Was Phantom Fisher Trying to "Phantomise" Me?

OPINION
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.

 

Copycat Cameron?

Cameron Fisher's attempts to influence my ISP appears to have come straight out of the Castran Gilbert manual "How To Deal With Consumer Advocates". Last month we posted an item titled "Jenman Taunts Estate Agents To Sue" about two estate agents who, instead of suing the consumer advocate who had actually criticised them, attempted to sue Google in an effort to have references to them removed from the internet. At least the Castran & Gilbert fellows were up-front about what they were doing.

 

A Sneaky Tactic

The fact that Cameron Fisher contacted my ISP is not, of itself, such a big deal. What really annoys me is the sneaky manner in which Cameron Fisher has conducted himself.

Let's just analyse what has happened here. I received a complaint about a phantom property advertisement, and I investigated it. I then published my findings in a blog posting, after discussing the matter with the alleged perpetrator and reproducing his responses.

It is clear that Cameron Fisher did not like being asked to account for his conduct, and he certainly didn't like having the matter exposed on the Australian Real Estate Blog. I can understand this, and I can understand that Cameron Fisher would seek legal advice to see if he had any legal right to stop his conduct being made public.

However, adopting the sneaky tactic of hassling a third party for no reason other than the fact that that third party supplies me with services, is an utter disgrace. As I asked Cameron Fisher in one of my emails to him, "Who's next? the paperboy? the milkman?"

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