad when he got beaten up, etc. But then I saw the post about his "death" so yeah, people can be weird and dramatic, wanting to be interesting instead of interested.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Oh fortunately I haven't encountered this woman (yet) and as she's been banned from all future Rogue Events, hopefully I never will, but basically she sounds like she's got a LOT of problems...

I came across her on a group FB page where she had a completely vitriolic homophobic rant at my friend and another guy who'd been harmlessly online flirting. She did it using an FB sockpuppet but some people recognised her. Apparently she has a couple of identities on Twitter and talks to herself on there - she's a rabid Danneel hater and one of those sad women who seem to think if Danneel wasn't around Jensen would obviously want to date them.
But in person, she's been vicious to lots of people, especially convention volunteers - she claims to be disabled and comes to conventions in a wheelchair but when staff aren't looking apparently she hops out of it to chase guests (like Ty) down corridors in her 6 inch heels...)

At the moment she's threatening to sue Rogue for banning her.

I'm just very happy I never met her.

[denyce.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I heard something about him - there was a couple of others years back, one named Marie something (who when she got caught created another lj saying she was hacked to keep the drama going- turns out it was all fake fake fake).

Idk, I have too much on my own plate to pay too much attention.

I love and adore fandom/LJ community and had the pleasure of going to cons to meet rl fen. And as much as I love fen it still turns out, people are still people and just as batshit crazy as the next person! Judgment call via my own experience rooming with a few said crazies o.O

[fufaraw]

Written about the Buffy fandom, Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? has a chapter on Munchausen by Internet.

Ironically, the community that fostered the author writing this book suffered just such a hoax, accepting a person who became welcome and beloved, until the life story became more and more unbelieveable, ending in a pseudocide on New Year's Day that left the community stunned, hurt, and deeply suspicious thereafter.

I don't get it, but I recognize that such people exist. I'm sorry people on LJ and elsewhere have been taken in by this micamonroe pseud.

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Egads, scary. The fact that this happens only occasionally means one needs to be careful, as a rule. A young woman got kicked out of Chicon last year for some misconstrued tweets. Creation apologized, but stuff like this DOES happen. Stalkers and emotionally troubled folks exist in the world.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Yes I saw that Creation thing, and the campaign to restore that unfortunate person's good name. The trouble is, when there are truly crazy and dangerous people on the loose, everyone else tends to over-react when they encounter something that appears a little bit 'off'. At least with this Asylum thing people I've met and interacted with in real life and that I trust have given me the information to base my judgement on. And that rant she posted was totally offensive and pretty unhinged.

But the internet does have a lot to answer for - I remember years ago reading an article that pointed out that in olden times, the village idiot was isolated and therefore usually no harm was done. But now they go on Twitter or Tumblr and say stupid things, and find people who agree with them - and boom! An explosion of idiocy.

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

But the internet does have a lot to answer for - I remember years ago reading an article that pointed out that in olden times, the village idiot was isolated and therefore usually no harm was done. But now they go on Twitter or Tumblr and say stupid things, and find people who agree with them - and boom! An explosion of idiocy.

THIS. And not only do they find like-minded people to hang with, they isolate themselves by tailoring their friends' list (or whatever they call it on various sites), and it gives them the impression they are a lot more prevalent and powerful than they really are, and that proceeds to confirm their crazy and spurs them on. :/

[passing-through.livejournal.com]

This happened several years ago in the Queer As Folk fandom. A writer passed himself off as polyamorous, at that time living with another man and raising a baby daughter, courtesy of a friend who donated her eggs and carried the baby for them. He also bravely dealt with the aftereffects of a traumatic head injury he sustained while playing on an ice hockey team. He wrote original M/M fiction and had a pretty big following in the QaF fandom (I don't specifically remember his name, Christian something) and he especially had a very intense internet relationship with one of the women on my flist. Over the years he posted pics of his daughter, but never himself or his partner. When it eventually came out that "he" was a "she" playing an elaborate hoax on the internet, the aforementioned fan was devastated and publicly humiliated. After many posts about how she didn't know and never suspected, she deleted her journal and quietly went away. Turns out that a lot of people knew of the sham, they just kept it to themselves, or played along, because they assumed everyone else knew. I had never friended him, so I watched this play out in journals of other on my flist.

Some people are seriously fucked up and with the internet, it's so easy to lie and take advantage of others. It's one of the reasons why I keep my flist so small. I blab all the time about my personal life, and I like to know who I'm blabbing to :)

[galwithglasses.livejournal.com]

The fake suicide thing is awful. It's hard enough to get mental illness recognized, understood, and believed without having to wade through a crowd of kids messing around. Plus it takes anyone in a really vulnerable place that comes across it and exposes them to a whole bunch of emotional crap they just don't need to be dealing with. It's kind of like yelling 'fire'.

[cherry916.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's/she or whoever has been exposed for quite some time now. What was funny is the supposed sketches of him/self-portraits down by his boyfriends were actually art done by different people of the lead singer of HIM Ville Vallo.

The pseudosuicide is simply because he/she has been found out and they need to ditch this journal so they can start up a new one and partake in a new identity.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Ugh, my head hurts when I see such things... Yeah, it's weird, I totally agree. Also, not fair. I come to Internet to find friends and just for sharing my thoughts with each others. And when it turns out someone has been cheating... If one lies about one's identity, then how do I know whether this person's thoughts and views were true? And if they weren't, then what's the point in talking? Yeah, I get that one wants to keep anonymity, I do as well, I tend to be paranoical about it, actually. But anonymity is one thing, and fake personality quite another. Not to mention it has an awful side effect of spreading general distrust around. And plagiarism is a whole next level of dickiness. I'd feed plagiarists to sharks. *growls* Plagiarists don't just fake identity; they steal someone other's!