Phillip Daggett Brunelle Internet Hoaxster

Paranormal investigation is a lot like journalism; credibility is everything. Every paranormal group wants to stand out from the crowd and noted for its uniqueness. Sometimes, paranormal investigators go overboard with gratuitous self promotion. Another new paranormal group or website is certainly not newsworthy and we at the Miami Paranormal Research Society have seen many come and go. But as a community as a whole, when any type of deception arises, it reflects negatively on the entire community. In Journalism, just like paranormal investigation, information and ideas sometimes appear seemingly from out of nowhere.

The internet is full of lulz and shady Internet characters.

The Reverend Sinthyia Darkness reported " I received a most curious email. The subject line read " Sinthyia: Examiner Editor shares a web site with you.." I have never known the Examiner editors to make any recommendations but when the supervisors do write, the wording sounds very much like this:

Examiner Editor editor@examiner1.com
to Sinthyia (email address redacted)

dateThu, Aug 5, 2010 at 2:44 AM
subjectSinthyia: Examiner Editor shares a web site with you
mailed-byhost.free-press-release.com


Hi Sinthyia,

The examiner.com editors saw this press release and we're hoping you could write an article on this for your area:

New Paranormal Website Mass Most Haunted To Feature Compelling Paranormal Evidence
http://www.free-press-release.com/news-new-paranormal-website-mass-most-haunted-to-feature-compelling-paranormal-evidence-1280999012.html

(Copy & paste the url to address bar if not clickable.)

We will check in with your examiner articles soon and hope to see your article on this for your area!

Thank you,
Examiner Editors


-----------------------------------------------------
http://www.Free-Press-Release.com/
Distribute your news to 100,000+ visitors every day!
Start press release marketing and
Register a free account right now!

I was curious about this letter. I did what any respectable reporter would do, I verified the source. I forwarded the letter to the real Examiner editors for an explanation.


" Could you please verify this email? I was sent this from free-press release.com from an un named "Examiner editor"." I am confused because a new paranormal website created by a name that nobody in the paranormal community has ever heard of is not newsworthy. Also, this is a Massachusetts website and would have nothing to do with a local story.

If someone is sending out spam in the name of the Examiner, I think you may want to know about it.

Kindly let me know.

Thank you,

Sinthyia

Well, my nose finely tuned to sniff out any hint of BS (that comes from 30 years of investigating reports of paranormal activity) was right on the money. I actually hadn't even considered writing any article about this website or its owner until the deception was confirmed.

My editor responded with this,

"Thanks for the heads up Sinthyia- we’re looking into this. It’s not from us so please ignore as spam."

If this were the end, this story would be strange enough. I did a bit of research and found out that Phillip Brunelle the owner of this new paranormal website, is also a writer for the Examiner! Only an Examiner would know how some of the letters are worded that sometimes come from our supervisors http://www.examiner.com/x-58809-Boston-City-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m7d31-Haunted-Accommodations-Inspires-New-Paranormal-Website. He apparently wrote a vanity article (outside the scope of his title) to promote this website and if you look at it, his article is in the exact same wording as his press release.

Considering that credibility is everything in the paranormal, if the owner resorts to such deceptive practices to trick reporters into doing news stories on the "launch" of this website, then it is not unreasonable to question the authenticity of any information you may read there and yes, Mr. Brunelle without having this website up and running is already asking for donations and selling advertising space.

"if ANYONE can ever help me with a donation, whether it's a few dollars or a few hundred, every dollar will help me to get more investigation equipment, to maintain the website, and to have the money needed to travel to, and stay at haunted places. Just click on the donation logo on any page of www.MassMostHaunted.com to help. I'm also looking for advertisers, IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL, EMAIL ME ON THE SITE. "


It is no coincidence that a reporter receives a notice impostering the editorial staff at the Examiner and the owner of the website writes for the Examiner. The honest thing to have done was send an email and say look, I have this new website and I'm trying to get it off the ground. Can you come check it out and maybe do a news story to promote it. Instead, I get the bogus letter demanding that I write a story on Mr. Brunelle and his new "most haunted" website. The matter is under investigation and I will post updates as they become available. Mr. Brunelle is a self-employed photographer and his photography is quite good. In my opinion, he should stick to photography and leave the ghosts in peace.

Mr. Brunelle authored a couple of press releases about his winning third place in the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards. However, for this report, we contacted World Photo to inquire about this prestigious claim. We were told by Ms. Cecily Breese that Mr. Brunelle was not placed in the 2009 or the 2010 Sony World Photography Awards. All of their winners are showcased on their website at www.worldphoto.org. In fact, according to the document we received from the organization, Mr. Brunelle was not even nominated in 2009. Therefore, writing fictitious press releases and clamouring for media attention is nothing new.


Encyclopedia Dramatica, are you reading this? They may want to give this some press too.


Update: The Examiner article referenced here has now been removed.

Further reading on Phil Brunelle

Phil Brunelle as Phiilip Daggett

The Taco Bell incident

Phillip Daggett's online feud with Chris Crocker

And most recently, Brunelle's claim that Charlie Sheen hired him as his new Social Media guru.


Previous comments:


Anonymous said...
Phil Brunell already has the image of being a fraud. There is a controversy over some lottery winnings and if he is this millionaire then it is really laughable that he is asking for donations to fund this website.

This was posted last year on walletpop.com by someone using the email address lawoffice@netbusiness.com. Supposedly this was written by his attorney but wouldn't that be a breach of attorney/client privilege? Anyway, the web page has since been removed. The post does not sound like it was written by a lawyer. You be the judge:



LawOffice@netbusiness.com
9:11PM Nov 26 2009

"It became world wide news (literally) when my client Phillip Brunelle had won two different lottery jackpots, two hours apart, making him into a millionaire instantly. Although bigger jackpots had been won in the past, what made his story good to the media was that Phillip Brunelle is in his 20's and that he won two jackpots two hours apart.

The media was all over him for this, and about five months later, they still are! The reason why is because he had not cashed in his winnings right away, so the news began digging things up from his past and since he would not speak to them or report to the news what he was doing with his money.... because he feels as though his finances are his own business.... the media turns around and begins to paint Brunelle in a negative light and making it look as if he lied about winning the lottery and now has the public under the impression that he is a fraud."

This poster suggests that more information can be gained by Googling his name "Phillip Brunelle," or "Phillip Brunelle Lottery."

Massachusetts State Lottery says it has not heard from Phil Brunelle, who formerly used the name of Phillip Daggett. Much has been written in the news media about this man- particularly of some questionable activities like claiming that he ate at McDonald's and became very ill. Two years later in 2006, he claimed that he got sick from eating a Taco at Taco Bell that was tainted by some sort of drug. That turned out to be a false accusation. There is more but you get the picture.

8/07/2010 11:54 PM

Anonymous said...
Mass Most Lottery?

8/08/2010 12:15 AM

Moderators Note:

The Sinthyia Darkness blog was also flooded with comments from "Gerald Sousa-Murphy" and " Darlene Henderson" finally "Phillip Brunelle". Gerald Sousa-Murphy claimed to be an attorney and posted that lawoffice@netbusiness.com email address that one annonymous commenter wrote us about, the quotes from the walletpop.com website. First of all, I know of no attorney that would use a free email service. Interestingly enough our moderators are pretty good and have to be...all of them are investigators with the MPRS after all. The visitor log shows that all comments including the one from this attorney threatening to sue for "slander" and "defamation." and called it "unethical," originated from the SAME IP address of 98.229.91.155! Traces back to New Bedford, MA 02745 internet service Comcast.