Warcraft & Fraud, I can't believe this

[Deda]

I am so mad right now.

I don't know anything at all about World of Warcraft, but I'm learning QUICK.

It seems that one of their major players, someone named Ferraro, who also has a blog called Paladin Schmalidin has been using pics of MY DAUGHTER for the last several years and passing them off as herself!

This freak has taken video clips of interviews Sarah (DD) and chopped them up and posted them as if SHE was being interviewed!

Un-Freaking-believable. How useless do you have to be to try to pretend you are living someone else's life?????

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:ajh ... =firefox-a

http://jagoex.blogspot.com/2009/05/what ... ladin.html

The only good part is that WoW and a few others are stepping in to clean up this Fraud.

http://www.wow.com/2009/05/31/the-curio ... f-ferarro/

http://lalawag.com/sarah-townsends-double-life/

http://www.retpaladin.com/

 

[heartsong]

x

:shock: that's just way too creepy! you don't even know if it's really a she or a he doing it!

i can just imagine some 30+ year old loser sitting in his/her mother's basement wearing a tinfoil hat and boxers! (favorite game is dungeons and dragons!)

apparently he/she is not happy being who they are, so they are creating a new character!

she/he needs to unplug the computer, come out of the basement into the sunlight and GET A LIFE!

 

[Deda]

What's so creepy is that this person has done many interviews, all by phone, had/has a very well read blog and was kind-of-a-big-deal in the whole WoW world.

I mean, ewww.

Sarah lives a very public life, it goes with the territory. It's amazing that the 'worlds' didn't collide sooner, someone from WoW realizing that the pics on there were actually of someone else. She (the real Sarah) gets interviewed alot in the technology world.

 

[Guest]

That is just totally out there , how long did they think they could carry this on for ..Sorry this happened to your daughter. Wow just wow !!

Kitn

 

[Guest]

does your daughter think she might know this person in real life?

 

[Deda]

does your daughter think she might know this person in real life?

She thought at first she might have, but WoW has isolated the IP and they have a pretty good idea who it might be. Nobody she knows.

Based on when it started, the pics showing up, it was probably someone who saw modeling shots of her and hijacked personal ones from her myspace or flickr account.

It's not unusual for someone to post pics and say "this is me" - really a 43 YO nerd living in Mom's basement. It's quite odd that they would build an entire fake life - lasting YEARS - pretending to be doing the same things she does. Just creepy.

 

[Sibi]

Deb,

How is Sarah feeling about all this? She must feel quite violated, I would. It's just too creepy....

My question though is: what do they plan on doing about this WoW person? How will they proceed to get this person off the WEB? Can they be arrested or fined? Ewwwwwww

Sibi

 

[Tabitha]

I saw the video your daughter posted about the scam. I would be way more freaked out.

Hope they figure out who it is.

 

[Deda]

She's trying to take it in stride, I know she's way more freaked out than she appears. I think Counsel at her job has told her to keep her response 'light' as to escalate it to anything more serious. She has a regular job ED at SV, plus writes as a contributing editor for a few different places and has a couple tech related columns here and there.

I don't know what can be done, the IP of Ferrado has been banned, we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

 

[Tabitha]

OK, now that I have had time to digest this. Yes, it is illegal, bt i do not find it scarey. I bet it's easy to get caught up in this sort of cyber persona. First you use a picture of a pretty girl as your avatar, them someone wants to see another photo, so you go pull one & them they ask how was Christmas did you take any photos & it snowballs. In a cyber age I bet this happens a lot. I think your daughter is right to shrug it off. It's going to happen but I doubt there is any ill intent. I am sure I would feel completely dif if it was my daughter though.

I have read threads, on other forums, written by paraents whosr childrens photos were found on kiddo porn sites. The site owners would lift basic family photos off of peoples blogs, etc & then photoshop them into other pornographic photos...

 

[carillon]

The internet is out of control with freaks. People/kids shouldn't be posting pics or videos of themselves on the internet. It's as simple as that.

 

[Deda]

People/kids shouldn't be posting pics or videos of themselves on the internet. It's as simple as that.

I agree kids shouldn't be posting pictures, but adults is another story. My daughter is almost 27 years old.

Our entire family, my parents included, uses Facebook. It's how we keep up with each other. I have 3 children, 7 sisters, 2 brothers, zillions of cousins, nieces, nephews and childhood friends. We stay intouch through the internet.

My daughters life is very public, she gets interviewed alot, usually with pictures or video. None of the pictures or videos were tawdry or scandalous - that's just not Sarah. The violation was someone taking pictures and content from a public resource and passing them off as one's own. Interestingly enough, they didn't take any of the pics from her modeling days.

Anyway, WoW, Blizzard and Facebook (?) have traced the IP, banned the accounts. I think they have the name of the impostor.

Still Creepy.

 

[krissy]

wow, how scary for your dd. i know i have had my pics used in websites that they had no business being put in and i felt so violated. i can't imagine how she must feel having someone pretending to be her for a bunch of years.
i am so paranoid about the internet and my kids, it seems like nothing is safe for very long

 

[carillon]

There aren't enough laws in place to prosecute offenders. Part of the reason is that we have many lawmakers who are not in tune with technology and are slow to take up issues regarding it.

People are harassed, threatened, and stalked over the internet, hacked sites, internet scams, and identity theft costs billions of dollars, yet little is done to catch and prosecute offenders.

It's hard to imagine simply posting a family photo would be stolen, and used for ulterior motives, but no matter your age, there's always someone out there online looking for a cheap thrill. All I can say is that it's beneficial to watermark your photos so that it will reduce the chances of them being stolen, but super hackers are capable of anything.