An article about fake internet deaths in LA Weekly

Oct 14, 2007 11:40

The Life and Death of Jesse James: an Internet Love Mystery

Hope I haven't spoiled the punchline for y'all with the title of this post.
The story follows the usual fake death cadence, but the article is still worth a read. Plus, the last page includes a picture of "Janna St James," who I'm sure has explored LJ as well.

(non-fake_lj_death), (article)

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Comments 45

novemberbug October 14 2007, 15:58:39 UTC
Thanks for sharing. That was fascinating.

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biscayne October 14 2007, 16:09:15 UTC
That was interesting. I felt very sorry for Audrey. And Janna doesn't even seem to realize that she hurt Audrey. I just . . .wow, you know?

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melsky October 14 2007, 16:12:10 UTC
That's amazing! Thanks for sharing that.

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joane October 14 2007, 16:32:42 UTC
If she were in Australia instead of the US, I'd assume it was sassywitch from LJ. Same physical type, same MO, except the personas she created were female (2 of 3) and out for sympathy attention instead of romance. The male she made up was The Perfect Boyfriend for herself, weirdly enough.

It's a weird, self-centered/self-hating psychosis.

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lotsofbluestuff October 15 2007, 00:56:05 UTC
In the video it does sound like she has some sort of accent. It sounds British or Australian, but since there's never any mention of her not being American, I may have just been imaging it. Or, it's a fake accent, haha.

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joane October 15 2007, 10:30:11 UTC
Who knows? But I know that my scammer is - or was, two years ago - physically in Australia; a friend dated her in RL before getting sick of the weirdness (and then being "replaced" by Fake Mr. Perfect).

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scarlett75 October 16 2007, 00:31:43 UTC
She definitely has a British (or Australian) lilt.

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miasays October 14 2007, 16:53:41 UTC
Great article, thanks for sharing. More than ever I'm absolutely confounded by people who make up these fake lives, purely to trick people.

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snuh October 14 2007, 19:17:07 UTC
Never believe anything you read on the Internet. Having said that, I'm surprised that people who feel so strongly about fakes are so fascinated with them. It's not a crime to admit they're entertaining - if people disliked them so much, why do they keep reading them? I'm pretty sure many of those that make up identities find therapeutic value through them, living virtual life's that they wouldn't be brave enough to experience in the real world.

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hetaira_q October 15 2007, 13:05:44 UTC
Audrey didn't sign up to be this evil bitch's therapist.

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snuh October 15 2007, 22:34:45 UTC
I was responding to this in particular: I'm absolutely confounded by people who make up these fake lives, purely to trick people.

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