Jack Monroe #509 The Silence of the Scams.

[lilykestrel]

Exactly. I mean, sometimes I think so myself, you've been posting on these threads for 3 years, yes you like the other posters they're witty and lovely, but isn't it a bit petty and obsessive, the same threads for 3 years?

Then I remember stuff like the kickstarter.

It's genuinely vital that people like Jack DO get called out. Just because the manipulation and fraud is low level in terms of quantum and fame, doesn't mean it's not damaging - to the most vulnerable as well.

When the emperor is parading through the streets demanding adoration, but is wearing no clothes....it needs to be talked about.

It's quite fascinating when you see the Patreon excuses in their original form in the Kickstarter.

And so much of it is potentially avoidable or could have been planned for if you're self-publishing a book?

"Not to mention contemplating 4377 envelopes to write and stuff and post some time in May" - why are you writing them? Print labels.

I'm not surprised your hand seizes up and you have wrist pain if you're typing constantly on a laptop, that's a display screen equipment nightmare (regardless of if you have a pre-existing issue or not). Get an external keyboard and mouse and do your wrist stretches like the rest of us who earn our living constantly tapping away at computers do.

"and still continued to limp up to the post office lugging a suitcase of books / dragged books through the rain, wheezing with a chest infection" there's such a thing as couriers

 

[MavisBeacon]

It's quite shocking to see her modus operandi laid out time and time again. Hopefully the pool of gullible marks is decreasing daily, and she's not doing anything to retain the ones she's got

 

[Lucy Aeroplane]

I believe she's benefitted from white/pretty privilege. A POC, someone not blessed with cheekbones, who is not middle class coded, would not have been given the opportunities she has had - despite the fact that she can't cook, can't present or speak publicaly, and is nasty and manipulative.

A (say) Black, overweight person from a housing estate could put in the hard yards, train as a chef, be charismatic, articulate and intelligent and STILL would not get the opportunities and second chances Jack did.

However, I disagree with you, she IS experiencing consequences. She's a byword for cruelty, dishonesty and incompetence on twitter. The celeb relationships and TV gigs are gone, never to return. Her nasty thoughts are beginning to manifest themselves in her physical appearance (I strongly believe that people eventually get the faces they deserve).

A slow burn fall is much better than a sudden big cancellation. It's happening in real time.

Jack’s not middle class ‘coded’, she’s plain old middle class, from a propertyowning landroverowning military family and has her own grammar school background. In comparison, fellow Southender Ruby Tandoh has done much better credibility-wise, book-wise, and she has a much better rep than Jack despite also being a lefty gobshite on Twitter, and she’s not white, so not sure that bit of your theory holds up. AND Ruby also hates Fingers Kerridge, amazing the parallels with Jack! although Ruby did survive an actual suicide attempt and hospitalisation, fair dos to her. I like her better than Jack because even though she does my head in, and I don’t like her style of online activism, she’s still a lot more authentic and a lot less fake than Jack, and she doesn’t scam hundreds of thousands of pounds out of people, she actually works for her money. She comes across as actually believing what she says, so even where I think she’s wrong I can respect that she’s coming from a genuine place. Jack on the other hand has BULLSHITTER all through her like a stick of rock.



(Also Ainsley Harriot, ok so he wasn’t overweight, but he did put in the hard yards, he did train as a chef properly, he has tons of charisma, he’s not from a privileged background and IIRC he grew up on or near west London estates - and there’s a whole generation of the UK who will always consider him one of our top celebrity chefs of all time because he was brilliant on the telly and has always seemed like a fun bloke!)

 

[moldwarp]

It's quite shocking to see her modus operandi laid out time and time again. Hopefully the pool of gullible marks is decreasing daily, and she's not doing anything to retain the ones she's got

Yes, I mean this is why I think it's accurate to describe her as a 'scammer' because scammers repeat the same template over and over, moving onto different targets over a number of years.

If it was a one-time thing then the mental health excuses (because they are excuses) would be fair and worth considering. But by the time you get to the second or third go-around, you have to think...
---

Jack’s not middle class ‘coded’, she’s plain old middle class, from a propertyowning landroverowning military family and has her own grammar school background. In comparison, fellow Southender Ruby Tandoh has done much better credibility-wise, book-wise, and she has a much better rep than Jack despite also being a lefty gobshite on Twitter, and she’s not white, so not sure that bit of your theory holds up. AND Ruby also hates Fingers Kerridge, amazing the parallels with Jack! although Ruby did survive an actual suicide attempt and hospitalisation, fair dos to her. I like her better than Jack because even though she does my head in, and I don’t like her style of online activism, she’s still a lot more authentic and a lot less fake than Jack, and she doesn’t scam hundreds of thousands of pounds out of people, she actually works for her money. She comes across as actually believing what she says, so even where I think she’s wrong I can respect that she’s coming from a genuine place. Jack on the other hand has BULLSHITTER all through her like a stick of rock.

I unreasinably dislike Ruby because she was so vocal in 'defending' Jack in the early days of DKL, but maybe I should take another look

 

[Captainmouse]

Her response to her Kickstarter backers is worse and I urge everyone who hasn't seen it, to go back to threads 3& 4 and take a look.

Summary: she wanted to raise £8k on Kickstarter to self publish a new cook book. This was shortly after she split from Leggy. She got such a huge response of ordinary, well-meaning people, she ended up getting £70k. She said the book would be delivered to backers within a year, there would be a launch party, dinner with her for the biggest donors, extra treats and content.

Then....NOTHING. Backers started sending her messages, all extremely polite at first, asking for updates. Still nothing. Then gradually some people started to ask for their money back - there is a heartbreaking post from an elderly disabled man and his wife who donated money they could ill afford because they thought the book would help the poorest in society. No response from Jack. This was 2017 so all the time she was posting on Twitter and Insta, thot shots, chatting about award ceremonies, how great she was, and generally living the high life. Not a word to her Kickstarter backers tho. THEN she actually found a commercial publisher for her book and.....IT APPEARED FOR SALE ON AMAZON BEFORE THE ORIGINAL BACKERS HAD EVEN RECIEVED THEIR COPIES.

Naturally the backers got angry. In response, Jack posted a lengthy message using the same narc script we've all come to know and love which basically went:

- I'm sorry about the delay. I'm very mentally fragile, nasty break up and am living in a damp flat
- I'm working on the book but it's difficult to type due to my arthritic fingers
- I lost the first draft in an 'unfortunate incident' (does not specify further) Please stop bullying me, my heart hurts....suicide bait
- You can have the money back if you like....but it's such a beautiful book and will help so many people! You'll love it when you get it
- You've waited for so long....you wouldn't want to let me down right at the last moment.....would you?

This is actually a person who behaves disgustingly.

Also the Kickstarter was poor quality and black and white the Amazon was superior in every way, she even had the cheek to go back to people who paid, waited two years, and ask for more money for postage!

 

[Lucy Aeroplane]

Yes, I mean this is why I think it's accurate to describe her as a 'scammer' because scammers repeat the same template over and over, moving onto different targets over a number of years.

If it was a one-time thing then the mental health excuses (because they are excuses) would be fair and worth considering. But by the time you get to the second or third go-around, you have to think...
---


I unreasinably dislike Ruby because she was so vocal in 'defending' Jack in the early days of DKL, but maybe I should take another look

It’s not unreasonable to dislike her! I don’t really like her. I just prefer her to Jack, because for all that Ruby might be a bit of a knobber, she’s not a disingenuous lying scamming grifting knobber. So I can read something that Ruby has written, I can massively disagree with it, I can think she’s being a bit of a self-important dick, yet I can appreciate that at least her writing is coming from a real place, if you get me? I don’t only read things that I know will back up my own perspective, it’s healthy to read stuff by people you disagree with, and I’ll make time for a Ruby column or whatever because I believe she means what she says. I don’t believe that about Jack cos I know she’s lying.

 

[moldwarp]

Jack’s not middle class ‘coded’, she’s plain old middle class, from a propertyowning landroverowning military family and has her own grammar school background. In comparison, fellow Southender Ruby Tandoh has done much better credibility-wise, book-wise, and she has a much better rep than Jack despite also being a lefty gobshite on Twitter, and she’s not white, so not sure that bit of your theory holds up. AND Ruby also hates Fingers Kerridge, amazing the parallels with Jack! although Ruby did survive an actual suicide attempt and hospitalisation, fair dos to her. I like her better than Jack because even though she does my head in, and I don’t like her style of online activism, she’s still a lot more authentic and a lot less fake than Jack, and she doesn’t scam hundreds of thousands of pounds out of people, she actually works for her money. She comes across as actually believing what she says, so even where I think she’s wrong I can respect that she’s coming from a genuine place. Jack on the other hand has BULLSHITTER all through her like a stick of rock.



(Also Ainsley Harriot, ok so he wasn’t overweight, but he did put in the hard yards, he did train as a chef properly, he has tons of charisma, he’s not from a privileged background and IIRC he grew up on or near west London estates - and there’s a whole generation of the UK who will always consider him one of our top celebrity chefs of all time because he was brilliant on the telly and has always seemed like a fun bloke!)

Very true about Ainsley Harriot, but I would also say that he really is incredibly talented and charismatic - all to say that the old adage that you have to be twice as good if you're Black / poor to get the same chances as a white / privileged person, holds true I think.

When I say middle class 'coded' I mean from the perspective of Jack's early fans (metropolitan liberal Guardianist types) - they may have believed her to be WC but her coding to them was MC so they felt comfortable supporting her.

Anyway I'm gonna stop mithering about class now as I know some folks on these threads find it tiresome which is fair enough. Thank you for your thought provoking insights as ever. Back to grift-watching!

 

[Fleasyweezy]

Is this why guest is rather quiet at the moment

Deleted tweets revived by Twitter bug, warns affected security expert

It's not clear how many profiles suffered from the glitch or why, but some experts speculate that the undead tweets may have been revived alongside a Twitter back-up server

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[stunrw]

Is this why guest is rather quiet at the moment

Deleted tweets revived by Twitter bug, warns affected security expert

It's not clear how many profiles suffered from the glitch or why, but some experts speculate that the undead tweets may have been revived alongside a Twitter back-up server

www.dailymail.co.uk

Well she's probably not up yet so plenty of time for them to fix it

 

[House of Carbonara]

Here's a selection of public updates from the Kickstarter for those who haven't seen. You can peruse it as much as you like here (Cooking on a Bootstrap Kickstarter page).

Also lol, forgot she said her Nan was her copy editor, and she uses 'ordinary people' to test her recipes.

Spoiler: Kickstarter screenshots

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View attachment 2192348
View attachment 2192349

View attachment 2192346

Sooooo..... I promised you the shiniest of shiny books, not my fault I lied. It's all you evil negative trolls affecting my mental state. She hasn't changed the script, has she? Never accepting responsibility for her behaviour, always blaming mental/physical bad health, bad luck and evil trolls. People (naive, soft hearted, well meaning people) gave you SEVENTY THOUSAND POUNDS for a tit book you couldn't be arsed to put together, guest. I wonder how many sideboards you bought with that money.

Also - what the duck is an irreverent recipe, Precious?

 

[Clarends]

I read her stuff about having to take heavy books to the post office. I thought at the time that's not right, what am I missing. But she was such a wonderful person, and I didn't read everything so I assumed there was a good reason.
Same as lots of things. People stick with their first impressions.

 

[Mr Jim]

I was a Kickstart backer (my copy has long gone to the great recycling bin in the sky) and I am ashamed to say that I was completely taken in by her woe-is-me messages and very nearly replied to her to say ignore the haterz, I’m happy to wait.

Send harder heartios.

I have since seen the light though.

 

[munkibrain]

I'm not surprised your hand seizes up and you have wrist pain if you're typing constantly on a laptop, that's a display screen equipment nightmare (regardless of if you have a pre-existing issue or not). Get an external keyboard and mouse and do your wrist stretches like the rest of us who earn our living constantly tapping away at computers do.

Tbh I don't believe a word of it. If she can spunk hundreds on sideboards, she can spunk £30 or so on a half decent external keyboard. Or a fiver on a crappier one off eBay or something. It's all just performative faux-poverty nonsense, like the "painstakingly typed out the first drafts on my mobile phone" stories. Pretty sure you can even use an external one on a bloody phone anyway with the right cable, so... WFK.

If she really is that thick that buying an external keyboard never even occurred to her, well, she doesn't deserve to be labelled a writer by anyone let alone the MSM.

 

[stunrw]

Very true about Ainsley Harriot, but I would also say that he really is incredibly talented and charismatic - all to say that the old adage that you have to be twice as good if you're Black / poor to get the same chances as a white / privileged person, holds true I think.

When I say middle class 'coded' I mean from the perspective of Jack's early fans (metropolitan liberal Guardianist types) - they may have believed her to be WC but her coding to them was MC so they felt comfortable supporting her.

Anyway I'm gonna stop mithering about class now as I know some folks on these threads find it tiresome which is fair enough. Thank you for your thought provoking insights as ever. Back to grift-watching!

I agree with you........if you are "breaking in" to something that historically has been a one gender/class occupation (really badly phrased but you get what I mean) you have to be a thousand times better than everyone else to get the opportunities. Mrs @stunrw sees it in her workplace, and still gets sarcastic/misogynistic comments from a few of the dinosaurs even now.

Thankfully the tide is changing, but when you get people like JM who are committed to pissing INTO the tent rather than out of it, it sets everyone back

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

Poor Jack was rather unwell in December 2016 and hadn’t been for some time so she enlisted help with the kickstarter.

Oh hang on a moment

Incidentally, the kickstarter is still there so you can read her posts and the increasingly frustrated responses from her backers if you have an hour or two and want to remind yourself what a scamming scammer she is

 

[Veronicaaa]

Here's a selection of public updates from the Kickstarter for those who haven't seen. You can peruse it as much as you like here (Cooking on a Bootstrap Kickstarter page).

Also lol, forgot she said her Nan was her copy editor, and she uses 'ordinary people' to test her recipes.

Spoiler: Kickstarter screenshots

View attachment 2192352

View attachment 2192348
View attachment 2192349

View attachment 2192346

Hmmm, I wonder if this is where she got the idea to charge people (via a fairly high Patreon tier) to test her recipes for her.

 

[munkibrain]

View attachment 2192441

Hmmm, I wonder if this is where she got the idea to charge people (via a fairly high Patreon tier) to test her recipes for her.

WANTED: PEOPLE WITHOUT ANY TASTEBUDS

 

[stunrw]

WANTED: PEOPLE WITHOUT ANY TASTEBUDS

And a digestive system that has been used for chemical weapons testing and survived

Oh, and being blind would be a distinct advantage

 

[Veronicaaa]

WANTED: PEOPLE WITHOUT ANY TASTEBUDS

Can you imagine her reaction if anyone came back with any remotely negative feedback?

 

[stunrw]

Can you imagine her reaction if anyone came back with any remotely negative feedback?

Clawing, howling, radiators flying etc