Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Introductions - Urban Issues - Miscellaneous News, Topics, Interests
seanrichardryan
IDS Center
Posts: 4092
Joined: June 3rd, 2012, 9:33 pm
Location: Merriam Park, St. Paul

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby seanrichardryan » February 16th, 2015, 7:54 pm

'Ov S.', financier at EIG Europe, also 'John' from Maryland on Baltimore Christian Singles-

Image

I'd be willing to bet quite a few more images came from Christian dating sites.
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

TTT
Metrodome
Posts: 74
Joined: October 15th, 2014, 2:30 pm

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby TTT » February 17th, 2015, 12:35 pm

Yeah, so it goes back to Minnescraper, and RB is a real person who maybe had some peripheral involvement in financing and probably knew some actual people and knew some actual stuff. He's got a lot of big ideas, but not enough money or connections to turn them into anything, and now he's retired and feels out of the loop. He posts on Minnescraper, and he likes the fact that people pay attention to him and he feels important.

Then, on UrbanMSP, some people question what he knows, and he takes umbrage at that.

So, he shifts over to SSC and decides to make up a new character that will prove that he's important and knows what he's talking about and has a lot of money. It's not unreasonable that you'd take a little time (20 random posts isn't much) to establish some baseline credibility for the person that's going to talk you up. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that he originally had plans to post as much as he did, or to create Ryan or the other characters. But he found that he really enjoyed the attention, and he got sucked in.

It would seem that the creation of all of the LinkedIn accounts would be the point in time when he doubled down on building this into a full blown hoax. Not sure how that timing corresponds to the other posts.

The other connection that would be interesting to dig into is the Rochester connection to Gus Chafoulias that Derek M mentioned, and June confirmed. Assuming that Derek M is another sock puppet, this might be the only real, potentially verifiable connection that was noted. It would be interesting to try to find a copy of the Regional Impact study that he apparently did for the Rochester Airport -- a quick google search doesn't reveal anything. You'd like to think that the Rochester newspaper would have done some fact checking before letting a guy have a featured opinion piece.
Alright, MNdible's post from a couple weeks back seems to be really what's going on here. Someone called one of Rick's former associates and was able to confirm the following things:

1. Contrary to June's claims, Rick is in good health.
2. This former associate of Rick's has nothing to do with the urbanist/development world, but confirmed that Rick likes to tell people about "all the guys he works with." This associate was not able to confirm any solid results of Rick's claims, though. This also tells us that this facade he puts on reaches more than just the online development community. He is sharing these rumors/ideas/lies with outsiders. I'm guessing that's why the LinkedIns are still being managed, but posting on SSC has ceased. SSC is a lost cause, but he can still trick others.
3. When asked if Rick was a bit off, the response was a laugh with a comment stating "The last thing you could say about Rick is that he's typical." This may have been a leading question though.

Additionally, we have been given TexasRE's IP address used to create the account. This traces back to Blue Earth, MN, which is close to Wells. The IP addresses retiredbanker's account posted on this site from also all led back to Blue Earth, MN. This nearly confirms that Rick is responsible for TexasRE, and thus DerekM and LukeNNicole, based on the claim at SSC that those accounts are all run by the same person.

I can confidently say that MNdible's theory is exactly what's going on here, with the added twist that it spreads further than the UrbanMSP/SSC communities. The next question for us is why? What are his motivations? Who else is being hoaxed?

Where do we go from here? I'd love to hop on that streets.mn bus to Wells, with a few Pizza Ranch stops.
Wow, gone a few days on vaca and come back to some pretty stellar slooth-work. How telling that the IP Addresses all come from Blue Earth, but, what about the claims from the Mod at SSC about IP addresses from Milwaukee??

TTT
Metrodome
Posts: 74
Joined: October 15th, 2014, 2:30 pm

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby TTT » February 17th, 2015, 12:40 pm

Every time I jump back into this, I become more and more convinced there's something more sinister at play here than fooling forumers. Here's a profile I dug up in the fake ring of profiles: "Samuel Horowitz," a private investor from NYC. This isn't a character that ever popped up on SSC (as far as I know) but the person took the time to write up a bio and have a number of other profiles endorse him. Think of the time it took to assemble all of these! Hundreds of fake emails, bios, pictures, work histories, recommendations... remarkable. I can't believe it was all just to trick people online.

By the way, this is one of the few so far that I've been able to track down where the photo was lifted from. "Samuel Horowitz" is in reality Bill Barry, a broker out of Oregon.
I'm not sure I could agree with this any more. The time, energy and throught process to pull off this hoax truly is remarkable. Remarkable almost to the point of thinking that there is more than one person involved in this, whether they (who knows how many) are located in Wells or Milwaukee or both. It seems hard to believe that anyone with a job, even a part time job, has the time to dedicate themselves to all of this.

So, there has to be someone with the balls to actually contact Mr. Rick Christensen...

TTT
Metrodome
Posts: 74
Joined: October 15th, 2014, 2:30 pm

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby TTT » February 17th, 2015, 12:46 pm

'Ov S.', financier at EIG Europe, also 'John' from Maryland on Baltimore Christian Singles-

Image

I'd be willing to bet quite a few more images came from Christian dating sites.
Here's the final nail in the coffin for me = the last person listed above is not James, 39 yr old from Falls Church, Virginia - I'm fairly certain that's Coolio.

User avatar
trkaiser
Landmark Center
Posts: 259
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 9:05 am
Location: Northeast Minneapolis
Contact:

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby trkaiser » February 19th, 2015, 3:38 pm

"Ryan" has befriended several of my LinkedIn pals after he apparently saw that I viewed his profile.

beykite
Nicollet Mall
Posts: 188
Joined: July 21st, 2012, 6:36 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby beykite » February 24th, 2015, 4:13 pm

Wow I know I’m late to the party, haven’t been checking in as much as usual, but I’m not surprised at all by any of this. A few times over on SSC I tried to get the discussion back onto real projects actually happening and then after a few posts “June” would offer up some more juicy details to get the subject back on her and the almighty consortium. After that I pretty much gave up and decided something was definitely off. So my thinking is this person has some deep psychological issues going on and this whole mess was a way to feel important and basically have people looking to them and depending on them.

Let me share a little story about my experience with a pathological liar. When I was a teenager I worked at a grocery store in the produce department. One of the guys who worked there, named Jeff, was quiet the character. At first I didn’t notice too much off about him, maybe I noticed a few little white lies and exaggerations, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then things went nutty. According to Jeff he was attending the University of Hawaii on a full ride scholarship, while at the school he met a Japanese model who he began dating. Her parents liked him so much they bought him and her a condo in downtown Honolulu. Then, for a photo-shoot she did, the photographer bought them a new Ferrari (which of course he couldn’t show us because it was back on the island) Up until this point, while we knew this was all lies, we couldn’t actually prove it. Then he got bolder. He started saying how he spoke multiple languages and was about to publish a cookbook focusing on using authentic Japanese ingredients and how he had been back and forth to Tokyo several times and the publisher was going to pay for him to travel and promote the book. Now even when we called him out, straight up disproved him, he stuck to the lie. There was always an excuse and he would go to great lengths to cover it up (creating a fake FB profile for his GF who would message us to prove she existed, pretending to be on the phone with her & creating other profiles of people who went to the U of H to comment on his FB) In his mind those who didn’t believe him, well someday they’d be sorry and he’d be the one laughing at them. He clearly had some fixation with Japan which is why he focused so much on it and would jump on any excuse to bring it up and act like an expert full of information. He wanted to feel superior, and that he had something to offer, and I bet at some point he truly started to believe his own lies. Honestly almost everything he said was a lie. Of course he was a "produce master" and would tell us stories about how customers would offer to buy him things and have him over for dinner because of how helpful he was, when in reality just about anyone could tell %99 of what he said about produce or cooking was terribly inaccurate.

This is exactly what I think this was. Someone with a mental illness who wanted to feel important and looked up to. They most likely had a huge interest in development and used their fantasies to fuel their lies. When they stated they probably never had any intention of having it go this far, but it just kept snowballing into more stories, more social media accounts, and more promises. They were willing to do anything to keep the feeling going. To me a troll doesn’t start creating multiple personalities. They get in, they get their lolz, and they get out. This is much much deeper.

“The bigger the lie, the more they believe”
-William “The Bunk” Moreland

PhilmerPhil
Moderator
Posts: 1064
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 11:38 am
Location: SOUP: SOuth UPtown

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby PhilmerPhil » February 24th, 2015, 4:18 pm

Is it just me or have all the fake LinkedIns been deleted? Rick's real LinkedIn appears to be gone too...

seanrichardryan
IDS Center
Posts: 4092
Joined: June 3rd, 2012, 9:33 pm
Location: Merriam Park, St. Paul

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby seanrichardryan » February 24th, 2015, 4:26 pm

Yep. Ha.

Show's over folks.
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

Anondson
IDS Center
Posts: 4646
Joined: July 21st, 2013, 8:57 pm
Location: Where West Minneapolis Once Was

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby Anondson » February 24th, 2015, 5:44 pm

Did anyone report the cluster of fake accounts to LinkedIn?

Silophant
Moderator
Posts: 4471
Joined: June 20th, 2012, 4:33 pm
Location: Whimsical NE

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby Silophant » February 24th, 2015, 5:47 pm

Awww... What a shame.
Joey Senkyr
[email protected]

User avatar
Munch'n
Nicollet Mall
Posts: 137
Joined: January 29th, 2015, 9:50 pm
Location: Oak Park, IL

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby Munch'n » February 24th, 2015, 5:50 pm

:lol:
Meet me in Wells

User avatar
Nick
Capella Tower
Posts: 2719
Joined: May 30th, 2012, 9:33 pm
Location: Downtown, Minneapolis

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby Nick » February 24th, 2015, 5:54 pm

Someone may have pointed them in the right direction
Nick Magrino
[email protected]

TTT
Metrodome
Posts: 74
Joined: October 15th, 2014, 2:30 pm

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby TTT » February 26th, 2015, 2:49 pm

Wow I know I’m late to the party, haven’t been checking in as much as usual, but I’m not surprised at all by any of this. A few times over on SSC I tried to get the discussion back onto real projects actually happening and then after a few posts “June” would offer up some more juicy details to get the subject back on her and the almighty consortium. After that I pretty much gave up and decided something was definitely off. So my thinking is this person has some deep psychological issues going on and this whole mess was a way to feel important and basically have people looking to them and depending on them.

Let me share a little story about my experience with a pathological liar. When I was a teenager I worked at a grocery store in the produce department. One of the guys who worked there, named Jeff, was quiet the character. At first I didn’t notice too much off about him, maybe I noticed a few little white lies and exaggerations, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then things went nutty. According to Jeff he was attending the University of Hawaii on a full ride scholarship, while at the school he met a Japanese model who he began dating. Her parents liked him so much they bought him and her a condo in downtown Honolulu. Then, for a photo-shoot she did, the photographer bought them a new Ferrari (which of course he couldn’t show us because it was back on the island) Up until this point, while we knew this was all lies, we couldn’t actually prove it. Then he got bolder. He started saying how he spoke multiple languages and was about to publish a cookbook focusing on using authentic Japanese ingredients and how he had been back and forth to Tokyo several times and the publisher was going to pay for him to travel and promote the book. Now even when we called him out, straight up disproved him, he stuck to the lie. There was always an excuse and he would go to great lengths to cover it up (creating a fake FB profile for his GF who would message us to prove she existed, pretending to be on the phone with her & creating other profiles of people who went to the U of H to comment on his FB) In his mind those who didn’t believe him, well someday they’d be sorry and he’d be the one laughing at them. He clearly had some fixation with Japan which is why he focused so much on it and would jump on any excuse to bring it up and act like an expert full of information. He wanted to feel superior, and that he had something to offer, and I bet at some point he truly started to believe his own lies. Honestly almost everything he said was a lie. Of course he was a "produce master" and would tell us stories about how customers would offer to buy him things and have him over for dinner because of how helpful he was, when in reality just about anyone could tell %99 of what he said about produce or cooking was terribly inaccurate.

This is exactly what I think this was. Someone with a mental illness who wanted to feel important and looked up to. They most likely had a huge interest in development and used their fantasies to fuel their lies. When they stated they probably never had any intention of having it go this far, but it just kept snowballing into more stories, more social media accounts, and more promises. They were willing to do anything to keep the feeling going. To me a troll doesn’t start creating multiple personalities. They get in, they get their lolz, and they get out. This is much much deeper.

“The bigger the lie, the more they believe”
-William “The Bunk” Moreland
What a great story of a pathological liar. By great, I mean a tremendous amount of detail - ultimately sad.

I worked with a guy about 10 years ago who was hired a year after myself and claimed he also was on the MN Wild practice squad (he did say some weekends from time to time for extra cash he flew jets for NetJets also). In addition to that, he was an heir to the Berman Buckskin fortune. He had a house a block away from Kevin Garnett and would chat him up often. He had a new BMW M3, but of course never drove it to work. He promised he would bring it in and I could drive it, but often, his garage door would be broken and couldn't get it out. On top of that, he drove a Mitsubishi Eclipse. One day he didn't have that car anymore and he was instead driving a pickup truck. When asked what happened to the Eclipse, he said he gave it to his roommate because his roommate needed a car. Then he was back driving the Eclipse a month later, and when I asked why, he said his roommate needed money SO HE BOUGHT THE ECLIPSE BACK FROM HIM SO HIS ROOMMATE WOULD HAVE SOME CASH... WOW. Promises of Wild tickets to colleagues along with lockerroom meet and greets of course never happened. One day the manager of our office decided to call the MN Wild and got the director of player personnel on the line, and it's funny - he'd never heard of him. After our office manager walked him out - we never heard from him either.

User avatar
Nick
Capella Tower
Posts: 2719
Joined: May 30th, 2012, 9:33 pm
Location: Downtown, Minneapolis

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby Nick » March 16th, 2015, 7:30 pm

Nick Magrino
[email protected]

grant1simons2
IDS Center
Posts: 4371
Joined: February 8th, 2014, 11:33 pm
Location: Marcy-Holmes

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby grant1simons2 » March 16th, 2015, 7:33 pm

Is this like a new thing to do? Make a fake development group and trick everyone?

On a related note I saw an For Lease: by EIG sign off Nicollet next to Tibet Kitchen. Laughed pretty hard even though I know it's a different EIG

twincitizen
Moderator
Posts: 6368
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 7:27 pm
Location: Standish-Ericsson

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby twincitizen » March 26th, 2015, 3:23 pm

Vote Consortium 2015: https://streets.mn/2015/03/25/streets-ma ... potpourri/

Seriously, go vote ASAP! It's losing big time to food trucks. Too bad all those LinkedIn profiles can't vote

kirby96
Union Depot
Posts: 335
Joined: June 4th, 2012, 11:30 am

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby kirby96 » March 26th, 2015, 3:49 pm

Haven't read this thread muchin the past six weeks and just read several pages (but not all so maybe this was already covered somewhere).

The scam here could very likely be to get 'investors' in a project. Build up a convincing on-line persona and then reach out to folks for a 'fantastic investment opportunity!' This actually happened to a Dr. friend of mine: contacted through LinkedIn connection he made at somepoint in the past (didn't recall if he might have met tham at a conference, or whatever). He knew right away it was a scam, but he kind of went along for awhile and was amazed at the lengths they went to to convince him they had an early stage medical device company needing capital. BTW, the LinkedIn person was a very attractive female. Since then, I've noticed that when I get requests from strangers on LinkedIn they are disproportionately attractive females. Hmmm.

This has gotta be a huge problem for LinkedIn. You kind of expect shenanigans other places, but with it's 'professional' angle I was surprised (but prolly shouldn't have been) that clearly fraud is that prevalent on the site. Where there's a will there's a way I guess...

PhilmerPhil
Moderator
Posts: 1064
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 11:38 am
Location: SOUP: SOuth UPtown

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby PhilmerPhil » April 2nd, 2015, 3:27 pm


grant1simons2
IDS Center
Posts: 4371
Joined: February 8th, 2014, 11:33 pm
Location: Marcy-Holmes

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby grant1simons2 » April 2nd, 2015, 3:38 pm


User avatar
Munch'n
Nicollet Mall
Posts: 137
Joined: January 29th, 2015, 9:50 pm
Location: Oak Park, IL

Re: Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

Postby Munch'n » April 2nd, 2015, 3:48 pm

Guys look Ryan N is following him!
Meet me in Wells


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests