Monday, May 6, 2013

Munchausen by Internet

Good morning, sunshines!

I sincerely hope your cinco de mayo has not transformed itself, this morning, into a cinco de uh-oh.  Fun fact from a former resident of Mexico:  no one celebrates or gives a shit about it there.  Cinco de Mayo is basically Mexican St. Patrick's day - just replace the leprechauns with donkeys in sombreros.... nonetheless I am in support of any holiday where animals wear hats and nachos are encouraged.

The weekend in the mountains with my Mom was hella relaxing, ya'll.  Thanks for all the loverly wishes - seeing as it's a day to both celebrate my Mom's birthday and mourn the fact that my Dad passed 10 years ago, it's a bit weird and tricky, and every year we sort of blindly grasp at how exactly to feel about it.  A game of pin the emotion on the sombrero wearing donkey, if you will.

I'm happy to report that pretty views, unbelievably fat squirrels, wine and the potential to get eaten by a large bear helped ease it quite a bit.  Be jealous:



Today I would like to talk about something weird and disgusting.  Either you're going to pass by this entry and think 'well that's weird', or if you're like me, one of those people that has to gawk at the accident on the side of the road, you're about to disappear into the internet for about 4 hours feeling equally intrigued and nauseous. Soooo yeah... I'm about to weirden up your day.

A few months ago I read this article.  Don't worry, I'll give you the jist, but holy shit me read it when you get the chance.

A lovely lady was diagnosed with breast cancer, and felt isolated and in need of support about her diagnosis.  She turned to blogging and, as you do, found ladies that were in her exact same position.  She also, without trying, found multiple people who were faking cancer, and blogging about it to get sympathy.

There are several examples of it in the article, but there was one that bit me on the ass harder than the rest.  A young woman in Texas made a tumblr blog about having AIDS and cancer when she was, in fact, perfectly healthy physically.  She went as far as to shave her head, fake seizures in videos, order feeding tubes and wheelchairs off of Amazon, receive hundreds of gifts from well wishers, etc.  She even conned some friends into changing her adult diapers.  (Let's all pause for a moment and let that sink in...).  Even though the article uses pseudonyms, it didn't take a lot of snooping to find the real blog.  When one of her friends found out what she was doing, she broke into the account and changed the password so that the blogger couldn't take down what she had done.

So when I found the blog a few months ago, I disappeared into it and read it from start to finish.  It is, suffice it to say, super disturbing... But if you're like me and want to look, I suggest reading from the beginning.  So click at your own risk.

Part of me wanted to write about it a few months ago, but I couldn't really find words.  Then yesterday this lovely lady (wanna find blogs you have mysteriously missed?  Join twitter) tweeted the article and after we started talking about it I was re-inspired to maybe open up the discussion on this sort of thing.

Soo... it's a completely icky thing to think about, I know.  I don't even like typing it, but my thinking that our little infertile corner is and will remain to be completely immune to this sort of thing, is probably me being optimistic and naive.  I mean, this is the internet. In regards to any other subject I logically understand that a good percentage of it is full of shit, and if there are 100 blogs about lady troubles one of those is going to be written by a bored, slightly disturbed middle aged man.  And yet somehow in regards to our type of blogging, I would still be shocked to find out that someone was full of doo doo.


For the record, I'm not really a blog unfollower.  Once I follow, I follow.  I think in a year I may have unfollowed twice and both were because the blogs turned into 99% religion and 1% infertility (with a religious twist).  It was just too much for me, and I didn't see a scenario where I would read with excitement and/or have a helpful comment, and probably more so I unfollowed because if they really started reading me back they would inevitably start a petition to have me burnt at the stake.  That's been the extent of my having to step back from any blogs that I read.

I have, however, had a few moments of the internet where I never engaged with an infertile at all because something struck me as off.

A long time ago, I happened to be perusing new blogs at Mr. T's house and happened to come across the blog of a pregnant infertile.  I read a little, and something about her story struck me in my gut as wrong and I couldn't really put my finger on it.  Then she posted a picture of herself 6 months pregnant, and I showed it to Mr. T and asked "does this look right to you?" and he said "that's not pregnant, that's just fat". That may sound judgey - keep in mind I'm a chubby girl, and my chubby assessment was that he was right.  Feed me a steak, give me an hour, I could recreate it myself.

I used to be a regular on one of the more popular trying to conceive forums.  Now, these are hugely helpful websites, especially this one... but more than once there was a girl who was very obviously full of shit, or whose sole purpose was apparently to stir shit up online.  (I can't, ya'll... I'm too exhausted for shenanigans.  My feeling is that if you find yourself using the word 'drama' on a regular basis, you're probably the cause of it).

And of the few times people have seemed not-quite-infertile in forums, I don't think it's a case of someone telling a lie to the internet - she believes she's infertile.  When I was an active user, every few months there would be a case of someone having recurring chemical pregnancies, and a gang of frustrated infertiles would whip themselves into a frenzy telling her it was impossible.  I had a 100% verified chemical pregnancy from IVF -  100% verified because they were monitoring me so closely.  I typically call it an early miscarriage because for a few days there I had the medical community's permission to be happy.  We can save the argument for another day, but it doesn't matter to me if a girl can actually prove to me that she's had a chemical pregnancy... I know that some people have had a ton of them, and some who believe they've had ten have never had one.  As someone who has definitely had one, I take no offense to the idea that she might be wrong if it's real to her.  And if it does irritate me, I just leave her to more understanding people.

My response on the very few occasions where a blogger or forum user (when I was one) seems fishy is to just not engage with that person or take a step back.  I have yet to be invested in someone and think 'wow this person is full of shit'.  I suppose if someone had a lot of people emotionally invested - and definitely if they had anyone financially invested - and I had proof that they were full of crap, I would say something.  As ballsy as I tend to be, though, part of me would hesitate in rounding up the pitchforks.

Why, you ask?

One, the easiest way to tell if someone is doing the whole munchausen by internet thing is if they fall victim to a series of tragedies... however a good percentage of infertiles, including  myself, have fallen victim to a series of tragedies - when it rains and all that.  I am a person whose history has some outlandishness to it.  I'm adopted and half of that story is coocoo.  The day I found out I had to have IVF, I came home and my cat died.  My Dad died on my Moms birthday, for chrissakes. Gawd knows some of us have recurring miscarriages and that is quite literally a series of tragedies.

Two, I would be hesitant to round up the townsfolk and battering rams unless I had more than just my gut feeling, because I'm not sure what I would do if someone said to me "I don't believe you are who you say you are!  Prove you're infertile!"  I mean, honestly... If someone were to leave that as a comment to this very blog post I'd be like... "Umm.. Dude, I dunno how to make you feel better about it... Come to Los Angeles armed with sperm, try to impregnate me, watch the ensuing meltdown?".  Seeing as I am infertile, I would be hap-hap-happy for someone to find a way to prove to me that I'm not one.  My entire infertile existence at the moment is dedicated to finding someone who can find a way to prove that I'm not one.  Make me a liar, Doctors!

Three, it's just sad.  Don't get me wrong it's totally fucking disturbing, but it's also... just sad.  I'm not sure how you go about dealing with someone in that kind of dramatic mental state without doing more damage.

Four, and this is going to sound wussy... I have stumbled across once or twice a blog where people are in love with the blogger, and I don't get it, it's just not for me.  It would never occur to me to stand up on a soapbox and say "hey, why are you all kissing this girls ass? Explain it to me". I just don't read it.  So if I just had a feeling in my gut about someone, I would be hesitant to stand up on my internet soapbox and say "hey guys, why are you all believing this?  Explain it to me." Mostly because I wouldn't want to be pitchforked myself (this is all assuming there's no request for 'donations' or anything.  I'll let people hate me for a few minutes if there's a possibility of saving them money).

From my disappearing into hours of reading about Munchausen by Internet, I've gathered a few things that make me feel a wee bit more confident about the possibility of a day when I'll have to ignore my hesitations.

One, if the person is full of doo-doo their series of tragedies will be incredibly outlandish and unrelated to each other.  And more than likely, it will happen at a time when someone else in their online circle is going through something real that may steal the spotlight from them for awhile.  There will be dramatic twists and turns, etc.  It won't just be that they got a flat tire, it will be that they got a flat tire because they had a seizure behind the wheel after swerving to stop themselves from hitting big foot. And most important, it'll happen a lot... Not just one dramatic thing a year, or a series of totally related dramatic things, but unrelated dramatic things happening to them all.. the.. time.

Two, the stories that they tell are usually fairly easily disproved with a wee bit of research.  My big point here is by all means if you have a gut feeling about someone, do some research.. but be armed with proof before you go dismantling someone.

Three, they are mentally disturbed.  We're supposed to respond firm and gentle with the purpose of getting the victims out of the situation, not with the purpose of harassing the perpetrator for initiating it.

Four, if you find a person like this more than likely their followers are going to be pissed with you at first if you're the one to hold up some proof.. Who wants to initially believe that someone would do something like that?  You'd be doing it not to build a gang and light torches, but to save some people time and energy once they've had time to process their initial response.  Personally if I was convinced enough of someone's falsehood, I would probably just privately email someone else in our community that I trusted, to have them verify to me that I wasn't being batshit before I went about trying to handle the situation.

So I've only had a few gut feelings about a few people in my entire online infertile experience... I've lucked out. So begins my internal discussion and my questions to you, what exactly are we supposed to do when this happens?  Has this ever happened to you?

The darling Rachel had the idea that maybe we should blog about this... Let me know if you do.  I'm just thinking maybe we should have the discussion, as icky as it is.

Sidenote:  I love me some catfish.  That show freaks me out and intrigues me to the point where if I watch too much of it I turn to Bubba, who I met partially on the internet, for reassurances that he's not in fact a portly middle aged man with a wife.


44 comments:

  1. Dude. I loved the line about drama. I can't handle women that say they don't hang out with women because of all the drama. Right, I say. And I don't like your drama. So there.

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    1. YES. I have yet to meet someone who uttered the phrase "I hate drama" who was not, 99% of the time, the cause.

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  2. I swear that a few months ago I found a Munchausen by Internet blog on ICLW. This woman, well, everything was so outlandish. It was the first time I had come across her blog so I didn't say anything...but I just went back to read the blog and yep, the posts are still insane and all over the place. Of course I am not 100% certain, but it seems as if she is trying to hit every path of sympathy possible (not just infertility).

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    1. Well nowwwwww you have to email me the name of the blog so I can have a look see (don't worry I'll stay in the shadows).

      Stupid stork 4 at gmail dot com.

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  3. I've definitely read some blogs before that seemed way out there. Some were infertility related but most were about cancer. Hoaxers seem to love to use cancer to get sympathy. There are blogs out there to catch the hoaxers too! I've come across a few of those and they're pretty interesting. I've also watched that Catfish tv show a few times.

    There's lots of crazy stuff out there on the Internetz!

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    1. I don't... Understand that at all. I'm surprisingly numb to it reading about people doing that. You'd think I'd be pissed since my Dad died of cancer, but my only response is why... would you want that? And secondly, why... would you want that?

      Also the few people I've known in life who have had cancer have mostly handled it as badasses, never asked for sympathy and were disgusted when it was offered (even when it was a perfectly rational response). I'm wondering if that's an indicator right there, when someone immediately wants sympathy.

      I love me some catfish!

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  4. As crazy as this very real phenomenon is (and it is both real and crazy)...I try to think of it purely as a mental illness (makes me less insulted by it). This doesn't make it any less wrong that people are exploiting the kindness and generosity of others but I don't think of it in the same way that I think of willful exploitation.
    The by-proxy varieties are literally shooting their kids up with insulin or overdosing them on drugs. These people need a therapist and an inpatient stay...but unfortunately it's easier and cheaper to have a blog.

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    1. Yeah, mostly my response is to feel really sad for them... I mean, that is a heavy, heavy mental demon and I can't imagine how mortifying it is when people figure out how large a demon you're wrestling with.

      And OMG the by proxy people.. I can't. Every time I read a story like that I get sick to my stomach. naturally these are the people who procreate.

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  5. Oh yes. In a moms' group of mine. (A fertility friend TTC turned Due In turned Facebook group so we can say what we want). There was a girl who's pictures just didnt seem quite right. We'll call her Gen, because that was really her name. But she was popular on the board, commented a lot. Then one she claimed her husband was abusive and she was going to leave hm. Everyone rallied, started up a collection for her, one woman even went to meet her on her way "out" with the kids and a packed car. The woman bought her groceries and have her money. Then another member of e group started doing some research. Turns out Gen was a horse fanatic. The group member found her in a horse forum advertising that she just bought a horse. How much? The exact amount we raised for her "getaway." Almost $800. She was caught. And then caught in so much more after that. Gen still frequents FF under different names, I've heard. But she always has three kids, two boys and the youngest is a girl. So beware. She is totally catfish.

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    1. WHAT THE. OMG.

      Did they press charges for... wire fraud? Are there any charges for that?

      Holy shit. Now I want to know who this girl is.

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    2. No charges. I think because the money already cleared before we knew what was up. But her whole plan was elaborate. And we really couldn't prove it was fraud. Mostly because it was through PayPal and already cashed in. Some of the ladies from our group were so mad they reported her fertility friend, then they went on that horse message board and called her out telling other people not to buy or sell to this lady because she was a fraud. And then anywhere they found a trace of her they'd comment about her being a fraud. And she kept turning up under a different variation of her name.

      Her name is Genevieve. Or some variation of that. Two boys and a little girl. One of the boys is Sebastian. The girl is Caroline. Oh, and she claims to be from Australia, "abusive" husband is in the military. She told us she couldnt have anymore children but I'm sure she still hangs out in TTC forums. Under a different name, of course.


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    3. One more - a Facebook friend of mine who had a child with a chronic illness had her pictures of her daughter sick in the hospital stolen. The woman who stole them created a whole other profile claiming it was her sick child who died. The little girl was very much alive and well living with her real family. My friend filed a complaint and it was taken down.

      People are sick.

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    4. Good LORD. Just good LORD. I mean... that's definitely an argument towards keeping the online pics of your kids at a bare minimum.

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  6. There have been some blogs that have proved to be fakes, none that I've read but in the Blogosphere I remember at least one in my time here (since 2008). It's sad and disheartening. I remember a few times on the forums women had been outed as fakes, having stolen photos from other members. There have been a few women and blogs where I kind of step back, side eye, and wonder about. When that happens, I generally just step away from the people in question. My stories/experience, like you, may seem outlandish to others, so I acknowledge that weird things and bad circumstances do happen. But I'm a skeptic at heart too.

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    1. Stole pictures?! Good Lord that's just bad lying...

      I'm lucky there have only been a few side-eye incidents for me and always just random blogs I stumbled across in passing. I'm definitely a take-a-step-backer because I'm really lost as to what to do about it if there's no money involved or I don't have solid evidence.

      And yeah, I think we all have stuff that has happened to us that seems cray-cray... I think maybe it's in the telling of those stories that makes the exaggerators and liars stand out? The only time I saw that pregnant infertile blog that I think was horseshit (can't even remember the name because it was just in passing) there wasn't really anything TOO crazy about the story that she was telling as far as IF goes.. It was just something weird about the way she was telling it. Can't put my finger on the difference.

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  7. I've never personally come across an IF blog that I thought was fake, but I remember there being a big to-do about a fake IF-er being outed a couple of years ago. I was still pretty new to the community, but it made me wonder, "why the hell would anyone fake infertility?" I mean, it's not exactly a high drama medical condition like cancer or ALS or something. People can be pretty damn unsympathetic about it sometimes. It's just...weird.

    I have known catfish, though. I used to belong to a social networking site that was chock-full of them. It got to the point where it was actually humorous because they were all so pathetically transparent. When I called out one girl on her bullshit (via personal email because I'm not the public shaming type), I got a reply back from her email address, but it was written by a "friend" who had logged into her account. I was told that she was suffering severe post-partum depression and had to be hospitalized, so she wouldn't be able to reply to me. It was sad. These people are so sick that they can't own up to anything even when evidence is produced to show they're lying, so they'll keep fabricating tragedies and hardships to try to cover their tracks, no matter how ridiculous they start to sound.

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    1. Right?? Though I long for more infertiles on TV and in film, an hour long medical drama dedicated to infertiles wouldn't exactly be riveting... Just a sea of women peeing on things and saying 'yup, got my period again'.

      And therrrre's an aspect of the lying I don't understand.. I'm pretty sure my husband could break into my email account, etc., if he wanted but on what planet do people's friends have access to their email accounts?

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  8. I don't know what planet I've been living in but I had absolutely NO IDEA that this happened. This is so sickening... I had only read 2 blogs before starting mine, I started mine for support, yes, but mainly because I was SURE CCRM will work for me and I wanted to document it all for my future child to read one day, ha! Anyway, since then, I started following my followers basically so no, I have never encountered or had any suspicion of anyone faking anything, and I'm totally grossed out by learning about it. This is horrible. I'm going to sound like my mom here but "where is society heading?" How can people be so deceitful?

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    1. I agreeeeee. NO idea why anyone would do anything like this or where the hell this says about society... And I really don't understand why negative attention seems so much more attractive to people than positive attention?

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  9. Oh, I could go off on this for hours!! I've never personally come across a blog I felt was fake, and I used to think that no one would bother to fake infertility because (unlike cancer) the only sympathy you really get is from other infertiles. Plus you can't really fundraise money for treatments (although if someone tried that online I'd be giving them HUUUUUGE side-eye). But there's no telling how far some people will go to get attention, especially if they're mentally ill. I actually knew someone in real life who was basically a pathological liar...one New Year's Eve she wasn't getting sufficient attention and made up a huge story about just getting a phone call from her parents about her cousin getting killed in a skiing accident. She spent an hour crying and wailing about how he was so good, it should have been her, and once we all paid her enough attention she was ok and wanted to go back to drinking and get to the club. WTF? I didn't know her super well but pretty much avoided her after that.

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    1. First of all - your new years acquaintance, EWW. Just EWWWWWW.

      Yeah, I'm totally trying to convince myself that it would be a fruitless endeavor in the online infertile world.. Mostly because a lot of times fertiles don't understand how awful infertility is, much less feel that it would be a great way to garner sympathy. (With fake cancer non cancer patients are much less likely to say "just relax").

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    2. I saw a blog recently that was posting a paypal account for any of her followers who wanted to donate money and I was all...WTF?? It was a follow up to someone who apparently wrote and asked if they could give them money for her ivf treatment.

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    3. I mean, if my blog were a popular blog against ALL blogs, then maybe... Sure, gawd knows I could use the money towards IVF (although I'm still pretty sure I wouldn't do it).

      But NONE of us have any business, really, donating money to someone else's IVF, we all have to pay for our own treatments!

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  10. Wow...I'm kind of in shock. I know all about catfish and people faking illnesses, but really. How demented does one need to be to do this. This makes me sad that someone would fake being infertile. That's so hurtful to so many women out there, that struggle with this daily, and some never see the light at the end. This makes me furious. I have to say of I came across someone like this I would call them out...wtf!!!

    I do have to say that when I did start this community there were a couple of blogs that I did read, but stopped because they we're either so negative, or like you said toooo many people were kissing ass, and I wasn't getting it because all she did was complain.

    Your trip looks amazing!!!! Where did you go? So glad you had a nice time with your mom!!!!

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    1. Yeah, I'm SO lucky I've only come across blogs where they're just... not for me and only one that I can think of where I thought "nope, not really happening to her". Which is... weird. Such a... strange thing to lie about.

      Idyllwild! Twas GORGEOUS. And very relaxing. Was a little worried we would get trapped up there because of all the fires... So happy it's cool today!

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  11. It definitely has happened in the ALI blogosphere -- more than once. It just happened to Tertia (So Close), her childrens' pictures were used by a person to construct their fake life. It's awful every single time it happens, and shakes you to the core.

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    1. It does? Oh dear.. I think I'm in denial. I keep telling myself that the VERY few I've ever seen that make me look twice were not because they were lying but because they were just fertile people who were convinced they were going to be cursed.

      Her childrens' pictures were stolen?! What is the point of that?!

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    2. I forgot about this one! Look up the Warrior Eli Hoax. I'm pretty sure that this girl stole Tertia's photos to use in this childhood cancer hoax.

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  12. I just recently heard about this. I guess it doesn't surprise me. The internet is the perfect place for disturbed people to let their freak flags fly. I can't say I have ever read any IF blogs that raised any red flags, but I am really curious now.

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    1. So far I've only come across 2, in passing. One just gave me a sideways glance, the other I'm fairly confident was totally horse doodoo. I have lucked out, I suppose.

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  13. Brilliant post! I am hoping to post mine tomorrow. I'll link back to you! -Rachel

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  14. Is it weird that now I'm wondering whether anyone would steal the HSG photo from my blog? (I swear that uterus looks SO familiar...)

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    1. Ha! You should check.. Google now has this brilliant reverse image search thing where you put in an image that's yours, and see if it pops up anywhere else.

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  15. Oh, this reminds me of an infertility blog that was proven as fake sometime in the last year, I'm pretty sure -- I remember because Miss Conception had originally fallen for it, and she put out a call to everyone to give support to this woman who'd just been in a car accident and miscarried her twins JUST before viability, and this was coming after also losing twins previously due to some other outlandish situation. Anyway, she realized within the day that it was a scam and, shortly after, the blog was shut down. Still, so creepy.

    Also reminds me of a girl we knew in high school who claimed to have some health problem that led her to keep fainting. Initially, people would rush over to her whenever she "fainted" and try to help her, but eventually everyone stopped caring or figured out she was lying, so she would "faint" and the students would all just step over her body in the hallway and ignore her.

    Catfish -- yes. Totally insane. Also those boys are CUTE!

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    1. OMG.. I wish I would've had a chance to see that blog! Crazy crazy. I just don't understand why you'd want to fake this? I mean it's not that interesting.. It is if it's actually happening to you, but otherwise...

      And yes! Well I like the grumpy camera guy. ;)

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  16. IRL I've actually known a few people that need that much attention to fake illness and miscarriage. My husband has asked me why I'm still friends, well sort of, with them. I said I feel sorry for them because they have to lie to get attention.

    I feel that if you don't like your real life and feel like you need to lie about it then maybe you need to get up off your duff and away from the computer to make your life fantastic.

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    1. Agreed! There's clearly some hole these people are trying to fill and faking a blog may be a quick pill for it.. But really, you should just look at your own life.

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  17. It sucks that anybody would lie about any medical condition, honestly. I don't get it at all. Well, I get that they do it to get attention, but that doesn't make it right. Unfortunately the internet does make it easy for people to do things like that, which is a shame, but there's not a whole lot we can do about it. If your gut tells you something is "off" with someone, you're probably right!

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    1. Agreed - go with your gut.

      And I don't see what's so wrong with having a fiction blog if you let people know that it's FICTION. These people obviously have vivid imaginations, and that way you're getting praise for your writing and not 'praise' for your imaginary illness.

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  18. Ummmm, totally know someone like this. And here I am admitting it. I will email you the blog and backstory. I don't want to provide a link out here in the world. She's not focused the IF and RPL thing at the moment, but does blog about other things in melodramatic and exaggerated fashion.

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    1. Got it... Still going through it.. She is quite melodramatic, isn't she?

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  19. Wow. People disgust me! I know these things happen, but it's still hard to believe! Especially the extent to which people take things! Changing diapers?? Omg.

    There have been a few fake people I've heard of in the infertility community. People do steal photos to construct their fake lives, which is scary. A "friend" of a friend of mine was going through a divorce and faked a pregnancy and subsequent late-term loss (of twins) to get sympathy from her husband and friends. She had stolen ultrasound photos from the internet. Somehow my friend became suspicious and did some research and found the exact photos online that she had stolen. Sickening.

    And oh yeah, I've had many chemical pregnancies but all were confirmed by betas. If they weren't confirmed, I chalked them up to evaps or whatever. People have accused me and said there's no way I could have had that many, but lots of ladies really do have a lot of chemical pregnancies. It happens all the time with autoimmune disorders. There was one girl that I felt kind of suspicious about on TWW, but I'm definitely not one to judge since it happened to me!

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  20. It's scary, isn't it. My sister-in-law does this, and it makes me sick. She lies online (about everything), and in real life. My brother married her because she claimed to be pregnant with twins. It was a hoax that wasn't uncovered until the ultra-dramatic and stomach-churning finale. She (my brother went along with this) said one baby was a full-term stillbirth, and the other died after 5 days in the NICU. Yet there were no pictures, or footprints, or memorial services. Confronted with the lack of public records, they admitted it was all a lie. Who the HELL does that???? Who makes up names, complicated medical issues and creates a baby registry for imaginary babies??

    Throughout the whole pregnancy she mentioned nothing about being pregnant on her Facebook page. Yet there was always DRAMA about something - my brother cheating, another car accident - all of it fake.. After she was outed by the pregnancy hoax, she unfriended the whole family from Facebook. Recently I got a private message from someone on a TTC forum who gave me links to my SIL's new identity online. She now claims to be a medical student 6 years older than she is, and has claimed MANY miscarriages, a 20+ week stillbirth, and that she's being treated for infertility. She's full of shit and preying on the sympathy of women who are actually struggling. She claims she has been TTC for 4 years. She's 18 years old in real life. WTF?

    She doesn't have a blog (at least not one I've found yet - I wouldn't put it past her), but watch out for anyone posting under 'mzblondeable' - that's her latest moniker. I hesitate to give her name (and am not using my name here) just because she terrorizes my brother (as in physical and mental abuse). He backs up her lies and won't leave her - God only knows why. She must be mentally ill, because there's no benefit to her, other than sympathy, for her incessant lies.

    So it's a real and horribly cruel phenomenon.

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