Online Pseuicides

Howard Swains recently reported in Wired on the phenomenon of fake online deaths. He writes:

Many online tales of death and suffering are works of complete fiction, "pseuicides" dressed up as real-life catastrophes. Some are contrived to titillate or garner attention, some result from something more serious, and some are the result of a uniquely modern psychiatric disorder known as Munchausen by internet.

And:

In two investigations between 2007 and 2009, I encountered countless examples of fake deaths in all corners of the online world. A contributor to a knitting forum, for instance, faked her death rather than provide patterns she had been commissioned to design. A member of an online art gallery discovered that the 18-year-old, gay, male, lead-singer of a rock band, with whom she had developed a close friendship before he was killed in a car crash, was actually the work of two 14-year-old girls, who had entirely invented his life. A teenage British boy broke up with his real-life girlfriend to marry a 16-year-old online friend, later discovering (on her "death") that his deceased wife-to-be was a 12-year-old fantasist who had been sending photos of her older cousin and inventing graphic details of incest and rape.

No mention of the Kaycee Nicole Swenson case, which I thought was one of the most famous ones. Perhaps it's because Swains focuses a lot on LiveJournal examples. But overall, an interesting article.

Death Identity/Imposters

Posted on Tue Jun 09, 2009


Comments

KNS was also a number of years ago...maybe enough fake deaths didn't occur between her situation & the new "rash" of them to be included in the phenom...or the author didn't know about it. Good luck trying to get in touch though...I hear he's dead. 😉
Posted by Maegan  on  Tue Jun 09, 2009  at  03:19 PM
I don't know if this counts as fake, but here's a whole hoax Web site of fake suicide photos: http://www.attractivecorpse.com
Posted by DCwaterboy  on  Tue Jun 09, 2009  at  05:15 PM
Well, this whole thing is simply-

Aaaaaugh!!!!

*falls over dead*

*zombiefies*

Am I famous now?
Posted by Accipiter  on  Tue Jun 09, 2009  at  05:26 PM
"Muchhausen by internet", I love that :lol:
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed Jun 10, 2009  at  04:00 AM
Uh, typoe, make that Munchhausen.... 😖
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed Jun 10, 2009  at  04:01 AM
*frowns at Acci*
Posted by Smerk  on  Wed Jun 10, 2009  at  06:32 AM
Ummm. I did this once. I wondered if I could create a believable on-line persona as a woman. So I started posting extracts from her supposed diary.
And it worked. People started emailing me, wanting to meet me, even offering me work. After a few years I was starting to feel the pressure and running out of creativity. I decided the end had to come when someone was intending to fly across the Atlantic to meet me. So I killed me off.
Actually once you've created an identity like that and lived your life through them, it really hurts to contemplate their death. I used to love the attention, and it was hard giving it up and just being me. I greived for her.
But of course someone had to break the sad news of her death to the fans of my fake lady, so I switched to posting as her best friend.
No, I am not going to tell you who she was or what site I published on.
Posted by BarryBlue  on  Fri Oct 09, 2009  at  04:00 PM
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