Internet HELL: A lying psychopath used the Internet to make false accusations about me. People wanted me maimed or murdered. Even the FBI couldn’t help.

by Michael N. Marcus

Early on a Saturday morning in the summer of 2010, Michael N. Marcus received an alarming call from an old friend. The friend said that she had received an email saying that Michael was a convicted child rapist, published child pornography, burned his wife, was in prison for four years, drove drunk, used the Internet to find children to have sex with, was part of an international pedophile ring, was a threat to his neighbors, and had even RAPED HIS DOG.As shocking as these false accusations were, things rapidly got worse.The anonymous accuser sent similar emails to Michael's friends, relatives and business associates and members of the media, wrote accusatory letters to newspapers, set up online petitions to have him put on a list of sex offenders, and established a libelous blog with a huge number of false accusations. He even published pictures of Michael and his house -- and directions to get there.The attacker created multiple false identities to join in the attack, formed a phony organization to add credibility, and tried to halt printing and sale of books Michael wrote. People called for Michael's imprisonment, castration and execution.From the very beginning, there was only one obvious suspect, but police and the FBI could not prove who the perpetrator was. Marcus was able to get some lies removed from the web, but some are still there -- and may remain there for as long as the Internet exists.Under the protective umbrella of the First Amendment, companies that host websites allow anyone to say anything about anyone... and some people will believe the most absurd accusations without any effort to verify them.The book includes a fictionalized back story about the likely attacker, the truthful story of the attacks (with color screen shots), the aftermath, recommendations for those who are similarly attacked, and an appropriate joke.

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2012

About the author

Michael N. Marcus is the author of more than 40 books—including many bestsellers. He has been an editor at Rolling Stone magazine and has written for many science, music, business, electronics, automotive and general interest magazines, as well as newspapers.

​He's also an award-winning advertising copywriter who has worked on such brands as Pioneer, Acoustic Research, Columbia Records, Maxell, Volvo, Castrol, and Perdue chicken. Active on Facebook, Michael founded and administers over a dozen popular groups, and a few unpopular ones.

Michael has long been a successful and popular explainer. Before the Internet, he was an online adviser on CompuServe, and later on MSN. He is a contributor to many online groups and publications. He has provided the words for more than 50 websites and blogs.

At the urging of a misguided guidance counselor, he went to Lehigh University to become an electrical engineer, and was disappointed to learn that engineering was mostly math—and slide rules were not as much fun as soldering irons. He quickly switched to journalism.

Michael has written professionally for over 40 years. He was one of the first writers to humanize electronic hardware, describing equipment with emotion, not math. At Rolling Stone, his popular reviews of hi-fi equipment departed from the traditional laboratory tedium, and used humor and slices-of-life to describe the components. His novel approach came from necessity—because he didn't have a testing laboratory.
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Michael lives in Connecticut with his wife Marilyn, the ghost of Hunter the Golden Retriever, indoor and outdoor telephone booths, a "Lily Tomlin" switchboard, lots of books, CDs and DVDs, and many black boxes with flashing lights. Marilyn is very tolerant.









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Michael N. Marcus.