Was Phantom Fisher Trying to "Phantomise" Me?

by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B
Real Estate Lawyer
Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria
Director Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd

Yesterday I received a telephone call from my Internet Service Provider (ISP) about a phantom phone call. According to the ISP guys, the phantom phoner didn't say who he was at first, but he made it clear that he wanted the Australian Real Estate Blog to disappear - just like a phantom property advertisement. It seemed that Phantom Phisher was trying to phantomise me!

A Phantom Caller?

The call from my ISP began, "Have you heard of someone called Cameron Fisher?"

Of course I'd heard of Cameron Fisher, he had featured in my most recent blog posting regarding a report about a phantom property being advertised on www.realestate.com.au.

As the ISP guy explained the call:

• Someone telephoned the ISP and attempted to intimidate them by telling them that they were hosting a defamatory website containing illegal material.
• The caller did not divulge his identity to them at first, telling them that he had been advised by a solicitor that the ISP should not be hosting defamatory material.
• When he was asked as to his identity the caller said that his name was Cameron Fisher, and then changed his story, saying that it was his own web developer who had suggested that he should contact the ISP.
• The caller was told that it was not appropriate for him to be making such demands of the ISP, and that he should contact the owner of the website instead.

Suspecting that it may have been that guy with the gavel and the glittering golden vest, Cameron Fisher of Changing Places Real Estate, I emailed Cameron Fisher and put the ISP's version of events to him.

Cameron Fisher's response was:

"Clearly you were not party to the conversation as your statements are incorrect again. I could not find any direct contact details on the site. I volunteered my name as soon as asked, I didn't have to.  My query in the main was to find out why my reply was not coming up. It was suggested by both my web developer and solicitor, nothing untoward in that."

This sounded a little strange, as Cameron Fisher and I have had no trouble communicating with each other by email in the past. I felt that the ISP's version of the conversation was a little more credible than Cameron Fisher's.

In a final email to Cameron Fisher I put it to him that I had given him ample opportunity to comment on the facts by way of email, but he did not respond. I also asked him if he was suggesting that the ISP people were telling porkies, but he didn't respond to that either.

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