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Facts About Multiples
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Multiple Birth Fakers What are
fakers?
Fakers are people who pretend to be
someone else or make up a persona and pretend to be that character or pretend
to have or be something they aren't. For some reason a lot of people decide
to pretend to either be multiples or a parent of multiples online.
Most fakers make up lies about having multiples, posting about them on message boards and at websites. Some fakers steal photos and pass them off as their own kids. Some befriend real people for years. Some try and get people to send them gifts or donations for their fake children. Some impersonate a real set or real parents of multiples, either by creating accounts and posting on message boards as them or emailing people pretending to be the real family. Fakers exist in other online communities as well. You can find them anywhere, from medical support groups (interesting article called Munchausen by Internet) to military sites (many groups are dedicated to exposing people pretending to be military) and "rate how hot I am" sites. Some people have faked writing entire memoirs
which are published as truth and turn out to be false, such as the James Frey
controversy and the Margaret Jones memoir. See
the NY Times article for info.
No idea - bored teenagers, creative
people that are playing fiction out for real, teens who feel they aren't
welcome at parenting sites because they aren't parents, people who think
their real self isn't interesting enough, people who like attention, people
who want to get caught lying because it's funny when the board gets in
an uproar, people who just want to do it because it's the internet and
they can - there are so many reasons why someone would fake. The most serious
would be people who are so wrapped up in it they almost (or do) believe
it themselves. Some people want money or free stuff and like conning people.
We call these people "criminals."
Where do you find multiple birth fakers? The likely places for multiples fakers - message boards about pregnancy, parenting, baby names and multiple births. You may find fake websites at babiesonline, photobucket, MySpace and other social networking sites. In general you can find fakers everywhere
- rating sites, journals, military sites, fandom sites, the real world
...
What should I do if I encounter a faker, or someone who might be faking? My advice is to take every poster claiming multiples with a grain of salt unless they post a few pictures of the kids together and over time (if they are faking using stolen photos it'll get found out pretty quickly). Google them, see if there's any news articles - if it's quads or higher, there may be some. Check with other higher order multiple moms. If a person is posting and you suspect
they might be faking, either ignore their posts or tell the board moderator
who can investigate. Most boards don't want you to call out the people
yourself, check the board rules to see if this is allowed or not. You may
think a poster with quints is faking but it could turn out to be true.
The best thing to do is alert the board owner/moderator and let them handle
it and just ignore the poster.
Big deal, someone's faking, why does it matter? Just ignore them. I bet the parents of Megan Meier wish that faking didn't have dire consequences, but it does. The truth of the internet is you NEVER know who you're really talking to. Many people DO ignore the fakers - after all, attention is what they are after and this is the best thing to do when you discover one. But if you're on a busy message board, chances are it isn't going to be ignored by everyone, especially if the faker has befriended many people. It may not be a big deal to those who can spot them easily, or have never had a faker lie to them or steal their photos or identity. For the most part I ignore fakers unless I see they are stealing photos or trying to get money. Most eventually give themselves away - and sometimes they are good for a laugh because they suck at lying. I think it is fair to warn others on the board to avoid the person (in private message or email), especially if the person chatting with the faker seems to not have a clue about it and the faker has been around the board for awhile and has had the chance to make relationships with people. If you could prevent someone from having to take their family website down because people steal photos of their kids, or having to deal with someone who pretend to be them and opened an email account in their name, or prevent someone from sending gifts to someone who doesn't exist, wouldn't you want to do it? Recently, a woman and her husband were sentenced
to JAIL TIME for pretending
to have sextuplets.
Someone is trying to get me to send them things, what should I do? Do not send donations, gifts, food, clothing or ANYTHING to someone online that you have not met in person to verify their story. Even if someone provides a phone number and you talk to them still does not mean they are who they say they are. Unless you are willing to give your money up to someone who may not be telling the truth, don't donate anything. When the Everson's faked having sextuplets, a friend who believed them set up a website for collecting donations. So even a legitimate looking site may be run by someone who is also being duped. If you choose to give money or gifts, know that they might not be going to who you think they are and you may never see that money or your item may never get to anyone who will have use for it. If you have sent gifts or money to someone you later find out is faking, and you have information on who this person really is, you can inform their local authorities. Many message boards have exchanges
- people will sign up, get paired with a person and exchange anything from
candy to Christmas ornaments. While it's a nice idea, go into it with the
knowledge that although you may keep up your end of the bargain and send
something, you may never get anything in return. The majority of exchanges
work well, but be aware it doesn't work out for everyone.
I found a website and I think they stole photos! If you know this for sure (the real
multiple family website has the photos that were stolen on it etc), alert
the real family that their photos were stolen, then email the person who
made the fake website and tell them that you informed the family their
photos were stolen. That is usually enough to get the fakers to shut the
site down. If they don't take the photos down, you can contact the web host
- it is against the Terms of Agreement of almost every web host for someone
to use photos that do not belong to them without permission of the photo
owner. In some cases the web host will suspend the site to investigate.
I've have seen quite a few websites shut down by various web hosts when
they are informed the member stole the photos they are using, especially
if the photos are of children.
Someone stole my pictures, what do I do?? If they are posting on a message board, report them to the board owner and moderators and let everyone on the board know they stole the pics. This usually results in the faker not coming back and the admin banning them from the site. Ask the admin if you can have the person's IP address - this will allow you to trace them back to their Internet Service Provider (ISP). There are many free services online to do a whois search, like samspade.org. If they have created a website or photo account, ask them to remove the photos (if they have contact information), and also report them to the site operators. Photobucket, babiesonline, MySpace, Livejournal etc all have contact email. Tell them the pictures are being used without permission. If you have their IP address and they have not removed photos, trace the IP back to their service provider. You can contact the ISP and tell them the IP address and what their customer is doing. Admins of message boards and websites can request that a block be put on that person's account so they can't access certain websites (in case they find a way around being banned at a message board). Photos are NOT in the public domain (free to use) unless the person who took them says "these are in the public domain" or it is 75 years after your death. So YOU hold the rights to your photos and companies that offer web services (photo sharing, websites etc) should honour that right. If you post pictures up on your website, you can try a few things to protect them.
The drawbacks of protecting your photos are a little odd, but true - the more your photos are hidden, the less chance a faker has to get a hold of them, BUT the less people there are to spot that your photos are taken. Almost all the alerts I get about photo stealers don't come from the victims themselves, but others who spotted it because they recognized the pictures. Disabling right mouse 'click to save' on your website isn't that protective - people can still see the URL of the photo and can access it. Article
on Fair Use, copyright and photo infringement
Info for all the fakers out there... You can be traced to your internet service provider by every email you send and every post you make on a message board. Anyone you send email to has your IP address (a unique number assigned to your computer every time you sign on to the net), and every message board owner (and many moderators, it depends on the board software and if the owner has enabled it) can see it as well. This allows them to ban you from their site and also trace you to your internet service provider, and complain about you to them. This could result in your internet service being terminated or suspended. You can also be permanently banned by your service provider from being able to access the websites you fake at. If you use proxy servers, people will assume you are faking, because people without something to hide don't normally need to hide their true IP address. So you may think you're being clever, but you're really giving yourself away almost immediately. Families with multiples are a very close knit community, and if you steal pictures or impersonate others, you will get found out, and people will research every bit of information you give out and will discover your lies. Teenagers who have been caught faking have had their parents called by angry families who have tracked down their personal info, their schools and school boards have been informed in cases where they are using school computers to send messages, and in some cases local police and the FBI have been contacted if gifts or money have ever been offered or asked for. If you are faking and someone suspects, you can be very sure that many people will be researching your real information, and more often than not they will find it. Legal action can be taken against a faker if
they are impersonating a real family and stealing photos.
Some multiple birth hoaxes from the news. Over the years there have been some multiple birth hoaxes that have made mainstream news.
Erika Nieves-Abrigo (aka Nancy Cantu) (2007) Mandie
Clark (November 2006)
Swiss
French Quints (June 2006)
Rahman
Septuplets (June 2006)
Qiao
Yubo (June 2006)
Everson
Sextuplets (Hoax from April 2006)
Espinoza
Triplets (May 2001)
Perham Sextuplets (March 1985)
Chilean Septuplets Hoax (November
1952)
Reporter Makes Up Quint/Sextuplet
Stories (1952)
San Salvador Sextuplet Hoax (April
1938)
April Fool Sextuplets (April 1936)
Bradlee Octuplets (August 1872)
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