Nice Try, Parasite!

Vebjørn Hästehufvud is up to his old tricks again. Not content with ripping off my blog title and Facebook group, he's now trying another tack: suggesting I ripped him off. 

My friend, Angie "Blackorchid" Watkins, posted a link to my exposé on her Facebook group, "Highgate! Highgate! Highgate!". Here's what Hästehufvud had to say:

Facebook

On the surface, that's pretty damning—only if you completely ignore the times the respective groups were founded. Here's mine:

Facebook

And here's Hästehufvud's:

Facebook

If you don't see the same times appear when you check the links out, there's a reason for that. Fellow "Vampirologist" member, Roger Peterson, explains:

Facebook

Hästehufvud also failed to explain how my time travelling capabilities were responsible for the way his fellow admin, Veritas Aequitas, was able to crib my banner design:

Fortunately, Hästehufvud addressed that issue—by not acknowledging the theft, retaining the title design, changing the background pic and adding another shitty filter on top:

Facebook

Apart from this pathetic attempt at revisionism, Hästehufvud has also edited out references to Sean Manchester in the banner. Pretty timely, in the wake of my outing Manchester as one of the group's admins.

The Parasite Strikes Again!

Readers may be familiar with a parasitic plagiarist who has tailed my online writings for several years. If not, read on. 

Not content with stealing my blog names, the parasite in question has now ripped-off my Facebook group's name, too. This shady character masquerades under several usernames, including "Demonologist", "Vampirologist", "Dennis Crawford", "The Overseer" (ripping-off a username I used to use), "Gothic", "Arminius Vámbéry", "B.O.S.", "British Occult Society" and "Vebjørn Hästehufvud". And those are just the usernames I can confirm. I'm sure there's many others.

For the record, I established and promoted my Facebook group on 25 June 2013. Hästehufvud's rip-off was formed on...26 June 2013. The shifty bugger doesn't wait long, I can tell you that!

As per usual with Hästehufvud's Facebook group rip-offs, it has three admins: himself, "Veritas Aequitas" and Bishop Seán Manchester—the unholy trinity of dodginess. His group also apes postings I make on my group. For instance, when I shared a link on Jewish vampirology, Aequitas did the same thing, shortly after.

My group's banner—wonderfully designed by David MacDowell Blue—was also ripped-off. Compare the original...

...with this mess:

Facebook

Pay close attention to the title fonts. Here's a close-up of the original:

Now here's the rip-off, close-up:

That's right: all he's done is cropped and copied my group's title and added some shitty filter to it. 

Naturally, the group's admins are banking on none of its members noticing their pathetic identity-thieving behaviour. Hopefully, with this exposé, they'll get a better appreciation for it!

The parasite

Not content with ripping off my old blog's name, the blogger behind Diary of a vampirologist aka Journal of a vampirologist—variously calling himself Vampirologist, Demonologist, Gothic, The Overseer and Dennis Crawford—has renamed his blog to something very, very familiar: 

The vampirologist

As you can see, he's even copied the font I use in my blog title—UnifrakturMagunita. Sigh. I'm not the only one who's had the misfortune of dealing with this fella, either. Niels exposed him as a plagiarist back in 2009; as did I (here and here). He's still at it, too: his latest post is regurgitated from elsewhere, sans attribution.¹

This guy's been on my back like a leech for years. Not only did he copy my design, and ape the title of Diary of an amateur vampirologist, but he's also ripped off my other blog's title, too. You see, I write a blog (two, actually) on the Highgate vampire case. They're called Did a wampyr walk in Highgate? Guess what his is called? You got it. Both rip-off jobs are clearly intended to leech hits off my blogs. Or something more sinister—

'What's the big deal?' some of you might be asking. 'So he copies a few of your blog titles? So what?' The problem is, this character hasn't just stopped at hijacking my blog titles, but my online identity, too. Y'know, like stealing my user name and claiming they'd started their blogs or forums before I did. Trying to 'erase' me, as it were and paint me as a liar, etc.

Did I also mention that the organisation he's affiliated with the Vampire Research Society—who publicly revealed my real name because I'm critical of their 'cause'? A similar organisation—who he's also affiliated with—posted 'my' home address online. There's a lotta fruitcakes out there, people. That's why I wrote this PSA. Be careful with your personal details and keep an eye out for these hacks.

---

^{1. Should these pages mysterious 'disappear' or be 'revised', etc., I've saved the originals as proof.↩}