PSA: "Can I talk to you?" troll

[thedivinegoat]

ETA 20/09/10 I am still updating this post, although I'm tending to add the names in batches so it may be a week or so before I get around to it.

If you have recently received a random message or contact from an unknown person containing text similar to the title, it may be a troll. His name seems to be Paul Melville Austin, but he uses a variety of pseudonyms, including Paul Benjamn Austin (also just plain Paul Austin) and Paul Sebastian Williams, to harass users and gain attention for himself. He seems to have accounts on both LiveJournal and Dreamwidth under the names of australianchild, bullenemu, colemancharlott and tyne_wear (ETA Also marmaladeatkins, michellerowatt, carlottecoleman, marmaladeatkins, thetestcard, australiaoz, marmalade44, uline, marmaladeat, charcoleman, ozaustralia, marmalade00, australian00s, australiachild, tyne_and_wear, jasminebreaks, aliciajohns, w6chamap, tynetees, mullauna.myopenid.com, australia_oz, mitcham.myopenid.com, aus_dw, middletonkate, phillipart,
P Bm Austin, Paul B. Austin and Jordy Lucas [Last three names are from Facebook]) but may have others. He is also known to use some non-journal nicknames and have multiple email addresses.

He has several behaviors, and a general pattern by which you can identify him;
*He contacts users, via email, IM's or private messages.
*He usually presents himself as either a young woman (generally using a stolen icon) or as an older, disabled man.
- His frequently changes his name with each contact.
*He will generally start out saying something like "can I talk to you?".
*He then launches into a story of abuse.
- Sometimes the abuse will be sexual and sometimes it is disability related, with either a sexual or humiliation component. The specific details vary from contact to contact.
*He will often express gender identity confusion and/or dating problems.
*He is interested in alternate history and fandom and will sometimes try to use this to get close to his new target.
*He often sets off the "squick-o-meter" when conversing with people. You may get a feeling that there is something Not Quite Right.
*On some occasions he has continued communication, even after being asked to stop

For example in August 2008 he posed as a High School Student called Marta (http://community.feministing.com/2008/08/reaching-out-and-welcoming.html) who was a survivor of sexual abuse.

This behaviour has continued over many years. He may or may not be dangerous. Please use appropriate amounts of caution if you choose to interact with him. If you feel he is breaking or has broken the Dreamwidth or LiveJournal Terms of Service while interacting with you, please contact them immediately. They can be reached via abuse@dreamwidth.org or abuse@livejournal.com, as appropriate.

I am trying to collect more information about the people he contacts and his interactions with them. If you believe you may have had contact with one of his personas, please leave me a message on this post.

Comments are screened, please note whether you want the comment to remain screened or are happy to have it unscreened. Anon comments are allowed, but may not necessarily be unscreened.


The more people who know about this man and his MO, the fewer people he can harass and trick. So also, please consider linking or re-posting this note in your own journal.

Thanks!

Comments

[green_knight]

I've stumbled across this post and just want to speak up briefly: I was contacted by this person under the DW Australianchild identity. I had a brief look at the journal, which seems to be a placeholder (though it screams 'young woman') and boggled, because I hadn't encountered that person and the msg felt as if they were querying to query - after all, if you want to talk to someone on LJ/DW, you comment on an appropriate post or you send them some content in a message. This putting out feelers just seemed weird, and in the end, I didn't even bother asking what the hell they wanted.

I use my DW account fairly little, and I'm not active in high-traffic places; my best guess is that he would have found me through my interests.

(Screen or unscreen as you see fit. And, err, hi.)

[thedivinegoat]

Hi! ;-)

And thank you.

[ankaret]

I got a DW message saying 'hi can i talk with you? pretty please?' from the australianchild identity. Unfortunately I deleted it because I thought it was probably a bot, though I've still got the 'you have a message' notification.

I know someone on my LJ friends list mentioned him a while back, but unfortunately I can't find the post right now. If I do manage to find it I'll drop them a link to this post of yours, if that's OK?

I'm OK with you unscreening this.

[thedivinegoat]

Yes, that's fine. In fact if you can spread the word by either linking or reposting that would be fantastic.

[true_statement]

I received a message from the australianchild account 20 weeks ago according to my DW inbox:

--- australianchild wrote:
> Hi
> i saw you have Enid Blyton in your interests - can i talk with you
>
> at the moment my favourite Blyton book is "In the Fifth at Malory Towers"

I didn't reply, since it struck me as bizarre. Feel free to unscreen.

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, I got a "can I talk to you?" message (from australianchild, if I recall correctly). I looked up their profile, and saw that they didn't appear to be an active user. I assumed it was some kind of Spam, and deleted the PM without replying to it.

Actually, that was the second time. The first time, it was the same message, from someone different (sorry, I can't recall the name), I looked them up, saw they weren't active, said to myself "why should I waste my precious time with a complete stranger?" and deleted the PM without replying to it.

Thus, when it happened the second time, I assumed it was Spam, since the content was exactly the same.

(yes, you can unscreen if you like)

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you. (Was the first time from another account on DW or LJ can you remember?)

[glinda]

Yeah, I was contacted by the australianchild identity a while back. I was modding a ficathon at the time so I presumed it was just someone with a question about that (the dw account was empty but lots of people just have placeholder accounts for commenting/posting to comms so I didn't think about it) and responded along the lines of 'yeah, what's it about' sort of thing. The response was regarding health issues/humiliation stuff, which kind of made me go O.o It seemed for the sort of thing you would make a post about rather than solicitating PM conversation about (unless it was someone you already knew) and that combined with the empty journal made me dubious. I debated sending a message back saying i didn't find it an appropriate subject to discuss with a stranger, but then I decided it was probably a teenage attentionseeker/troll and i would be better off ignoring them.

Unscreen if you like.

[thedivinegoat]

i would be better off ignoring them.

Definitely the way to go. Thank you.

[oursin]

I had one of these some while ago - it struck me as weird, so I sent an abrupt 'What about' response to the 'can I talk to you' request, just in case it was e.g. some legit query about some historical research issue I'd posted about that someone didn't feel was appropriate for comments, though it came off creepy - if it was a research issue why not ask up front - and never heard anything further.
Okay to unscreen

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you.

Okay to Unscreen

[violetisblue]

I got two "hi can I talk with you?" messages on LJ from two separate identities, maybe a month ago--I don't remember the names, unfortunately, but none of the ones you mentioned sound familiar. I deleted the PMs and blocked them both, thinking they were some sort of garden-variety spam.

Re: Okay to Unscreen

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you.

(I've added some new names from LJ, do any of them look familiar?)

[lurkingcat]

Hi - I'm here via ankaret. My experience was pretty similar to some of those above. I was contacted on DW by the australianchild account and since this year's resolution is to lurk less and be more social I responded to it. The reply that came back that they wanted someone to talk to about health and abuse issues and it pinged as attention-seeking troll to me, so I decided to ignore it. I've had no further contact from them.

(It's okay to unscreen this).

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you.

[lark_ascends]

I get a PM on DW from australianchild yesterday with the subject line of "Hi"

and the message:

Hi
can i talk with you?
please?

I looked at the journal, saw it was empty, thought why the heck would I talk to somebody I don't know at all (I'd just before that posted a public entry which probably came up on the feed thing here at DW of all public entries--that was my best guess as to why I was contacted then), and didn't reply.

(You can unscreen this)

this is eljay user equals cesario

[(Anonymous)]

I believe there's a possibility that he's also using the identity "testcardgirl". I got this message under another LJ name 5 weeks ago:
"Hi
can i talk with you?
pretty please?"

I replied "what about?" and didn't hear from the person again, but the journal set off alarm bells. This user has the location set at Australia too.

cesario again

[(Anonymous)]

sorry--you can unscreen my other comment. forgot to mention.

[trixieleitz]

Here via azurelunatic:

I had a LJ PM about four months ago from an australiaoz, saying
"Hi
can i talk with you?
i like your icon"

It had the same "Redheads have more fun" userpic as two of the accounts you gave above. I didn't respond, but didn't think anything of it until I saw this entry. Feel free to unscreen this comment; others may recognise this additional identity.

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you. I've added the name to the main post.

[azurelunatic]

Hah, looks like someone deleted their journal. (OK to unscreen.)

[thedivinegoat]

:-)

Hopefully he'll calm down his activities now.

Re: I got this 5 weeks ago. Another name for the list?

[thedivinegoat]

Thanks, will add this name too.

[(Anonymous)]

I got a message from the australiaoz username (sorry forgot how to do it as a link) saying Hi Can I talk to you? I sent a quick reply to asking who they where.

The response was Oh no-one you know
I'm just lonely.

I did not respond to that as looking through the lj with no posts its set of alarm bells.

I still have it though if you think it would be useful.

pomkeygeekange on lj
(feel free to do with this comment as you see fit.)

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you, we're getting quite a list of names he's used.

[missaustralia.livejournal.com]

On Jan 4, I received a message from 'australiachild' on LJ saying 'can I talk to you?' I don't use this LJ account anymore and thought the message was weird, so I ignored it, but I saw the link to this post on Twitter and thought of the message. I assume it's the same person, but as I said, I didn't reply, so who knows?

(I'm happy for you to unscreen.)

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you. It looks exactly like him.

[mskatej]

He has PM'd me twice - as marmaladeatkins and marmaladeat, both times saying:

Hi
can i talk with you?
pretty please?

I made a flocked post after the second message asking if it had happened to anyone else and 3 people told me it had happened to them too. I'm happy for you to unscreen this comment.

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you. It seems he's contacted a lot of people.

[scribblemoose]

I got a PM from Charcoleman on LJ, saying

Hi
can i talk with you?
please?

I chose not to engage. Will now block and mark as spam.

Thanks for the heads up!

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you.

[scribblemoose]

Sorry, I meant to say I'm happy with my prev. comment being unscreened.

[turps]

I've been contacted twice on Live Journal.

From australiaoz saying Hi can i talk with you? i like your icon

Then from ozaustralia saying Hi
can i talk with you?
pretty please?

Feel free to unscreen.

[thedivinegoat]

Thank you. I've added that name to the post.

[royalmarriage]

Know what really bugs me? He's using so many usernames that are connected to/derived from Charlotte Coleman and/or her work as Marmalade Atkins (if he'd got in touch with me, I'd have probably assumed it was feedback from the site I used to run); and also, he seems to be using one of my userpics (the "Redheads have more fun" one). I kind of feel vaguely implicated even though I know I'm not.

I think I need a shower. I really do feel kind of dirty now.

Feel free to unscreen this.

[thedivinegoat]

He seems to engender that feeling in a lot of people. And I'm sorry he's stolen your icon.

[sparkindarkness]

I was contacted by Australiachild on LJ. I found it odd that he just sought me out randomly. He asked to talk I expressed surprise but didn't say "go away."

He replied saying he was depressed because he was a man who had a genetic condition that caused "feminisation" - female breasts hips and skin he mentioned.

I found it odd and tried to be pleasant and reassuring but the meeesages quickly stopped


(feel free to unscreen)

[thedivinegoat]

I think one of the most depressing things about this is the way he abuses peoples good nature.

Thank you for commenting.

[solo]

I had contact like that a couple of months ago, maybe. It may have been australianchild; I seem to remember something with child in the name.

I responded, asking what for, why me, and who are you anyway (in a somewhat more civil tone), and they said something about being bullied because of health issues. I replied that I probably wasn't the best person to speak to, wished them luck finding somebody else, and that was that. They didn't try to prolong the contact. Until now I had forgotten about it, actually.

Feel free to unscreen.

[hils]

He got in touch with me using the marmaladeatkins screename on LJ. I just assumed it was a bot and ignored but feel quite creeped out knowing this now.

Have issued a warning on my LJ and it seems he's contacted several people I know.

Feel free to unscreen

[(Anonymous)]

I saw your post in the Blogaround on Shakesville yesterday; I'm rowmyboat both there and on Lj. Feel free to unscreen this comment.

This person sent me two private messages on Lj from user "thetestcard" just like you describe. The first was "Can I talk to you?" to which I answered "If you like" and the second was a bit about having a medical condition and people making fun of them for it. I never replied to the second, though I intended to, cause what to I say to some random person I don't know on teh intarwebs about that? It was like AOL in 1997, where people just randomly talked to other people about whatever. Glad I didn't reply now. The text of our limited correspondence, for the record:



no one you know

sorry if i upset you

just feeling sad - medical stuff - people bully me or use my condition to humiliate me

Is it ok to talk about it?

sorry just really sad and hoping someone has a heart

--- rowmyboat wrote:
> If you'd like.
>
>
> --- thetestcard wrote:
> > Hi
> > can i talk with you?
> > pretty please?