Kaycee Nicole
Kaycee Nicole started out as an online persona, created by a teenaged girl. It was probably an attempt to make herself look just a little better than life.
The really twisted part of this saga is that at some point, Kaycee's persona was taken over by the girl's mother, who eventually faked a sad tale of Kaycee's cancer and death.
It caused a lot of problems, because the people on the other end of the modem really believed Kaycee existed. They had emailed, read her journal and site, cried at learning of her 'illness' and grieved her death.
How utterly betrayed they were.
It's one thing to go online and not give your name, show your picture, not give your number out etc. It's okay to use a nickname or some other name you just like to have. Sometimes, under certain circumstances, it's okay to pretend you're something you're not, that's how kiddy porn sites get busted and shut down.
But 'slimy' doesn't even begin to describe the cruelty that is headgaming people by pretending to be somebody dying of an illness, or some other really tragic thing that actually causes others to weep over your sad but completely fictional experience.
Chain mail often does the same thing, only not quite to the extent as the Kaycee Nicole hoaxter did. It's just sick. Infuriating how social parasites can get away with so much.
Posted Archives From the Kaycee Nicole Yahoogroup:
KCArchive1KCArchive2 KCArchive3 KCArchive4
Links from the Kaycee-Nicole Yahoogroup page:
Title
Summary or description
Url
Submitted by
Kaycee Nicole FAQ
Detailed accounting of the affair from start to finish. If you're writing a story on Kaycee, start here. The Kuro5hin story is more detailed and accurate, though, and this FAQ has come under fire for taking conjecture and assumption as fact. http://rootnode.org/article.php?sid=26 DanHartung
"Kaycee"/Swenson Family/Julie Photo Archive
If you have more photos to add, please send them to caren@blueeyes.co.uk http://www.simplycaren.net/kc simplycaren
CollegeClub Photo Album
Photo Album belonging to Kaycee at CC.com http://www.collegeclub.com/f/d.asp?u=http%3A%2F%2Fphotos%2Ecollegeclub%2Ecom%2Fj%2FLogin%3FUser%3DKutebabe%40collegeclub%2Ecom simplycaren
CollegeClub Terms of Use
For reference. http://www.collegeclub.com/about_us/channelarticle.asp?id=42&article_id=34441 DanHartung
Debbie's Final Post
BWG has left her final blog post as the only remnant of the two weblogs he hosted. http://vanderwoning.com/living/mblog.shtml DanHartung
Debbie's Return?
No proof yet, but it does sound like something she could have written. Maybe she'll try to explain herself more in the future. http://livingcolours.blogspot.com DanHartung
Deconstructing Kaycee
A psychologist's take http://psychcentral.com/blogs/kaycee.htm acridrabbit
Gracemont High School Girl's Basketball Team
Photos of the Gracemont High School Girl's Basketball Team maintained by the Swensons. These photos helped track down the name of Julie Fullbright via the team roster. http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Frontrow/3838/gracemont/index.html nightngle
Halcyon's Kaycee Flash
Last year, Halcyon created this little cartoon to introduce people to Kaycee. http://www.prehensile.com/loves/kaycee/kaycee.htm DanHartung
Host of Kaycee's Blog Apologizes
Direct link to Randall van der Woning's apology. Randall goes by the moniker "bwg". http://www.vanderwoning.com/mess.shtml DanHartung
KCsCoolMom page at College Club
Debbie created this page in the persona of Kaycee's mother. http://home.collegeclub.com/KCsCoolMom/allstar.html DanHartung
Kaycee Geocities page
Part of a site apparently set up by Kelli's father. Not linked to from main site. http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Frontrow/3838/kc.html DanHartung
Kaycee Nicole: Internet Hoax
A list of links to articles and other resources, put together by About's Chatting Online Guide, Julie Martin. http://chatting.about.com/library/blkaycee.htm journalistic...
Kaycee's College Club Page
Original Webpage at College Club since ca. 1998 http://home.collegeclub.com/kutebabe DanHartung
Kaycee's Photo Double
From the evidence, it appears that the photos passed off as Kaycee were of Gracemont basketball star Julie Fullbright. http://sports.snu.edu/players/Basketball/women/Julie_Fullbright/ DanHartung
Kaycee: Faking Life and Death Online?
An online community is devastated to find out that a friend they have followed for several months was not real, but a made up persona. Find out more about the story of Kaycee Nicole and how to keep yourself safe when pursuing online relationships. http://netconference.about.com/internet/netconference/library/weekly/aa052201a.htm Kutebabe
(Kaycee) College Club Profile
Sketchy personal information here. http://www.collegeclub.com/userprofile/asp_profiledetail.asp?CCSection=MatchU&userid=10000000260545 DanHartung
Lies Online
About's Chatting Online Guide, Julie Martin (not Fullbright), covers the story of Debbie's confession. http://chatting.about.com/library/weekly/aa052101a.htm journalistic...
Lies Online II
About's Chatting Online Guide, Julie Martin, shares some new answers. http://chatting.about.com/library/weekly/aa052301a.htm journalistic...
MIRROR of many Kaycee sites
Christine is compiling a mirror of whatever she can, before they're taken down. http://www.strangecat.org/kaycee/ DanHartung
MIRROR: Logboy's Archive
Includes mirrors of the MeFi threads, Debbie's final posting, as well as a chatroom. http://www.logboy.com/jr/main.asp DanHartung
MIRROR: SimplyCaren's collection of Kaycee images
Some are mirrored from the various Kaycee websites, others come from third-party sources. The most complete collection of images of "Kaycee" or as we now suspect Julie Fullbright. http://www.simplycaren.net/kc/ DanHartung
More pictures from Kaycee
Some pictures of interiors and landscapes that are stored on Kaycee's MSN community page. http://content.communities.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=get_album&ID_Community=KCruisin&ID_Topic=1y6y6y6 DanHartung
Munchausen By Internet article
Munchausen's syndrome (faking illness in self or others) in internet forums http://healtheoffice.com/munchausen_by_internet.htm DanHartung
New York Times article on College Club
Quotes a Kaycee Swenson. Appeared to help establish her bona fides at the time. ("channel" free ride doesn't work.) http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/circuits/articles/10dorm.html DanHartung
Possibly a photo Debbie
From http://www.vanderwoning.ca/archives/2001may20.html#scam http://www.vanderwoning.ca/images/KCmom.jpg captcrackpipe
Swenson Family Page
Switchboard page for Debbie Swenson and family. Only shows two children, Kelli and Bryan, who do match information given in "Kaycee's" blog. http://home.switchboard.com/swensonupdates DanHartung
Tazwoman page at College Club
Peter was an online friend of "Kaycee". Some high-quality pictures here. http://home.collegeclub.com/Tazwoman/ DanHartung
the e-mail of kaycee nicole
Collection of e-mail sent by kaycee during '98 through 2000, includes her collegeclub host application and many personal messages. http://www.mojofat.com/kaycee poorbob
Responses by various webloggers to the situation after it became clear Kaycee was a hoax.
DaveNet: Faking a Death Online
Dave Winer's response to the brouhaha. A concise summary of events. Compares public reaction with 1938 Halloween War of the Worlds broadcast. http://davenet.userland.com/2001/05/20/fakingADeathOnline DanHartung
Deconstructing Kaycee
John Grohol, net.personality in the psychology arena, analyzes the Kaycee creation ... and creator. http://psychcentral.com/blogs/kaycee.htm DanHartung
Derek Powazek post
His perspective on online communities has been jolted by this situation. Several interesting additional posts by readers. http://www.powazek.com/zoom/log/archive/00000058.shtml DanHartung
Halcyon Radio Show 5/23
Halcyon hosts an internet radio show every Wednesday. This is the first post-hoax show. Several of the people who were duped and who helped uncover the hoax call in. One hour; Windows Media Player required. http://img2.com/asx/firstluuuv05-23-01.asx DanHartung
Halcyon: Hoax
John Styn was perhaps the most well-known of the online friends of "Kaycee". (He won a Webby.) His thoughts on the aftermath are here. Previous posts on Kaycee are also available in his archives. http://cockywrds.diaryland.com/010520_63.html DanHartung
Kaya, Kaycee and Me
E-mail post-mortem between Jim "Kaya" Styn and Jimformation. http://www.jimformation.com/misc/kaya.htm DanHartung
Kristin Thomas: Tell me what hospital she's in
One doubter explains why -- and why it matters that we trust each other online http://www.sperare.com/archives/may01/20may01.html DanHartung
More on Debbie Swenson
Personal thoughts on the Kaycee hoax. http://bonni.net/blog/archives/00000025.html alicorna
Steven Den Beste: Trust Online
Thoughts compiled after the hoax became clear. http://home.san.rr.com/denbeste/trust.html DanHartung
Tranquileye: The Kaycee Effect
Reflections on the Kaycee hoax. http://tranquileye.com/kaycee/ jamesapatten
From September, 2000 there were scattered instances of skeptical posts. (Many times these were drowned out by people defending "Kaycee".) The final chorus of inquiry started with Kristin at Threewayaction, moved to Becky's blog, then when "Kaycee" died to Headspace, and acridrabbit posted the Headspace to Metafilter. The Metafilter discussion spawned a weekend-long investigation, which led to the exposure.
Becky Says entry on Kaycee.
Becky first raised doubts about the Kaycee construct in February (!), three months before her "death". http://becky-says.diaryland.com/20010520.html DanHartung
Becky-Says Aftermath
The explanation of why and how this all got started http://becky-says.diaryland.com/20010523.html anywherebeyond
Discussion on Beth/Xeney's forum
The discussion spills over from the blogger world to the on-line journallers world. http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005H0y acridrabbit
Halcyon Board (9/2000)
Cockybastard's discussion board introduced many people to Kaycee here. Doubts were posted (2nd page, end), and Kaycee was defended (3rd page, top: bwg). http://www.teacosy.net/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000018.html DanHartung
Headspace 5/17
Headspace raises questions in an elliptical, satirical format, suggesting BWG is the author of both weblogs. http://www.anywherebeyond.com/2001/0501/051701.html DanHartung
Headspace 5/18
Headspace admits previous post was about Kaycee and BWG, further detailing case. Sparked initial MeFi thread. http://www.anywherebeyond.com/2001/0501/051801.html DanHartung
Headspace 5/20
Final Headspace post on Kaycee, after brouhaha broke. http://www.anywherebeyond.com/2001/0501/052001.html DanHartung
Metafilter Thread #0
September, 2000 thread promoting Kaycee's blog. Skeptics and cynics abounded, even then: there was much acrimony. Perfectly illustrates the divisive effect of Munchausen by Internet (see that article) on a virtual community. http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/3259 DanHartung
Metafilter Thread #1
Does Kaycee Exist? Thread 285K http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/7819 DanHartung
Metafilter Thread #2
Kaycee Was a Hoax Thread, after BWG Posts Disclaimer 300K http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/7841 DanHartung
Metafilter Thread #3
BWG Removes Blog, Apologizes http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/7856 DanHartung
Threewayaction: November 2000 Skepticism
Kristin posted some pointed opinions in the Threewayaction forum in November, during a conversation about the EverQuest guide-suicide hoax. http://www.threewayaction.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000041.html DanHartung
Wunderblog 5/18
Snarky journal-critiquer takes on the Kaycee situation. Helped focus attention on inconsistencies. Don't miss the comment threads. http://heliophobic.net/wunderblog/archives/00000097.shtml DanHartung
Wunderblog 5/18 2
Follow-up anonymous e-mail posted. http://heliophobic.net/wunderblog/archives/00000100.shtml DanHartung
Wunderblog 5/18 3
More snarky comments on people who were honestly mourning Kaycee. Links to other discussion boards. http://heliophobic.net/wunderblog/archives/00000101.shtml DanHartung
Links to articles about the hoax
A painful affair of the Internet heart
MSNBC article about the hoax not 100% up to date, but good info on gift-giving aspects http://msnbc.com/news/576899.asp?cp1=1 DanHartung
Australian IT: Tell Someone Who Cares
Article about blogging. Mentions several Aussie blogs, brief mention of Kaycee at end. http://australianit.news.com.au/common/storyPage/0,3811,2032359^501,00.html DanHartung
Corriere della Sera "Sono malata grande truffa su I"
Italian News Coverage; cred to MetaFilter http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/05_Maggio/24/truffa.shtml anywherebeyond
Dan Gillmor: Did Kaycee Live, or Die?
First professional journalist to address the story, in his weblog. Very brief. http://web.siliconvalley.com/content/sv/2001/05/20/opinion/dgillmor/weblog/index.htm DanHartung
Fox News Network: "Girl Alive and Well..."
Focuses mostly on Julie and Debbie, similar to the Eagle's story http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,25662,00.html anywherebeyond
Fraude na Rede
Brazilian coverage of the story, w/ links to the MeFi Faq http://www.no.com.br/servlets/newstorm.notitia.apresentacao.ServletDeNoticia?codigoDaNoticia=21877&dataDoJornal=atual anywherebeyond
Girl's illness was web hoax
Regionally-circulating AP wire story. Also picked up by FOXNews.com. http://cjonline.com/stories/052601/kan_webhoax.shtml DanHartung
Inside: Webloggers Cope With Death, Denial
The first real press story. May 21 afternoon. http://www.inside.com/page/page_display?process=StoryInsideDope&sub_process=cda.story&process_right=com.inside.cda.insidedope.InsideDopeRight&article_id=31316 DanHartung
Italia Online "Impossibile visualizzare la persona"
More Italian coverage http://scanali:sc2k!@stage-canali.iol.it/societa/primopiano.html anywherebeyond
Kaycee's Story (Local TV Coverage)
KWCH-TV interviews Debbie, Julie, and devastated online friend (no video here, sorry) http://www.kwch.com/MGBGK4ZN3NC.html DanHartung
Kaycee's tear-jerking 'blog' was all online bilge
Australian I.T. magazine http://it.mycareer.com.au/news/2001/06/05/FFXU2YJ4JNC.html anywherebeyond
Kur05hin: The Life and Death of a False Warrior
Very detailed and accurate in its timeline. Marred by some guffaws from the peanut gallery in the chat section. http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory&sid=2001/5/22/11120/1650 DanHartung
MSNBC Front Page exposure
Screenshot of the MSNBC front page with Kaycee Hoax coverage http://www.openwire.com/collections/Refs/kaycee_msnbcfront.jpg fooljay
Medica Guardian - UK
A well written piece about the hoax, and the problem of online identity verification http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,497418,00.html nightngle
Minneapolis Star - Tribune Article
Their take on the situation http://www.startribune.com/viewers/qview/cgi/qview.cgi?story=84240541&timmopussycat (Link messed up, no other link found to work.)
Netslaves: Kaycee Nicole Rests in Pieces
Netslaves offers its wry take on the proceedings. http://www.netslaves.com/comments/990564969.shtml DanHartung
New York Times Coverage
We've hit the bigtime, boys. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/31/technology/31HOAX.html tweebiscuit
Oklahoman: Victim puts face on hoax
Story from Julie Fullbright's perspective (as the woman in the photos used to portray "Kaycee"). See other link for photo. http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=690065&TP=getarticle DanHartung
Peabody Gazette
Follow-up article about FBI investigation. Includes picture of Debbie with her son and Julie. http://www.peabodykansas.com/23hoax.html nightngle
Peabody, KS Newspaper article
Hometown newspaper of the Swenson's. Includes quote from Debbie. http://www.peabodykansas.com/21nichole.html jennak1202
RWC Activist "Life and death..."
http://rwcactivist.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=77891 anywherebeyond
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Same story as the NY Times http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/25411_hoax31.shtml anywherebeyond
Suck.Com "Hit and Run"
Umm, pretty much what you'd expect from Suck http://www.suck.com/daily/2001/05/24/1.html anywherebeyond
The sad yet Untrue Story of Kaycee
Jon Carroll defends Debbie and her creation http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/06/05/DD140021.DTL anywherebeyond
Web community fooled by cancer victim hoax
Hong Kong paper writes about hoax; interviews BWG (van der Woning). Also, states BWG was going to fly to US from Hong Kong only days after Kaycee "died." USERID: metafilter PASS: filter http://technology.scmp.com/ZZZ71F5UTMC.html jennak1202
Wichita Eagle: "Girl's Leukemia A Fraud..."
Mostly about Julie and Debbie; comments on whether charges will be filed http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2001/05/25/kansas/0525hoax_txt.htm anywherebeyond
Wired News - "They Think They Feel Your Pain"
a very good article exploring the Munchausen angle, mentions the "Kaycee" hoax and includes other similar cases. http://www.wirednews.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44245,00.html nightngle
Members Websites
Miscellany
Related, ancillary material.
Brill's Parody Cover
A parody of the Brill's content cover with Matt Haughey. Pokes fun at the investigative zeal of the Metafilter community. http://www.hijinks.com/~mark/brills.html DanHartung
College Club Meltdown Live
As the original business burned, some ex-employees fiddled. http://www.spies.com/~gus/ran/0006/cclive.htm DanHartung
See Summer Swing Dance
An online tribute to Summer Brannin, a 21 year old cancer victim who went skyward in 1998. There's a charity record called Songs For Summer you can check out and be sure that a worthy cause (Free Arts For Abused Children) will benefit. If that's not relevant enough to be a link on this page, in a strange coincidence, she knew John Halcyon. http://www.thesummersite.com songsforsummer
Stories about other instances of hoaxing or identity shifting.
A Rape in Cyberspace
Seminal 1993 Julian Dibble piece in Village Voice about Mr. Bungle's virtual misbehavior on LambaMOO (an online game/community) http://www.levity.com/julian/bungle.html DanHartung
Anandtech Hoax
A poster on Anandtech created a female persona out of curiosity, then "married" her, then "killed" her in a car accident. Questions were raised, and he could not sustain the charade. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19045.html DanHartung
Arbeit Mach Fraud: the Wilkomski Affair
New Republic book review concerning the story of a man who wrote an acclaimed Holocaust-survivor account (Fragments) that was later proven to be completely fraudulent. It is still considered moving writing, but due in no small part to the efforts of Holocaust deniers, truthfulness is very important in this topic. http://www.tnr.com/043001/alter043001.html DanHartung
Ben Brown Played
Ben writes of an instant-messaging friend who repeatedly set up, then blew off, meetings with him. http://benbrown.com/daily/cds.cgi?c=2000/05/03 DanHartung
Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community
Academic paper from the MIT Media Lab. http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html DanHartung
Jessa Journal Faked
An early online-journal predecessor: Jessa admits in 1996 that she faked her journal and persona. http://toybox.groovegarden.com/jessa/journal/nov96/truth.html DanHartung
Kysa Braswell - Uncovered
An expose on a hoax concerning a beautiful deaf girl w/ brain cancer. http://www.ratatak.com/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=1100&page_id=5 friendlyfascist
(Note from owner of wiki page: Er, uhm...I've heard some strange handles, but this one takes the whole picnic!)
Life, Death & EverQuest
A guide gets fired, commits suicide, is mourned, and then turns out never to have existed http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/11/21/virtual_suicide/index.html DanHartung
This American Life: Hoaxing Yourself
Episode focusing on situations where people were so far into fake situations they believed it themselves. http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/00/155.html DanHartung
oZ diary hoax
Another online-journal predecessor: close to 2 year diary purportedly written by a woman under the pseudonym "Ophelia Z", but in reality imagined by Ryan Ozawa, founder of Open Pages webring/Diarist.net http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6666/Diary/diary.html bigfattycoon
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