The Truth About Ruth - Part 2 - Merge

[polabear]

I can't keep up. Is RR Alecto?

There is no evidence that the person posing as RazingRuth is Alecto.

[silverspoons]

I'm late to this discussion and haven't read it all. When she was moving she claimed to be staying at a motel a few miles from my house. I left her my phone number and offered to help. I said I was willing to fill up her gas tank or bring her food but she declined(I always thought it was odd and felt a little hurt since I was less then 3-4 minutes from where she claimed to be staying and I have a reputation for helping abused women locally). I have never given out my phone number to anyone online. In fact only about 10 people know this number. Now I worried. Should I change my phone number?

[Curious]

I can't keep up. Is RR Alecto?

No.

[Mustang Sally]

I'm late to this discussion and haven't read it all. When she was moving she claimed to be staying at a motel a few miles from my house. I left her my phone number and offered to help. I said I was willing to fill up her gas tank or bring her food but she declined(I always thought it was odd and felt a little hurt since I was less then 3-4 minutes from where she claimed to be staying and I have a reputation for helping abused women locally). I have never given out my phone number to anyone online. In fact only about 10 people know this number. Now I worried. Should I change my phone number?

Only if you start getting weird calls. I doubt she'll be able to do anything very nefarious with your phone number, though I can understand feeling concerned.

[jojo]

Not sure if this has been brought up yet......on her Razing Ruth Facebook page, she has one "Like" - a Lisa Kerr. Does that have anything to do with anything? I did go to Lisa Kerr's website, read a bit, and am more curious now.

[Curious]

I'm late to this discussion and haven't read it all. When she was moving she claimed to be staying at a motel a few miles from my house. I left her my phone number and offered to help. I said I was willing to fill up her gas tank or bring her food but she declined(I always thought it was odd and felt a little hurt since I was less then 3-4 minutes from where she claimed to be staying and I have a reputation for helping abused women locally). I have never given out my phone number to anyone online. In fact only about 10 people know this number. Now I worried. Should I change my phone number?

I have seen no evidence in my searching that anyone has anything to worry about from the person who likely is posting as RR. Tempers ran pretty high during the previous fictional persona scheme and I didn't find any evidence of any kind of contact between her and individual members of the community. I think your safety is only something you can decide about, though. I don't think there is any need to rush right out tomorrow and get a new number, though.

For all we know, she doesn't even know about this yet. She has never been one to visit the site regularly.

[silverspoons]

I have seen no evidence in my searching that anyone has anything to worry about from the person who likely is posting as RR. Tempers ran pretty high during the previous fictional persona scheme and I didn't find any evidence of any kind of contact between her and individual members of the community. I think your safety is only something you can decide about, though. I don't think there is any need to rush right out tomorrow and get a new number, though.

For all we know, she doesn't even know about this yet. She has never been one to visit the site regularly.

Thanks, the phone number is under a totally different name then mine and I never gave out my full name or any address to her, just that I lived off of the same exit(so do 40k people) that she was staying off of. I did not want to donate money unless I met in person because deep down I always had a little doubt and I so wanted to be proven wrong and met her in person. It always stuck in the back of my mind that she posted here that she was at UofA when the Duggars were handing out tracks and on her Blog she was in CA. I have as known and worked with many polygamists that were able to leave and get degrees and have a decent life within a few years, Ruth seemed to be taking so much longer odd path.

If she really needed help, why would she refuse someone spending $75 to fill up a gas tank and bring her grocery shopping. I guess I should feel safe since I didn't offer cash. I haven't had any weird calls, in fact only 3 calls this month on the number.

[GryffindorFTW]

Not sure if this has been brought up yet......on her Razing Ruth Facebook page, she has one "Like" - a Lisa Kerr. Does that have anything to do with anything? I did go to Lisa Kerr's website, read a bit, and am more curious now.

Jesus Christ, the world is small... I can say with near-perfect certainty that Lisa Kerr has had either nothing or very little to do with RR, beyond being a member of the ex-fundie blogger world (which is small, of course), and I'd be beyond gobsmacked if she even knew of this hoax, much less was involved - she hails from a different sect/organization. No one has to believe me and I have no interest in going into detail, but I would guess Ruth only "Liked" Lisa Kerr because Kerr's blog also deals with post-fundamentalist life and spiritual abuse. No one has to take my word on this (obviously! :) ) but those are my $.02.

ETA: Kerr does live in CA, however, and did attend CSU, but... Yeah I'd be gobsmacked. She doesn't need to borrow someone else's story or join a scam, her own story is crazy enough, and I doubt she'd take personal donations anyway.

[happy atheist]

I have just finished combing through the 2 Ruth threads, redacting information about the Blank Family and the innocent California librarian.

I would like to think I caught all of the references to these people, who don't need Google to tie them to this scam for the rest of their lives, but there were a TON of them, and it wouldn't surprise me if a few slipped through the cracks.

If you are reading through the thread and notice any references that I missed, please PM me so that I can take care of it. Alternately, report the post using the little report button in the upper right corner.

[VooDooChild]

As one who originally believed RR, but came to the conclusion she was a fake/scam/whatever quite some time ago, I realized quickly that to give voice to the skepticism would cause a pile-on. (And yes, I have some "feelings" about that...) So I made a point of just not posting on the topic.

Edited to add: Nobody who was generous with either money or offers of help or good thoughts/prayers should feel bad; kindness is to be commended. It's not the generosity I have an issue with. It's the shutting up of a differing opinion that bothered me.

Same to the bolded. Admittedly, I didn't follow RR too closely, but I got an iffy vibe whenever I read her story. It was the adoption to the lesbian couple that caused me to throw the bullsh!t flag.

[nelliebelle1197]

I am daft. Can someone point me to the admin note??

[GryffindorFTW]

I am daft. Can someone point me to the admin note??

Front page of the snark board, pinned at the top. :)

[Palimpsest]

Same to the bolded. Admittedly, I didn't follow RR too closely, but I got an iffy vibe whenever I read her story. It was the adoption to the lesbian couple that caused me to throw the bullsh!t flag.

May I gently point out -- pile ons were in the past. I think we need to let that go. The tone of these two Ruth threads has been excellent. It seems to me that everyone has been calm, thoughtful and polite to all opinions. (Other than the one person telling us to put down the pitchforks - which was quite funny as I couldn't see anyone wielding them!)

But, yes, I too was reluctant to post my skepticism under the old regime, possibly even more so in the old self-moderating orphaned board yuku days. We didn't even have an owner then, and poor PrincessJo got torn limb from limb!

I think it is much better now. :D

[Mustang Sally]

I hope princessjo has been reading and feels vindicated :)

[nelliebelle1197]

Front page of the snark board, pinned at the top. :)

Told ya I was daft! :dance:

I am so glad this all came out and in such a gentle way. I was so scared to say anything based on all the old threads (I researched Ruth a few months back after my radar went off). I am so glad!

[Lainey]

I hope princessjo has been reading and feels vindicated :)

Me too! If not, somebody tell her!

[Oddeverything]

Wow. The admin note is great. Thanks for taking this seriously and for taking steps to remove Ruth from posting from this site until she explains herself, if that ever happens. I wish you could tell us identity of the scammer but I also know that this site has legal considerations that make it difficult to do so.

However, I beg the mods to keep a list of the IP addresses that were associated with this scam so that when "Ruth" inevitably moves on and creates a new scam, if she returns to this site admins will know or have a better chance of determining she is at it again. Because she will do it again. We can all count on that in the same way we count on the sun rising in the morning.

With Ruth now banned and this site officially stating that Ruth was running a scam, do we as a site want to continue to amass all of the inconsistencies we found in her story? My goal has been met - I wanted her off this site and acknowledged as a fraud so that members of this site would be protected and there would be a clear narrative of her scams so that when people search for "Razing Ruth" they will find this information about her.

What do the rest of you think should happen? Do we need to continue adding to the master list? Or is the site's statement enough?

[Oddeverything]

Also, please forgive me for being slow to reply to PMs, those who have sent them. I am generally a lady of leisure (ha!) but this week has been nuts!

[Ex 2x2]

She probably "liked" Lisa Kerr to learn more about fundie groups/cults for her scam.

eta: RR's scam, not Lisa's. Lisa gives plenty of real, identifying information.

[happy atheist]

With Ruth now banned and this site officially stating that Ruth was running a scam, do we as a site want to continue to amass all of the inconsistencies we found in her story? My goal has been met - I wanted her off this site and acknowledged as a fraud so that members of this site would be protected and there would be a clear narrative of her scams so that when people search for "Razing Ruth" they will find this information about her.

Ruth has not been banned. She has been placed on the Journey To The Heart. She can post in Snark, but her posts need to be approved by a helpmeet before they appear. She can not access Chatter.

[nelliebelle1197]

This person will definitely perpetuate another scam. I really think this is pathological, not just something that got out of control. I bet InternetRuth is very real to RealLifeRuth. She will have to fill the void left when she closes up shop with another character - or she will simply dig in and attack FJ to keep InternetRuth alive.

[ljohnson2006]

I can't believe that Razing Ruth was a scam. It seemed very real.

[polabear]

I believe (and this is just me talking, not FJ) that she'll find another reality show to follow. Watch out for "insiders" talking about Sister Wives or Polygamy USA!

[Lainey]

I can't believe that Razing Ruth was a scam. It seemed very real.

That's how they getcha. :shrug:

[Luvchild]

So I did not follow Ruth on here and the last thing I remember reading was her dad had died and she was not invited to the funeral, and I felt really bad for her, and then I clicked on this thread and saw that she was a liar. Can anyone explain how the all the sympathy posts turned to "you're a liar." I mean, how did it all come about? The last thread is like 45 pages long and I didn't have time to find the exact turning point in the story. It's cool and fascinating to me that this scammer was found out by everyone when she seemed so real. There are bits and pieces of information in this thread, but the whole turning point, when did that happen?