Joe, I agree with you, but people are going to want to talk about this. I recognize that, so I'd rather not give him more attention on the main thread where important issues are being discussed. That said, I'm copying Alphabeter's posts here:
Originally Posted by
Sheryl Nantus
as far as online scams go - I was once a member of a community who had someone who was, to say the least, mentally ill.
they announced that they had cancer and went through months of online sympathy cards, etc.; detailing treatments and so forth. In the end her "sister" posted that she had passed away and a wave of mourning began...
... until someone who actually lived in the area discovered she was alive and well and darned healthy for a dead person..
I happened to be around for if not the first, than one of the more infamous of these hoaxes-Kaycee Nicole.
It started with a daughter pretending to be a sick girl with cancer online. When she got bored, the mother took over. KN had a whole "community" behind her. Some gave her small financial gifts (like website space), other gave her medical support. [No gift was big enough to prosecute for fraud alas. The FBI did look into it.] Pictures were posted, details revealed and a whole life concocted. Even George Clooney had called to offer some help.
At this point, a year had gone by and the mother got bored so she killed KN off. After some postings on KN's diary, people got suspicious about the circumstances. I won't post what they obviously did wrong but it was easy (in hindsight) to find out not only did KN not die as "reported" but that she had never existed.
The whole community split over the revelation of the hoax. A few of the more ardent ones went after the poor girl who unbeknowst to her had her pictures used as "Kaycee's".
What I'm afraid will happen is CBM will come back claiming someone pretending to be his wife emailed everyone while they were on Easter vacation. That killing him off was a way to get his password deleted and shut him up. [I'm buring this a bit in this post so its not obvious] And he'll tell everyone he was sorry it happened, but he's back and alive and isn't PA wonderful for deleting all the lies?
You can find out more about the KN story by
searching for Kaycee Nicole on google, but the easiest link is from the
Museum of Hoaxes.
I'm going to catch up and keep posting, so my apologies for the multiple posts and possible doubled information as I'm posting as I read (bad idea?).
__________________
Joy 
Writing is a lot like sex.
At first you do it because you like it. Then you find yourself doing it for a few close friends and people you like. But if you're any good at all...you end up doing it for money.
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Today, 08:45 PM #
13006 Alphabeter vbmenu_register("postmenu_134289", true);
Player of the Letters
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: NW Iowa
Posts: 268
Quote:
Originally Posted by
reph
Sorry, Ed, I have to say this. Posting the real name of somebody who uses a pseudonym is a serious violation of Netiquette – I'd even call it Nethics – unless it's easily available already or the person said you could. People have many reasons for wanting privacy. I believe we ought to respect that.
This also goes for the posts that quoted that part of Ed's post.
It's also possible that this is a hoax and HB had nothing to do with it.
I would agree with you reph especially considering PA did it to one of the AW regulars who left their fold and was quoted in the AP (or was it the Washington Post?) article.
However, CBM has claimed repeatedly HBM is his real name even giving names for those initials. In order for us to determine if he is, in fact, dead, we need his real information. We can always edit it later when the true state of life is confirmed.
Should it prove to be a hoax, there is no way CBM didn't know about this, he is simply not that type of person to let someone else have all the "fun". He has already done this once and claimed it was another. I'll wager he thought no one would remember last year. I'll go further and say if PA is still around next year, he might even try it again!
Now that we have some real sleuths on the case, I'm going to concentrate on some real knee-capping of PA--the convention.
__________________
Joy
Writing is a lot like sex.
At first you do it because you like it. Then you find yourself doing it for a few close friends and people you like. But if you're any good at all...you end up doing it for money.
