The Roadie's here

> Lo and behold, I was met by some very tasteless folks here, one going by
> the name of The Roadie. Attempting to be the "good guy" Mr./Ms.
> The Roadie decided he was going to investigate me for no reason
> whatsoever.

Nonsense. You said you were a newbie and you wanted to know the best way to market your products. Since you hadn't even given us a clue as to what (if anything) you've ALREADY TRIED, I took that as an invitation to see if you were already marketing anything on the Internet, and what products those might have been.

I included some marketing advice in my reply, which was to stop scattering your efforts around, on marginal opportunities that looked like scams.

> As I said, I never gave any indication whatsoever that I was
> going to engage in scams or even spam on this forum. It appears that this
> person (The Roadie) just looks up everyone who visits the forum to see if
> he can find a way to label them as a scammer.

People with things to hide often are hiding their scamful ways. You might not know it, but a lot of scammers come here to recruit new victims. As I explained later, you sounded desperate in your on-line activity, not evil.

> Mr./Ms. The Roadie proceeded to ridicule me in his reply to my post in
> front of the FIB audience implying that I was a crook of some sorts. But
> the worst part is that not only did he/she do this, but he/she posted my
> full contact info without my consent.

There's where you are wrong. You posted your data yourself. Google archives it, even if you take down the original. And the Wayback Machine at www.archive.org keeps historical records of what many sites look like at various times in the past. This is a record that sometimes trips up crooks, which I say again you do not appear to be.

> As a result of my info being so rudely displayed to the whole world
> without my approval and being labeled as a scam artist to boot all within
> the same post by one Mr./Ms. the Roadie, I have received many prank calls,
> some of which were threats to my life, my home and/or my well-being such
> that I had to get local authorities involved (and mentioned the post to
> this site).

You will be having an extremely hard time making a case for a cause-effect relationship, if you look closely at my post. You were not labeled as a scam artist. But even if you were, that does not excuse the harassment you're getting.

> I get at leas 3 prank calls per day now, most of which, if
> not all, happened as a result of Mr./Ms. The Roadie posting my private
> contact info without my wishes or consent and also labeling me as a
> scammer. I have deduced this because I have never received such
> pranks/threatening calls until the day my info was made public on that
> thread and also, one of the prank/threatening callers actually mentioned
> FIB and how "we're gonna get you". My rights and privacy have
> been violated as a result and I must recoup somehow from this point. I'm
> very afraid at this point.

It really stinks to have a criminal harasser on your case. Hope the authorities trace the calls, since you certainly seem to have a case against them. But your data was never private if you posted it yourself, looking to sell stuff on-line.

Unless you have some suspects, or have any on-line enemies, you might tell your law enforcement folks to call me. I've got plenty of folks who could conceivably annoy innocent folks, trying to implicate me. Possibly hundreds. Certainly too many to narrow down easily.

> I have made a decision to seek out a lawyer about this incident, as I must
> put an end to all of this. My life is nothing but hell the last several
> days as a result of that unnecessary and unapproved posting of my private
> info as well as the false accusations/allegations that I am a crook of
> sorts. However, I am giving the owner of this forum a chance to either
> erase that thread. I am sorry to say that if I'm not met with compliance
> from the forum owner within 72 hours, I will in fact have to seek legal
> help and possibly engage in lawsuit against the owner of this forum
> (Lesley Fountain) and Mr./Ms. the Roadie.

While the original post never labeled you a crook, I see it's been edited.

> While Mr./Ms. The Roadie chooses
> to post here anonymously, I am quite sure that we will be able to uncover
> his identity in order to serve him with a lawsuit.

Who's anonymous? My email address is on all my posts, and the most trivial of Google searches (www.google.com and groups.google.com) would give you any data you need.

> However, I could be wrong about that.

Well you're certainly wrong if you think I'm trying to hide from anybody. I post my email address because only the foolhardy would harvest and spam me.

> But rest assured that if I am in fact eventually
> physically harmed from any of these pranksters that are threatening me
> (God forbid), there will most likely be no problem in uncovering the
> identity of Mr./Ms. The Roadie in order to seek justice where justice is
> due.

Proving a cause/effect relationship, while leaving out your contributory negligence in posting your own address and phone number on the public Internet, can be the subject if a lively discussion between you and your lawyer. For now, I'd keep on tracing your harasser, as I'm sure law enforcement would be telling you.

> I won't be engaging in any further discussions on this forum or in this
> thread as I am sure my future lawyer would suggest that anyway. I will be
> watching the forum to verify that the thread mentioned above is removed
> within 72 hours. I have taken screen shots of the thread in question and
> have documented everything as well as I can so please don't try to deny
> any of these things I bring up in this post. That should be useless in a
> court of law given my evidence. Fair warning.

> Kareema

> PS. Mr./Ms. Roadie. Please think twice before you go around acting like
> "Johnny Law". Sometimes you can do more harm than good and
> infringe on another person's rights/privacy. You've done so in my case and
> I plan on seeking reparations for the damages you have caused should the
> owner of this forum not comply with my request. Let's all hope nothing
> more ever becomes of this. I feel very threatened and anything is possible
> - there are a lot of bad people out there - especially on the internet.

I'm not hacking into your diary, or posting anything THAT WASN'T ALREADY OUT THERE. Make sure your lawyer also sees copies of all your on-line ads for the last year, the ones that included your phone numbers and address.

> But let's hope for the best. It is in your best interest Mr./Ms. Roadie
> that I do not experience anymore harm as a result of your post as I am
> sure you could be held accountable in a court of law, once we can find out
> who you are.

I certainly don't wish you to be harmed by any loonies out there, but any competent search engine user could have done the same thing as I. When you post data on the Internet, you have already given up certain expectations of privacy. You posted quite a few ads and classifieds and job offers. Many folks doing that have set up 800-numbers hooked up to answering machines. This makes sure your physical location is confidential, and makes sure you get to call the person back at your convenience. If your home address is something you want to keep off the net, you could have arranged for a PO Box.

I don't want to go around blaming the victim here, since harassment isn't at all humorous or your fault. But blaming anybody at the FIB forum, because we're somehow easier to find, rather then the person(s) doing the harassing - is just misguided. Law enforcement can do their jobs well, and I assume you're getting their attention.

But since you issued the lawsuit threat first - it's time for your lawyer to discuss it further with my lawyer if they want to proceed. Or you can have law enforcement contact me - a good email address is attached to every post I make.