E. Sr. still preying on Special Needs Families

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http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m5d13-Micha

el-E--Sr-is-still-preying-on-special-needs-families

E. , Sr. is still preying on special needs families

An update on the case of E.

MSClipArt

If you like this ...

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Micha

el-E--Sr-proves-the-case-it-is-important-to-verify-credentials> E.

, Sr. proves the case it is important to verify credentials

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m3d10-Mich

ael-E--Sr-hopes-harassment-will-clear-his-name-part-one> E.

, Sr. hopes harassment will clear his name (part one)

Update

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m2d26-Upda

te-on-Dallas-Obanion-s-case-6-yo-autistic-child-was-facing-possible-

felony-charges> on Dallas (Obanion) 's case: 6 y/o autistic child

was facing possible felony charges

Lay

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m3d24-Lay-

Person-Advocates-can-be-a-huge-help-to-parents> Person Advocates can be a

huge help to parents

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner> View all >

Parents should be aware that a self-labeled " Lay Advocate, " E.

, Sr., is still preying on special needs families, especially those

within the autism community. This person is currently under investigation by

authorities in two states and possibly the FBI, although the FBI cannot

confirm or deny that at this time on the record.

Mr. first appeared on media radar in February, when he was

interviewed regarding a case he had publicly claimed online as being the

sole person in helping a single mom whose autistic son was facing felony

charges. After this

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m2d26-Upda

te-on-Dallas-Obanion-s-case-6-yo-autistic-child-was-facing-possible-

felony-charges> interview appeared, several advocates came forward about

their suspicions of this man that dated back several years.

One advocate in particular, Amy Caraballo, who also writes for Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/x-31431-Pittsburgh-Special-Education-Examiner, had

prior dealings with Mr. that led her to initiate an investigation

with several other awareness advocates in the autism community. What they

uncovered was reported here

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Micha

el-E--Sr-proves-the-case-it-is-important-to-verify-credentials%20>

and includes the many claims of Mr. : that he was a professional

NASCAR driver and first cousin to a , NASCAR driver, that he

worked closely with Presidential nominee Ari Ne'eman (Disability Council,

ASAN founder), that he has helped thousands of families with autistic

children to receive a free, appropriate, public education (FAPE), and that

he was a licensed, registered Lobbyist. None of these claims were proven to

be true.

In fact, when contacted by an investigator with Advocates Against Fraud in

Advocacy (AAFA www.advocacyfraud.org) , a was asked if she was

related to this man as a cousin or in any way, she replied, " Nope.....not

that I know of....and I'm pretty sure I would remember that. "

When Ari Ne'eman was contacted and asked if he had ever worked with Mr.

or had been interviewed with him by CNN, (as claimed by Mr.

) Mr. Ne'eman responded by saying, " I haven't worked with this

fellow and haven't interviewed with CNN. "

The other claims made by Mr. were addressed in the previous

article, also showing that his claims were unverifiable. Then, Mr. ,

and at least one other person, began a campaign of harassment against the

author who wrote the article exposing his lies. The details of that

harassment can be found here

<http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2010m3d10-Mich

ael-E--Sr-hopes-harassment-will-clear-his-name-part-one> .

It is this harassment that Mr. wages on parents who do not comply

with him and his demands that has kept parents from coming forward. Also,

shame and embarrassment over being scammed has prevented parents from

speaking out. He will call and leave threatening voice mails, send numerous

emails through PayPal demanding payment for services that were not rendered,

beg them to post online to " protect his reputation " when questioned even

asking them to lie in the process, and threatening legal or police action

against them.

However, some brave parents have come forward since the original articles

appeared. One mother, , of Texas has come forward so that

other parents can be aware of what occurs when dealing with this man. She

had kept silent initially because she had been so outspoken in her support

of Mr. , she didn't think anyone would believe her now and she was

embarrassed that he had fooled her for so long.

She forwarded an email that shows Mr. asking her to go to a forum

where he was being " attacked " and asked Ms. to state that he had

helped her and did so for free; " Because I would and I will " do it for free.

However, Ms. has shown proof that she has paid Mr. hundreds

of dollars and the majority of the " work " he did was to harass the attorney

representing the school district with emails and phone calls. Further, he

" advised " her on tactics to use. At first, she didn't realize that what he

was doing was stalling for time so that he could get more money out of her.

He kept saying that we should file this and file that to make the school

district pay more in attorney fees, and then withdraw the claims further

aggravating the personnel involved. The many emails discussing these tactics

were forwarded and show that all Mr. cared about was delaying for

time.

There were over 144 documents forwarded by Ms. that outlined the

" help " she received from Mr. . In the end, her child was left

without the FAPE promised by Mr. and she's had to do it all

herself, by herself, as she had no money left. In fact, the money she had

sent to Mr. was from her unemployment check. She didn't have the

funds to begin with as many parents often do not who have special needs

kids.

Ms. , and others, now believe the reason was that he did not plan on

making personal appearances as promised, nor to do any other work on the

case, and was just stalling for time for himself to get more " Fees " from Ms.

. When it didn't work, he began sending nastier and nastier emails

through PayPal demanding more money.

Another parent who had sent Mr. " intake fees, " never received help

either. Instead, Ms. helped her during an ARD meeting that Mr.

was supposed to attend via teleconference. At the last minute, Mr.

told Ms. to tell the other parent he was sick, too sick, to

attend the meeting but at the same time, there were postings from him online

in various platforms talking about how busy he was working on cases for

special needs parents, like Ms. . It made her sick to her stomach to

learn that later. " I felt so dumb. I just started sending parents messages

off list to go see other advocates instead because I knew then he wasn't

going to help me or anyone else. " Ms. said.

A parent, Sherri Tucker, sent this message to the author, " He found out

about [the boy facing felony charges] from me. I contacted the mother and

started posting it. He sent me a nasty note on Facebook and I didn't know

what was going on. Then I read your article. I guess he figured that I had

something to do with your article. But, I am glad that I read it. Now I know

the truth. " Ms. Tucker was not one of the original sources; however she was

one of the ones who encouraged other parents to come forward after the

" nasty " Facebook message.

For Mr. 's point of view, he claimed he did not send that message at

all. He claimed his Facebook accounts have been hacked into and other people

have been sending messages and doing things in his name without his control.

He said he had no way of signing in to Facebook until the hacker had signed

out.

First, he could have contacted Facebook about the alleged hacking and they

could have reset his password and kicked the other person off of his page.

Secondly, the messages sent by the " hacker " all contained the very specific

typing style of the messages that Mr. admits to sending. It was

proven before that his claims to have not done something like this have been

false.

There have been more parents and individuals who have been duped by Mr.

that have come forward. For their safety and peace of mind, their

names will not be divulged. However, they have been urged by the FBI office

in Pennsylvania to report the activity to the Internet Crime Division of the

FBI at their website <http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx> . Parents

are to use reference claim number I1004281234550541.

On May 5th, 2010, this author received an email allegedly from Mr.

titled " Need Your Help. " The body of the email asked for $2,500, allegedly

to get passage back to the United States from the United Kingdom. Many of

you may have seen a similar message from others in the past. This is an

email usually sent by a virus. Many parents forwarded the email to me as

well. What happens is that the virus sends this message out to all contacts

in the user's contact list. Otherwise, it is highly doubtful Mr.

would send such a plea to me. Or would he?

A mother acting on a hunch replied to the email asking where to send the

money to. Mr. replied with an address in the United Kingdom. The

response did have the typical typing style as previously identified which

would be highly coincidental if the person at the other end of a virus

catch-all box would reply to a message and that the reply would also contain

the same typing/grammar style of Mr. . So, he may appear to have had

a virus but he certainly also appears to be taken advantage of it.

Also, it should be noted that this is not the same type of virus that hacks

into a Facebook account. It's a robotic virus and not usually manually

operated by a person who would send an email back to anyone. It contains a

virus in the message itself (which certain email readers will download into

the computer) that will capture and send back keystroke information to a

database drop. It's all computerized. All a person handling that information

cares about is identifying user ids and passwords for banking sites, not

Facebook sites to sit on there and send messages containing details about a

personal situation that involves the account holder that is allegedly hacked

in order to " create drama " for the account holder. They're thieves, not

busybodies.

Someone asked, " Is it possible that MR received the same type of virus email

himself, copied and pasted it into an email to all his contacts, to fake a

virus in case he gets chewed out and to perhaps catch the few that would

send money not realizing it's a hoax? " Well, based on the reply one parent

received it is possible. At this point, anything smelling of a scam would

not be too far out of character for Mr. , in this reporter's

opinion. Further, there was no link to click in this email. All other

instances of this email contain a link to a website (which contains the

virus or asks for your personal banking information). The headers on the

email are also clean of apparent " email account phishing. "

For Mr. 's response, he sent out this notice, " My account was hacked

into and this email was sent to all contacts. The account keeps all

contacts to whomever has ever been sent an e-mail. Over 14 years that's been

over 10,000. Key individuals that could have contacted me right away as I

was in Northern California where I live and also work from were not sent the

email. If you did get this email do not respond and please accept my apology

for any inconvenience. If you didn't get the email I apologize for taking

your time. Unfortunately I made the mistake of 'publicly' stating I would

not be available for several days by cell or email, a mistake all should

learn by. I'll be changing email accounts in the following day and will be

creating a new contact list. Any that do not wish to be on my contact list

will automatically not be as I will start with a fresh list other than those

that know I will be keeping their address as we are working together or

have. Thank you for your time, " [Emphasis added]

The real " key " point here in his claims is this: " Key individuals that could

have contacted me right away as I was in Northern California where I live

and also work from were not sent the email. " Again, it is a robotic virus.

It doesn't read Facebook updates to know when you will be out of town and it

does not examine who in your contact list would be able to immediately

confirm you're where you say you are. It's a robot. Not a person. And it's

unlikely that a person would be able to tell who is near you or who isn't

based simply on their email address in a contact list. And his first

statement was that all contacts had received the email. Which is it?

The reason this information has been provided is because Mr. preys

on desperate parents of special needs children. These parents are already

struggling, financially and emotionally. They make the perfect mark for Mr.

's style and flair for dramatics. But parents need to check into the

credentials of the advocates before they agree to send money. It's just good

common sense. There is always enough time to interview the advocate

candidate.

This article is for informational purposes only. If you or someone you know,

was defrauded or attempted to be defrauded by Mr. , please fill out

the complaint form on the FBI's internet crime website.

" It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than

by oppression and discrimination half a block from home. " Carl T. Rowan

Sherri R. Tucker

President, SER (Special Education Reform)

autism@...