SCAM ALERT — HOMELESS AND HOMELESS SUPPORTERS BEWARE (PLEASE SHARE): In addition to everything else that was going on yesterday–elections, voting, homeless clean-up, etc—an individual by the name of Benjamin Byerline tried to get me and several homeless activists to participate in a scam. Byerline allegedly procured land yesterday that was supposedly downtown, by a busline, and would be available to the unsheltered street homeless. It is believed that the original real purpose behind Byerline’s scheme was to distract the attention of everyone who was involved with the homeless matter. Fortunately, his efforts failed.

His distraction efforts failed because everyone remained focused on the task at hand, whose priority had been determined well before Byerline’s original post. But ultimately, the real hero of the day regarding this scheme was Chris Wallace. Chris was the first to alert the group that Byerline was a shady individual. Shady being quite the understatement. Chris revealed that he was involved in litigation with Byerline, that Byerline owed him and several others money, and that Byerline had previously posed as the CEO of a non-profit that he had no real association with and began asking for donations in the name of that non-profit.

I had hoped to share screen shots from others who asked for information, or was able to confirm or reject information, but am unable to do so. However, several individuals can confirm that Byerline seemingly was trying to run another similar scam–possibly with the intent of posing as one of the more prominent homeless outreach teams (i.e. Street Reach for the Homeless, Common Ground Outreach, etc.) or posing as a brand new “homeless shelter” with the possible intent of reaching out to the community, pulling a few heart strings, and possibly redirecting funds from legitimate organizations into something else, like his own pocket. Those individuals include Chris Wallace, Amanda Annette, and Bridget Vogt.

After several hours were wasted on the matter and it became clearer and clearer that Byerline was running a scam, Amanda Annette removed him from the group. And we all thought that was the end it it.

Later, Byerline began promoting his private property-turned-homeless campground idea online and with the help of a person posing under the name of Ginger Woods, was able to promote this idea to WANE-TV’s facebook page. Apparently, Byerline also allegedly contacted the television stations and one of those stations was going to run with Byerline’s story. And this is where Chris Wallace again came onto the scene and herorically, saved the day. How? He contacted local media and advised them of the things that Chris had shared with me and others.

Ironically, in a seriously stunning twist—the kind you can’t make up—-a few years ago, WANE-TV had run a story on Byerline’s shady past. But sometime between Byerline’s contacting a non-WANE TV station and Chris’ contacting that same station just in time to warn them of the scam, WANE TV’s original story was removed? Relocated? I couldn’t find it again. Chris Wallace can you?

Now, why on earth would WANE TV remove or relocate a story that was live and online yesterday afternoon but 24 hours later by today has “disappeared”? Sure, it could be coincidental. The story was several years old and they can’t archive this stuff online on their server forever. It wouldn’t be unreasonable of them to remove it. I admit it. But what about their youtube archive. Why remove or relocate that? That is a topic for another day by people who are more media savvy than me.

Fortunately, WANE TV’s story wasn’t lost. Because in this day and age, there’s this thing called the blogosphere. The blogosphere existed before facebook. And should there ever be a day when facebook ceases to exist, there will still be the blogosphere. (I love the blogosphere!) The story of Byerline’s past shady dealings were picked up by a blog called “The Daily Dot.” The Daily Dot is not under the control of any of the local media outlets nor by any member of the local political establishment. Best of all, the Daily Dot did one heck of a job in chronicalling Byerline’s past, including the lost WANE TV story. Gotta love the blogosphere: http://www.dailydot.com/…/stop-bullying-ceo-fraud-benjamin…/

The most important point of this post isn’t WANE’s archiving capability or any of its technical maneuvering. The most important point is that I want everyone to be on the look out for what could be Byerline’s next big scheme. I don’t want donor duped into donating to a cause that he is not and has never been active with. I also want the unsheltered street homeless to be careful of people they don’t know making offers like the one pictured below.