By Robert Berrington

We received the following from Robert Berrington who has data of value regarding the ongoing infiltration and snooping by the Church and OSA. Just last week we were alerted to yet more attempts by the Church to get certain public to “cough up” information and names of their UTR friends or declared people’s activities. Whereas we cannot with certainty confirm the allegations being made against the people named in this article, we have allowed the publishing thereof as this is not the first time we have received similar reports.

Over to Robert:

How To Spot an OSA Robot

A few months ago I received a Facebook notification saying that Brian Scott-Dawkins was now one of my Facebook friends. I didn’t recall ever having sent him a request but I assumed I must have done so many years ago and that he only now accepted it, possibly due to the fact that he’d started waking up from the spell of the Cof $.

So we started chatting a bit and I referred him to Backincomm.

Shortly thereafter I was impersonated by a cult member via an email account they had created, rob.berrington@gmail.com. Using this address they emailed Scnafrica, fishing for information.

My girlfriend was then sent a crudely “altered” picture of me with (taken from my Facebook page). Obviously this was meant as a veiled threat of some sort.

And then I received an email apparently originating from a friend of mine (we were on staf together) trying to get me to admit to various things. A simple call to my friend verified that the email was a hoax, and thus I verified that yet again someone had “created” a bogus email address looking like it had originated from someone else. Although the IP address had been removed, I managed to uncover that these emails had been sent by Ciaran Ryan – possibly with some help from his IT-savvy son, Marco.

Steve Moore at some point also left a message for me on Facebook saying “We know what you are doing,” mwahaha!

My point is that some “friend” (read OSA imposter) on my Facebook now had information about myself, my girlfriend, my friends and ex Scientoligists I am still in touch with, and used this information to bug me and upset the people I love and care for.

I’ve noticed that a good few “Indies” and even declared SPs still have Sea Org members and other well-known Koolaid drinkers as Facebook friends.

What’s up with that? Are you simply obtuse or is there a more sinister reason behind this?

Look, for the love of God, if you are out of the Church or UTR, get these people off your Facebook account and out of your personal lives. These people have no right to your private information, and by staying connected to them, you are endangering the comm lines and privacy of your real friends.

The picture below says it all:

So how do I know that Brian was an imposter?

Firstly because I saw his name on a list of people who had recently contributed large amounts of money to Ideal Orgs. Duh, OSA… Secondly because BSD suddenly appeared as a “friend” of many SPs and people who were either declared or had publicly disavowed the cult such as Pierre van Mossevelde, Robert Horn, Ryan Hogarth, Shelley Ashurst and Francois Groenewald. The scary thing about this is that most of these people don’t remember having ever accepted or requested a Facebook friendship with Brian. (Hmmmm…) Thirdly because he never responded to this message I sent to him “So I see your name appearing in a recent donations list for ideal orgs. Convince me why I should believe you’re not an OSA plant?…” And fourthly, in hindsight, because all the stuff with myself and my friends being impersonated etc. happened shortly after BSD became my “friend”.

I’d like to suggest some pointers on how to spot an OSA plant both online and in the real world (and I welcome anyone to add to this list in the comments section):

Some Scientologist who hasn’t been on-lines or in the org in ages suddenly sends you a friend request. Don’t just accept this by thinking because you haven’t seen this person for so long they must be out or UTR. Always check with the person first – openly ask them why they are suddenly befriending you. If you don’t get a response, then you know. If you are UTR it’s just safer not to accept any “new” friend requests from Scientologists – you’re on your way out anyway!

You tell someone some of your upsets and the next day you get a call from the org to arrange an interview with you or to ask you directly what your issues with the org are.

The person appears on lists of those who have recently made large donations to Ideal Orgs or the IAS.

Does not originate his own disagreements.

Seems odd, in an indefinable way.

Is connected to other well-known, on lines committed Scientologists.

Does not attend ex members social gatherings.

Still heavily uses Cof$ terms such as “We need to take back our eternity.”

Lists CCHR, Narconon, Youth for Human Rights etc. as some of their interests, or has “liked” such pages on their facebook page.

Has SO members on their friends lists.

Has “SPs” or disaffected Scientologists as their friends, but is still obviously very “in” the Church.

Asks questions like “Why are you ill?” as a method of getting you to introvert and suspect that you are connected to this mythical thing called a “Suppressive Person.”

The “friend” is a person you did not know well to begin with, so why are they now friend requesting you?

There is very little activity on their Facebook account.

Sometimes it is not the real person who is now running the account but someone from OSA or someone working for OSA. In this case, communication from them sounds a bit too much like they’re trying to say things they believe the person they are pretending to be would say. It just sounds a little too contrived.

There is no pattern to the types of things they post.

Recent increased attacks or interest in you shortly after the friend request/acceptance.

The person simply appears as a FB friend one day. It may seem that this is from an old request which they only responded to now but I’ve seen it happen to many people, so I don’t know if they’ve found a way to simply befriend who they want?

Check your friends list from time to time. If you see the name/s of people you cannot remember befriending, then you can reasonably suspect that you are being spied on.

The person claims to have been out for a length of time yet still has fanatical viewpoints on what is considered “ethical” or “unethical”.

The person greets the ex member as if nothing is out of the ordinary and does not even hint at the possibility that they may no longer be going to the org or ask if you are still going to the org (those who have left really want to talk about it and share their own personal experiences).

In closing, this is my message to OSA:

Wake up – it is YOU who are creating your own enemies.

For those of you unfamiliar with Robert Berrington and his story, Tony covered it some time ago in and article which can be read here