Reckless Social Media Slander
A large number of people document almost everything that happens to them on a daily basis and post it on social media. Most of the time nobody cares what they write about. But they feel good about themselves so……. who cares. Besides, it is a kind of therapy for them as they are saving money instead of paying for a psychologist……. LOL. Anyway, they frequently criticize a place that they’ve recently been to such as a restaurant or a coffee shop, or any other place that has served them. Sometimes their criticism is correct or justified, but other times it isn’t and this harms other people’s livelihoods.
As well, as everyone today has a cell phone with a camera, they’ve become photographers and videographers. People take pictures of anyone who says or does silly things. Sometimes they take a video of someone they had an argument with just to shame them or invade their privacy. But I have to say that some of those people more than deserve public shaming.
Here are a few examples. Ruby lives in a small village. One afternoon she decided to bake a cake for her daughter’s birthday. Since she didn’t have everything she needed she went to the neighborhood mini market to buy a few ingredients. The owner of the store was working at the cash register when she came to pay. They chatted a little bit while she paid the bill and then went on her way.
But when she got home and looked at the bill, she realized she received much less change than she should have. She went back to the store and told the owner she paid with a $100 bill but he only gave her change for a $50 bill. The owner said he didn’t remember her giving him a $100 bill. In addition, as it was the middle of the day, he wouldn’t be able to check all his transactions until they closed. However, he told Ruby he would check everything at the end of the day and would let her know. He promised that if he found she was short changed, he would gladly pay her back.
Later that evening, he called her and said he didn’t find any extra change in the till. Ruby, who was frustrated by his answer, posted a warning on Facebook about shopping at the store. She wrote about what took place that day and said this situation frequently happens and customers need to pay attention when getting change from the cashiers. She added that customers are purposely engaged in small talk with the cashiers and are distracted, instead of being focused on counting their change and making sure the amount they receive is correct.
I must draw your attention to the fact that this is a small town and everyone living there knows everyone else. However, several people responded to her post. She was engaged in many conversations with people online. The supermarket owner was furious when he saw she was publically questioning his honesty and integrity. He decided to sue her for libel as he claimed her false accusations were harming his livelihood.
The court asked Ruby for proof that this situation has happened to others as she claimed. She admitted she had no proof of it and mentioned she never meant to harm the store owner. She also admitted she couldn’t prove she paid the cashier with a $100 bill either. Mind you, the store owner didn’t get all that he asked for from the court. But the judge ruled Ruby must pay the owner a sizeable sum of money as compensation as well as pay all of his legal fees.
There is no way to know for sure if she is right or wrong. But one thing is for sure. She should have checked the change she received before she left the store…..
Adam and Vanessa were married for approximately 15 years and have 2 children. They didn’t agree on almost anything during the course of their marriage, which caused a lot of stress and instability in their relationship. But it turned into a war when they decided to get divorced. They were constantly fighting about the division of property, their children, child support, etc. They were unable to compromise on anything. As a result, they paid their lawyers a lot of money in legal fees, which made the lawyers very happy.
Nevertheless, after an exhausting 3 years, they finally came to an agreement and finalized their divorce. Adam felt he had to compromise on a number of issues with Vanessa in order to be released from their miserable marriage. He was bitter a few days after the divorce was concluded. Therefore he decided to let off some steam and publish some posts on social media.
He cursed and humiliated his ex-wife and called her a tramp and a psycho. He said had he not married her, nobody would have and he did her a big favor. In short, he dragged her name through the mud. Vanessa decided to sue his ass and said she was publically humiliated in front of her family, friends, and business clients.
The court said that Facebook and other social media can be platforms to deeply hurt people. He ruled unequivocally that what Adam said was evil and ugly and constituted defamation of character. He ordered Adam to pay Vanessa $50,000 in damages plus her legal fees.
In conclusion, I have a feeling that next time Ruby and Adam will think twice before releasing steam on social media………..
The Sailor’s Wife – Part – 8 Fiction
When Mike decided to build luxury condos in Victoria, he asked Mark to be on site a few days a week. Mark didn’t like the idea at first. He liked being in Vancouver where he had friends, and the city had a lot to offer. In contrast, Victoria is a much smaller city where a lot of retired seniors live and he didn’t think it was the right place for him. Anyway, after giving it some thought, he realized he could make a lot of money by spending a few days a week in Victoria.
When he arrived there, he was determined to explore the city and the surrounding area to learn what the city had to offer. His head started to work overtime once he found out Victoria had an exclusive club for singles only. Mark was a very likable person and he had a very good rapport with others. He made friends easily wherever he went and also gained the trust of others quickly.
Nevertheless, he created a fake profile before he joined the club. He presented himself as divorced and gave the names of two colleagues at work as references. They gave him glowing references when the club called to verify the information Mark gave them.
His colleagues were in fact working with him to steal money from the company they were working for. They were more than happy to back him up whenever he needed it. The three of them worked together like a well oiled machine. They didn’t care who they hurt along the way, all they were interested in was getting their hands on more money.
When Mark arrived at the club for the first time and saw Mary Anne, he immediately recognized her from the TV and newspapers. She was well known as her story was extensively covered by the media. Everyone knew about her fight against the insurance company that didn’t want to pay her claim when her husband died. Mark knew that Mary Anne sued the insurance company, won big time in court and became a wealthy woman.
He thought to himself that Mary Anne would be easy prey for him, and he was right. She fell in love with him in no time. By the time he met her, he already knew all the condos had already been sold. But this didn’t stop him from selling some of the units a second time.
In order to make this work, one of his accomplices had to pretend to be the owner of the project and the other his executive secretary. The secretary gave Marry Anne a bank account number to make her down payment along with all other payments for the condo. However, the account wasn’t one that belonged to the real estate company. In fact, it was an account set up by Mark and his buddies and the funds deposited there went to them. Mark would then generate a fake receipt which he would give to Mary Anne.
Mary Anne wasn’t the only one who was deceived by Mark. He misled her friend Jackie along with others he met at the club. Mark didn’t think about the consequences of his actions on his family or even about his own future. He lived as though tomorrow didn’t exist.
Anyhow, a receiver was appointed by the court to manage its affairs after the company that built the condos was declared bankrupt. The receiver decided to put the buildings up for sale and they were bought by a Canadian developer.
Once the sale went through the receiver paid the bank, the legal fees, as well as all other fees. Then the other creditors were paid. The last ones on the list were the condo owners, who got peanuts. Those poor people lost a lot of money. Unfortunately, some of them put most of their savings into the condos and were left with practically nothing. People like Mary Anne, Jackie, and others who were directly deceived by Mark, were not listed as creditors. Therefore, they had to personally sue Mark in order to get their investment back.
However, Mark’s family was shocked by his behavior. His children decided to disconnect from him. While his wife decided to stand by him after he persuaded her his actions were due to his addiction to gambling. Basically, he manipulated her the way he always did. He told her he started gambling because he felt lonely as he was far away from his family and she accepted his explanation.
Mark’s lawyer claimed the other two employees were the masterminds behind the crimes and they were the ones who stole most of the money. He maintained they took advantage of his condition and blackmailed him. The court wasn’t impressed by this line of defense. To make a long story short, Mark was sentenced to 15 years in jail and fined $5 million. As the other two were able to return some of the stolen money, they were sentenced to 12 years and fined $2 million each.
Mary Anne and Jackie and the others reached an out of court settlement with Mark’s wife. She generously agreed to pay half of what Mark stole from them. Their lawyers advised them to accept her offer as otherwise, they would have to wait for the legal process to work its way through the courts. And even then it was unlikely they would receive anything close to what Mark’s wife was offering them.
Sadly, when a company goes bankrupt it can frequently drag other companies and individuals down with them like a collapsing house of cards and this is a tragedy…………
The Sailor’s Wife – Part – 7 Fiction
Since the police publicized Mark/Kevin’s picture, at least 6 women posted on Facebook that they had relationships with the man who went by a different name every time. These women joined together to form a group and exchanged information with each other about the man.
They all thought that he was the best thing that ever happened to them until he disappeared. All of the women were either widowed or divorced and were well off. The women said that after Mark disappeared, they found out their credit cards were used by someone else and money was mysteriously withdrawn from their bank accounts.
Mark/Kevin was caught a few weeks later in Mexico, and then some information about him started to come out. He was married to Nancy, the daughter of Mike the owner of the real estate company. They had four children and lived in Seattle. He was born in the United States and moved to Canada with his parents and two siblings when he was four years old. His father also worked in the real estate field. He even worked in the same development company where his son was working for a while.
However, Mark’s wife knew he liked to flirt with other women and she accepted it. She loved him very much and was not willing to leave him because of that. Nancy also knew he would never leave her for another woman. Still, she didn’t know he had so many relationships with others. Her father, who was a very wealthy man, owned a few real estate development companies and one of them was in Vancouver.
Mike trusted and valued his son-in-law very much. Mark was a brilliant economist and Mike thought there was no one better than him to be the director of finance when he decided to establish his company in Canada. He offered Mark the job but only after receiving his daughter’s approval that her husband would be regularly away from home. Nancy didn’t like the idea at first but on the other hand, she knew this was a big promotion for Mark. And besides, this job in Canada was only temporary. In addition, the company offices were in Vancouver, which wasn’t too far from Seattle where they lived.
Anyway, Mark began working in Vancouver but felt a bit lonely without his family after a while. He began to socialize after work with some new friends that he met through his job. They would go out for drinks together, meet for dinner, go to a casino, etc. Mark started gambling here and there and found he really enjoyed it. He then started visiting casinos on a regular basis. At first, he won pretty often which gave him the confidence and motivation to continue gambling.
However, he soon started losing. This motivated him to go to the casinos more often and would place larger bets. He was sure if he continued gambling he would win his money back. But this didn’t happen, he lost more money than he earned. Mark earned a good living and was spending all of his salaries at the casino. At some point, he finally understood he couldn’t afford to gamble away his entire salary. Although he and his wife had separate bank accounts, they both had access to each other’s accounts and Mark didn’t want her to know how much money he was spending.
Anyway, Mark started looking for another money source to fund his addiction. As he was a handsome and smart man, he decided to take advantage of his charm and good looks. He noticed that numerous single women who came to the casino would stare at him and some of them even made a move on him. Thus, he decided to try his luck with them.
His plan was to target widowed women who came from an upper class background. Sometimes he would compromise and set his sights on divorced women. He would always do some research on the women he wanted to be involved with. They had to have a lot of money, and he made sure they were living by themselves.
After he earned their trust and became a fixture in their house, he would hack into their bank accounts and credit cards and steal money from them. Then he would disappear. It usually took some time until the women found out what happened. Yet, they couldn’t contact him about the unexplained credit card charges and cash withdrawals from their bank accounts.
Mark would always date a few women at the same time. However, the money he stole from these poor women wasn’t enough to cover his gambling debts. So he started stealing money from his company as well. Mark was a very smart man but not smart enough to completely cover his tracks.
A short time after he started stealing money, two employees he worked with found some financial irregularities when they were reviewing the records. They knew Mark had a big gambling problem and came to him with proof he was embezzling money from the company. They told him he either paid them to keep quiet about the theft or they would call the police and report what they found. At first, Mark denied he’d done anything wrong but he knew they had too much evidence against him. As a result, he agreed to their terms………..