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Diarmaid Ferriter
Tim Vaughan
July 18, 2010
VOL 27 NO 29
Famous fuming at fulminations of facebook fraudster...
Rachel Allen
Fintan O'Toole
Geraldine Kennedy
John Banville
A Facebook impersonator who has created several hoax accounts for well-known Irish people has claimed he is running the pages in order to "skewer" and embarrass the individuals.
The impersonator, who contacted the Sunday Tribune last week under the pseudonym of Brendan O'Connor, is currently running the fake Facebook pages of author John Banville, Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy, historian Diarmaid Ferriter, celebrity chef Rachel Allen, journalist Fintan O'Toole and Irish Examiner editor Tim Vaughan amongst others.
A spokesman for Banville said the author found the page "quite creepy. He is a writer and doesn't care too much about Facebook, but we are going to look into this and try to get it taken down. It can't be that easy to set up a page like that and make it genuine either, so it is strange."
According to the imitator, he is styling himself on 'V' from box-office hit film V for Vendetta, and is currently "in the writing game".
"I can't tell you who I am because I'm in the writing game, so to speak. No matter what page is taken down [none yet], I save everything by sending compilations from one email address to another."
He says his aim is to embarrass as many of the well-known individuals as possible, and denies it is in any way cowardly. "It doesn't matter who 'I' am – the aim is to skewer as many of these people as possible."
One fan wrote on Banville's fake page: "Hi John, just wanted to tell you that The Sea is one of my favourite books. I enjoyed the ending, especially the last 20 pages or so", to which the false Banville replied: "You're very kind. I'm currently trying to get going on a new one, tentatively called 'The Land'."
Despite regular satirical posts such as this, some fans do not seem to be aware that it is not the real John Banville.
The impersonator's page on Rachel Allen was recently rumbled as a fake after a fan complained she did not believe the page was really that of the chef. 'Allen' replied by saying: "Just follow the recipes. The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
Undeterred, the fan continued to question the identity of the writer until the phony Allen said: "No matter how divine or difficult any recipe is, there are still lots of people who will swallow anything."
Historian Diarmaid Ferriter has also expressed his rage at a page pretending to be his, which has resulted in confusion amongst colleagues, such as Irish Voice editor Niall O'Dowd.
In a conversation between the two, O'Dowd wrote: "Heard lots about you – look forward to meeting." The fake Ferriter replied: "I won't have that much to do here before lectures kick off again later so we should be able to fit in a few scoops. But you're off the sauce since '92 aren't you? I remember reading that in your book."
A spokeswoman for Facebook said it is now looking into taking down the offending pages. "We will look into taking these down – Facebook members who spot a fake page can report it and we have copyright infringement procedures in place to make sure anything like that is removed."
July 18, 2010
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