Celebrity Impostor Tactics

Tips And Tricks To Help You Avoid Being Fooled
For sixteen months, a person here on America Online insisted to me that he was a celebrity. In fact, he insisted to me that he was two celebrities, namely Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure. Through online detective work -- along with the help of my loyal friends -- I found out he was lying. Ever since then, he has told people -I'm- lying, and on one recent occasion, harassed me in a chat room. Because of my experiences, I would like to offer you some advice on how to avoid becoming enmeshed in the confabulations of somebody like this.

1. Beware of Bait
   In my case, the celebrity impostor was simply hanging around in the chat room, waiting for a willing victim to take the bait. That person dropped a name, a hint, and made it as if a mystery was unfolding, and that I had discovered their 'secret' presence here on AOL. This made me feel very smart, which is something the celebrity impostor played on for the entire length of our relationship. Celebrities rarely if ever hang out for hours in generic chat rooms, unless it's their own, in a promotional sense, and in a recognized official capacity. They're just too busy.

2. Chat Rooms
   According to a conversation I recently had with an AOL Customer Service representative, celebrities never come to AOL and open their own chat rooms here -- independent of the assistance of the AOL Staff -- because then there's no way to monitor their activities, or protect them from abusive individuals in those chat rooms. If you think you've hooked up with a real celebrity, who is just 'hiding in plain sight' and doing research with fans of their work -- ask them why they don't just go ahead and appear in one of the celebrity chat rooms that AOL has already allocated. In my case, when I questioned the celebrity impostor about that, that person kept telling me that the AOL staff couldn't find the time to grant them chat room space for interviews or interaction with the public, which was a -complete fabrication- on the part of the celebrity impostor.

3. Don't Give Out Your Personal Information
   In my case, the celebrity impostor befriended me and asked for my telephone number, and -- like a dummy -- I gave it out willingly. From that moment on, I was telephoned several times a day. That person kept telling me I was clever to have made such a discovery of their modest double life online, away from the adoring public. Among other things, I was asked to keep the celebrity impostor company on the telephone, read that person stories, listen to that person sing, help that person with his music, help that person to relax, and just generally give myself over to that person, at the expense of family time, whenever that person had the urge to interact with me. At one point, the celebrity impostor even had me convinced that he had fallen in love with me, and wanted me to have his baby. If you give your telephone number to somebody, remember that you have a life, and don't believe that a celebrity would spend such an incredibly huge amount of time on the phone with you.

4. Don't Be Bullied
   In my case, the celebrity impostor told me that he felt very hurt and supremely insulted at the suggestion that he wasn't who he said he was, that anybody who said he wasn't who he said he was was either a) lying because they had a beef with him about something, or b) working for him and trying to protect his privacy by saying he was a fake. Real celebrities NEVER employ psychological tactics like this.

   There is NOT a vast conspiracy against the celebrity impostor. There are simply a bunch of us who know the real truth -- people which the celebrity impostor will berate, and threaten, and warn his latest victims against contacting.

5. Do Your Homework
   When I first began to suspect something was wrong with the stories that the celebrity impostor was telling me -- about various medical ailments, and alleged trips out of the country -- I looked around for verification of the things that were told to me by the celebrity impostor. I found numerous anomalies, which made me realize that there were falsehoods in what was being told to me. The celebrity impostor gave me what I was told was a private home telephone number in the celebrity impostor's supposed country of origin, but when I called it, all I received was a notice that the number was no longer in service. Further investigation revealed that it was nothing more than an out of date fax number once used by the merchandising department of the record company the celebrity impostor claimed he belonged to. And the reason I know this is because, just to double-check, I telephoned the record company itself, and asked.

6. A Bark Worse Than A Bite
   Ever since I outed the celebrity impostor -- he has been telling other people that I am lying, and threating me with legal action if I do not stop telling people what I discovered about the hoax that was being perpetrated. People who have never even met me or spoken at length with me are calling me a propagator of 'crap'. In the first week of June, 2003, I came into a chat room here on AOL where he was, and he began accusing me of maligning his reputation and attempting to sleep with homosexuals. Imagine a REAL CELEBRITY acting that way! My reputation in the online Pagan community is one that is established and has been well-known for nearly a decade, so I have nothing to worry about. I answered the celebrity impostor's accusations truthfully, which is something there is no legitimate countermeasure -- and the celebrity impostor had no choice but to eventually leave the chat room.

7. Question Everything -- And Observe The Answers
   Do not be afraid to ask questions until you are satisfied with the proof. When I would attempt to pin the celebrity impostor down about specific questions regarding work and career, there was ALWAYS a time lag between when I'd pose the question and when the celebrity impostor would answer. My guess as to the reason for this is that the impostor was probably trying to find the answer on the internet. This even happened on the telephone, when I would ask a specific thing, and the celebrity impostor would 'grow faint' or suddenly have to go. Ask yourself why a real celebrity keeps having such awkward but convenient timing.

8. Watch Out for Accomplices
   In my case, at least for a short while, the celebrity impostor had at least one unwitting accomplice, somebody who could be relied on to make conference telephone calls with unsuspecting fans so that the celebrity impostor's telephone number would be protected. If there's only one or two people the celebrity impostor keeps referring you to for 'proof' -- but refuses to give any business contacts when you ask?... be concerned. Be VERY concerned.

9. "Go Ahead And Ask Around. My Company Will Lie
   To Protect My Privacy At Any Cost"
   Nothing could be further from the truth. That's just the story I kept getting from the celebrity impostor. Every time I tried to find out through traditional channels whether I was being told the truth, and receiving responses from his alleged associates which stated that they didn't know who I was talking about? That was the answer I would always receive. So I had to go off the beaten track, and do some sleuthing that had nothing to do with what I was actually being told. Asking companies that have NO IDEA who this person is for verification of the 'facts' the celebrity impostor was feeding me is how I found out I was being hoaxed. Besides, the celebrity impostor keeps using the name of that celebrity in his AOL handle. If he's so darned protective of his privacy, why is he -doing- that? HELLO! THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE BY ANY REASONABLE MEASURE ON THIS PLANET!

10. Report Suspicious Activity To The Authorities.
    After I found out that the celebrity impostor was not in fact a celebrity, I went to the authorities. My local police have been notified of the impostor's fradulent activities -- and I stand ready to press charges if further fraud is attempted upon me by this person. The celebrity impostor had used the US Mails to send me fake autographs, and the United States Postal Service is an extremely humorless bunch when it comes to their organization being used to perpetrate a hoax. If you are worried, don't be afraid to go to the authorities -- including AOL, which strictly forbids their users from impersonating celebrities. Even if they take a long time to act, at least you will feel less like a victim. I speak from experience.

11. Real Celebrities Never Act Like This
    Real celebrities would never threaten you to keep quiet about finding their 'secret identity' online. Real celebrities will never insist that you lose sleep listening to them perform. Real celebrities will never snivel and whine when you ask for proof of who they are. Real celebrities won't tell you that you'll get lied to if you contact the company they work for and ask for proof of their identity. Real celebrities don't mind in the least if you do a background check on them. Real celebrities will never threaten you with lawyers, like this person has been doing to me on and off for the last several months. In fact, if I get threatened again as soon as the impostor finds out about this web page, I will post ANY and ALL threatening IMs or chat logs here, complete with that person's email address -- after I forward them to AOL.

12. Do You Fit The Profile?
    You are female. You are between the ages of 25 and 50. You spend a lot of time online. You consider yourself to be clever and intuitive. You know very little about what the celebrity impostor does for a living. You might be single, or you might be married. You are trusting. You are nurturing. You may be caring for a lot of children, or maybe even an elderly parent. You love animals. You may be feeling underappreciated at home for some reason. You may be of any religion, but have a fascination with the magical arts or the occult; you may even believe you are psychic. These are the known characteristics of the previous people that have been hoaxed, including me. If you are any of these things, please be careful. The celebrity impostor targets a very specific kind of female, one that can be convinced of nearly anything, and made to think whatever the celebrity wants them to think.

13. Do These Sound Familiar?
    Please help me. I can't go to my regular 'people' to solve [whatever the problem allegedly is] because it's so embarrassing. Stay on the phone with me while I sleep so it won't ring. Will you stay online with me and be my online security? I'm afraid of people because of being beat up / assaulted last week in the bar / stuff that happened to me when I was a child. I love the sound of your voice; it's so relaxing. I've never met anybody like you. You're sweet and charming and trusting -- Not like THOSE people, who are jealous, which is why they say I'm lying. Don't bother asking my company who I am, they'll just lie to protect me. I feel an instant connection with you. How could you doubt me? I'm hurt that you don't trust me when I say who I am. Here, listen to me sing, and tell me what you think. I am gay, but I have a crush on you. Of all the women I have ever met in this world, I am most enchanted with you. I love you. Carry on my legacy by having my baby. Marry me.

To finish: Let me remind you that the mind is a powerful instrument and can be manipulated easily. Question everything. Accept nothing on face value. Remember who you are. Don't be fooled. Anybody who demands blind trust and obedience is nothing but a person who just doesn't want you to find out the truth.

In short -- draw your own conclusions.

Links:

Other People's Identities: Erasure Impostor on AOL

Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships

Get Anyone To Do Anything And Never Feel Powerless Again

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