# What's the straight dope on this sketchy-as-hell website Peoplepedia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923 "2024-06-15T20:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TJEckleburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@TJEckleburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJEckleburg)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/1 "2024-06-15T20:47:43Z")
[https://www.peoplepedia.org/home](https://www.peoplepedia.org/home) This is a website that purports to allow average people like you or me to create a Wikipedia-type article about their life stories. That’s great, except I think the whole website is a scam and probably completely fake, to boot. You can’t even look at anyone else’s page on there unless you become a member, and even then you have to request an invite from them and wait for a yes to even do so. I’m willing to bet all those user profiles they flash on the front page of the site are fake. The site was started by a guy named “Mark Hamilton”, whose real name is Wallace H. Ward, the son of Wallace Ward senior (or “Frank Wallace”), this guy: , > **[Frank R. Wallace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_R._Wallace)** > > Frank R. Wallace (1932 – January 26, 2006), born Wallace Ward, was an American writer, publisher and mail-order magnate. Previously a professional poker player, he is originator of the philosophy of Neo-Tech (also referred to as "Neotech" or "Neothink") an offshoot of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. He was convicted of various federal tax crimes in the 1990s. During his trials, he challenged the oath he was required to take before testifying which became the case United States v. Ward in which the Walla... “Mark Hamiltion” (Wallace H. Ward) is the head of Integrated Managagement Associates, a mail-order scam and gimmick to sell Napoleon Hill-type b.s. Prosperity Theology genre books: > **[Integrated Management Associates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Management_Associates)** > > Integrated Management Associates (also Neotech or Neothink) is a publisher and distributor of books and articles, based in Henderson, Nevada. It was founded by Wallace Ward, also known as Frank R. Wallace, and is now run by his son Wallace H. Ward under the name Mark Hamilton. > The company was founded by Wallace Ward as I & 0 Publishing in 1968 to publish his own work written under a number of pen names, including Frank R. Wallace. Since Ward's death in 2006 the company has been run by his son, ... “Mr. Hamilton” is also involved in “Neo-Think” and “The Twelve Visions Party”, which you can Google if you want to but they’re just more new age money cult scam b.s. If you look at the Peoplepedia site, maybe you can tell me if I’m right, that the site is probably fake and the user accounts shown on the screen are fake and non-existent. There’s no Wikipedia article about this site (if you search Wikipedia for “Peoplepedia” all you’ll find is a book by that name printed in 1996, a book about American culture ([The Peoplepedia - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peoplepedia))). Let me know what you can find out about this “website”. All evidence points to it being a fake scam. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/2 "2024-06-15T21:06:15Z")
It does look weird - on the face of it, just some sort of weird blog platform, but that bit about sending you ‘one of my coveted, hand-selected writings that tends to boost people’s well-being and wealth!’ makes it sound like a cult, or MLM. I scanned the terms and policies and I didn’t see any stipulation that you must use your true legal identity when signing up. I might sign up with one of my scambaiting accounts and see what happens… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/3 "2024-06-15T21:20:31Z")
OK, I signed up… Well, someone called _Spatula Grime_ signed up. It appears to be a really terribly clunky and unintuitive social network of some sort. There are lots of people registered - some of them, you can view parts of their profile and info (or maybe partial info is all they entered); navigation is slow - everything is slow. There is a search function and it returns results, eventually. Some people, you can’t see their profile until you send them something that appears to work like a friend request. The whole site is like someone described Facebook to aliens and they decided to recreate it, but gave the job of coding it to one of their kids. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/4 "2024-06-15T22:39:49Z")
> [@TJEckleburg](#): > > This is a website that purports to allow average people like you or me One of your original premises is incorrect. I’m certainly not average, nor are the first ten Dopers I thought of. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/5 "2024-06-15T23:14:00Z")
I see no reason to assume that the profiles would be fake. It’d be easier to make a real site like that to make a fake one. Once you manage to rope someone into joining, why not let them make a vanity page? Of course, in addition to that, it’s also a hard sell for his MLM or whatever it is. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/6 "2024-06-15T23:24:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > someone called _Spatula Grime_ That is an excellent name. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/7 "2024-06-17T10:16:38Z")
So far, Spatula Grime has not received the much-anticipated One Weird Trick to Money or whatever it was. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/8 "2024-06-17T10:52:28Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Spatula Grime After cooking eggs this morning I was particularly careful in washing my spatula. No spatula grime on my watch! ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/9 "2024-06-17T11:04:27Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > One of your original premises is incorrect. I’m certainly not average, nor are the first ten Dopers I thought of. Aw, I’m blushing…or wait, maybe I should be offended! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/10 "2024-06-17T11:50:13Z")
The testimonials seem too perfect, hitting all the right bullet points to attract visitors to this site. They also appear to be written by the same person or an AI. Coupled with a checkered past, the use of a pseudonym, and a mandatory email submission to join, this raises serious red flags to me for a potential phishing campaign. To top it off, the guy looks like David Spade, and Spade always struck me as a bit sneaky. I also suspect Spatula Grime is MT’s real name. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/11 "2024-06-17T12:11:52Z")
Was [please-steal-my-identity.com](http://please-steal-my-identity.com) already taken? ---
**Author:** ![TJEckleburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@TJEckleburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJEckleburg)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/12 "2024-06-17T13:01:49Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > the guy looks like David Spade He also looks exactly like the prosperous yuppie cult leader that Peter Griffin meets in that one cutaway gag on Family Guy: [Here’s the video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKhCmRH4hEU) “May the light of Derek’s invincible diamond shine through you.” Great work so far, everybody! ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-this-sketchy-as-hell-website-peoplepedia/1002923/13 "2024-06-17T16:50:17Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Was [please-steal-my-identity.com](http://please-steal-my-identity.com) already taken? True, once someone puts in their info - birthday, names of their pets, etc. and you’ve already got their email address then you’ve got a pretty good base for figuring out their passwords on other websites.