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Preposterous Imposters (Identity Thieves; Fraudsters; Etc.)

A

Anonymous

Guest
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/salvado.1272.html

Quote
"The fake El Salvador national football team fled the country Tuesday, three days before their scheduled departure, after they were sensationally exposed as impostors."

They still managed a 0-0 tie, now they are off to Houston, Texas where they will transform into a soccer team.
 
Well, let's face it, with a team like El Salvador, how would you ever know one way or the other?

Bill.
 
This kind of thing also seems to be along similar lines although its not necessarily done for sympathy it is the same line of attention seeking, etc. which may be the more impirtant aspect:

04/23/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom


Phony Marine crashes funeral

By Eugene Mulero, Daily Record

Walter K. Carlson has never served in the military, but that didn't stop him from wearing a Marine dress uniform decorated with two dozen medals at a funeral for a Morris County Marine officer on Wednesday.

That is the charge filed against the Summit man by the FBI.

Carlson, 58, was summoned to appear today at 2:30 p.m. at U.S. District Court in Newark before Judge Ronald J. Hedges on charges of illegally wearing military awards at the funeral of Marine Lt. John Thomas "J.T." Wroblewski at Our Lady of the Mountain Church in Washington Township. Wroblewski, 25, who grew up in Jefferson, is Morris County's first fatality in the Iraq war. He will be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

FBI agent Thomas A. Cottone, who was at the funeral, said that Carlson was at the funeral wearing a Marine Corps dress uniform with 24 medals. The uniform bore insignias indicating rank of captain.

"When I saw him wearing those medals, I knew right away what he was doing," said Cottone, who specializes in apprehending people who illegally wear military awards, particularly Congressional Medals of Honor.

Cottone, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Mountain Church, said Carlson first claimed to have earned the medals but later admitted that he had never served in the military.

"I know about 90 percent of all highly decorated officers in the state, and I didn't recognize him," Cottone said.

According to Carlson, who spoke with the Daily Record by phone Thursday, he attended the funeral to personally feel respected and also to honor Wroblewski. He admitted to dressing up as a Marine on almost a dozen other times prior to the funeral. Carlson said he had attended Veterans Day and Memorial Day events in Morris County.

"I did this for myself, nobody else. I always wanted to be in the Marines. I knew one day I would get caught," Carlson said, from his home during the phone interview. "Growing up I was picked on."

Carlson said he never had a psychiatric evaluation, but takes medication for his diabetes. He has lived in Summit almost all his life and works in Dover.

Carlson said a friend who is a veteran gave him access to a military store where he could purchase Marine uniforms and medals.

Agent Cottone explained that common reasons why people decide to impersonate military officers is to impress others, financial gain or because they always wanted to be in the military.

"People who wear these medals falsely do a great disservice to those who earned them. Many Marines have died to serve our country and rightly earn their awards posthumously," Cottone said.

Cottone was made an honorary Marine by the Commandant of the Corps for his work. Cottone is also the FBI's national case agent for investigations into illegal wearing of military awards, he said.
Click to expand...

http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news1-falsemarine.htm
 
Interesting story and this is in a similar (if far more elaborate vein):

Phoney captain fools RAF base for five months

By Chris Boffey
(Filed: 23/04/2004)


When Kelsey McMillan arrived for duty at RAF Valley the soldiers guarding the airbase snapped a salute after taking note of her captain's uniform and checking her identity card.

She told them she was a medical officer arriving for a retraining course and they pointed her in the direction of the duty adjutant and the officers' mess.

For more than five months she was welcomed at the RAF base in Anglesey, north Wales, motto In Adversis Perfugium ("refuge in adversity") and showed her mettle on training missions in Sea King helicopters and in the hospital block, where she sat in on medical examinations.

The 35-year-old was also popular in the officers' mess; always generous in the bar, even running up a £300 bill.

But "Captain" McMillan sparked off a major security appraisal after it was discovered that she was an impostor with an obsession for uniforms; her only connection with the Armed Forces being as a private in the Territorial Army.

Yesterday, the RAF admitted being duped. A spokesman said: "She presented herself very well and turned up in an impeccable captain's uniform and with Army identification. She was very plausible.

"However, we have already taken steps to make sure that this does not happen again, not just at Valley but at all military bases across the UK. McMillan is, at the moment, still a member of the TA and is being investigated by military police."

McMillan's five months of subterfuge began in October last year when she turned up at the main gate of RAF Valley claiming to be on detachment from the Army. She also said her fiancé lived on the airfield.

She moved into the officers' mess, putting all her bills on credit and explaining that her Army pay had been delayed because of the transfer. As a medic she was assigned to 22 Squadron's search and rescue unit and flew on training missions. She also sat in on examinations in the hospital block but did not administer treatment.

McMillan was finally found out when, knowing that she might have stretched the limits of her credibility at RAF Valley, she applied for a transfer to the Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose, near Helston, Cornwall.

Within four days of joining the base she was arrested by military police.

The civilian police were called in and she was given a caution but no charges were brought.

TA members can be subjected to court martial but it is understood that she will be spared that ordeal and at the end of the investigation will be thrown out of the military. She has already been stripped of her ID card.

Her parents have settled the outstanding mess bill.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...raf23.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/23/ixhome.html
 
Intersting. We were watching a tape of The Secret Cabaret last week, one of the regulars was a former scam artist who spilled the beans on some of his exploits.

One of his claims was to have impersonated an airline co-pilot and to have flown on hundreds of international flights over a period of months before he got busted.

We weren't sure that we believed it, but after the last story, it sounds more than plausable.
 
The Army Ranger Who Wasn't

This is a weird story that broke this weekend.

FULL STORY LINK

And an excerpt:

MICAH WRIGHT: "I WAS NEVER AN ARMY RANGER"

On his Delphi forum, Micah Wright has posted a confession – he never was an Army Ranger, something he had claimed since shortly after his debut as a comics writer, as well as the author of remixed Propaganda, a book which lampooned World War II-era American propaganda posters.

Wright began his statement (which has since been edited) with a recap of what he used to tout as his credentials, and then added: “Except that I was never an Army Ranger. I never served a day in a Ranger Regiment. I never went to Ranger School. The closest I ever got was Army ROTC.

(snip)

Wright went on to say that he began using the Army Ranger lie shortly after he began “remixing” the posters – something which brought him numerous death threats. “After posting the webpage saying that I was a former Ranger, the number of death threats dropped drastically. I still got hate mail, but it was now of a different sort, telling me that my opinion was idiotic or that I had been misled. My fellow Americans seemed to believe that if you had served in the military, this gave you leeway to say what you felt... but if you were NOT a veteran, God forbid you should think opposite of what everyone else thought. Did any of that justify my lie? No. But it made it easier to tell. Too easy.”

According to his post, Wright felt the hoax/lie had gotten out of control when he spoke with the Washington Post last year, adding lie upon lie, heaping (he thought) obvious falsehoods so high that surely, a reporter, or at least a fact checker from the Post would notice them.

They didn’t.

“A day later, the article ran,” Wright posted. “My outrageous lies were printed verbatim. They'd dedicated two full pages to a ridiculous hoax which could have been exposed with a half hour's work. My beliefs in the veracity of the corporate media had been shaken previously, but now they were shattered. I couldn't figure it out. How had this happened? I stared at the paper in shock. Then I realized that the Washington Post had only done what they normally do: run whatever anyone in a uniform or position of authority told them to.

“It certainly wasn't unprecedented. After all, Governor George W. Bush had done the same thing in 2000 when running for president. Questions arose and were quickly squashed about his military service. Even today, Bush still hasn't released all of his military records but NO ONE in the media is crying out for them. It's no wonder that my much smaller-scale hoax worked! Of course, this doesn't excuse my hoax... but it certainly motivated it.

“Within hours of seeing print, the edges of the hoax began to unravel. I received two separate emails from real Rangers and Special Forces soldiers. They had seen right through me. No matter how much research you do, you can't fool an expert, and in this case the experts weren't fooled for a second. Web pages sprung up overnight: Micah Wright is a Big Fat Liar. "Yes," I thought, "I am." Outraged Rangers started phoning the Washington Post. We haven't heard of this guy. His photo isn't familiar, who the hell is he? The Post, chagrined, began "investigating" after the fact... by calling ME and asking if I was telling the truth.

“On the face of it, it was an easy story to disprove. A simple Freedom of Information Act request would turn up no records of me having an active duty military career. Was sending that piece of paper too hard for anyone in the corporate media to do? No wonder huge corporations get away with Enron-sized ripoffs. No wonder Jayson Blair was able to get away with making up the news. No wonder that 55% of Americans still think that Saddam Hussein carried out the 9/11 attacks. The media was sleeping on the job. The Jayson Blair story exploded at the New York Times in April of 2003--the story about "Ranger Micah" ran in the Washington Post on July 6th, 2003. It wasn't like they had no idea that there was a problem or that they should check their sources. Why were they so asleep at the switch?”

Further down in the statement, Wright gives his reasoning for why he opted to come clean now, posting: “So why come clean now, you ask? Why shouldn't I continue on, seeing how far I can push it? Well, frankly, I'm sick of it. The corporate-media-hoax part of the joke isn't fun any longer, and the personal side has never been fun. I'm sick of lying to my friends, to employers, to my fans, to myself. I'm not a Ranger. I've lied to so many people about this that it's made me physically ill. I haven’t been able to sleep and I’ve just about given myself an ulcer. The phone would ring and guilt, terror and panic would grip me: is this the day that I get found out? Or is it NPR wanting to do a story on me? How long should I compound the media hoax? To lie to more people? The waiting has become too much. I'm killing the hoax and I'm stopping the lies.

(snip)

According to Leiby, Seven Stories, who published Wright's You Back the Attack! We'll Bomb Who We Want! has cancelled publication of Wright's next book, If You're Not a Terrorist, Then Stop Asking Questions, and that the publisher will remove Wright's fictional account of parachuting into Panama under fire during Operation Just Cause from all future printings of You Back the Attack!
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
One of his claims was to have impersonated an airline co-pilot and to have flown on hundreds of international flights over a period of months before he got busted.
Click to expand...

I knew someone who did something similar, impersonating an air steward, and who managed several oversea trips, by claiming to be off-duty and having to get somewhere to start his next rota. I can't remember exactly the details, this was around 1973.

Ended up getting 6 months for it.
 
I knew someone who did something similar, impersonating an a

Where does this behaviour cross over from a mental illness to one where the individual is "sane" and conning others for their own benefit? As with most illnesses of the mind it can be used as a defence in court. Who'd be a Judge?
 
The general rule here in the US is that if you did not understand the nature of your action at the time of the crime, then you could be considered legally insane. There is another description that's sometimes used, being found to be of diminished capacity. It seems that diminished capacity refers to people who are mentally impaired, permamnently or temporarily.

I can't see either defense being used by someone impersonating a pilot/doctor/etc.


Bear in mind that these are general things, and do not necessarily apply in all jurisdictions here in the US, nevermind what obtains elsewhere in the world.
 
France holds 'Chameleon' impostor

A 31-year-old serial impostor who passed himself off for a whole month as a schoolboy - aged 15 - is being questioned by police in France.
Frederic Bourdin, nicknamed "the Chameleon", attended the Jean Monnet school in Pau posing as "Francisco Hernandez-Fernandez", a Spanish orphan.

A teacher unmasked him last week after having watched a television programme about his exploits.

Bourdin was jailed in the US in 1997 for posing as a couple's long-lost son.

The Texas couple's 14-year-old blue-eyed son had disappeared three years earlier and they travelled to the US embassy in Spain to meet "Nicholas Barclay".

Bourdin convinced them that he was their son, despite his brown eyes and strong French accent.

He lived with them for three months before his deception was exposed by a journalist and confirmed by a DNA test. He was jailed for six years.

Attention-seeking

Commenting on his latest exploit, Bourdin said that in Pau he got what he wanted.

"I loved the kids and the people looking after them, they treated me as one of them," he said.

Quoted by the French news agency AFP, he said he sought "love and affection" by assuming false identities.

The school head was quoted as saying Bourdin "appeared a bit older than his pals - two or three years at most".

France's Le Figaro newspaper reports that Bourdin is an excellent actor who dresses as a teenager, uses depilatory face creams and adopts a convincing youthful walk.

He is said to have assumed numerous other identities.

He will appear in court in Pau in September.

As a youth he was placed in a children's home after being raised by his grandparents in a Paris suburb, Le Figaro reports.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 087370.stm
Published: 2005/06/13 11:52:14 GMT

© BBC MMV
Click to expand...

- there is a photo accompanying the piece... he really doesn't look under 25 in the photo so he must have had some convincing makeup and confidence tricks up his sleeve.
 
Pretending to be James Bond?

What impressed me about this was:

1. How young he started - 24.

2. How long he kept the scam rolling - 10 years.

3. That even the FBI hadn't seen anything quite like this before.

Fake spy guilty of kidnapping con

A former bartender has been found guilty of kidnapping and theft in an elaborate spy con that lasted 10 years.

Robert Hendy-Freegard, 34, of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, conned his victims out of huge sums of money by persuading them they were being hunted by the IRA.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard he forced his victims to endure squalid lives and made them perform loyalty tests.

He denied all 24 charges, but was convicted of two counts of kidnap, ten of theft and eight of deception.

Lives in danger

Hendy-Freegard was cleared of two kidnap counts, one of theft and one of making a threat to kill at the end of an eight-month trial.

Judge Deva Pillay warned Hendy-Freegard he faced a life term when sentence is passed on Monday.

Three of his victims - agriculture students Sarah Smith, Maria Hendy and John Atkinson - were convinced their lives were in danger, the court heard.

You are an egotistical and opinionated confidence trickster who has shown not a shred of remorse or compassion
Judge Deva Pillay
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Hendy-Freegard, who worked at a pub in Newport, Shropshire, when the con began in 1992, told them he was an MI5 agent and that they were being hunted by the IRA.

The three friends were told not to contact their families because their phones were bugged.

The court heard his first two victims were "kidnapped by fraud" - one of the few times such an offence has been successfully prosecuted - by claiming terrorists were on their trail.

Relentlessly manipulated

Hendy-Freegard convinced them to abandon their college studies, betray their wealthy farming families and "jettison their self-respect".

His victims told the jury how he relentlessly manipulated their lives. Most gave evidence behind screens.

In the process he drained them of every penny they could beg, borrow or earn, leaving several either in debt, or with zero credit ratings.

Finally, one of them went to the police.

Even the FBI, who helped set a trap for Hendy-Freegard at Heathrow airport two years ago, said nothing in their experience came close to the case.

Even now police doubt whether they have discovered all his victims. They are convinced he pocketed a total of £1m.

Judge Pillay said: "You have been convicted by this jury upon overwhelming evidence of the most heinous pattern of offending against a number of victims, all of whom fell prey to your devious charm.

"It's plain to me... that you are an egotistical and opinionated confidence trickster who has shown not a shred of remorse or compassion for the degradation and suffering to which your victims were subjected.

"Having regard to the previous physical and mental injuries your victims were made to suffer I now give advance warning I am minded to impose a discretionary life sentence upon you."

She said he was a "continuing danger" to others, and women in particular.

--------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 114640.stm

Published: 2005/06/23 14:36:32 GMT

© BBC MMV
Click to expand...

Fake 'Bond' spy found guilty of kidnap and theft

15:21pm 23rd June 2005
Robert Hendy-Freegard


A bogus MI5 spy is facing life imprisonment after he was convicted of pocketing a £1million fortune during an "unbelievable odyssey of deceit".

Robert Hendy-Freegard, 34, spent a decade callously commandeering the lives of eight people with James Bond-type tales of shadowy IRA killers and Polish Mafia.

Six were women, all were seduced - he was bedding five at the same time - and most got engaged to him.

Among the victims was a solicitor, who rated his bedroom techniques "11 out of 10", a psychologist and a pregnant company director.

As many endured years of poverty, and trembled from both his explosive temper and numerous death threats from fictional assassins, he gradually stripped them of the ability to think for themselves with unrelenting mind control techniques.

Throughout it all the former barman enjoyed a life of unadulterated luxury.

Top-of-the-range cars, designer suits, expensive meals, and five-star holidays in Brazil, and elsewhere, were all on a lengthy shopping list funded by their cash in a swindle unique in its audacity, imagination and scope.

But that lifestyle was all in tatters today after he was convicted of a total of 20 counts.

After four days of deliberation, the jury of seven men and five women unanimously convicted him of two counts of kidnap, ten charges of theft and eight counts of deception.

He was cleared of two counts of kidnap, one count of theft and one of making a threat to kill.

Hendy-Freegard, who was being sentenced later, showed no reaction when the verdicts were read out in court.

London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard his first two victims were "kidnapped by fraud" - one of the few times such an offence has been successfully prosecuted - by claiming terrorists were on their trail.

The silver-tongued Casanova, who turned deception into an art form with "unusual powers of persuasion", convinced them to abandon their college studies, betray their wealthy farming families and jettison their self-respect.

One suffered "in his thrall" the entire 10 years.

His victims - most gave evidence from behind screens - told the nine-month trial how he relentlessly manipulated their lives.

In the process he drained them of every penny they could beg, borrow or earn, leaving several either in debt, or with zero credit ratings.

Finally, one of them went to the police. What unfolded was a case unlike anything officers had heard of before. Even the FBI, who helped set a trap for him at Heathrow airport two years ago, said nothing in their experience came close.

Even now police doubt whether they have discovered all his victims.

According to the indictment the former carpenter, ex-barman and one-time car salesman, of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, was responsible for about £600,000 of "provable" dishonesty, although police are convinced he pocketed £1million altogether.
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Source

Fake spy created 'web of deceit'

By Eric Simpson
BBC News, Nottingham

As a barman is jailed for a remarkable 10-year kidnap con, two psychologists explain how his victims fell prey to his brainwashing.

The victims of salesman and bartender Robert Hendy-Freegard have painted a surreal picture of a man who had almost complete control over their lives.

He used sexual conquest, threats and tales of a shadowy spy world to convince friends to hand over money and obey his whims, the court heard.

He was described as "a spider at the centre of a web of deceit".

But how did he manage to exert such control and why did his victims submit and not simply walk away?

'Us versus them'

Psychologists with an interest in mind control said he probably used classic techniques of isolation and social pressure to push them into a corner which they felt they could not escape.

Jill Mytton, a psychologist and lecturer at London South Bank University, said Hendy-Freegard stripped the victims of their usual support group - families and friends - in an attempt to belittle them.

"A sense of powerlessness grows and the person's good judgement and understanding of what is going on diminished," she said.

THOUGHT CONTROL

Social and physical environment controlled
Undermine free will
Manipulate rewards and punishment
Click to expand...

"They had no-one to check their thoughts and perceptions with - they were isolated and thus became dependent on him.

"There is also a sense of 'us' against 'them'.

"As the isolation intensifies, it becomes harder to take action by leaving or escaping whether physically or psychologically."

She said Hendy-Freegard also controlled their physical environment by taking charge of what money and food they had which increased their sense of dependence on him.

"I suspect that these people were easily convinced of the bogus spy's authenticity because they wanted to be convinced and were made to feel special," she said.

Referring to court testimony about Hendy-Freegard's love affairs with several of the victims, Ms Mytton said they may have been "open to believing (his stories) out of a desire for romance".

Dr Keith Ashcroft, a forensic psychologist based in Manchester, said "thought control" works by "drastically destabilizing the victim's sense of self by getting them to forget their past lives, change their world view, accept a novel, often warped version of reality".

He said people trying to brainwash their victims make sure they develop a strong dependency on the captor.

But he stressed that these practices were usually put in place by a group of individuals, such as terrorists with extreme ideologies, rather than a single individual, as in the case of Hendy-Freegard.

--------------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 530465.stm

Published: 2005/06/23 13:34:15 GMT

© BBC MMV
Click to expand...

Thu 23 Jun 2005

3:52pm (UK)

FBI Special Agent Jaclyn Zappacosta, Who Worked on the Case, Described Today's Events as a "Victory of the British Criminal Justice System".

"PA"

She went on to describe the case of Hendy-Freegard as “a once in a lifetime career case”.

“This is not something that happens every day, even in the circles of the FBI,” she said.

“He (Hendy-Freegard) was someone that was probably the best I have seen at affecting deceit, subterfuge – probably in my career. He excelled at what he did.

“Especially when you consider that many of these women had advanced degrees or were experienced world travellers. It is particularly unusual for him to be that effective and to go unnoticed for that length of time.”
Click to expand...

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4732484
 
It is amazing how many people want to be thought of like this; and how many are (almost) willing to be taken in. If you are interested I can relate you a story about a person like this - I will be good and mention no names or anything that can be construed as defamation.
 
On the topic of preposterous impostors, what about Abergnale, or whatever his name is of Catch Me If You Can fame. I mean the guy was 17 when he started impersonating an airline pilot. And he carried it off for quite some time.

And then there's the matter of Tom Hanks impersonating an actor...
 
I wonder if the subject of the OP actually is in prison, or if he was recruited by one of the intelligence agencies and is currently being further trained .. or working off his debt to society by writing manuals to be used to train others, similar to Abignale ? Intelligence agencies supposedly have high respect for people with inventive, criminal minds. Anyone capable of having affairs with five women simultaneously whilst at the same time taking luxury holidays, would probably go straight to the top of the class in some quarters.
 
Hi Again - I will get my 'facts' straight and write up what I remember of thisw joker this evening...keep 'em peeled ;) (PS. I promise that what I write is as true as the old memory can reconstruct it)
 
Okay. Names changed to protect the guilty etc.
About 10 years ago I started seeing a new group of people; some of whom were pretty damn posh and rich, but a nice crowd. Within this group I met some genuine ex-sas people whom I worked with for about 8 years (no, really, they were genuine..books published etc; but no names no pack drill). Anyhoo, amongst this lot a certain Peter Smith and his friend Paul Jones were also believed to be ex-special forces etc. I was told that they were both in Norther Ireland deep undercover. Peter had been shot in the stomach, got an 80,000 pay off, but was re-employed within a 'government agency'. One day, both the lads were walkling with some of the girls in Kensington when they heard a shot (oh not it was a car backfiring); but quick as ninjas, Peter shoved Paul to the ground and pulled out a gun (I later determined this to be a blank - the fool showed it to when I got to know him; little realising that I was a firearms instructor at the time...duh!). For years these two tried ingratiating themselves (successfully, I suppose) into the crowd - whenever I brought up any inconsistancies, I was loudly booed down as jealous etc. I asked my special forces buddies about them; they couldn't find any gen on them, but cautioned to find out more info first of all. Anyways, one day Paul starts going out with a good friend (from this crowd) who happened to be quite rich. At a lunch party, I started questioning his career etc Now Paul was a big bloke 6'4" (I'm about 6'1",) and didn't like this and started insulting me etc. The fool didn't realise that I am not a coward and am quite well trained (8 years Judo, 4 years boxing and some karate)...so, calling his pseudo SAS bluff, I went around the table and punched him very hard on the arm (I mean really hard - nb; I'm not a violent bloke in normal situations). He wimped out, with his girlfriend protesting he was a physical coward...everyone thought I was a sh*T, but I mocked and maintained that his training clearly couldn't have been any good etc. About 3 months later, Paul scarpers with my friends credit cards leaving a 20,000 pound hole.
Onto to Peter: this muppet now claimed to be working undercover for customs and excise - checking with my friends that do work with this outfit came up a blank. Using his bullshit, he conned a friend of mine who had just left the military that he could get him a job in the DEA in America. I kept asking how etc - my friend didn't want to hear. Anyhoo, they went off to AMerica. Guess what? no job...and worse still, Peter stole my friend's credit cards and went on a big spree, leaving my old mate Colin to fend for himself and with a huge debt (8-10K). In the interim, Peter has come back to the UK (not with my knowledge) - hooked up with one of the girls on the periphery of the group and moved in - a few weeks later, he steals her credit cards and disapears (about 4k this time).
This is only a quickly rendered (sorry about the haste) sample of what these people did...no one listened to me at the time and they are probably still out there!
 
;) Slightly slot the twats


Damn,did I write that?




Where's me jacket.....
 
Yes you did...but at least you didn't say 'give 'em the good news' :D
 
Two great bits from the Wikipedia article:

... Never heard about the Fake Joans!

False "Joans of Arc"
After the execution of the Maid of Orleans, there were number of impostors who claimed to be Joan, having escaped from the fire. Most of these were swiftly exposed but two of the most famous are known as Jeanne de Armoises and Jehanne de Sermaises, although contemporary accounts are sketchy at best.

According to a later story (found 1686 in Metz), Jeanne appeared for the first time in May 20, 1436 in Metz where she met with two brothers of Joan – Pierre and Jehan – and convinced them that she was their deceased sister. Whether the brothers really did believe or feigned belief for their own reasons is impossible to say. For the next three years the town of Orleans stopped the memorial services for the Maid of Orleans and, according to town records, paid some of her expenses.

Afterwards, the false Joan supposedly moved to Arlon in Luxembourg where she reputedly met Madame de Luxembourg. Later she married a knight: Robert des Hermoises or Armoises.

The false Joan dealt with the king Charles VII via letters for the next four years. Around 1440 she finally received an audience with him. According to a later account of the king's chamberlain de Boisy, the king asked her about the secret he and Joan had shared; reputedly it was that the king had suspected he might have been illegitimate. She did not know the secret so she kneeled, confessed and begged for mercy. Later she was forced to admit her imposture in public. Still, there are contemporary claims that Joan's brothers had with them a woman they called their sister around 1449-1452.

In 1457, when the maid had been "rehabilitated", there was a woman called Jehanne de Sermaises in Anjou. De Sermaises was accused of having called herself the Maid of Orleans; wearing male dress; and deceiving many people. She was sentenced to prison but released in February 1457 on the condition that she would "bear herself honestly in dress" (i.e. use female clothing). Afterwards she disappeared from public records.
Click to expand...

NOTE: The current version of this discussion is now located on a different Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_historical_interpretations_of_Joan_of_Arc#Survival

The impostor known as Jeanne or Claude des Armoises now has her own Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_des_Armoises
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Posted in the Daily Telegraph on the 18th October:-

Riddle of fraudster with stolen identity
By David Sapsted

A photograph of a fraudster who stole the identity of a dead baby has been issued by police in an attempt to identify him.

The man, who calls himself Christopher Edward Buckingham, took the identity in 1983 from a nine-month-old boy who died 20 years earlier. He used the birth certificate to obtain a national insurance number and passport.

Buckingham, who claims to be 42, was arrested after a passport check as he boarded a Calais-Dover ferry. He pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court last week to making an untrue statement to obtain a passport and faces up to two years in prison when he is sentenced next month. Police believe that Buckingham, who at first claimed to be a lord and had notepaper bearing the crest of a title that has not been used for 200 years, is hiding a "terrible" secret.

Det Con Dave Sprigg, the Kent detective who led the investigation, said yesterday: "I think he has gone to such lengths to hide his identity - and even now, with the threat of prison, still refuses to reveal it - that he must have something terrible to hide. I want to know what that secret is.''

Buckingham met his Canadian wife Jody when he was backpacking in Germany in the early 1980s. They came to England in 1983 and married on Dec 7, 1984, in Watford.

Buckingham told his wife that he had been living on a kibbutz in Israel. The couple, who have two children - Lindsey, 19, and Edward, 17, divorced eight years ago.

When his ex-wife was told by police that they were suspicious about her ex-husband, she replied: "I feel exactly the same way. I'm longing to know who he really is."

Although he owned a three-bed semi in Northampton, Buckingham was living in Zurich and working as an IT consultant at the time of his arrest.

Source:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... buck18.xml
 
From Kent Online:

Does jailed mystery man have guilty secret?
A MYSTERY man who masqueraded as a lord for 23 years and refuses to reveal his true identity has been jailed for 21 months by a judge at Canterbury Crown Court.

The man, who calls himself Christopher Edward Buckingham, assumed a false identity – that of an eight-month-old baby who died in 1963.

As part of his deception, he also adopted the disused title of Lord Buckingham along with the accompanying heraldic coat of arms.

Buckingham pleaded guilty to making an untrue statement to obtain a passport when he appeared at Canterbury Crown Court on 11 October.

He was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports and warned at that time that he may be held in contempt of court for failing to say who he really is.

The court had been told that when UK immigration officers checked his passport at Calais in January they discovered it was a document obtained by deception.

Buckingham was allowed to board a ferry to Dover but arrangements were made for him to be arrested by police when he arrived at the port.

He told Kent Police officers during interview that he was Lord Buckingham, a title he had inherited on his father’s death in 1982. Among his possessions was a letterhead bearing the Buckingham coat of arms and a chequebook.

Enquiries with the Royal College of Arms revealed that the coat of arms do represent the Buckingham family, but have not been used since the early 1700s and no-one is currently registered to use them as their own.

Further checks showed that the man had assumed the identity of a child who was born in 1962, but who died aged just nine months the following year.

Police also discovered that he was an information technology security consultant who had worked for a large Swiss company and had been living in Switzerland.

Det Con Dave Sprigg, the officer in charge of the case, said: “This man has gone to jail today flatly refusing to reveal his identity to us and I believe he probably has a serious reason for not telling us who he really is.

“If anyone recognises him from the photographs, we would very much like to hear from them.”

Anyone with any information about the true identity of the man should contact Kent Police on 01304 668270.

http://www.kent-online.co.uk/news/defau ... e_id=23474
 
I don't know if he's done anything sinister. maybe he's just really secretive and likes the idea that no-one knows who he really is.
 
Dissociative fugue? They can get pretty elaborate at times. Maybe just some guy trying to disown a rather unpleasant former life.
 
Not sure if this is Fortean, so I'll put it here. Is there a general impostors thread?

Joshua Gardner showed up at Stillwater Area High insisting he was a British duke. He had the card, the crest and even the accent. But the student newspaper staff had its doubts — and uncovered an impostor.
Skeptical journalism students at Stillwater Area High School helped unmask a convicted sex offender pretending to be a jet-setting, teenage member of British royalty who wanted to enroll at the school.
The students' sleuthing took them across a range of Web sites, including one where the man claiming to be "Caspian James Crichton-Stuart IV, the Fifth Duke of Cleveland" listed a goal for the year: "to not make the front page of any paper."
Call that thwarted by the staff of the Stillwater Pony Express student newspaper.
Their detective work still had "Caspian" scratching his head Thursday evening as he sat in the Winona County Jail.
"I still don't understand how they found out," said Joshua Adam Gardner, 22, of Austin, Minn. "I must have been good enough for them to believe me for so long."
Gardner's charade began around Thanksgiving, when he said met a student at Stillwater High. Investigators say the two met on the Internet.
Gardner said his alter ego was a product of boredom and attention deficit disorder, a mishmash of fictional characters and real people. "Caspian" was a nickname he'd taken from the popular "Chronicles of Narnia" book series — it's now a movie. Crichton was the last name of author Michael Crichton, and he prolonged a royal lineage he'd read about by making himself the Fifth Earl of Cleveland.
Having lost his mother, suffered abuse and run into trouble with the law, he said, the aspiring actor sought refuge in another character.
Click to expand...

More here:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincitie ... 613746.htm
 
The latest news on "Mr Buckingham", from the Daily Telegraph of the 3rd April:-

Dilemma over fake aristocrat

A bogus lord who stole a dead baby's identity faces being held in prison indefinitely because nobody knows where to deport him.

Christopher Buckingham was convicted last year for a false declaration to obtain a passport and released from his nine-month sentence in February. He was then detained by the Immigration Service and is in Elmley Prison on the Isle of Sheppey because officials have no idea what to do with him.

Buckingham, who refuses to reveal his true name, stole the identity of Christopher Edward Buckingham, who died at eight months in 1963. He got a passport in the child's name 24 years ago by using the same tactics used by the assassin in Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal.

The Home Office says that Buckingham, who is believed to be in his mid-40s, cannot be deported until his origins are established.

Source:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... buck03.xml
 
Fake Hobbits In Fandom Charity Rip-Offs

Just read this on the great Colleen Doran'sWebsite - LOTR fans in an inpersonation nightmare!

The book written by one of the victims is called When A Fan Hits The Sh**: The Rise And Fall Of A Charity
The Fraud Goes Ever On and On
Amy Player came from a good family in Virginia. She attended Christopher Newport University for two years and worked at Busch Gardens in the summers. Pretty, bright, and a talented artist, it's hard to understand how she ended up creating a phony charity and fleecing half the cast of the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

In 2002 Ms. Player created an online fan club in homage to actor Sean Astin and his character, Sam Gamgee. This club caught the eye of Abigail Stone, a fan from Oregon, and the women discovered two mutual interests: an obsession with Astin and the other cast, and the willingness to do or say whatever it took to meet them.

Abbey and Amy developed their fan club into a beautiful, professional-appearing website. They referred to themselves as "Bit of Earth," and claimed that they wanted to raise money "for charity." On September 11, 2002, Amy went to Washington, DC and approached Sean Astin after his speech at the Capitol (Mr. Astin sits on the President's Council for Service and Civic Participation). Amy asked him to help out her "fledgeling charity" by volunteering with other members to build a Children's Reading Garden for a public library.

Their planning was perfect. They knew that Astin, having just given a public appeal for active community service, could hardly turn Amy down. They picked those themes because Astin is quite vocal about his support for literacy, and gardening would naturally lend itself for publicity for Astin's movie role as gardener Sam Gamgee. Lucky for them, Astin loved the idea of focusing the enthusiasm of LOTR fans toward a charitable community project, instead of the usual autographs and merchandise. He agreed to help build the garden!

With that kind of endorsement, membership in Bit of Earth rapidly expanded to hundreds of Astin's fans worldwide. All were told that BoE was working in direct association with "Reading is Fundamental" to raise funds and build gardens to promote literacy.

The garden was built in Beaverton, Oregon, in 2003, and Astin's presence gave them renewed international publicity among his fans. Other major LOTR websites covered the news and it seemed that the sky was the limit for Bit of Earth, with its small army of enthusiastic fans working side-by-side with celebrities to improve communities.

Then it all hit the fan. Amy got caught in a complicated lie, in which she tried to mooch free airline tickets for actors to fly from New Zealand for a Bit of Earth event. This resulted in a miserable trip for several actors. Two of them ended up sleeping on the floor of Amy and Abbey's filthy apartment, instead of the deluxe accomodations they had been promised for attending this "fundraiser."

After the discovery of one lie, hundreds more fell apart. Former Bit of Earth volunteers came forward with horror stories. Amy borrowed a friend's computer and didn't "log out," which gave open access to the official Bit of Earth email account, and revealed hundreds of lies attempting to manipulate celebrities, businesses, volunteers, etc. into supporting this fake charity.

This book was written by one of their victims. It takes the reader through the incredible web of firsthand evidence, revealing just how the half-truths, exaggerations, blame games, and other manipulations were employed to swindle both fans and celebrities the world over. Even without the "high drama" of murder or huge sums of money, this book will fascinate you with the real-life details of con artists in action.
Click to expand...
 
I've often wondered if being one of those blowhards who constantly inform all who will listen that he's one of the world's greatest espionage operatives, with top security clearances from both the American and British intelligence agencies, might not be an absolutely inpenetrable cover for being exactly what he claims he is.
 
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