Sometime around the early 17th century, a Chinese writer named Zhang Yingyu published a book called The Book of Swindles, also known by a longer name: A New Book For Foiling Swindlers, Based on Worldly Experience: Strange Tales from the Rivers and Lakes. The text, thought to be the first Chinese collection
of stories dedicated to fraud, included 84 short accounts of hoaxes, broken down into 24 types, from “Misdirection and Theft,” to “Fake Silver,” to “Government Underlings,” to my favorite, “Women.”
McMaster had used his sockpuppet profile to infiltrate areas where he wouldn’t otherwise be welcome , an impulse the internet has only made easier. The scheme bore similarities to catfishing, the now ubiquitous word for creating deceptive online accounts, usually for romance or financial scams, but which gained traction after the 2010 documentary, Catfish.
There was some precedent for internet-related child violence. In 2014, two 12-year-olds were arrested and charged with attempted murder, after taking a friend to the woods, stabbing her 19 times, and leaving her for dead, in the name of another fictional internet character named Slenderman. The girls claimed Slenderman, a figure that had floated around forums since 2009, was a wicked supernatural creature who lived online.
It was the latest in a string of scandals at religious institutions, where officials twisted scripture and religious laws for personal gain. In 2010, the Christian multi-level marketing company Amway settled a class action lawsuit over deceptive business practices. In 2018, televangelist Jim Bakker, who did five years in prison for fraud in the 90s, drew fire for hawking his high-end condos as an escape from the apocalypse.
The stupidity stretches way back. In 2011, a photo of a sign, ostensibly hung in a McDonald’s, appeared online, announcing notice that, “As an insurance measure due in part to a recent string of robberies, African-American customers are now required to pay an additional fee of $1.50 per transaction.” The poster listed a number which, if called, took you to the KFC Customer Satisfaction Hotline.
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