So ok, in all the time since our foundation in 1991, here at BEAMS we have made a couple 'serious' mistakes... we admit that, we're only human after all, but at least we confess our 'sins' openly. Even top name researchers in this field are not infallible, and that's where for them, having a selective memory comes in handy.
Back to these major BEAMS slip ups - what exactly were they? Bearing in mind that this is out of the many hundreds of cases that we have dealt with in our 25 years - a long time ago we WERE fooled by a pair of very clever and cunning hoaxers, (although these people were not publicly named, their actions have since been completely exposed by us), and presently, (just 10 days into 2016), we made yet another blunder; this concerned a British image of a supposed UFO that was doing the rounds on social media; foolishly we excitedly jumped into the debate and showed the courage of our convictions by coming down on the side of it being a capture of a real unidentified flying object, and published our erroneous judgement on FB; but in all fairness, within 24 hours BEAMS quickly did a U-turn on the case after fresh, contradictory data was presented to us, and ASAP we retracted everything we had previously said about it; so we expected that to be the end of the matter, (tomorrows chip papers as it were), but no...
Someone, (we won't mention his name here for legal reasons, and out of sheer decency), began posting derogatory statements about BEAMS on our FB, page; and then after we removed his crap and blocked him from making any further posts, he began virtually blackmailing us, (by sending messages through both our Hotmail and Sky email accounts - away from the public eye), taunting us by bragging how he's "going to enjoy serial posting" our mistake right across the net, in an attempt to discredit BEAMS. Why so? he said because he felt outraged that he had been unfairly blocked.
Yes we got angry after being on the receiving end of this person's venom, (who wouldn't?) and perhaps we also said a few things that we shouldn't have in the heat of the moment ...but what else were we supposed to do - just passively sit back and take his barrage of insults?
Sure, you can understand that the guy was upset after being removed from our page, (which was done at the time with good reason, and he's not the first we have blocked either - no one wants trolling, junk posts etc on their page), but never in a million years would we have expected THIS level of abuse/retaliation.
From where we are sitting, this definitely looks like a case of attempted sabotage, (group wrecking?), by someone who is just out for trouble.
Apart from the
cyberbullying aspect, this person was/is
attempting to Defame our Character, yet another e-crime (electronic
crime).
Defamation consists of a
statement that intends to injure reputation: This can be proven from
his Farcebook page... he was attempting to injure our organisation
through "serial posting" of invented negative comments about us, along
with misquoted and edited versions of our written responses.
We promptly reported the
matter to
Farcebook, only to be met by a toothless dog, (it may bark but has no
real bite), and they replied sorry "we're unable to take action
on the account." (no surprise there then) ...and it goes without saying
that we have asked the perpetrator to Cease and Desist on many
occasions, but he doesn't care, and replies in a
very bombastic
and mocking manner.
What about the Police? we hear the reader cry; they more or less laughed at us when we tried to enlist their help - and are about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Just ignoring the nuisance isn't an option either; we would love to let this drop, but can't
unfortunately; think about it ...he
continues to post twisted untruths about us
across the internet - and can anyone honestly say that they would sleep
soundly at night
with all of this going on? No, he has to be stopped.
Yet in a way, we saw foresaw such
problems arising with Farcebook along time ago, (but just hoped that the day
would never come for us ...but it did), and just as we had feared,
bang, we became the latest victims; it was fairly
easy to
forecast, (no crystal ball or soothsaying powers required), because
the same thing has already happened to so many others - with
some even driven to suicide over unpleasant confrontations on FB),
with all the tittle-tattle, bitching/back-biting and other
childish, playground pettiness that generally goes on
there amongst
users: thanks a lot Mr Bossman, great job, you have things running
perfectly... with your just let em' fight it out and kill
each
other policy.
So, with such a caring attitude from
the boss and staff at FB's HQ, and sharks like our
'friend' waiting in the wings, we have finally realised that
this social networking site is not for us... it's a total waste of
time as far as we are concerned.
Strange to say that our abuser helped us to see the light; yes, in a roundabout way, he did us a huge favour by attacking us the way he did - and gave BEAMS the butt kicking we needed to bring us around to our senses regarding FB, just in the nick of time.
Certainly BEAMS have FAR more important
things to concentrate on (particularly field investigation and of
course, running our main website here), so self
excluding from that
wretched
freak show is one of the most
sensible moves we have EVER made.
Update 15/01/2016; days later and sadly we have to report that the harassment continues; for some strange reason Sky email will not completely block this creep, and he continues to rabidly attack us, now through YouTube and Gmail as well; although the only 'good' news is that at least now we have managed to alter the settings on some of our accounts so that any such trash is automatically binned.
His latest comminication came in the form of a blackmail demand ...a
demand
that we publicly retract this notice; and to make things easier he has even kindly sent
us
an "open letter of apology" template: He wrote "just cut n
paste and sign then send back and all will be forgiven"; and
emphasised how "he will continue posting until we sign"; on this
preprepared statement there is even a section that reads "we at
B.E.A.M.S. are truly sorry"; quite surreal ...the
sheer gall and twisted mentality of this man REALLY has
to be experienced to be believed; it truly IS a kind of madness
that we are dealing with here.
This attempted character assassination of BEAMS is clearly in breach
of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and well, this sort of thing
can land an abuser in jail these days and end up being mentioned in
his permanent record, in the event of future instances of same.
As a result of what has happened we have quickly found out that many people who we thought were our friends in this subject may not be after all; they have very gone quite about the matter; no messages of support - nothing; and to us their silence speaks VOLUMES; typical school playground behaviour, where they don't want to get involved, or go over to the side of the winner at the drop of a hat ...usually those who can shout the loudest; well, if that's what they're like then we'll struggle through this without them - who needs 'friends' like that anyway?
This is the sad reality of life, how shallow and easily led many people have become; in a way society is regressing back to Medieval Ages of mob rule ...where anyone, (even those who haven't done anything wrong), can be put on the Internet in virtual stocks and have abuse hurled at them ...a trial of public humiliation; that's how it feels to be a Farcebook victim.
All that we are having to deal with is making both of us feel quite ill: Hilary has already be diagnosed with Atrial fibrillation, a heart condition which is exacerbated by stress; and this present situation is certainly not doing her any good.
One final appeal to our stalker; we say to him "please end your viral campaign of hatred towards us and anyone else you may be attacking in this way - this must end NOW!"
