Family with 10 children turns out to be a hoax.

[The Archivist]

I don't believe they were fundie, but the exposé is here:

http://warriorelihoax.wordpress.com/

(Not breaking the link because it is a critic site, not a personal blog.)

If you've seen the movie Catfish, or followed the April Rose scandal, or the Kaycee Nicole hoax, you know the drill.

The Dirr family - It was supposed to be a mom and dad of 10 children, one of whom was fighting cancer (for the 4th time?) They apparently had a pretty heavy social media presence. The day before Mother's Day, a Facebook update indicated that the mom, pregnant again, had been in a terrible car accident. A subsequent post indicated she'd given birth after arriving at the hospital, and the baby was fine. Final post, on Mother's Day, informed readers she had died, and the father was now alone to raise his 11 children.

Turns out, all the photos of the children and mother that had been posted on Facebook and blog over the years were stolen from other (real) bloggers - and there were traces of the same hoax story being told on various websites going back for years and years. Several interconnected Facebook profiles of supposed family and friends turned out to be fake - we're talking over a dozen separate profiles here.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

This was incredibly similar to a hoax when I had a livejournal account ages ago. Someone claimed to be a young man, left with infant twins after his wife was killed in a car crash. He posted stolen injury pictures and car crashes and even the pictures of the infants were stolen. People started calling himout when the car crash photos and injuries didn't seem severe enough for the story he described.

Some people just have so much gall. And extra time.

[meow139]

Well, someone sure knew what they were going to do today...

[Mela99]

::frowns::

I'm a little lost here. Can someone explain this?Aside from all the very badly spelled names - Jaymes, Petr, Markus, and Timmothey - I'm not entirely sure what is going on.

[The Archivist]

Basically, someone faked an entire family on the internet for attention. Those names are, I think, the "creatively spelled" names of the fake children.

It's a bit confusing, but if you scroll to the bottom of the blog and read all the posts starting from the first one, you'll piece it together.

I think the current assumption is that someone named Emily was the real person behind the whole fake story.

[Mela99]

Aaaah... Lightbulb. Okay.

I googled Warrior Eli, and found another blog about it. A real cancer mom ripping 'Emily' to pieces for doing it. Wow... It's like virtual Munchausen by Proxy... Making up sick kids for attention. Unreal.

I am rarely at a loss for words, but... I can't come up with anything for this. The worst part is that, technically none of this was a crime.. and nobody will suffer for it. At least nobody who deserves to.

When did all this start? I never heard of this before today.

[The Archivist]

Yup, that's exactly what it is - often called Munchausen by Internet. There have been many cases of it since the internet became mainstream.

The story broke on MWoP, in comments (someone posted a link to the tragic story, and other commenters started investigating and found all the stolen photos and fake Facebook accounts, and put two and two together) I think yesterday or the day before. I kind of suspect the media might pick up on this one at some point. It's been going on for at least 5 years, it sounds like, and has apparently fooled thousands of people.

[Mela99]

Ohhh lordy. Poo is gonna fly over this....

This is right up there with the bride who faked terminal cancer for a wedding... then didn't die. And her husband left.

Knock knock... Karma is calling.

[Lily]

Wow. I never see these things while people are still being taken in by them, but looking at the hoax exposition blog, I'm not sure how that was ever taken seriously to begin with.

Anyone who believed that, well, I know of a Nigerian Prince who wants to give you a few million bucks.

Snark aside, this kind of thing hits hard for me, and is one of the main reasons I keep my private life (mostly) off the internet. I don't keep a blog, only add real life people on FB, don't discuss things in a ton of detail on forums. My youngest daughter had a (thankfully successfully repaired) minor heart condition and when I was browsing around when she was first diagnosed, I found a ton of these blogs that were wildly inaccurate and ignorant of the realities of heart conditions, and most of these bloggers claimed they/their kids had way worse conditions than what DD had. It would have been funny how transparent it was with even a little bit of information, had the topic not been so grave.

Why don't these people just join baby name forums with the rest of the teenagers who want to make up fantasy families? That's silly, but IMO doesn't cross into creepy/immoral territory. Pretending to have a sick child and seeking attention and/or money for it though, creepy and sick and amoral on SO many levels.

[DarkAnts]

This is the reason one of the charities I donate to decided to work exclusively with the Ronald McDonald house. She will still do her work but she will no longer send items to individuals who contacted her online.

[ladypuglover]

How messed up do you have to be to make up an entire family and family friends. This goes way beyond of the make believe boyfriend/girlfriend thing that some kids do in Jr High. How much time of your life do you have to give up creating this group of family and friends and then changing back and forth between them? Maybe if s/he just used that same amount of time they could have real life friends and maybe even a family. Real friends and family comes with enough drama and you won't need to make anything up and keep your story straight. I'm to forgetfull to tell lies as I can't my day straight let alone to lie. :snooty:

This is the reason why I won't post pics of my family or even my pets. One of my on line pug friends had pictures of her pug puppies stolen and used to scam other people who wanted to buy pugs from this scammer. It doesn't seem a big deal but she is a breeder that does the dog shows all over the world and found it heartbreaking that people were scammed out of thousands of dollars for show pugs they would never get. Also felt that her name was cheapened by it even though we in the pug world know better.

[Lily]

How messed up do you have to be to make up an entire family and family friends. This goes way beyond of the make believe boyfriend/girlfriend thing that some kids do in Jr High. How much time of your life do you have to give up creating this group of family and friends and then changing back and forth between them? Maybe if s/he just used that same amount of time they could have real life friends and maybe even a family. Real friends and family comes with enough drama and you won't need to make anything up and keep your story straight. I'm to forgetfull to tell lies as I can't my day straight let alone to lie. :snooty:

This is the reason why I won't post pics of my family or even my pets. One of my on line pug friends had pictures of her pug puppies stolen and used to scam other people who wanted to buy pugs from this scammer. It doesn't seem a big deal but she is a breeder that does the dog shows all over the world and found it heartbreaking that people were scammed out of thousands of dollars for show pugs they would never get. Also felt that her name was cheapened by it even though we in the pug world know better.

Wow, that's crazy. How heartbreaking for your friend AND the scamming victims :(

My favourite dog is just about the only public picture I do post, and now I'm even rethinking that. Not that anyone would try to sell a 4 year old rescue mutt, but I've seen pictures stolen for less, and she *IS* pretty stinkin' cute.

What amazes me most is the detailed stories these people make up and have to keep straight. I have trouble keeping the facts of my real life straight -- I've been known to mix up 2 of my kids' middle names, pencil in the wrong kid for an appointment because their names start with the same letter, mess up my husband's birth year, mess up my OWN birth year, buy 2 sets of the same groceries because I picked up last week's list that I forgot to throw out after I bought, etc. How the HELL do these people have the memory capacity to not only create this intricate cast of characters, but keep their story up for years at a time? Obviously some people do catch on, and little inconsistencies come out over time, but still, it's amazing that they keep it even mostly together.

[ladypuglover]

Wow, that's crazy. How heartbreaking for your friend AND the scamming victims :(

My favourite dog is just about the only public picture I do post, and now I'm even rethinking that. Not that anyone would try to sell a 4 year old rescue mutt, but I've seen pictures stolen for less, and she *IS* pretty stinkin' cute.

What amazes me most is the detailed stories these people make up and have to keep straight. I have trouble keeping the facts of my real life straight -- I've been known to mix up 2 of my kids' middle names, pencil in the wrong kid for an appointment because their names start with the same letter, mess up my husband's birth year, mess up my OWN birth year, buy 2 sets of the same groceries because I picked up last week's list that I forgot to throw out after I bought, etc. How the HELL do these people have the memory capacity to not only create this intricate cast of characters, but keep their story up for years at a time? Obviously some people do catch on, and little inconsistencies come out over time, but still, it's amazing that they keep it even mostly together.

I have been known to forget my name. Not only my last name which I have had for 18 years but the one I have had my whole stinking life. :doh: I don't have time for lies, I have a hard enough time remembering the truth.

[Lily]

I have been known to forget my name. Not only my last name which I have had for 18 years but the one I have had my whole stinking life. :doh: I don't have time for lies, I have a hard enough time remembering the truth.

Our kind will be a whole lot of fun puttering around the Shady Pines. Our loved ones will think we're doing so wonderfully because there will be no discernible difference once the age where memory loss usually occurs, sets in.

[Cran]

Munchausen by Internet was also my thought, the doctor who researched this and made the term popular (unfortunately, I can't remember his name and website) had a story up about a self-help group online who was exploited by a person with Munchausen, who created a lot of drama around herself, always a new crisis when attention got low, up to faking her own death, when the hoax was finally discovered. So the people on this group were traumatized yet again.

Sadly, people with Munchausen are also sick, but in a... sick way. Most of them know that it is wrong and will hurt others, but they are not able to resist the urge to divert attention to themselves by faking illness.

[Elle]

Ohhh lordy. Poo is gonna fly over this....

This is right up there with the bride who faked terminal cancer for a wedding... then didn't die. And her husband left.

Knock knock... Karma is calling.

There've been TWO of these lately, and in one of the cases, the husband stuck with her.

[Elle]

The worst part is that, technically none of this was a crime..

Depends. If the faker received money or goods because of the fakery, then it's fraud and is a crime punishable by jail, obtaining goods under false pretenses.

[Elle]

Back in 2001-2004, I was a member of a Yahoo group for parents and those wanting to be parents. One woman on there claimed to have a daughter who was very very sick. A lot of fundraising happened to help her, but then she claimed her daughter had to be hospitalized while on a family vacation and that her illness finally killed her. One problem. The town she claimed her daughter died in had one hospital, and you can see where this is going. She was pressed for the name of the hospital by an admin of the group who wanted to send flowers, and she gave a name, but asked flowers be sent to a funeral home. Well, one of our members was a nurse at that hospital and verified that there was need any patient there by the child's name, nor had any child died there the day she claimed. Enough of us started calling the hospital to individually verify it (after three years of lies, none of us were going to just believe anything at that point) that the hospital operators were bluntly telling us that someone has been scamming and that the child doesn't exist at that hospital.

That caused enough distrust in the group that most of us left.

Sadly this now is pretty common.

[pixydust]

My favourite dog is just about the only public picture I do post, and now I'm even rethinking that. Not that anyone would try to sell a 4 year old rescue mutt, but I've seen pictures stolen for less, and she *IS* pretty stinkin' cute.

People will steal just about any pictures! A few years ago my mom grew a carrot in her garden that looked like the lower torso and legs of a person (think 2 carrots with one carrot top), my kids wanted to take a picture of it, then my sister put the carrot on facebook. A little while later I started seeing the picture on various humor blogs, in a "hey, look at this" kind of way....no problem, someone saw it on FB and sent it in....then I saw it where someone was claiming that they grew the stupid carrot! Why take a pic of a carrot and say it's yours?!? It's a CARROT!

[luckystone]

People will steal just about any pictures! A few years ago my mom grew a carrot in her garden that looked like the lower torso and legs of a person (think 2 carrots with one carrot top), my kids wanted to take a picture of it, then my sister put the carrot on facebook. A little while later I started seeing the picture on various humor blogs, in a "hey, look at this" kind of way....no problem, someone saw it on FB and sent it in....then I saw it where someone was claiming that they grew the stupid carrot! Why take a pic of a carrot and say it's yours?!? It's a CARROT!

Hahaha wtf. The internet is so weird.

Apparently a relative of an acquaintance of mine was turned into a meme. I hadn't heard of it, but it's on sites.

It makes me a bit scared to upload any pictures in case that happens. I'm very cautious.

It would be good if this blog was satire, but seems like just someone trying to get attention. Interesting how it was a teen. I've seen a few teens on forums who have obvious fantasy lives and fake families (interestingly, they claimed a bad home of their own, like this girl) but nothing ever this far.

[Terrie]

I have been known to forget my name. Not only my last name which I have had for 18 years but the one I have had my whole stinking life. :doh: I don't have time for lies, I have a hard enough time remembering the truth.

Good to know I'm not the only one who's done that. :lol:

[luckystone]

I just read more on this case. All the money has been shown to actually have gone to the charity so it was really for attention/spiralling out of control. Even money sent directly to the hoaxer (pretending to be the guy's sister) got forwarded on. Quite bizarre.

[Cran]

Perhaps the perpetrator of this hoax knew that fraud could send her to prison if discovered, so she took good care to avoid this pitfall. Isn't it rumoured that she's a med student? If so, she's probably clever enough, maybe that's also a reason why she lasted so long. Until the end, when she got way overboard with the drama and using other people's pictures.

[luckystone]

Perhaps the perpetrator of this hoax knew that fraud could send her to prison if discovered, so she took good care to avoid this pitfall. Isn't it rumoured that she's a med student? If so, she's probably clever enough, maybe that's also a reason why she lasted so long. Until the end, when she got way overboard with the drama and using other people's pictures.

Yeah that's interesting about where the line would be drawn for legal fraud. Maybe she is that clever. I thought she was still a teen (claimed to have started when 11 and I think that was a few years ago?) but I only just skimmed through that site. The fact she appears to have mostly stolen the pictures from places like flickr with creative common licences is also quite clever (though I believe you still have to attribute with those licences?)

[Cran]

I think she started as teen and is supposedly in her mid-twenties (23, 24ish) now, and eventually a med student, but this is not entirely clear, I think, just speculation.

Imho, she started out to have some fun with imaginary identities, guess many teenagers do that, make themselves older and more experienced on the web to get attention, and she liked it so much she couldn't stop, elaborating more and more, adding bits here and there on different webpages.

O what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive....