Four weeks ago, my daughter, in a weak moment, attempted suicide because she was grieving a boy that she had met and communicated with on bebo, msn and by txt.
On the 27 january 2007, this boy committed suicide...txting my daughter while performing the act. one of the txts asked her to look after his friend, nat, after he had gone. this she proceeded to do.
This nat, it appears is the author of ben and all his bebo sites....
By means of bebo,cell phone and personal contact, Nat proceeded to convince my daughter that this boy was real (url:http//meewith3Ez.bebo.com)... an R.I.P. site (url://beni-b33.bebo.com) continues to claim the reality of this boy and prey on the emotions of young children and the topic of suicide all over the world....
Since my daughter's incident, i posted a site on bebo(url:http//ksbay.bebo.com) in an effort to try and find out if this boy ever existed... the answer... no!!

I have letters from this girl's friends confirming my doubts as to the reality of this boy

Letter no1: a friend writng to say ben is not real:
I’M TRUSTING YOU IN WRITING THIS MESSAGE SO PLEASE DONT TELL NATALIE OR POST IT ALL OVER BEBO..
i know bens not real, i have known ever since he ''appeared'', i have known natalie for a loooooongg looooonngg time and she has always had problems and made up lies that would win her attention. I have stuck up for her in this situation even though i dont believe her because she needs a friend, everybody needs friends no matter what they have done or what they are doing, friends is something eveybody need to survive.
I think the reason natalie made up ben was because she didnt have this necessity (friends) and so she needed to invent one. I found out last night what she did to sophie and that was when i realised the extent of this situation, i never thought it went that far and thats not why i did anything about it. Now that i know about this i will not be sticking up for natalie anymore and im going to stop replying to her comments.
I feel obliged to apologise to you as i have probably mad this whole thing harder for you by sticking up for natalie even when i knew the truth. Something else i feel i must say to you is, natalie does have a mental disorder she has lied so much about ben and about his death that she has started to believe it herself. The mind is a very powerful thing and I dont know
if you knwo this but poeple can think their selves into whats called a ''phantom'' pregnancy this is when people want to be pregnant and fantasise it so much they actually start to believe it and even show signs of pregnancy even though there is no baby. I think this is what has happened to natalie but not with being pregnant, she wanted the ideal friend for her and when she made up ben it seemed so real and right to herself that she actually started to beleive he was real. I dont know if you were aware of this but ''ben'' used to txt my older sister lucci who already had problems (her mother died when she was 5 and her father was murdered 2years ago) ''ben'' txt her allt he time saying he was going to kill himself and would like force lucci to talk him out of it but eventually lucci got sick of it and figured out it was natalie and told him to XXXX off.... she needs HELP, not ENEMIES
so yes i just thought i should explain that to you
love for you and your daughter xxoo

Letter no2: a friend writing to say that ben is not real:
thanks for your message. yes i know exactly what shes done and have for months since i first had a look at this "bens" page. i can see why natalie's done this. i dont think she intended it be a joke on anybody. "ben" was her ideal friend she thought up that she hasn't been able to have or find in reality and probably never will; because the stories she has told of him and her are just way too over the top. i haven't said anything to her about me knowing ben isn't real; as i don't see the point when i can't prove it...like you said. (though im thinking that it could be a good idea i do tell her and everybody else what i think about the whole thing so everybody can see there's more people that know its all a lie and could help them to believe it themselves). the stories shes made up about him are basically deluded fantasies. saying that he travels all over the world surfing, has a house in a orewa, a bach up north, hes sponsored by ripcurl ect. if this were the case we would be able to search him on the internet and see stuff about him on news or surfing sites. (we cant search him though because apparently natalie, his own "best friend" doesnt even know how to spell his last name.) next of all she has that ridiculous photo of "ben", im not tryna stereotype but generally i think its safe to say people like the model in that picture wouldnt have only one friend who happens to be natalie. natalie has been threatening to kill herself to basically everybody on her bebo for atleast 1 year. i thought id try talking to her about it...like the many others. If anybody could obtain the I.P address that is coming from bens page, you could maybe prove that its been natalie on there from the start because it will show its coming from the same computer. she would probably come up with some story of how 'ben' used her computer. (she also went as far as to get another cel phone for the ben character so people can txt him, which makes it that much more believable for some) so i really don’t know how to get proof. it would be best for everybody to understand that hes not real so she has nobody to talk to about him anymore. i dont see her admitting to any of this afer all the lies shes told to everybody including her family. i've just read the new comments on bens page..and i can see theres already some girl saying she doesnt believe a word your saying. so as long as the naive people like her keep believing this and natalies problems, i don't see the "ben" thing going away anytime soon. i wonder how much information her parents are aware of? if they were to read over everything on bebo it would be good. i mean they must be able to confirm that natalie was never with "ben" and was never away for days staying with him up north at a bach..has anybody showed the parents all of the messages on bebo? and told them all the stories shes made up.....
what natalie has done to your daughter is really selfish and you'd think after what happened there..she would stop writing on bebo about him to everybody..sadly not!

Letter no3: someone affected from outside

cant understand why somebody why do something like this. last september i lost my best friend to suicide.. and its the hardest thing to ever go through.. and the thought of somebody using greif as a tool for attention makes me sick.
ive also confirmed with the photographer from the rip curl pro the the only two bens that competed in the event, are Ben Hamish, a 22 year old from motueka and Ben Dunn, the new zealand junior grom champ, who happends to be a personal friend of mine and has said that he knows of no 'Ben Blah, or black'.. or whatever
thanks for bringing this to my attention. allthough, it does pain me to see somebody needing attention so badly.. no worries, im sorry to hear about your daughter. i went through the same thing with my father last year to the point i was in the cfu unit in starship hospital.
be there for her.. thats all you need to do..
oh and be carefull with councellors.. sometimes they do worse then better.
hope everything works out.
As far as i can see the following bebo sites have been used to try and convince people of the reality of this ben:
url:http//djlatent.bebo.com
url:http//smokin-pancake.bebo.com
url:http//n3v3r-kn3w.bebo.com
url:http//lafr33ko.bebo.com
in addition to this, i have the following msn acc was also used: uknouwantme123@hotmail.com. whether it is active or not i don't know.........

please remove these sites... our children are at risk.

thank you
karen roselt
ps my daughter's bebo address http//I-LOVE-BAM-MARGERA

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Edited by ksbay at 04/28/2007 3:48 AM