Notice of Administrative Ban

HEM

former
Jorts Connoisseur
Honoured Citizen
Citizen
Pronouns
he / him / his
All —

Effective immediately, “Brunhilde” is administratively banned indefinitely.

Sufficient evidence has emerged that the player behind Brunhilde has violated our community standards to a degree that is actionable by our administrative team.

I am sure this is shocking. I will say, for a fact, that it is also shocking to myself and the other admins.

This is not a situation where we will be as vague as we can get away with. We are going to share as much information, and be as transparent as we possibly can.

The summation of the banning is that “Brunhilde” is a serial liar who has:

  • Deceived this community about their personal identity
  • Lied about other fictional persons who have supposedly interacted with the region at various junctures
  • Used these deceptions to initiate sexual exchanges with members, and hold other intimate conversations by deception

The player behind Brunhilde is the same exact player behind the Fitzgerald/Bryan von Richthofen/Matthias von Richthofen account (hereby referred to as Fitz/Bryan/Matthias).

IP Address Evidence

It’s important to note from the outset, that the strongest piece of evidence by far is the IP Address evidence.

Brunhilde and Fitz/Bryan/Matthias have the same IP Address pattern. Their router behaves in such a way that whenever it resets, the Address alters slightly, but retains a key characteristic (i.e. the first XX.XX digits remain consistent).

Brunhilde and Fitz/Bryan/Matthias’s IP Addresses fit the same pattern to a tee — and match directly for one time period. There is no doubt that both accounts are getting wireless internet from the same router. While IP Address evidence is typically a gold standard in these investigations, this one was more difficult because of their claim of being married, and hence reasonably, living in the same household.

This means we had to turn to some additional evidence, which will be explored below. However, before turning to that, it’s worth noting how consistent the IP Address associated with both accounts are. Typically, we all have a spattering of variation in our IP records from visiting coffee shops, logging into NS at school, etc.

So even while IP evidence alone may not be sufficient here, it does provide us a clue. We’ll circle back to that at the end.

Disproving Fitz/Bryan/Matthias

For us to be able to dismiss the IP Address evidence that strongly suggests one person is controlling two different accounts, we have to believe that Fitz/Bryan/Matthias is a different person from Brunhilde and that they were, indeed, once married. Only recently have we been able to challenge that assertion beyond mere guesswork and intuition. Using the email address that Fitz/Bryan/Matthias used to register an account in Europeia, we unearthed several social media properties owned by a RL individual in West Virginia. For purposes of this summary, we will call this individual “Joe Doe”. We discovered several facts about “Joe Doe”, including the fact that they were 21. This will be important later.

“Joe Doe” is definitely the Real Life identity of Fitz/Bryan/Matthias. Proving this was important, because we were able to start fact-checking some of Brunhilde’s many, many assertions about her supposed husband.

  • Joe Doe was certainly born in West Virginia, not in Germany as started by Brunhilde
  • Joe Doe’s parents were not living in Germany, but it seemed as if he still lived very close to them (if not with them) in West Virginia
  • There are no indications that Joe Doe has ever traveled abroad, despite the claims by Brunhilde that they traveled for his work in Romania, and other foreign places
  • There was no evidence to suggest that Joe Doe was currently in Germany taking care of his parents who, by every indication, were living in West Virginia
  • Even a paid request for documentation led to no certificate of marriage or divorce for Joe Doe
  • Brunhilde claimed that Fitz/Bryan/Matthias had his pregnant fiance murdered in front of him in Texas as a part of a mugging that went wrong. There was no indication Joe Doe had lived in Texas, and he would’ve been 15-years-old at the time of the supposed murder (Interestingly, Fitz/Bryan/Matthias gave two accounts of this story in The New Inquisition, one that suggested the murder actually happened even earlier)

Because virtually everything Brunhilde has provided about her "ex-husband" is not accurate, it is fundamentally impossible to accept that his existence is a lone truth: especially, again, in light of the overwhelming IP evidence. To be clear: If Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias does not exist as the persona presented, but they share the exact same IP information as Brunhilde, then the overwhelming balance of probability suggests they are the same person.

Circumstantial Evidence

Beyond the core pillars of our case, there are almost countless pieces of circumstantial evidence that also uphold our findings. Alone, these could be brushed off as a mistake or white lies. Together, they paint a fairly comprehensive picture:

  • Numerous overlapping likes and interests. Joe Doe and Brunhilde share a myriad of different interests. Sometimes to the extent of sharing the exact sames links (to the letter).
  • Even in-game, Brunhilde displayed very similar interests to what Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias did even initially setting up a graphics service which he also did, using the same photobucket account. Brunhilde also uses the same Steam account as Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias, this was passed off by him being her husband.
  • Brunhilde once claimed to be making chili for a fire department. Joe Doe has a mutual friend who works at a fire department.
  • Brunhilde has been inconsistent with members about what her actual name is. She’s claimed to some that Brunhilde is her actual RL life name, and have told others it is “Sara”. None of her given RL names have been found in any internet database, social media site, etc.
  • Brunhilde has also been inconsistent in the spelling of her name. When Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias originally referenced her in TNI it was spelled “Sarah”, and that is how she also spelled it for a period. Later she began referring to herself as “Sara.”
  • Brunhilde explained her quick knowledge of Nationstates by claiming that Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias wrote her a comprehensive guide to the game. This is a clever excuse, but actually makes no sense. Why would you write a guide for someone you live with?
  • Interestingly, Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias vanished from the region almost immediately as Brunhilde joined. After only about three weeks of overlap he vanished, never to log into the forum again.
  • However, he apparently has popped onto Discord from time to time. In one key instance, Brunhilde “summoned” him to Discord after someone had been talking about him.
  • Despite being in Germany “taking care of his parents” (who almost certainly live in West Virginia) he was able to hear Brunhilde “yawning so loudly that I can hear her in the next room.”
  • Both Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias and Brunhilde have had some similar health issues. For instance, they’ve both broken all the bones in their hands.
  • Both Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias and Brunhilde also had severe kidney issues. Brunhilde actually donated one of her kidneys to Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias before developing kidney issues herself. Despite having only one kidney at this point after donation, she references her “two kidneys.” Either Brunhilde was born with three kidneys (very rare) or lost track of how many kidneys she had. When talking to Brunhilde, she claimed she never donated a kidney to Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias despite his numerous public posts in The New Inquisition discussing the surgery.
  • Brunhilde also claimed to have numerous other health issues, including cholera. There were only 5 total cases in the United States in the year she claimed to have it.
  • Brunhilde’s life story also included numerous other events that, taken together, were fairly implausible:
    • Stabbed with a screwdriver for being Jewish in California
    • Moving to America from Germany via Israel because of ACL surgery
    • Catastrophic kidney failure (due to drug abuse or being stabbed depending on testimony)
    • Cholera (Proven to be basically impossible at the time she alleged it)
    • Lyme disease
    • Catastrophic car crash
    • Broken hand (Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias also had this in TNI in 2013)
    • Pregnancy followed by miscarriage
    • Born in Germany, moved to Israel aged 9, then California aged 11 - did Computer Science or Engineering course at CalTech. But has no job, other than freelance tattooing and building computers.

To be clear: this section is a short summation of what could be countless bullet points of contradictions and improbabilities. The original stories of Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias in The New Inquisition are so absurd, they are not worth rehashing here except in instances where their stories match Brunhilde’s.

Sexual Exchanges

In the interests of protecting the identity of the victims, this section will be considerably more vague.

There are at least three citizens who Brunhilde has attempted to exchange sexual pictures with. This, between consenting adults, is not necessarily a violation of community standards. However, doing so under false pretenses in a systematic, abusive, way certainly is.

In at least two instances, Brunhilde would introduce citizens to her cousin-in-law, “Bryan aka Benjamin”, who would also pursue nudes. From a cursory examination the nudes from Brunhilde and “Bryan aka Benjamin” appear to be blatant “catfishing”, ie. fake pictures from models/porn off the internet. “Bryan aka Benjamin” would continue the relationship with the victim, including voice chat. There is no evidence that this “Bryan aka Benjamin” exists.

One victim testifies that they voice-chatted with Brunhilde, and their voice seemed very “loud pitched and squeaky” except at the end, when the “microphone messed up” and sounded like a man. Brunhilde was very distressed by this, and swore to never use voice chat again (which she has a reputation of being loathe to do).

The administrative team has only explored some of the many, many avenues that Brunhilde may have used deceit to exploit and abuse members. However, even this very surface level glance is horrifying. There is a clear pattern of sexual interactions with citizens in our community based on deception - and victims have testified that they would not have consented if they knew Brunhilde’s true background.

There are additional factors in how Brunhilde targeted their victims that point to an even more sinister level of abuse, but cannot be specifically divulged without risking the identities of the survivors.

Back to the IP Addresses

Fitz/Bryan/Matthias had the same IP Address from when he started in The New Inquisition in August 2012 until he left Europeia in January 2015. From that point on, Brunhilde had the same IP Address from when she joined in December 2014, until present day. During those five years, Fitz/Bryan/Matthias and Brunhilde allegedly got married, spent a few years together, and then allegedly got divorced in the summer of 2016. It doesn’t make a ton of sense that Brunhilde still has her ex-husband’s IP Address that he had since the middle of 2012 when he scarcely even knew Brunhilde.

There are explanations out there for why Brunhilde still lives in the house that her ex-husband has lived in the summer of 2012, but perhaps none as simple as: they are the same person. They have always been the same person.

Conclusion

We are not obtuse to what a horrible situation this.

The administrative team does not consider political questions when pursuing investigations — except insofar as how we think a ban will impact the community, and how we respond to that.

We know this one will hurt. It will hurt all of us.

But it’s a thousand times better than the potential hurt people are being exposed to as victims to a serial liar who has abused Europeians.

When we spoke to Brunhilde about these facts, she categorically denied everything and referred us to users she claims had voiced chatted with her in the past (with Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias in the same mega group chat). After speaking with these users, we found that their testimony was not conclusive enough to overturn mountains of contrary evidence, and that they too had been lied to about numerous aspects of Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias’s story.

Brunhilde refused to verify her identity by giving us either her legal name, Fitzgerald/Bryan/Matthias’s legal name, or by voice chatting with admins — even when we made it clear administrative action was imminent. We gave her numerous opportunities to prove us wrong, but when it became clear the extent of our findings, she didn't even seem to want to.

_

There will be some changes going forward:

First and foremost, the administrative team will no longer permit members to simultaneously exist in our region or Discord with identical IP Addresses over any significant amount of time, for any reason.

Ultimately, it is unrealistic in these circumstances to saddle the administrative team with the burden of proving someone isn’t someone else as they post from the same IP Address. It’s almost impossible, and very resource-intensive. Over the course of history, this rule would have impacted very few players but saved us several giant headaches.

Secondly, I would really urge our players to proceed with caution when sharing personal information — especially photos, and especially especially explicit ones. We have seen over the past year that not everyone is as they seem. And until you really, really know someone, you don’t know if you can trust them.

To be honest, this process has left me totally exhausted of this game. Because this is an exceptional ban, I will try to be around for all your questions and concerns, but I am also going to do so only “part time” for the next few days and give myself a break — I suspect other admins might as well. Administrators won’t duck your questions, but please extend us some patience.

/s/

HEM
Lethen
Malashaan
R3naissanc3r
North East Somerset (Temporary Administrator for Investigations)
 
Thank you to the administrative team for doing their best to keep this community a safer place for all of us. This can't have been an easy process to go through, but it is extremely appreciated.
 
Calvin Coolidge said:
Thank you to the administrative team for doing their best to keep this community a safer place for all of us. This can't have been an easy process to go through, but it is extremely appreciated.
It wasn't, and as HEM suggested, I'm going to step away for a couple of days most likely. If you need an admin task doing, ping me on Discord, but I likely won't be checking in otherwise.
 
I understand how hard this announcement will be for everyone in the region and because of this I offer my support to everyone. This weighs heavy on us all, but we're still strong!
 
What Alt said

like

i consider brun one of my closest friends So this looks pretty terrible and shocking in the emotional sense to discover all this o.o ?
???
Thanks for the info I guess


 
Oh my god!( this is so shocking that I even forgot that I don't believe in god). Its unprecedented. Never expected Brun to be like that. She looked honest. This is really worse than even the allegations of Russian interference in 2016 elections
 
Note: Brunhilde attempted to hand over passwords to the various nations she had ownership over to a political rival of Europeia. Thankfully, that person, (Tim) had the moral fiber to hand them back over to us.
 
HEM said:
Note: Brunhilde attempted to hand over passwords to the various nations she had ownership over to a political rival of Europeia. Thankfully, that person, (Tim) had the moral fiber to hand them back over to us.
Jesus Christ! Brun turned a traitor!

Tum,if ur out there, I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to u.
 
This is deeply disconcerting. There was a time when she was much beloved by the Alexandrian community and was a moderator for one of the site-supporter channels.
 
HEM said:
First and foremost, the administrative team will no longer permit members to simultaneously exist in our region or Discord with identical IP Addresses over any significant amount of time, for any reason.

Ultimately, it is unrealistic in these circumstances to saddle the administrative team with the burden of proving someone isn’t someone else as they post from the same IP Address. It’s almost impossible, and very resource-intensive. Over the course of history, this rule would have impacted very few players but saved us several giant headaches.
I certainly applaud you guys for the ban, as to making a Europeia due to your effort, but I do have one point.
1. I'd like to point out that some Europeians do use public computer and/or public internet to access NationStates, the Forum and the discord. Me, for example, though I have never used it, am allowed to use internet chatting programs during school time so as long it's not during class, and I do use my mom's office wifi to browse Europeia at times. What if two Europeians are in the same city (as big cities can often get) and decide to use the city/airport/etc. wifi?
 
HEM said:
Note: Brunhilde attempted to hand over passwords to the various nations she had ownership over to a political rival of Europeia. Thankfully, that person, (Tim) had the moral fiber to hand them back over to us.
Returning them to Europeia was never in question. My past differences with Europeia start and end within the realms of politics, and this is far outside that realm. We are, despite our many alignments and our various opinions of each other, all parts of a Gameplay Community which must stand against people like this. This ain't politics, it's just keeping our community safe and intact, and we should all put aside politics to deal with situations like these as a unified front.

My best wishes towards the Europeian Community, and all those who were affected by this player. We're all here for y'all.
 
We all have to thank the admin team for their actions, and as Calvin said this cannot have been easy. The evidence ypu provided about that person and the lengths they went to cover up their actions is terrifying and I'm just glad we have such a dedicated admins team that wants to keep us safe.
 
As I said in Eurochat: I hope the player behind Brun gets the help he clearly needs - but that can't come from this community.

There have been too many victims - and they have suffered too much from this frankly insane situation. Unfortunately, we have until now failed to protect them, and as a community not just Europeia but the wider NS world, we have let this player deceive and sexually exploit many female gameplayers through the respect they held across the game - even for instance being an Admin of the "female gameplayers" group on Discord.

We all have to think long and hard how we got here, and what we can do to stop this happening again, in terms of avoiding allowing fraudulent and manipulative individuals to become so respected, and educating our more vulnerable users about the dangers of false identities.
 
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