Hi, I''ve received this email today and think the word should be passed around. You can read it on:

http://www.prison.netfirms.com/indexp/watchout.htm

I have been asked to send this to people who are in contact with inmates. I was sent this e-mail of a lady who is rather worried about what could be going on here and she wanted to warn inmates. I am not responsible for anything contained in the e-mail that follows or anything on the website concerned.
thanks
The guy who runs this site is writing to men and women on the row to be a "friend" to them and then turning around and posting their letters and selling them to make a profit. John's letters, envelope, and a poem ended up on there. They are gone now, sold? I don't know. But now he has a letter posted by Christa Pike who is a friend of mine's daughter and I think this has gone far enough. I say we all write to all the guys we know and let them know not to write to this man and to pass the word around. His name is Ken Karnig and his address is listed as a p.o. box out of Tampa Florida. The url addy is http://www.supernaught.com
Or you might not have to put the w's in, I'm not real sure.

Please tell the guys to watch out. Also tell as much prisoners as possible to never give anyone any money to open an email account and certainly not their social security number. because this happens a lot. and the guy disappears after having the money and the number, opening all sorts of accounts on the prisoners name....

I'm a little confused. Who and why would anyone want to buy letters from inmates? If this was a marketable item the prisoners could sell them for thier own income. What is the scam exactly? I'm not clear on this.

I was considering buying a webpage for my friend. It was $1.66 per month so I dont think this is a scam. It is at Prisonerlife.com They can post messages off a message board per snail mail.

hey torrey, the thing is ( i don't know if you checked the web site), they are trying to get letters and other stuff from people who are convicted for murder, so they can sell them as...how do you call that in english...you know, collector things. that's a weird thought, but i'd say it would be less weird if the prisoner him/herself would get some of the money. but they don't. as soon as the guy has a letter about what happened that made that person end up in prison, or when he has something that was made by the hands of someone convicted for murder, he never gets back in touch with them and just makes a lot of money on these people, who thought they'd found a pen pal...

I understand. I just sent off an e-mail to them. Here is a copy of what I said. I'll let you know if I receive any reply.


Dear Sirs,
It has been brought to our attention that you are attaining letters from inmates to sell on your Internet site through dishonest means. You are tricking the inmates to tell their stories to you in the disguise of friendship and the promise to be pen pals. We the families, spoke persons, and friends of these inmates ask that you stop the deception of your means to acquire heart felt letters from these men to your own profit.

Regards,
Torrey Pines

good one torrey! i've been reading their guestbook, and there were some of similar messages on it, but they don't seem to care :(

Soraya,thank you for posting this info.It came through the Lamp Of Hope,and one of my friends letters and envelope had been sold.It is not enough he is on the row,then a so called friend,stabs you in the back.Hats off to you for exposing this moron.God Bless.....................Spencer

That is what I am talking about. People really need to understand even if your on the row that you still have feelings and so does that persons loved ones. That is just cruel and down right BS.

Isn't there someone we could report this guy to? I have heard of this web site before too and checked it out. something needs to be done...but what?

I agree--this kind of stuff needs to be reported--is there not some kind of confidentiality rule/law or exploitation law that has been broken by doing this?This kind of S*** really ticks me off-i don't know how people who do this kind of thing sleep at night

Sherri

some people are sort of sick in their head I believe. And some can be really really mean, if they find out you have a beloved one in prison. I have been reading some comments on a web site about a mother who has 3 sons in prison. This woman lost all her sons in 1 time to the prison system, when they were really young (between 16 and 19) and then she gets reactions from people telling her the government needs to put a needle in her sons arms and kill them, or that she made them like they are, that she learned them to kill a man and that she should be locked away in a small room for life and her sons need to be tortured and murdered...no matter what the crime is they did, it's not her fault and nobody should ever talk to her like this, or anybody else who has a beloved one in prison :pissed:

People can be so terrible until they have a bad situation in their life...funny because I believe everyone has something " not so good" in their life or past or whatever so noone should speak bad to anyone...ignorance gives people diarhea of the mouth some times...do not throw stones if you live in a glass house...instead of nastiness they should comfort this mother..we are all human and GOD's children..so sad......:(

I emailed this guy as well but he never responded, probably because I asked him if he was paying the inmates the money he was making from selling his wares! I also know that he a letter up there from a lady I know whose daughter is on DR. I think he is SICK. Still, what goes around comes around ... you can't go around profitering from other peoples misfortune for ever.

this man has put a disclaimer on his web site...guess he got too many complaints. Yesterday I heard something on the news about a person who is setting up a museum with objects that belonged to serial killers, along with art they made. I wonder if it's the same man?

Thanks for the helpful advice. :-)

This just makes me sick!! Especially when I think of all the letters that have gone amiss between my friend and me!! This may be a paranoid reaction but what if that she-dog in the mailroom or another uncouth employee is intercepting & selling them?? We are missing two envelopes in which he told very personal ....what if? I'm afraid to look!

this is really disturbing! i cannot believe the nerve of this guy! how in the world is he obtaining items like photos??? i added my 2 cents to the "guest" book ~ at least he'll know someone else thinks what he's doing is WRONG!!!

oops....no guest book....sent email.....

Ebay was also having problems with individuals auctioning "murder memorabelia". As long as their is a demand from the sick puppies out there, there is always going to be some1 peddling it.

All at the expense of the inmates & their loved ones. Very very sad :(

It just makes me so sick that many people out here seem to get their kicks on others misfortunes!!
These sick people are just out here to make a buck & damn everybody that is involved!!!
I AM a firm believer in what goes around comes around, I have seen it happen many times & this guy will get his eventually!!

I strongly believe that too!

What comes around goes around...maybe in this life...maybe in the next!

well I looked! I'm actually relieved. As pathetic as the site is at least it's not like this huge library of just anyone's things! I hate that people like that are still getting this type of attention. Collectibles?? For crying out loud! Get a real job!

this is just disturbing talk about pouring alcohol on some deep wounds. let the families get some closure why do you need to me it worse for either set of victims??

The way he wrote his texts show a big lack of disrespect too...he probably got so many bad comments that he has put that disclaimer on there...
it must be really hard for both the families of the victims as the families of the one who committed the murders...they keep getting reminded of it every time

SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO LIMITS

Some people do have limits...it's just at others' expense :(

U GOT THAT RIGHT!

I may be mistaken (an age thingie), but some years ago the "copyright" laws was talked about in a forum and the point was brought up that ANYTHING with our name and/or handle that points to us, falls under the law, if it's used for profit.

-IF USED FOR PROFIT-

MAYBE THAT IS THE DECISIVE FACTOR?

I WAS JUST WONDERING IF I WAS BREAKING THE LAW BY USING THE MARGARET MEADE QUOTE WITH MY POSTS?

I AM SENDING A REPORT ON THIS WEBSITE TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RIGHT NOW..... THIS GUY IS REAL STUPID....


DONNA

Donna, did Amnesty react to the report you sent them about this?

I RECEIVED A NOTIFICATION THAT THEY WERE LOOKING INTO THIS SITE, BUT I HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING SINCE... I WILL TRY TO FIND OUT SOMETHING...

DONNA

I've have some dealings with the the inimitable "Ken" in the past. He was originally selling things on eBay, and was getting material by writing what appeared to be intensely supportive letters to convicted inmates and then selling the responses. In the case I became aware of, the inmate was unaware of what he was doing and stopped responding to him, though he continued to write to her long after I and others had let him know just what she thought of what he was doing and managed to get trading in such items banned from eBay at least. He responded with a bunch of e-mailed threats and general nastiness. Some time later I became aware that he had his own web site but based on several visits, he doesn't seem to be selling much--thankfully.

If you have a penpal or a friend in prison, especially someone one Death Row or whose case received a lot of media attention, please do tell them to watch out for this guy, as he can be quite sneaky.