And why do he and his buddies over at Caltrops.com find this acceptable online behaviour? Until this week I’d never bothered to read Caltrops.com or really look into who was running the website and why the hell they think they are so damn clever and superior to the rest of us lesser Internet users. Fussbett Sanitario seems particularly proud of his long association with Caltrops.com and is overly enamored with with the sound of his fingers hitting the keyboard. He’s also very attached to his online Internet handle and continually uses it or variants online. He and his buddies also play online video games and chat using AOL Instant Messenger of all things. Using my renewed annoyance at Mr. Sanitario and his pals over at Caltrops, last night I did some investigating.
Caltrops.com is proudly run by Robb Sherwin. His latest clever online Internet handle is Icecreamjonsey. He has the matching Twitter account and another website just in case he wants to distance himself from Caltrops when it is inconvenient, it’s called Jolt Country. Mr. Sherwin not only enjoys video games, he’s started making them. He finds Fussbett particularly amusing and has no qualms operating Caltrops.com where Fussbett and pals can engage in their own personal brand of online fun, such as picking on the mentally ill. Mr. Sherwin’s latest, greatest game is called Cryptozookeeper.
But enough about Robb, the enabler, lets return to our protagonist Fussbett Sanitario, the writer. Well he fancies himself some sort of writer, he types, and types over at Caltrops.com, explaining such useful facts as how he arrived at his AIM account name: Sanitario666. He’s been using variations for a long time. On Steam his account is Fussbett. All the Caltrops regulars have formed a group on Steam which includes the following handles:
- Jso, killer of zonbey goasts
- Clever Hans
- Dr. M. Von Katze, PhDD
- Francesca Lucchini
- Jackie Treehorn
- Jhoh (a tauren)
- Lizard_King
- McMoo
- Moop
- naknak
- Parkraz
- The Happiness Engine
- ToutSuite
- Worm
Of these Jhoh is the one to note. There is however, more to online gaming than just Steam. Over on Xbox.com Mr. Sanitario uses the account FSBT. Apparently he is the 7,829,974 best Street Fighter player in world. More importantly he can use this account to compete with his buddies for bragging rights. His best buddies are:
- Cable Bruddas
- Worm4Real
- Sun El
- McMoo tadc
- Shecky Kilowitz
What about the Sony Playstation, apparently Fussbett is an Xbox man, superior platform don’t you know. I’m sure someone can cross match the five Xbox handles with a corresponding Steam account. I’ll help you out, Cable Bruddas is Jhoh aka Jhoh Cable aka @jhohcable on Twitter. Although he obviously spends a lot of time on Caltrops, Xbox, and Steam, I’m not sure Jhoh is considered as ‘cool’ or ‘witty’ as Fussbett. He is less anonymous, he has his own website.
Lets get back to Fussbett, he likes to see his name in print on a computer screen. In addition to typing he also takes screenshots and posts them online using Photobucket. Using the URL for these photos you could see where besides Caltrops.com they have been posted… Fussbett is way too cool to use a Play Station 3, but apparently he’ll use other Sony products. If you’re starting to think Mr. Sanitario is a bit of a hypocrite in addition to being an asshole, well you’re entitled to your opinion. 
Although Fussbett Sanitario may fancy himself the sharpest knife in the drawer over at Caltrops.com and maybe compared to his peers he possess a certain low cunning. It was easy for instance to find out that Jhoh Cable lives in Garden City, Michigan and now enjoys Tumblogging. He and Fussbett used to be friends on MySpace, I guess back when it was cool. But MySpace was never as cool as AOL Instant Messenger. JHOH Cable, Sanitario666, and Zsenijeim use AOL Instant Messenger to chat about how awesome they are at video games I guess and how clever everyone is who posts on Caltrops. Zsenijeim is the AIM account for the person who decided I was a shiny new psycho that all the folks on Caltrops.com should pick on five years ago. Hi Zseni, sorry I neglected to mention you for seven whole paragraphs but your AIM buddy Fussbett Sanitario posts more frequently. Zseni’s claim to fame seems to be having the 2nd account banned on Caltrops.com, congrats on that, you can tell your grandkids.
I wasted time last night finding this information out and then I decided to type up some of what I discovered to see if the data would be useful to others. I’m also considering other options… Back when I used to work in the Downtown Eastside, one of my coworkers showed me Pipl.com that was what she used to do background checks. Pipl seems to think Fussbett Sanitario is Fred Pendleton of Toronto Ontario Canada. I’m not 100% sure. Fussbett does say he lives in Toronto multiple times on Caltrops, his whole family lives in Toronto. I wonder if they know he’s such an asshole online?
Being Fred Pendleton is more likely than Fussbett’s original claim of being Wagner James Au. Fred’s Facebook account has the privacy settings cranked way higher than Fussbett’s MySpace friend jhoh.cable. I’m not sure how Pipl.com works but supposedly it takes various data points, like the ones I’ve mentioned and connects the dots algorithmically. Fussbett’s MySpace profile lists him as being from Canada, probably verified using an IP address lookup, and lists his age being the same as Fred Pendleton’s Facebook page. Fussbett on Steam and FSBT on Xbox are also listed as being from Canada, again the video game companies probably used IP addresses to determine this, remember Caltrops.com forum members are all wicked cool online video gamers. So is Fussbett Sanitario, Fred Pendleton of Toronto, Ontario, Canada? Fussbett does talk about his age on Caltrops, Fussbett just posts way too much online to remain completely anonymous.
Update: I neglected to mention previously he has a YouTube account. I also learned I wasn’t even the first blogger with mental health problems the folks over at Caltrops decided to belittle. Apparently being an asshole online is something Fussbett and the rest of Caltrops have enjoyed for years. Apparently when you hide behind a handle and a keyboard you grow a pair of balls you don’t have in real life.
I ignored the folks over at Caltrops.com for years, I put up with a lot of abuse from a lot of people, if it wasn’t for web analytics and Fussbett Sanitario’s inability to shut up, I wouldn’t have written the last two blog posts and I would have slept better the last few evenings. I’ve tried hard to put my problems behind me and now that my mental health has improved I’m better able to apply myself, I’d prefer not to use my time tracking down the identities of people who enjoy tormenting others online. I hadn’t intended to use my valuable time trying to educate some people on ethical human behaviour, however my tolerance for abuse and Internet bullshit is considerably less than it used to be. Perhaps I’ll have to expend yet more time and effort letting Robb Sherwin know that Caltrops.com isn’t making the Internet a better place and years of posting offensive and hurtful comments using the exact same Internet handle will likely catch up to some people.
Fussbett Sanitario is no Keyser Söze.
Update October 11th 2012
It hasn’t been the best of times for many people. My problems have not all been solved but others have suffered more than I and cyberbullying and hiding behind Internet handles is in the news recently. Even the phrase doxxing has popped up which reminded me that this shit happened to me too. I wasn’t a teenage girl. I didn’t kill myself. I never frequented reddit. I’ve posted photos online I shouldn’t have or reposted or linked to…
I’m not claiming to be a Saint, I’ve regretted words and actions, I’ve apologized, but some people just don’t seem to be able to tell right from wrong. They won’t stop until there are consequences to their actions. The answer isn’t always laywers and police, surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Having been a target for abuse, having battled depression, having had to suffer and lose too much, I have empathy. I hope some people’s identities do get exposed and they face the consequences of their actions, rather than just hiding behind cowardly Internet handles and cries of free speech.
I don’t know why sites like Facebook and Reddit and the corporations behind them don’t act more pro-actively to stop shit like this. I also wonder why parents or teachers aren’t more active in the cases involving minors making questionable choices online. I don’t know why more people aren’t taught about the Angie Varona’s of the world and the dangers of electronic communication especially on forums frequented by people who hide behind their Internet handle. I’m saddened by the news of Amanda Todd’s death and wonder how things could be allowed to go so far wrong.
Apparently Violentacrez is Michael Brutsch. I wonder if Adrian Chen used a similar process and tools as I did when I looked more closely into the activities of Robb Sherwin and Fred Pendleton. Michael Brutsch ended up losing his job when his identity was exposed.
Adrian Chen did not in fact deduce Violentacrez’s identity from publicly available information, but instead was told who he was. I had to invest considerable time and effort finding out who Robb Sherwin and Fred Pendleton pretend to be while they are online harassing complete strangers.
Haunter & Todding
Apparently picking on the mentally ill even after they are dead is considered fun by folks online. Haunter who was stupid enough to grant an interview with the Vancouver Sun about why he trolls, decided to use Amanda Todd’s death to increase traffic to his Facebook page. Someone dies and your first thought is how can I use this to increase traffic to my Facebook page? Who is mentally ill?
Michael Brutsch was worried about his job when his online activity became know, Haunter, who describes himself as a student in IT, does he think being an asshole online will make him more attractive to future employers? Perhaps he should ask Kody Maxson aka kody1206, the alleged primary tormentor of Amanda Todd online what it feels like to be outed? The justice system moves slow, but I don’t think Kody or Michael will have much anonymity online or even offline now.
The Amanda Todd story doesn’t seem to end and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the list of people who think it is cool or fun to ‘stir the pot’ or however they want to justify their behaviour online.
Haunter’s Facebook group and many others like it that assaulted Amanda Todd’s reputation and death have since been removed.
Update March 18th 2013
Apparently another group of elite online gamers calling themselves “Team Hype” was upset at a journalist writing about a website they used to rip off XBox accounts. So one of their members Phobia also known as Ryan Stevenson allegedly sent a denial of service attack to ArsTechnica and the blog of Brian Krebs. Unfortunately for the elite gamer/hackers they weren’t as clever as they thought, as after sending a SWAT team to the home of the journalist, they appear to have taken down their Twitter accounts, YouTube accounts, and the rest of the online identities in fear of getting ‘doxed’ not to mention arrested. People like Phobia and Fussbett Sanitario or Ryan Stevenson and Fred Pendleton as they may well be known to the police seem to think the people they are harassing and disparaging online are powerless to stop them and incapable of using Google, or looking at server logs, or that they don’t have friends they can call on not to mention law enforcement officials.
Needless to say if I ever get well, I will definitely call attention to certain obscure blog posts and names so that people get the attention they so desperately crave and more people will know how incredibly clever they are, not to mention how they take great enjoyment making strangers suffer so they can earn l33t points with their online peers.
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