Jason Fortuny has become famous as an online menace/hero after posting the photos and come-ons he received from nearly 150 men responding to a fake sex ad he placed on Craig's List. He's started an intense debate about the nature of online privacy and dating.
But beyond the practical effects of the experiment, what kind of man would commit such a dastardly prank?
Researching that question, I stumbled across Jason Fortuny's Amazon reviews. He read and reviewed exactly one book over five years -- and two soundtracks for Star Trek movies. ("Reviews written: 4." Helpful votes: 0.) He also awards 5 stars to National Lampoon's Van Wilder ("Reviewer Matthew K. Minerd totally needs to get laid. Dude, relax! It's just a movie.")
He's also been sexually molested by his grandfather.
"I haven't talked to my parents or the rest of the family in 11 years," he wrote in a post on his LiveJournal account in May. It's one of many suprisingly frank glimpses into the 30-year-old's life. "[I]f you had a family where four different members molested you, your mother tended to the prime molestor instead of you, and your stepfather utterly failed to provide for a future, you'd be pretty pissed, too."
Later he posts that two of the perpetrators are dead, and two were under 18.
Another poster advises, "just make sure you have someone you trust who you can rant and freak out to if you need to."
"LiveJournal?" he answers.
Eight weeks ago he split with his fiancee. Seven weeks ago he posted about his difficulties with his thyroid and testosterone levels. ("If it works, one of the first things I should notice is the return of my energy, followed by the return of sexual function, followed by weight gain, followed by increased body hair.") He hints at biochemical depression. In July he began selling his Star Trek trading cards to cover $2600 in debt. "Looks like its time to eBay my stunning collection of original Star Wars and Transformers toys and action figures...," he writes. "There are some heartbreakingly awesome Transformers and Star Wars toys in there. I am profoundly sad..."
He also describes a history of malicious pranks. He apparently once claimed to have put pictures of someone's children on a child rape site. In January of 2005 he'd faked a sudden conversion to born-again Christianity, in a post which received 448 comments. ("I was sitting there, New Year's Eve, drinking alcohol by myself, in my underclothes, abusing my body to images of Rod Serling on the TV... And then, without warning, the flood of emotion I had tried so hard to block forced it's way into my consciousness...") This June he'd tried a Livejournal "whoring" project, "friending everyone".
But on May 8 he posts that a friend commented "I no longer have that annoying 'must be the center of attention' drive anymore." Then adds his own self-analysis about his past motivations. "...my ability to keep a crowd entertained and charmed was a major pillar of my self-esteem. If nothing else, I could rock a party. I certainly didn't believe in my professional abilities then like I do now. And, I didn't want to admit that it was annoying. All I cared was that I got my boost when I did my thing - friends be damned."
Fortuny's LiveJournal entries detail everything from his search for his biological father to his recent STD test. There's the checklist for the perfect woman, and the poem he'd written for his fiance in December. He even jokes about falling for someone else's prank -- pretending to be fired over a LiveJournal post. He posts downloadable copies of Star Wars, Fight Club, Blade Runner and Batman Begins, and in April he was attacked by a mailbox-flooding bot.
While it doesn't resolve the question of what motivated his sex-ad prank, it at least demonstrates an online persona that can be abrasive and negative. He complains that "friends' private entries have been read by psycho womenz. Psycho womenz that I went out on a date with once and reeled in horror when she bared her five year old and her smoking teeth..." He mockingly rants against the Girl Scouts, adding "I swear to god the only reason I don't shout at every last one of them is that I know all little catholic girls are uninhibited sluts, just waiting to be liberated from oppressive and neglectful fathers and gods, into the arms of a bustling, accepting, healthy porn industry."
But behind it all are the hints of something much darker. He writes of zombie nightmares -- and family nightmares. "While my nightmares of my parents have not returned," he wrote in June, "I have others that bring up similar feelings of righteous anger. We'll see."
See also:
Craigslist Troll Gets Sued
Good Griefers: Fortuny vs. Crook
Jason Fortuny Speaks
In the Company of Jerkoffs
He is probably a homosexual but doesn’t know it yet. He certainly has a few fag hags hanging around him being his “oh my” girls. You know he does something and all the ladies go “oh my!”.
Did you get a copy of his privacy statement from his business on google cache? I don’t see how anybody could trust this guy with any information. Imagine hiring him to build a web site and having him post information about you, your employees, customers, vendors, business plans etc on the web as an “experiment”. The guy is clearly a sociopath, he doesn’t care about anybody elese except himself and seems to get off on people begging him to take their names off his hist.
Anyway there was no real need for this post. His 15 minutes of fame are over already. All he has to look forward in his life is somebody coming over and breaking his legs or suing him.
A pathetic figure when you think about it. Constantly craving attention because nobody loved him when he was growing up. I suppose one can argue he was actively hated by all the members of his familiy as a child. One wonders why (If?) he was the target of so much sexual abuse. It’s sad to think he inherited genes from an entire family of child rapists. The future does not look so bright for him. I would pity him but I really don’t think he deserves any pity.
You missed some good stuff. He admits to being caught wearing women’s underwear here and it’s corraborated with his Amazon wishlist here
For the record I don’t have a problem with wearing woman’s clothing generally, but has there ever been a person less suited to outing others?
Fantastic post.
You guys just don’t get it- HE DOESN’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK.
This was also not about “Outing” anyone in any specific communicty. These dudes sent pictures of their collective pieces and got owned for it, end of story.
He did it for the Lulz.
I should also mention that his nightmares are not dream-based, they are pure prophecy. After subjecting him to several lengthy sessions in the Mi-Go Brain Cylinder we have concluded that he is indeed a conduit for the entity you refer to as “God”.
The sad/sick things is that I can easily see him trolling and demeaning some of his own honest posts if he wasn’t the one making them.
Sounds like we found the real “40 year old virgin”…
I would question whether his journal posts are honest or not. I’ve read this guy’s posts on several LJ groups for a little over a year now (I never friended him, however) and I find very little sincerity in anything he does; he’s the type of person to say he was abused as a child to excuse his behavior and get attention and sympathy.
Yes, he did it for the lulz and for the attention. It’s hard to decide whether to give him more attention with articles like this one or not. However, it’s certain he’ll scam people again and at least this article will be out there for those looking him up.
Great post. I think that Jason guy had the seed of a hilarious idea, but it was super-wrong to out all those folks. F him. But *ouch* re: his molestee-ing.
Temp_revenge says”
“This was also not about “Outing”? anyone in any specific communicty. These dudes sent pictures of their collective pieces and got owned for it, end of story.”
Right. He did it to hurt people. He is a sociopath, he gets off on hurting people. He sees himself as Ferris Beuler and that lawyer on boston legal (whoever he is). He fantasises about being fictional characters. There is something seriously wrong with this dude.
As for the abuse he may very well be lying. Most sociopaths lie pretty much constantly. If he thinks it will garner him some attention he will claim he was abducted by aliens.
Hmm, I’ve always wondered, why are people blaming those who responded to the ad with a photo? The ad itself had a revealing photo of a lady doing a little mini-goatse.
Anyhow, I just thought I’d add that Fortuny is desperately milking this for attention, having endorsed/created icons for people to put on their journals which state they support him. Of course, the icon has a photo of him…
Anyone who thinks he’s not hurting others terribly just for a few moments of ‘net fame is wrong. Those who encourage, support, and applaud his behavior are being used. I just hope they know it.
Never heard of him until last thursday. The prank was/is pure genius.
What so many people don’t get is that the target wasn’t the stupid Seattle Craigs List horn-dogs but all of you asshole morons who are so bent out of shape about it. I thought it had fizzled by saturday but it came raring back to life and full grandeur by monday. Any motherfucker could (and some have) done the outing thing.The genius was in taking full non-anonymous credit for it.
Don’t worry, it will never happen again , go back and enjoy your intarweb
“anonymity” and “community”!.
lol
Wow, this was really interesting. Nicely done.
Pure genius? I’d suggest you raise your standards. As you mentioned yourself, anyone could have done this. It doesn’t take that much imagination, just a callous disregard for the privacy of others…that you are impressed by a 30-year-old man with a Livejournal account (!) speaks volumes about your taste.
He seeks opportunities to hurt others who are not as intelligent as he is, proving there’s no connection (and sometimes an inverse one) between empathy and intelligence. Intelligent children sometimes experience frustration and ridicule that results in this sort of elitism and sadism. How is it, he wonders, that he didn’t get the love he deserved most of all? It must be a cold and Godless world. Let’s prove it! Sorry I risk a Godwin here so I’ll stop.
First off to Lou C; Very nicely done overview of rfjasion and his previous online grandstanding.
To those who view rfj as some sort of internet hero or vigilante give your head a shake and look at him for what he really is. A one trick pony who after trying all sorts of other online gimmicks to piss people off he finally found one that will provide his 15 minutes of fame. His utter lack of character or morality can only be explained by the perverse mix of narcissism and latent self loathing that is Jason Fortuny.
Before he pulled his rfjason.com site I had to laugh over the self professed comparison to Ferris Beuller and Alan Shore. Just a helpful suggestion to rfj, even if you were as cool as either of those two, to say it yourself makes it oh so lame.
It doesn’t take that much imagination, just a callous disregard for the privacy of others…that you are impressed by a 30-year-old man with a Livejournal account (!) speaks volumes about your taste.
No shit. This guy’s about as comical as a dead man walking, with the potentially true-to-life situation to match. In any case, he’s decimated any chance at ever continuing within the IT industry (where most Google their potential employees beforehand), and it’s (at least) my hope that his clients leave in droves. This guy cannot even be trusted with two tin cans and a string, much less anyone’s data. One has to wonder if anyone’s already emailed this guy’s clients from the Google/Yahoo cache to inform them of the severity of his actions.
On his superiority, he claims to be an “objectivist”; I can tell you without a doubt that any objectivist would throw this man curbside on his ass and disavow all existence of the asshole. The guy’s about as “A is A” as any typical sociopath out there — read, “not at all”. Fortuny’s “A” stands for “arbitrary.”
The difference between genius and outright stupidity is calculated outcome, and it appears that Jason Fortuny, in his attempt to become ubermensch for the “asshole and proud” crowd, forgot to cover his very own ass. The only thing this guy seems intelligent at is proving (to everyone but the needy sheeple losers he hangs with) just how much of a worthless slab of flesh he is.
To be honest, his revealings on LJ matter little. If one cannot trust him in the first place, one cannot place excessive weight on anything the guy says. What does matter is that if these purported facts are true, the guy seriosuly needs institutionalization for the interim; regardless, I support the idea he should be excoriated in as public a forum as he did to others.
let’s see…
he’s physically incapable of “sexual function” and then makes a concerted effort to hurt people are are sexually active.
wow. big shock there. a jealous pathetic weasel who can’t get it up any more, and lashes out at those who can.
“it at least demonstrates an online persona that can be abrasive and negative. “
And that’s news, Lou? Jeepers.
Monty Burns is right – the only people surprised or shocked by Fortuny’s stunt are the utopian bedwetters. Welcome to the real world, guys.
The really funny part of this, to me at least, is watching the people who did this get the “oh shit” face. They obviously didn’t think it through– check out this comment from Jason’s collaborator “demure”:
demure wrote:
Sep. 9th, 2006 04:53 pm (UTC)
We were bored talking on AIM one night, I sent him a few different ad links because I thought they were funny, and he said we should repost one and see what kind of responses we got. The ad was so unreal, I thought (and I think he’s with me on this) that no one would believe it. But oh boy, did they. He put all the responses up on his site, but it killed his server. It got picked up by encyclopedia dramatica and many lulz ensued.
Death threat, karma warnings, and e-lawsuits abound.
Like either Jason or myself ever had any doubts about our sense of humor being twisted.
***
And now he’s trying to get rid of some of the stuff on his journal, as if that will do any good. I like to imagine the feeling in his stomach as he realized this was getting out of hand. A+ lulz, as they say.
Picking on this guy is like hunting a caged animal.
Thanks for the laughs; this post only makes the whole prank funnier — I love how bent out of shape people are at someone like this Jason guy for outing the weird, sick perverts living among us. The creepiness of this post’s author and various evil minions pawing through Fortuny’s dirty underwear for salacious, embarrassing tidbits only reinforces the idea that you can’t take anyone’s seeming normality for granted. I know I’ll never read Waxy.org again without thinking about the author of this “Secret Life” story beating off over someone being abused as a child.
brilliant work. well said. Funny who’s getting their Lulz now.
10 Zen ur head.
Shaking ur psycho boy tree.
People, it’s so obvious now! This is the world’s most public suicide attempt – our pal RF wants to die! We’ve played right into his hands.
Jason and I are friends IRL and he’s actually a really sweet guy. Yes, he came from a difficult background and has been through a lot lately but I think he’s handled it as well as anyone could.
Why all the internet trollery and pranks? Lots of free time, low boredom threshhold. He enjoys pushing buttons to see how people respond. Not the most mature of hobbies, yes, but the people who respond to his pranks are the ones responsible for their emotions and reactions, not him.
I’m not defending his latest stunt — I do think that he crossed the line a bit this time — but it’s not the OMG MOST EVIL THING EVER that people are making it out to me, nor does it mean he’s a sociopath or any of the other things people have called him. I’m rolling my eyes a bit at his antics but am still proud to be his friend.
Jo wrote:
He is probably a homosexual but doesn’t know it yet.
Back off! Is this coming from the same line of homophobic theorising that has no basis in fact yet claims every mass murderer, sociopath and dictator has queer leanings? Get real! We (that is, gay people) are as likely to run the range of human behaviours and personalities as anyone else – from boring and mundane through to exciting and eccentric. And whatever you do, don’t try to link a man rapidly becoming the most infamous figure in Internet history with the gay community.
You clearly have little concept of how gay people behave, and forget or choose to ignore the fact that we have taste and often a greater sense of decency than many – especially creeps like Fortuny, who’s got a big, nasty surprise coming his way.
Oh, and if he ends up in prison – the ones violating his backside won’t, for the record, be gay. They’ll be heterosexual, and violent. That’s all.
“Why all the internet trollery and pranks? Lots of free time, low boredom threshhold. He enjoys pushing buttons to see how people respond. Not the most mature of hobbies, yes, but the people who respond to his pranks are the ones responsible for their emotions and reactions, not him.”
That’s a stunning rationalization of a “prank” that could cause serious loss of jobs, friends and public reputation to those individuals and their families to boot. You can talk all you want about how these people were dumb to give out this info, and none of it provides any moral justification whatsoever for this worthless piece of s**t specifically choosing to use said info in such a sadistic manner. Yes, I WILL call him sociopathic, particularly in light of his responses when people called him on it. This was not the action of someone remotely capable of empathy. “Sweet guy” my ass. The bright side is that he’s likely to have seriously damaged his own career as well.
I think the alledged damage caused by the “sociopath” has been grossly exagerated. The only thing the disclosure of the private emails tells you about the respondents is that there are guys out there who want to engage in casual sex. Is this unusual in any way? No, it’s so common that you can pretty much say it about every adult man. Every guy shits. Every guy wants to fuck for fun. It’s embarassing when you’re caught doing it, but the only damage is when some people’s false illusions are fractured.
What’s amazing is that he’s inspired a website that exposes people nationwide..
craigslist-perverts.org
No matter his bizarre personal life….he’s done some good.
I completely agree with you Hawk. His childhood, though disturbing, is not as unique as one would hope. Plenty of people are confronted with horrible things in their childhood, and though hard, a lot of them overcome them and move on. They do not engage in sociopathic behavior.
The issue here is not legal, or at least not just legal. It is moral and it disgusts and distrubs me that he would do such a thing.
As for people who answered the post, I would have hoped that they would have made better choices in terms of what information to give out and when. If the internet has taught us nothing else, it has taught us the importance of maintaining our privacy. Plus, it’s not exactly hard to take the extra precaution. There is a site out there SPECIFICALLY for people responding to classified ads.It’s called MyAdBox.com. It gives you a private, anonymous and disposable phone number and email address. It’s easy and it’s affordable and most importantly, if they had used it, some of those people would not need to kick themselves today.
this is a tale riddled with idjits!
fortuny is an idjit, the horny dupes are idjits.
but the most idjiotic thing i see is the perpetual wish of hetero guys that there are hot young hetero girls out there salivating at the idea of sucking their penises.
these girls simply do not exist. and where they do, they are not advertising their existence online. why? first of all, cuz they don’t have to!!!
freakin idjits!
temp_revenge:”You guys just don’t get it- HE DOESN’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK.”
I will have to disagree with you. He has actively been deleting things from his live journal. I and others have made comments that were not to his liking which he has since removed. Why remove them if he truly doesn’t care?
Regardless, he posted public information and nudes without the permission of those people, which could get him sued easily. Also, does he have PROOF that these people are legal as per 18 USC 2257? I somehow doubt that which could realistically land him in legal trouble with the government if they really want to burn him.
If I were his current employer, I would have to put my customers’ interest as well as other employees’ concerns at the head of my list and consider his termination. He would at least be put on notice in every way legally.
Jackson above has summed it up well. As a customer, if I were doing business with anyone who I thought would have him as an employee, I would re-consider my business with said company pending his termination.
If he had “outted” people with faces blurred and tried to obscure the e-mail addresses, it would have been funny. Just because these people are into something sexual that others here may not be into, doesn’t make them freaks. I am sure we all have something we like/do that others would point fingers at and scream.
Where civil liability is concerned, I guess we will see once people he “outted” start divorcing or losing the jobs or being publicly ostracized, etc.
Jacqueline: All I can say is that he chose to do what he did. Pending any legal fallout (or otherwise), I can not say I will feel sorry for him. Sure it sucks he supposedly had it bad (assuming of course all he has posted and tells you is truth) childhood, but that is not a carte blanch to do what he feels without repercussion.
Behind those keyboards and postings are people (regardless of how stupid it was to send the information/pics), with real lives and real jobs and real families.
Actions have consequences. Time for Jason to pay the piper.
Jacqueline, that’s just silly. If he were “actually a really sweet guy” he wouldn’t be publically posting sensitive information gained under false pretenses. If “he’s handled it as well as anyone could” he wouldn’t be acting like a complete tool. Like most people, I’m sure he comes across better in person, but that doesn’t justify (or excuse) his actions.
Actually, his fiancee broke up with him because he wouldn’t stop these hurtful internet antics even when she begged him to. He said it was too much a part of him.