#1 Important Lesson to be learned from the 'Patty' fiasco...

[katherine]

Don made a good post about it recently... due diligence really helps avoid mistakes.
Perhaps we won't see her back here, but she will for sure jump on to another forum and pull the same trick again.

she has no reason to stop.

Negotiating domain deals
Tue, Aug 11, 2009

Indeed.

 

[tristanperry]

Nice post. I always try and give as much details as possible - I'll change the subject (usually), and will always put "Payment for [x], bought/sold by tristanperry at [link]" in the description.

Actually, don't bet on Patty giving up on her spree of crime; she will continue as long as she can get away with it from a legal standpoint. For someone who claimed that they were a lawyer, an architect, a post-graduate, a sorority member, a software developer etc. she has no reason to stop.

Agreed. Sad to see her/Patty continuing as usual. Only jail will (temporarily) stop her. Here's hoping, eh?

 

[kengreenwood]

Phew - I just went through the 40 page thread on Patty. Quite a fiasco. Fortunately for me, I didn't get read the thread when it was first posted or I probably would have spent a lot of precious time doing detailed research on her as Theo did. And I can see that it was infinitely frustrating for everyone involved in the thread to have to try to rationalize with someone who has clearly lost their connection with reality (that seems to have happened many, many years ago).

 

[Tia Wood]

who has clearly lost their connection with reality (that seems to have happened many, many years ago).

Thank you. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who saw that.

 

[Theo]

Patty brokering domains in downtown Seattle.

 

[tristanperry]

Thank you. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who saw that.

You weren't. I think I realised that around page 33.

Wow, that was oddly specific. Not sure why I came out with page 33 specifically. Hmm.*Walks away muttering to himself* :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Theo]

This is an awesome post. Read it carefully. It talks about preparing the ground: WHOIS privacy, divine enlightenment and personal traits. Oh, and some special tool that generates leads. Remember that software without screenshots?

 

[Focus]

lesson learned here in short.... You can't polish a turd.

 

[JuniperPark]

This is an awesome post. Read it carefully. It talks about preparing the ground: WHOIS privacy, divine enlightenment and personal traits. Oh, and some special tool that generates leads. Remember that software without screenshots?

Not to turn this into a religion discussion, but another BIG RED FLAG is anyone who mixes religion with business.

The vast majority of scam emails I get pointlessly bring up God or Christianity... 100% of the Nigerian scam emails do this, and in that blog post she does it as well.

 

[Theo]

Who'd like to welcome Patty to their house?

 

[Tia Wood]

*cough* Someone is obsessed. *cough*

 

[Theo]

It's interesting reading all these signs that were there but noone could have guessed, don't you think? It's a solid case of social engineering.

 

[Tia Wood]

It's interesting reading all these signs that were there but noone could have guessed, don't you think? It's a solid case of social engineering.

Agreed.

I thought she was "different" but I saw her as a girl trying and struggling to learn. It completely blindsided me.

 

[kengreenwood]

It's interesting reading all these signs that were there but noone could have guessed, don't you think? It's a solid case of social engineering.

That's my point about reading the entire thread in one sitting - after the fact. You get to see the whole mess unfold in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks... however long it actually took. Mostly due to legwork from domainers like yourself. Funny (actually sad) watching poor ol' Patty bob and weave as you present each bit of evidence to her.

The thread itself is a case study of a pathological liar and should remain up for educational purposes.

 

[Theo]

Patty didn't act alone. That's all I have to say at this point. Waiting to confirm an alleged return of the funds ($5,000) to Alex via Paypal.

 

[tonyfloyd]

Patty didn't act alone.

Really???....WOW!....this gets better....

 

[Theo]

You need to re-read that thread, Tony. Plenty of clues there. It's a shame the thread was closed.

 

[Biggie]

Maybe the thread can be cleaned up and made useful.

Patty's antics certainly inspire humor, but there is a lot to be learned there. Patty is on a multi-year (perhaps multi-decade) crime spree, and isn't terribly good at it. She preys on people to don't do background searches, and people who don't clearly label transactions (so that she can later spin stories about the purpose of the transaction). When truth starts to come out that she's running a scam, she uses that open door to claim 'mistakes' and 'misunderstandings' and so on.

She worked hard at social engineering and identity theft, and used those to throw up a cloud of confusion and 'references' when questioned.

As far as anyone can tell, she never successfully brokered a single domain sale, or wrote a line of code. Yet people were paying up front for her brokering services, and vouching for how cool her 'software' was.

Bido even has her as a featured speaker, which gave her even more 'credibility' (for those who find Bido credible in the first place).

She could have gotten away with far more, the fact she stuck around to 'watch the train wreck' suggests that for her, this was more about the thrill and attention than anything else. Someone in it for the money doesn't stick around and even throw us more clues, which she clearly was doing.

While Acro's detective work was outstanding, we all got lucky because 1) She used her real last name and 2) It is a fairly unique name.

Another psycho WILL come along, so it pays to know the signs.

i'm not trying to rain on this Acro parade , but this needs to be reinterated:

The OP John (bocajohn) and Alex (TwoStep420) were the members who brought this issue to light. Based on their own dealings with democrat.

everyone else was silent...not a peep, not a question, no bg checks, nothin, nada.

Theo had imput and others did after the fact, so let's keep it in perspective.

no one was brave enough or had the courage to come forward or contact a mod or staff member other than John and Alex, until after the thread was started.

then after the ball got rolling, my pm box blew-up with info of deals with democrat from other members.

It's interesting reading all these signs that were there but noone could have guessed, don't you think? It's a solid case of social engineering.

it's a solid case of mass naive'-ness

when she started writing broker articles, i questioned her repeatedly and reported several of her posts for staff to "keep an eye open"

http://www.dnforum.com/f578/phone-script-end-users-thread-371312.html

she was always mentioning 'clients and brokering' in discussion threads and didn't have 1 trader rating relating to a brokered sale.

i reported that also

whenever she posted crap in General Discussion section, i question her motives.

checked her here, but some members didn't like it;

http://www.dnforum.com/f557/what-do-you-think-abou-e-i-front-name-thread-372974.html

she was always seeking more in her circle of friends:
http://www.dnforum.com/f31/pattys-inner-circle-thread-375951.html


she even asked me to appraise a domain for her when she first came on the scene via pm. i knew then by the domain and her conversation, that she didn't know squat about brokering.

as for the secret software, well you all knew it was too good to be true, but ya jumped in anyway

here's the beginning of the "secret software" bullcrap in May 2009:
http://www.dnforum.com/f31/how-do-you-raise-money-projects-thread-366926.html


note my post in that thread;

http://www.dnforum.com/f31/how-do-you-raise-money-projects-thread-366926.html#post1708894

here's another thread, where a few members were asking specific questions but never got straight answers.

she mixed it so well that some were sure in the end that she was a domain expert!

http://www.dnforum.com/f557/i-am-getting-burnt-out-3-thread-365300.html

but before your read all that

read this post from a member in that same thread above:

http://www.dnforum.com/f557/i-am-getting-burnt-out-3-thread-365300.html#post1703000

no intention to label this member specifically, as he got caught up in her bs just like the rest. just read all the sympathy expressed for her sob stories.


do i need to post more?

as for the original thread being closed.

the OP requested that it be closed because it was getting silly with all the images and jokes being posted.

 

[Theo]

I personally reported the photoshop junk in the original thread; you could have used a couple of minutes to clean it up and keep it open for developments, that are now bound to get scattered. E.g. I corresponded with Delta Gamma and they (obviously) denied that she is an alumnus.

The software thread; at that time I was aware of the oncoming onslaught and played along; do you seriously believe we bit the bait?

In retrospect, mods waited a bit too long to act on this; it took a lot of research on my part and that of others to concentrate the volumes of evidence. Even then, her side of the story had to be told, only to be disseminated by cross-examination.

The outcome: she's drinking coffee in Seattle, waiting for the dust to settle and to set forth onto her new group of victims.

 

[jasdon11]

Maybe the thread can be cleaned up and made useful.

Patty's antics certainly inspire humor, but there is a lot to be learned there. Patty is on a multi-year (perhaps multi-decade) crime spree, and isn't terribly good at it. She preys on people to don't do background searches, and people who don't clearly label transactions (so that she can later spin stories about the purpose of the transaction). When truth starts to come out that she's running a scam, she uses that open door to claim 'mistakes' and 'misunderstandings' and so on.

She worked hard at social engineering and identity theft, and used those to throw up a cloud of confusion and 'references' when questioned.

As far as anyone can tell, she never successfully brokered a single domain sale, or wrote a line of code. Yet people were paying up front for her brokering services, and vouching for how cool her 'software' was.

Bido even has her as a featured speaker, which gave her even more 'credibility' (for those who find Bido credible in the first place).

She could have gotten away with far more, the fact she stuck around to 'watch the train wreck' suggests that for her, this was more about the thrill and attention than anything else. Someone in it for the money doesn't stick around and even throw us more clues, which she clearly was doing.

While Acro's detective work was outstanding, we all got lucky because 1) She used her real last name and 2) It is a fairly unique name.

Another psycho WILL come along, so it pays to know the signs.

True.

I have been f*cked over by a member of my family, who claimed to have never promised something that he actually did...cost me a lot (six figures) but over time since then, the lesson it taught me was that you need everything written down and tracable, no matter who you're dealing with. You can't prove anything unless you've got a paper trail - even then it can be hard enough - but without it, you may as well just forget it.

That lesson has undoubtedly paid for itself since, but it hurt at the time, and I'll never forget it. When doing business, make sure you're not leaving yourself open to scams, or innocent mistakes - the end result can be the same.