In July 2007 I outed Jamie Timbre for conning hosting customers out of hundreds of dollars by claiming they owed charges on DDOS attempts that had never happened, e-mail spam that was not the customer’s problem, etc. Shortly after, Timbre shut down his hosting ‘business’.
Fast forward to 2012 and I receive an e-mail from someone who went to school with Jamie. He found my articles on Frozen Midnight Hosting and Timbre’s previous antics and wanted to give me the heads up about some odd new behaviour…
… I’ve been recently bombarded by friend requests, twitter requests, linkedin requests, and other advertisements from Jamie. …
Vanity spam is not suspect in itself, but this guy goes on to say:
… Lecture Ticket Sales: https://jtimbre-s4-4.eventbrite.com/ (This is the most blatant lie in the entire scheme. He claims to be giving “sold out” lectures at the Learning Annex in Manhattan. We called; they had never heard of him. Not sure if he’s making a profit of this.) …
This naturally piques my interest, so I started doing some digging.
Jamie’s life seems to resolve around a persona he’s created from himself; he claims to be some sort of Microsoft IT God/employee and ‘sold out’ lecturer on Microsoft products. His Facebook fan page lists multiple supposed achievements and a long client list. His fan page was apparently created by one ‘Kristine Allen’ of Garis PR in New York, the same contact he lists on his Eventbrite events list.
I contacted Garis PR asking to speak to Kristine Allen and was told:
Interesting. I dug a little deeper on this Kristina Allen person, and it turns out that ‘her’ facebook profile picture is actually Amy Fulton, a dance teacher in Utah.
Next step, a little googling on Jamie himself. He’s been busy since his Frozen Midnight days, and now apparently owns a company called SplashLayer Studios:
SplashLayer, where have I heard that name before? Oh yes, in the job titles of several fans of Jamie’s fan page. There’s Kevin Carter, “Chief Operations Officer at SplashLayer Studios” (note the ‘sls’ – SplashLayer Studios – in the URL? keep an eye on that); Beth Devereaux, “Coordinator & Public relations at SplashLayer Studios” who is actually ‘Associate Professor of History Jane Lamm Carroll’ pictured in this article; and, my favourite, Rob Sunstrom, “Executive Manager, Human Resources for SplashLayer Studios”. I can’t link you to Rob Sunstrom’s profile, because when I discovered that his profile picture was actually Dr Mark Doggett I sent Dr Doggett an e-mail to let him know. Funny how shortly after Doggett replied…
…the Sunstrom profile disappeared and all of the listed employees of SplashLayer Studios had their profiles edited to remove the connection. (Wish I’d taken screenshots, actually.) Doesn’t change the fact that the little guilty ‘sls’ is still in those profile URLs though, just like Brandi Newhart (picture from eavproblog.com) and Kathy Carey, once listed as CEO of SplashLayer on the Klout page and LinkedIn:
Kathy Carey, who incidentally is better known as Ms New York ‘Mallory Hagan’.
Even better than all of those fake employees were ‘Noneofthis Isreal‘, “Defense Against the Dark Arts at SplashLayer Studios” and
‘Imso Fullofshit‘, “CEO and Chairman of the Board at SplashLayer Studios”.
Apt profile names, it’s just a shame I was too busy to take those screenshots.
Anyway. Now that we know the SLS employees are all fictional, what about the other likers of the Jamie Timbre page? How about Rita L. Brown, who as well as being a fan of Jamie Timbre, likes everything from Manchester United World to ConferenceCalls.com and Home Interior News. I wonder if Rita’s parents know she’s an Amateur Asian Hotty? (NSFW!) Cleotide Kuprian, apparently an Amazon employee, is actually a teacher by the name of Judith. Sk Jibon (another fan of Manchester United World, what a coincidence) is actually a musician; Alan Bahl is an American singer/songwriter called David Archuleta; apparently Sk Hossain and Sayeed Akram are the same person.
I wonder how much it cost Jamie to have these, and other, fake profiles (classic tell-tale symptoms: each have hundreds of likes, less than 10 friends, profile pictures lifted from elsewhere) like his page? I wonder how many of the 9,900+ likes are real?
Back to the original e-mail I received. This guy talks about Jamie’s “seminars”, including one at The Learning Annex New York, apparently sold out:
I had a friend in the States contact The Learning Annex to verify the original claim that this was fake. The Learning Annex hadn’t heard of Jamie Timbre, not in any past or future seminars/events. Further, they said that all courses are listed on their website, so if a search gives no results you know it’s not real… (I’ll let you look him up yourself, although the results are fairly predictable!)
So, Jamie’s PR contacts are fake, his seminars are fake (big thanks to Eventbrite for removing them in a timely manner), his employees are fake and his likers are fake.
Is there anything about this guy that isn’t a big fat fake?
Update 16th Aug: More fake profile links in the comments; these links will break as they’re reported and Facebook deletes them.
13 Aug at 7:07 pm
Spread the word and made a few reports to make his scam difficult.
13 Aug at 9:06 pm
Someone needs to remix the Law & Order intro for you. STAT.
So the lectures are real but falsely endorsed, correct? Unless all the dozens of people who comment/like his posts are fake. O_o I wonder how much he was charging for the tickets. I also question if he has any other “businesses” that he’s running somewhere else, maybe as a whole OTHER persona. If he’s THIS prolific at the persona thing, I wouldn’t be surprised. Something he’s doing has to be making him big bucks or he wouldn’t be putting this amount of effort into it.
The worst thing is that I honestly don’t know how anyone would really prevent him from continuing all of this. With technology and the internet in general, he could continue to make a plethora of con-based businesses just like veteran con artists repeatedly do. One bottoms out? Go find another way to do it again. He probably made a decent profit from the Frozen Midnight setup, so even though it collapsed, he clearly had the incentive to try a stab at another venture. Educating people about this guy and keeping his name out there as an obvious fraud is the only thing we can do, eh? :/
Thank you for posting all of this, Jem. You went above and beyond contacting everyone. I’m definitely going to refer people over here. Even if people don’t cross paths with Jamie or one of his “businesses”, maybe it will show people just how far folks are willing to go to con you and that everyone needs to be vigilant when it comes to where you spend your money.
13 Aug at 9:14 pm
No, the lectures aren’t real… not unless he’s holding them in his bedroom for his mum and dad?! None of the venues contacted so far have heard of him.
In fact, none of the claims on his page so far hold water. I can’t find any record of him working for Microsoft, can’t find mention anywhere of his supposed awards for being young entrepreneur of the year etc. It’s ALL bullshit, and people are buying it hook, line and sinker (look at his facebook page, there are genuine fans taken in by the crap he spouts!)
13 Aug at 9:45 pm
…WTF?? So THERE’S my question: what IS he making money from? Or is he just…doing all of this to be an absolute legendary-sized attention whore and not for monetary gain whatsoever? O_o
I looked up the NY Daily award thing myself, too. The NY Daily isn’t even a publication of any kind. New York Daily News, New York Daily Record, New York Daily Mirror, etc. None of them do that award so…yeah. Someone needs to call in to the NY Z100 station or whatever and ask about that. That would be a hoot if they mentioned it on the air…
The Splash Layer Studios business page on FB seems to have been taken down, BTW. Not sure if you saw that. Good work! ;)
13 Aug at 9:37 pm
Another openly fake profile: https://www.jemjabella.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/itsall-madeup.png
13 Aug at 9:39 pm
And another – http://www.facebook.com/sls.nlinberg (picture is from music video “Karmin – Crash Your Party”); note again the ‘sls’ in the URL.
13 Aug at 9:53 pm
people are very strange…
and on a related note, this reminds me how cool google’s “search by image” feature is
13 Aug at 9:54 pm
Indeed, but now you’ve just taken the mystery out of this post for those unaware of it :p meanie!
14 Aug at 4:14 pm
Funny how you people react.
The kid is merely using the society’s weaknesses against its members.
All of you think having worked at Microsoft is a valid credential.
All of you think being CEO of whatever gives you credit.
And in the end, true or false, you will be wrong because none of these things imply anything, they’re merely societal constructs that can only have the value YOU gave them.
Congratulations to that poor little bastard, I seriously hope he continues to educate the idiots he scams for a living.
And I seriously hope he gets better at it too, cuz right now, memsql and many other startups are far better bluffers ;)
14 Aug at 6:55 pm
Oh dear, seems as though we have an anarchist on our hands!
14 Aug at 8:58 pm
“All of you think having worked at Microsoft is a valid credential.”
hell no. I’m far too much of a linux-geek to think that, oh random mostly anonymous commenter :P
15 Aug at 4:40 am
This is all so interesting. I found this thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=993820) from back in 2010 where he is seeking employment. Interesting, he does not list Frozen Midnight in his work experience.
16 Aug at 11:48 am
More fakes!
http://www.facebook.com/sls.erocca – picture stolen from http://crowningvictoria.com/2011/08/wedding-recap-the-rehearsal-dinner-after-party/
http://www.facebook.com/jessica.neillson
http://www.facebook.com/brent.joller
^ can’t find pic sources for these but the only thing on these two profiles is interactions with the Timbre ‘fan’ page.
16 Aug at 11:58 am
http://www.facebook.com/sls.jkaminski
16 Aug at 3:16 pm
I went to high school with Jamie. I tried confronting him about all of his lies because on top of his Z100 radio show, being the youngest CEO at Microsoft in history, lectures at the Learning Annex and his many companies and contest give always, Jamie claims to have been writing a book for the past to years. According to him, it was to be released November 2011. I have spent countless hours calling the z100 and asking about his radio show, they have never heard of him. I called Microsoft and emailed them a handful of times asking for Jamie’s contact info and he’s not or never has been in their system. I also spent time on microsofts public website reading about their CEOs (they share this info right on there) Jamie isn’t listed nor does he appear in any Internet searches for “microsofts youngest CEO”. The youngest MS CEO is apparently a young man from India. I also called the learning annex an asked about his seminar and googled his book and publishing company and neither checked out. I’ve called him out on this and he just blocked me on Facebook and twitter and continues to fabricate events and jobs and people in his life. He never even completed a 4 year college and claims Microsoft pays for him to live in the most prestigious apartment complex in Manhatten with condos ranging from 5-20 mil. The list goes ON AND ON.
16 Aug at 4:23 pm
Can’t he be reported to the BBB for this kind of crap?
16 Aug at 4:29 pm
His previous ‘business’, Frozen Midnight Hosting, was reported several times. It didn’t really seem to make much difference.
16 Aug at 8:20 pm
The thing is… with the BBB, they really don’t shut businesses down. They are there as a way to mediate between the buyer and seller. They allow reviews and they do try to follow through by sending a letter to the business to ask them to try to correct the problem.
All you can do is report them to the different places that you have found them online and present them with the proof such as in this article and the other.
06 Sep at 11:10 pm
Wow, all I have to say is wow!
I had hung out with Jamie a few times in high school when he was operating “Frozen Midnight” and I can tell you that he definitely received cash flow from that operation. At the time, did I know it was false? No. He attempts to maintain contact with many old friends through the internet, yet he never shows himself personally to anyone I know of. That’s why things began to seem fishy, for me at least, when his twitter and Facebook following skyrocketed. I searched “Jamie Timbre Fake” into Google, and sure enough, bam, this comes up and I see clearly now. I also found another forum through Google search that revealed Frozen Midnight a scam.
Whoever you are, I applaud you for your finding. You should look into becoming a detective of some sort.
I never knew him extremely well, and what I could say about him may be totally irrelevant and/or very subjective as my memory is a bit faded. What I can say about him is that he cares heavily about his image, and wants to appear very well off. He also has an obsession with fame and maybe he is using his new scam as a way to substitute for real fame.
He hangs out with a lot of girls and is also quite feminine. He has a very high pitch voice that sounds metrosexual. He loves to party and get faded, smokes cigarrettes like a chimney, and hangs out primarily with people who have those same interests. The money from his operations probably go towards this sort of activity. He did have a close run in with rehab, at least he had told many people this, when he was in high school.
He spent two years at International Academy of Bloomfield Hills until he was booted out for hacking into the teachers’ computers with other students to change his grades. Afterwards, he went to West Bloomfield High School.
He is very sociable and likes to be around people, but ever since he’s created this digital persona I haven’t seen him around too much. He’s probably too busy tweaking it to have time for anything else. In my opinion, it’s probably an addiction like World of Warcraft. Strangely enough, it looks like he’s beginning to accumulate some real fans. The only way to take him down, and I don’t mean with legal enforcement, is to spam his page with links to this page which will show everyone that he is a fake and ruin this empire he is building.
I’m not quite sure why else he would do this besides for fun- he comes from a really good area (you are normally pretty well off coming from that central area) and he’s a smart kid if he’s pulled this off. I don’t know what he is trying to prove and to who he is trying to prove it to, but this guy should focus on something real. The only way to sting him with law enforcement is the following: Collect as much evidence as possible revealing how and why he is a fake. Find the people that have been duped, because only they have legal authority to sue. This case isn’t for police though, it’s for a detective. Also, it would be helpful to get some real information on him. I think it might be possible to look into his past with a background check to see what else he is trying to hide.
His personality is highly addictive and when you’re around him, you can really tell that there is something conflicting and strange going on in his head. Best of luck to the guy.
As Buffet says, “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Time to learn to stop faking and just be real.
02 Oct at 9:46 am
My name is Rory Ross and I work for Microsoft as a Microsoft Student Partner at Walla Walla University.
I must say this post has taken me by a bit of surprise as did the one previously written about Jamie’s previous hosting company back in 2010. I do not personally know Jamie very well other than the few times he and I have talked. I would agree that he is very social and does seem to make sure he has a good image. Though, I feel he has a genuine interest in teaching and educating people how to use Microsoft’s newest technology/software.
As far as the Microsoft thing goes, I can say that Jamie is employed by Microsoft in some degree. At the moment he helps other MSPs with graphics and website support to help make their FB, Twitter, and personal websites stand out. Also to the best of my knowledge
his Cloud Tour 2012 is still happening and I will be attending/helping with the one he is hosting in Seattle in Nov during Thanksgiving break (week of Nov 21st – Nov 27).
I consider Jamie a friend to a degree and someone of like-minded interests of being an entrepreneur and providing a service to people. Although, I am taken aback and unsure as how to proceed with this new info. I for one take ethics in any business to be of upmost importance and hope that all my associates, friends, and networks do as well.
These opinions and statements are my own and are not related with what Microsoft and it’s subsidiaries/companies may or may not think of Jamie, his ethics, and his companies.
Thank you,
Rory Ross
P.S: I am as real as it gets, you can check my twitter: darthrolus, Xbox: Darth Rolus, FB: http://facebook.com/roryupandaway, website: http://www.roryupandaway.com, youtube: http://youtube.com/roryupupandaway.com, and I think i’m on So.cl, Google +, and Instagram: darthrolus
02 Oct at 9:51 am
Thanks for your comment Rory.
You may wish to phone the venues that his Cloud 2012 tour is supposedly being held at to verify that they do indeed exist, but certainly those we called in association with the Office 365/Lync tour were fabricated.
02 Oct at 10:10 am
Jem,
I am going to call the venue tomorrow and speak to other Microsoft employees to see if we can not justify the claims of the Tours or not. I will let you know what we find.
Thank you.
Rory Ros
11 Apr at 8:18 am
He is running fake twitter contests on twitter @jtimbre
11 Apr at 10:31 pm
thank you for pointing out all this information. My question is – why would he do it? what does he stand to gain? is it just the ego of having so many followers or does he mane money? again that you for taking the time to research this
12 Apr at 6:59 am
I think it’s mostly ego, but there’s the potential for making money fraudulently through the event ticket sales, etc
13 Apr at 12:33 am
ego – ever watch the movie Devil’s adovocate? the devil says “vanity is my favorite sin”
30 Apr at 11:29 pm
Jem,
I apologize for never getting back to late last fall.
You were indeed correct, the cloud tours never came to be and there was never a reason why they were canceled from Jamie himself or eventbrite.
Jamie recently posted about again winning the Young Entreprenuer award for nyc but has yet to put the article url on the site even when others have asked to see it.
His popularity seems to be still at a constant rate and hasn’t really slowed down. I can confirm that he is still at this moment working with some part of Microsoft with Office 365, helping MSPs make sure they are able to access their 365 accounts and recover passwords. Other than that, I do not know what else he does.
01 May at 9:18 am
‘You were indeed correct, the cloud tours never came to be’
Fancy that!
His “popularity” is fake – it’s gained through the Empire Avenue social media game. I got involved with it to check up on him and he buys his likes and twitter followers through in game currency and trades.
23 May at 4:48 pm
He is out of prison and I am sure back at his old tricks.
29 Dec at 6:53 pm
Wow. Jamie went to high school with me at IA before he was expelled for hacking into Zangle, our electronic grade system, where he changed his grades from like C’s to A’s or something ridiculous like that. I guess he didn’t learn his lesson then, as he is still engaging in fraud and dishonesty. There was always something so off with this guy, I don’t think anything can explain this except for delusion and personality disorders. I hope he gets some serious help before he ends up in major legal trouble. Very sad to see someone who was smart and could have done great things turn out to be such a liar exhibiting extremely concerning behavior. Jamie, get a grip, man!!!