5 ms·

The girl who conned the Ivy League

52 points by Fixnum 17y ago

kam 17y ago
The original link goes to the last page. First page: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who_conned_the_ivy_league/ http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who...
- w1ntermute 17y ago
  Even better - the print version: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who_conned_the_ivy_league/print http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who...
darien 17y ago
Not surprising that she was discovered and arrested. The whole point of a missing person's list is to work as an alert system.
dangoldin 17y ago
I'm surprised she didn't just go to another country and go from there - I'm not sure how easily other countries would be able to trace her back to the missing people in the US. Worst case she could have started off as an illegal immigrant - it seems with her resourcefulness and intelligence she could have done well.
- Herring 17y ago
  Well, then you wouldn't be hearing about it.
PieSquared 17y ago
An interesting comment from the article: "From the genius, to the anxiety, through the social awkwardness, Esther Reed is a classic case of Asperger's Syndrome! Anyone who has lived with family members who have this condition, as I have, should be able to instantly recognize it. The clues are all there. Her father was a "shy and reclusive man" who had his family living out in the woods isolated from society. There is the source of her autistic spectrum disorder; she probably inherited it from him. She is not amoral as one person previously commented, but rather, as Esther admitted, she didn't realize her actions would hurt others. Again, this is classic Asperger's -- the inability to put yourself in someone else's shoes, the lack of empathy, the self-centered egotism resulting from an inability to generate a theory of mind, i.e. see things from someone else's point of view or understand how what you might do or say would affect the other person. Esther had personal problems a normal person would have been able to handle by confronting and facing her family and expressing her feelings to them and if necessary, just openly leaving to start over, i.e. without running away in the way that she did -- making her paper existence vanish -- and without snapping and acting as she did. People with Asperger's try to hold it together but often snap and act out. In children, it is tantrums. As an adult, Reed snapped and impulsively grabbed a co-worker's purse -- not the act of a genius criminal, since obviously the suspicion would fall on co-workers. She could not handle pressure and personal problems a normal person would have been able to handle without Esther's extreme behavior. Even as a child, she had a hyperresponsivity to stress as described by her teacher which was echoed in her adult life when she became completely dysfunctional when stressed at Columbia and on the run. Ironically, her defense attorney was right, but apparently he didn't have a clue as to the correct diagnosis."
- drinian 17y ago
  Nothing like psychological diagnosis via Rolling Stone article commenters... People need to realize that many of these psychological disorders are descriptive of symptoms rather than fundamental physical changes. So what if she's an Aspie? I don't know of any other Aspies who conned their way into the Ivy League.
- ardit33 17y ago
  Actually she sounds like a clear case of a sociopath. Aspies lack EQ, but not necessary empathy. Sociopaths lack empathy altogether, and will result to destructive actions to get what they want with no regard to people around them, or sometimes, even themselves.
  - chrischen 17y ago
    It seemed to me that she was genuinely concerned--at least somewhat--about minimizing her damage to others. She did rationalize that choosing a missing girl's ID probably wouldn't be that bad. "No one would be hurt by the theft, she reasoned, as long as she was careful not to rack up debt. "I always thought, mistakenly, if there was no financial loss, there was no harm," she says." So it seems her inability to recognize her damage to others was more problem in rationale than understanding of empathy.
RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1054299 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1054299
gnosis 17y ago
This reminds me of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Burdell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Burdell also see: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/29787673/the_boy_who_heard_too_much/print http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/29787673/the_boy_who_... and http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4446/ http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4446/
- jimbokun 17y ago
  My first thought was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale
tungstenfurnace 17y ago
>To survive these daily onslaughts, Esther put on her familiar mask of haughty confidence and switched on her emotional autopilot, mimicking social interactions while feeling nothing Hmm, that summarises about 50% of social interactions generally.
gorbachev 17y ago
The most striking thing about this story to me is how this girl ended up being suspected of being Public Enemy Number One. That truly says something about the world we live in these days. Sad.
joe_the_user 17y ago
"Investigators had never encountered anyone like this mysterious young woman..." Really, only because they hadn't read about the cases of classic "hackers": Kevin Mitnick, Kevin Poulson, ... Fading between assumed identities is a pretty common scheme in my reading, though perhaps less common in reality.
mhartl 17y ago
"The girl who conned the Ivy League... ...gained admission to three universities — including continuing-ed programs at Harvard and Columbia." I assume by "continuing ed" they mean the Harvard Extension School and its Columbia analogue. From extension.harvard.edu: To take courses at Harvard Extension School, you simply register. No application is required. Never let the truth get in the way of a good headline.
ComputerGuru 17y ago
Wow, what a terrible layout! If anyone here isn't using Readability, this would be a good time to start: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
Mz 17y ago
It seems to me the fascination with this type of story (and it's not the first I've seen here) is the element of remaking ourselves. A lot of famous people got famous under a stage name: John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison; John Mellencamp became famous as John Cougar; Julie Newmar was born Julia Chalene Newmeyer. On this site, the man behind Mixergy took the name Andrew Warner because his ethnic name was an obstacle to business success. Many people also go by "handles" on various online forums rather than their real name and plenty of people have nicknames that their close friends use for them. I suppose one lesson to learn here is that there is a right way and a wrong way to remake yourself. And that assuming a new identity does not automatically prevent problems from following you.

52 points by Fixnum 17y ago

kam 17y ago

The original link goes to the last page. First page: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who_conned_the_ivy_league/ http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who...

w1ntermute 17y ago
Even better - the print version: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who_conned_the_ivy_league/print http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31770765/the_girl_who...

darien 17y ago

Not surprising that she was discovered and arrested. The whole point of a missing person's list is to work as an alert system.

dangoldin 17y ago

I'm surprised she didn't just go to another country and go from there - I'm not sure how easily other countries would be able to trace her back to the missing people in the US. Worst case she could have started off as an illegal immigrant - it seems with her resourcefulness and intelligence she could have done well.

Herring 17y ago
Well, then you wouldn't be hearing about it.

PieSquared 17y ago

An interesting comment from the article: "From the genius, to the anxiety, through the social awkwardness, Esther Reed is a classic case of Asperger's Syndrome! Anyone who has lived with family members who have this condition, as I have, should be able to instantly recognize it. The clues are all there. Her father was a "shy and reclusive man" who had his family living out in the woods isolated from society. There is the source of her autistic spectrum disorder; she probably inherited it from him. She is not amoral as one person previously commented, but rather, as Esther admitted, she didn't realize her actions would hurt others. Again, this is classic Asperger's -- the inability to put yourself in someone else's shoes, the lack of empathy, the self-centered egotism resulting from an inability to generate a theory of mind, i.e. see things from someone else's point of view or understand how what you might do or say would affect the other person. Esther had personal problems a normal person would have been able to handle by confronting and facing her family and expressing her feelings to them and if necessary, just openly leaving to start over, i.e. without running away in the way that she did -- making her paper existence vanish -- and without snapping and acting as she did. People with Asperger's try to hold it together but often snap and act out. In children, it is tantrums. As an adult, Reed snapped and impulsively grabbed a co-worker's purse -- not the act of a genius criminal, since obviously the suspicion would fall on co-workers. She could not handle pressure and personal problems a normal person would have been able to handle without Esther's extreme behavior. Even as a child, she had a hyperresponsivity to stress as described by her teacher which was echoed in her adult life when she became completely dysfunctional when stressed at Columbia and on the run. Ironically, her defense attorney was right, but apparently he didn't have a clue as to the correct diagnosis."

drinian 17y ago
Nothing like psychological diagnosis via Rolling Stone article commenters... People need to realize that many of these psychological disorders are descriptive of symptoms rather than fundamental physical changes. So what if she's an Aspie? I don't know of any other Aspies who conned their way into the Ivy League.
ardit33 17y ago
Actually she sounds like a clear case of a sociopath. Aspies lack EQ, but not necessary empathy. Sociopaths lack empathy altogether, and will result to destructive actions to get what they want with no regard to people around them, or sometimes, even themselves.
- chrischen 17y ago
  It seemed to me that she was genuinely concerned--at least somewhat--about minimizing her damage to others. She did rationalize that choosing a missing girl's ID probably wouldn't be that bad. "No one would be hurt by the theft, she reasoned, as long as she was careful not to rack up debt. "I always thought, mistakenly, if there was no financial loss, there was no harm," she says." So it seems her inability to recognize her damage to others was more problem in rationale than understanding of empathy.

RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago

Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1054299 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1054299

gnosis 17y ago

This reminds me of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Burdell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Burdell also see: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/29787673/the_boy_who_heard_too_much/print http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/29787673/the_boy_who_... and http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4446/ http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4446/

jimbokun 17y ago
My first thought was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale

tungstenfurnace 17y ago

>To survive these daily onslaughts, Esther put on her familiar mask of haughty confidence and switched on her emotional autopilot, mimicking social interactions while feeling nothing Hmm, that summarises about 50% of social interactions generally.

gorbachev 17y ago

The most striking thing about this story to me is how this girl ended up being suspected of being Public Enemy Number One. That truly says something about the world we live in these days. Sad.

joe_the_user 17y ago

"Investigators had never encountered anyone like this mysterious young woman..." Really, only because they hadn't read about the cases of classic "hackers": Kevin Mitnick, Kevin Poulson, ... Fading between assumed identities is a pretty common scheme in my reading, though perhaps less common in reality.

mhartl 17y ago

"The girl who conned the Ivy League... ...gained admission to three universities — including continuing-ed programs at Harvard and Columbia." I assume by "continuing ed" they mean the Harvard Extension School and its Columbia analogue. From extension.harvard.edu: To take courses at Harvard Extension School, you simply register. No application is required. Never let the truth get in the way of a good headline.

ComputerGuru 17y ago

Wow, what a terrible layout! If anyone here isn't using Readability, this would be a good time to start: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

Mz 17y ago

It seems to me the fascination with this type of story (and it's not the first I've seen here) is the element of remaking ourselves. A lot of famous people got famous under a stage name: John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison; John Mellencamp became famous as John Cougar; Julie Newmar was born Julia Chalene Newmeyer. On this site, the man behind Mixergy took the name Andrew Warner because his ethnic name was an obstacle to business success. Many people also go by "handles" on various online forums rather than their real name and plenty of people have nicknames that their close friends use for them. I suppose one lesson to learn here is that there is a right way and a wrong way to remake yourself. And that assuming a new identity does not automatically prevent problems from following you.