Harlequin/Jester WARNING
Dearest Fountain Pen Community,
I know this community has always had strong morals and values
honesty, which is why I've never had any worries dealing with
anyone in the community. As the community comes together to
help protect themselves from less scrupulous individuals, I and
several others felt it was important to bring a few details to light
in order to help protect others in the community.
Harlequin/Jester/PlumeDeArlequin, a moderator on Fountain
Pen Network and the operator of the Virtual Pen Posse (VPP)
Facebook Group and IRC Chat has been involved in some fraud
within the community. As part of the anniversary celebration he
got TWSBI to donate a new rose gold pen to give away. The
person who won the pen, Benz, caused some suspicion within
the community. A new member to both Facebook and the group,
with the only information available being his birthday - the same
date as VPP's anniversary. His only post seemed to be to enter
the contest. His post included the chat names of members who
had no idea who this person was and had never seen him before
as well as having matching handwriting to previous posts by
Harlequin (http://imgur.com/a/CR2Cw). Upon winning his only
posts were to then promote the group to new members.
After some investigation, the group found an account named
BENZ on Fountain Pen Geeks, whose only posts were to
promote the VPP even prior to having joined the group. All posts
were signed with his signature "^_^" or "~_^", the same emoticon
that has appeared in his posts and on his profile in FPN. http://imgur.com/a/hiR5x (the first post is FPG, second is FPN,
third is VPP)
The final nail in the coffin for the group was when BENZ showed
up in the chat room, the hostmask assigned by the server (the
numbers, the server, and the hexidecimal code to mask the IP) is
exactly the same as the one from Harlequin. We consulted a
tech expert who confirmed there is no way this came from two
different people. His argument is that he has a dyanamic ip,
which changes every time he connects, which is not true.
Dynamic changes on a daily/weekly basic and logging in within
hours of himself shows the same hostmask. From December
18th, 2013:
BENZ (~webchat@209.179.109.euirc-85d70b0e) joined the
channel.
Harlequin (~12@209.179.109.euirc-85d70b0e) joined the
channel.
and from May 18, 2013. In this second conversation he
proceeded to address members regarding things they posted on
separate facebook pages, and addressed them by real names –
members who did not recognize BENZ.
[11:48] * Jester (~...@209.179.103.euirc-7c533992) Quit (Client
exited_)
[11:49] * Guest7287 (~...@209.179.103.euirc-7c533992) has
joined #penposse
[11:49] * Guest7287 is now known as Jester[19:32] * Guest7430 (~12@209.179.103.euirc-7c533992) has
joined #penposse
[20:20] * Guest7430 uses the name BENZ on fpn
for visual proof, http://imgur.com/a/EHKCM has screenshots of logs - redacted to protect other members.
There is no way this could be unless they came from the same
internet connection. As a group, we are deeply disappointed that
this level of fraud would go on in order to essentially steal a pen
from the group. We attempted to discuss this with him, but he
denied it until confronted with evidence, at which point he
ignored us. He has been given the opportunity to come clean or
clear his name, neither of which he did. He denied us and his
only reasoning was that we were trying to steal the chat from him
and “were trouble”. We gave him a further 24 hours, which he
made no contact with any of us to even try to prove us wrong. He proceeded to ban us when we tried to tell members of his deceit.
I hope that this information will help everyone, we're concerned
that if this is the level he's willing to go to for a 50$ pen, what
else may happen.
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