I used to Internet date (way back in the day circa 1998) and met a couple people who misrepresented A LOT. Everyone I've met from TN (which isn't a ton - maybe 10) has been who they said they were.
Anyone on the bump multiples board will tell you that people create fake twins and triplets frequently. It's the strangest thing, but they always get caught because they don't do their research.
I haven't and generally assume people are who they say they are. OTOH, I'm part of an internet community that had a MASSIVE blow up when it turned out that one highly recognized person turned out to be a crazy person who invented fake profiles to either worship her or attack her in order to improve her standing in the community.
I have a friend who was convinced she was IMing with the guys of REM.
This was years ago and we're talking HOURS of IMs. Like months and months, hours a day. I can't even remember how it all started or ended, but someone put some *work* into that shit.
I remember I used to lurk on TIP there was a man posting, 'brightside' I think?, because his wife cheated on him or something. He was a regular there for a long time, we'll liked. Eventually someone realized he was totally fake. I think a troll invented him or something. I was totally surprised anyone would be able to keep up the charade that long.
ETA: am I reading this correctly? There's a fellow Bluenoser here ?
Post by statlerwaldorf on Jan 9, 2013 21:48:17 GMT -5
Wasn't there someone who said their kids died in a fire that turned out to be a fake? It was probably around 2008 or 2009. I forget what board it was on. I think it was a Bump board.
Post by dr.girlfriend on Jan 9, 2013 21:53:17 GMT -5
I remember some fakes from the Nest days. That crazy beachbride2b or something who had this whole thing about how her FI was in a band, she was getting married on his yacht, Billy Joel would be attending, etc. What was crazy was when it started to fall apart (the band was identified as this Irish band, the place she said the yacht was had no marina) she tried to create all these shell websites to back up her story...a fake website for the band that had the supposed band manager threatening to sue Nesties, etc. It was bizarre.
There was just kind of a gross one when I was on the Pregnancy Loss board. Someone came posting about her little girl who had died of a tumor. Odd because that's not really what the board was about, but people were trying to be polite but I think people had a funny feeling right from the start. She'd post facts like "Alissa's favorite color was purple. She loved pizza." Another nestie realized some of the pictures she was posting pretending to be her kid were stolen from other mom blogs, etc. Yuck.