David Caruso: A Sockpuppet Primer!

Visitors: Please be advised. Though we concentrate on Sockpuppet's cyber-stalking, this psychotic has been accused and is currently (according to news reports) under indictment in Austria for making written death threats against David and his family.

When we started this knee-jerk blog a month ago, we had no inkling what reaction we would find. Our expectations ran from 'we'll probably be ignored' to 'maybe we'll have a few visitors'. Never did we envision the thousands who would be drawn here from every corner of the web. In the interest of those dozens (sometimes, hundreds) of first-timers who stop by daily, we re-introduce our original piece, with explanations of Sockpuppet and Troll.

TROLL: A person who drops into various forums and/or boards that are dedicated to a specific person or cause, be it political, religious, social, tv, movies, celebrity, etc. The troll is extremely disruptive, throws out rude or disparaging remarks, put downs, racial or religious slurs, anything to cause a furor. Once they've created chaos (or chased away other members/posters) they're on to their next target. The troll rarely engages in a continuing discourse.

SOCKPUPPET: A person who may also be a troll, the sockpuppet posts a negative comment, disparaging to the subject of the forum, using one name, then responds in a positive manner to the poster, but using a different name (often this process may be repeated maybe a dozen times within a particular forum under a new alias with each comment); thus creating the illusion of two or more being in agreement. This tactic is often used by a STALKER to create or validate a fabricated rumor regarding the subject.

Example of Sockpuppet Cyber-stalking activities : Sockpuppet 'leaked' a sighting of David and a woman on a message board; then, with another name, verified the first sighting; next, she went onto numerous boards and forums (each with a different name), saying "I've heard", or "I saw", followed by 1, 2, or more different people who confirmed the first sighting..................
After several dozen of these 'leaks', on various boards and in numerous names, she 'planted the leak' to several online gossip gurus, who then printed it as 'factual' (later retracted). Before long, the internet was saturated with "confirmations" that David was heavy into an affair that never happened. This, of course, was damaging to David, his family, the named 'other woman' and her family.

This type of stalking is far more common than we care to acknowledge. This Sockpuppet's downfall began with the hundreds of letters mailed to David with threats to harm he and his family. She was prevented from entering the US this past summer, obviously headed for the LA area, her credit cards were frozen, and she was stranded in Mexico for about a month before finding her way back home. While on her transatlantic prowl, a hearing was held, apparently "in absentia". We are not privy to the disposition of this matter in the Austrian courts. What we do know is that her computer is alive and well and she continues to function many hours each day on the internet. Tomorrow, or whenever time permits, we'll explore, again, some of her known haunts, names she uses. A few of her webpages are linked on several pages of this blog.