Another day, another day of inanity at PFA

Let's see ... are they still name calling? Why yes! Still a group of oh so shocked (add descriptor here) clutching their pearls because people are frequenting a purse forum? Spending money on expensive bags? Shock! Horror! We especially loved the junior legal beagles and their skewed interpretation of sexual harassment. We're glad we aren't your workmates.

Still spewing racist and homophobic hatred? Still refusing to take it off your site? Sadly, yes. Still trying to get us to print their spew in comments here? Check - ain't gonna happen, though. We don't stoop to your level, Priscilla Wadsworth and Michael Tonello. And plastic mascot Donna Lehtonen. Bullies one and all.

It isn't fair comment or "parody". It's just a joke. A sad, bad one, made repeatedly by sad, mad people.

Can we suggest some new year's resolutions? Maybe turn your time to something truly productive (no, that doesn't include rummaging through other people's internet posts, though we know with your limited skills that may be all you're capable of). Something that would add some good into the world instead of envying others and hurling hatred?

But we're sure that's never crossed your minds. And if it did, it probably wouldn't find any room in there to take hold.

This.

Thanks to the commenter who posted the following; couldn't agree more:

"Most people who actively contribute to tpfa have found that place through their own experiences," I believe that most active contributors flocked to PFA because they have been allowed to say whatever they want no matter how vile or untrue. Priscilla does seem to have cracked down on the personal attacks. Before that, most of the posts were vicious attacks agains individual tPF members whose only crime was to post a reveal or share some personal story about something that they were happy about, worried about, etc. Since the posters were prevented from posting their rants on tPF, they turned to PFA as a forum for launching vile attacks on others. Now that those appear to be weeded out and not published, I'm not really sure how many "active" PFA posters there really are. Now people whine about having to click on ads - it's easy - don't click. People whine about the mods being mean to them - really? Maybe the mods were not allowing them to post their vile rants. People whine about Vlad making money. It is a business - if you don't like it don't patronize it. tPF needs income to offer the features it does - otherwise it would be a featureless blog like PFA or PFAE. People have made allegations that Vlad profits from fraud perpetrated by scammers on tPF. Where is the proof? And don't trot out the Japster dead horse. Yes she scammed people - but there is no evidence that anyone on tPF aided her or profited from it. People claim that somehow Vlad benefits from RAOK. How on earth is this supposed to work? Do those members who receive gifts send Vlad some cut - half of their chocolates? Or do people think all of the ROAK packages are going direct to Vlad and he - ??? sells it all on eBAY? Most of the claptrap on PFA is hysterical conspiracy-theory nonsense.

This week on PFA

Lots of racist and homophobic crap because Priscilla Wadsworth and Michael Tonello believe in allowing any and all comments, no matter how offensive or verging on hate speech.

Lots of nasty comments about pretty well everyone on PF. Jealous much?

Priscilla will continue to bray about the evil on PF, conveniently neglecting to mention that she apparently was (much) less than a stellar seller on Ebay herself - but, oh, riiiiiiight ... she's exempt from criticism. Though using PFA/TonelloLogic, this must mean ALL of Ebay is evil and full of scammers because that's what she tried to do to her buyer. Nice that she's following in the footsepts of her mentor, Michael, "no longer a registered member" Tonello. We're sure it's only a matter of time before she starts selling scarves with rips and stains and decides that equals mint condition. If the mint was chocolate covered.

Lots of whining about PF in general by people who appear to have been banned. Why they keep going back is a mystery to us.

Next week?

More of the same.

Blah, blah, (insert epithets here), we hate (insert name of poster or brand name here), those people are (add yet more epithets).

Because PFA believes it's their role to add more hatred to the world. Newsflash, P: dissent doesn't mean disseminating hatred. That doesn't change the world. It just contaminates it.

Racists unite at Priscilla Wadsworth + Michael Tonello's PFA

Since we wrote the last post, it's become clear that you can spew any kind of racist hatred over at PFA. In the past few days, Priscilla Wadsworth has repeatedly stated she sees nothing wrong with the anti-Semitic (and pretty much anti any group you can name) comments she allows to be posted on PFA. So bring it on! She'll publish anything! Well, maybe not anything. As someone commented here, the only comments she won't allow are those that are critical of her, Michael Tonello or Donna Lehtonen. But if you have something racist to say, the welcome mat is out at The Purse Forum Advisory.

So hey ... open season on anyone over at PFA. The blog's co-owner, Priscilla Wadsworth, says so. It reminds of us of that Shakespearean line ... full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. That's because they have nothing valid or worthwhile to say. And any reasonable comments or voices are drowned out in a cacaphony of hatred, ignorance and racism.

Priscilla comes from a relatively small town in Alabama but we're pretty sure that if she talked to any black or Jewish or Asian or homosexual neighbours, they might beg to differ with what she thinks is perfectly acceptable beliefs and language.

In any place, no matter how big or small, it's just wrong. It has nothing to do with "allowing people to speak their minds" or "preferring not to overmoderate comments - let people say what they like!" and everything to do with a stunning lack of awareness and flat out bigotry. And none of the illogical comments Priscilla has made defending the indefensible can get around that.

Priscilla Wadsworth and Michael Tonello's PFA - now your source for anti-semitism, too

We shouldn't be surprised that Priscilla and Michael published a comment that is a slur against Jews. After all, PFA has already repeatedly made nasty comments against Asians and homosexuals, and in its comments section allows people to be called every name going. Because that's just the high level, classy kind of discourse going on over there.

The comment was made Nov. 18 at 4:25 pm and in fact, Priscilla Wadsworth posted right after, so she both approved and knew of the comment.

It's disgusting. And anyone participating and overlooking those comments should be ashamed of themselves. But obviously, shame isn't in their repertoire of emotions.

Why all the hate, Donna, Michael and Priscilla?

It might be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. Trolling a place you say you don't like to be nasty and hateful ... day after day after day. And the PFA comments are getting worse and worse. Also funny how the ranters over at PFA are so ticked off because they say disagreement is not allowed at PF. Really? Just try to post a dissenting opinion on PFA and see how far that gets you before you are called something unprintable or someone with waaay too much time on their hands digs up your personal information and posts it and encourages people to harass you. Priscilla Wadsworth and Michael Tonello seem to have no issues with printing any of it.

Day after day, adding more lies and hate to the world. Hey, what an achievement!

Most people, encountering something they don't like, walk away from it. You just seem to wallow in it and feel that somehow, it's an accomplishment.

It's easy to whine about things and people you don't like - it happens every day at PFA. It's a lot harder to make a positive change in the world. Maybe try that for a change.

Makes sense to us

From our comments section...

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Priscilla is the puppet of MT and DL. She is obsessed with bashing Hermes and hates the same tPF ladies that they do. Coincidence? I think not. Here is her latest attack on Hermes. This is in a post about feeling cheated if you buy a Garden Party because she KNOWS that the Garden Party is not made by Hermes. Again it has the MT hallmark of lots of innuendo but little fact.

Apparently Priscilla was doing extensive googling and found a resume of one Volker Koch who is a leather craftsman.

Quoted from Priscilla: "Hmmmm..... he specialized in contract-work for Hermès under a company by the name of Maroquinerie Thierry in France. Looks like Hermès doesn't do all of their work alone because they need help from other companies, apparently!" This in reference to a resume of one Volker Koch which she found through extensive googling.

Too bad while Priscilla was googling away, she didn't do a more rigorous job. Of course I seriously doubt she was so concerned about the Garden Party that she was driven to google and just happened to find Koch's resume. Methinks someone may have put her up to this.

If you look at the Hermes annual report you will see that Hermes owns about 44% of Maroquinerie Thierry and Hermes Sellier SAS is one of the administrators.

Reading the resume of the craftsman she cited, it appears that he trained at Hermes and then worked in the Maroquinerie Thierry work shop.

So it appears that Hermes owns a significant interest in this work shop, trains at least some craftsmen, and controls part of the company/work.

I have no idea if they do the Garden Party work - or other work.

I do think her post is quite misleading as Hermes is significantly involved in Marquinerie Thierry - and it is totally unclear if this has anything at all to do with the Garden Party.

I honestly felt so sorry for Priscilla when everyone on PFA was bashing her early on. I am now baffled about why she is letting herself be a mouthpiece and front person for all of the trash that goes on at PFA.

Some day in the future when someone else is doing extensive googling, they are going to find her name and the garbage she spews and condones. I seriously doubt that it will serve her well unless she is applying for a job on the Jerry Springer show.

PFA a "rant blog"? Nah. Still a hate blog.

It seems to us that there is enough in the world that's awful that to willfully set out to spread hate, a la Michael Tonello, Donna Lehtonen and now Priscilla Wadsworth, is pretty sad. And frankly, bewildering.

So there are people out there who don't live in the kind of house you think they should in order to buy bags that you then scorn (but seem to not so secretly covet), and then allow strangers to call them all manner of ugly things? Sorry, we don't understand at all what purpose that serves. We really don't.

And before the hate-mongers at PFA get their knickers in a knot (again), we have never called anyone's place of work to harass them, we have never published anyone's personal information, we aren't stalking anyone, unlike what's gone on and continues to go on at PFA. We keep holding up a mirror to what you're doing over there and so sorry - we can't help it if you don't like your reflection. And as we've said, we will be thrilled to pull the plug on this blog the day you do. We have no interest in you other than to show people that your real agenda is not what you are writing, and that you have no business harassing, bullying and stalking people. And to give your victims a place to speak out and protest against what you are doing. The true "scam" on PFA is the lies being spread there. (And if anyone believes for a second that that Peter Nitz bag belongs to Priscilla, you're more gullible than even we thought. And that's saying something.)

So hey, Priscilla, maybe tomorrow wake up and decide you're going to make a positive difference in the world. Not trashing strangers. Not allowing other people to do so and taking some perverse "credit" in it. Maybe do something kind and loving towards others, instead of hateful and cruel. Wouldn't that be a wonderful choice.

Need proof Michael Tonello is still pulling the strings at PFA?

This comment was left anonymously here earlier this year. And other commenters noted this in the last post here. And it couldn't be more true:

"Tonello totally gives himself away when he mentions gigi123. I looked at her stats on TPF and she joined Aug.6, 2006, and posted 41 times and her last visit was a couple weeks later on Aug. 19,2006. I'm sure that with such a short stay on TPF that no one else remembers her, especially after FIVE YEARS!! Except Tonello who has some sort of personal issue with her.

Yet he still mentions her TPF name and somehow he got her real name and he mentions that as well."

Now why would Priscilla Wadsworth care about something that happened years before she joined PF? In fact, since she's mentioned her age as being 20 or 21, she would have been a teenager back then. We find it hard to believe she would have had much interest in someone on PF with 41 posts to their name. Without prodding from Michael Tonello, of course. We're sure his other beloved PF targets are right behind ... because he's still obviously involved in contributing to PFA.

Add of course PFA has to link everything back in some circular, unbelievably tenous way to PF. Clearly, for Priscilla Wadsworth, Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen, the entire world revolves around PF. Which is a whole new level of amusing. Let's see. Someone robbed a bank somewhere in the world. And their mother carries a purse. There MUST be a connection to PF - it's so nefarious!!!

We're sure tomorrow's breaking news over on PFA will be that somewhere, someone had something bad happen to them and it had some connection to purses.

Of course it did. Because they need a reason to keep going back to PF day after day.

Sofa King Bananas

Congratulations to Priscilla Wadsworth for inaugurating the Unhinged Anonymous club. Seriously, dear? You have nothing better to do with your time than suck up to Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen and stalk people in their footsteps? That's a shame. Because you seemed nice. Smart, even. But if you think it's ok to be stalking people online because you disagree with the way a private forum is run, that's a real shame.

We couldn't help noticing you excised any mention of your own personal information on PFA, but we guess everyone else's is fair game. Now why is that? Why is it ok to leave up comments naming someone as a prostitute - do you know this to be true? Would it be ok if someone wrote, "Priscilla Wadsworth, aka PriscillaW on Purse Forum, is really a hooker?" Of course not. And yet several of those comments are splattered all over PFA. Why? Oh, yes. Because some people appear to have more money or possessions than others, or perhaps annoyed someone on a bag forum. Really adult of all of you over at PFA.

Coming from someone who was so appalled to have her email splashed on PFA not so long ago, why would it be ok for you to do that to others? Or to perpetuate what was done?

Gee. Maybe it's because you're just fronting for Michael Tonello. Obviously, in your case, SFB stands for Sofa King Bananas. What a pity when the victim becomes the victimizer.

Let's play the Michael Tonello + Donna Lehtonen drinking game!

Get your beverage of choice handy, and please take a shot whenever the following show up on PFA:

- the word nefarious
- your curse of choice; their comments are peppered with them
- the word scam
- snide and outright nasty comments about Asians, homosexuals, religious minorities: basically anyone they have decided they don't like
- any fake, anywhere on the planet
- some dubious news item that has nothing to do with PF, but MT and DL will assume it does - 'cuz you know, their world revolves around PF!
- some personal information about a stranger neither Donna nor Michael has ever met
- any puffed up review or mention of his book
- any poster, moderator or person who has anything to do with PF
- any comment that assumes that anyone with more than they have must be lying/faking/nefarious/scamming
- take a double shot if you read a post that combines two or more of the above

Want to play the game in an oh so special way? Then you must have the Tonello Lehtonen Cocktail.

Add:
A gallon of bitters.
A bottle of lemon juice.
A dash of ipecac.
Top with festive sour grapes.

Remember - the glass MUST be half full!

And let sit for at least a decade so it festers in its own juices.

Enjoy - play often! And be prepared for a killer hangover.

Creepy

Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen's fascination with the buying habits of total strangers is flat out strange. They pore over PF, look at old threads, make judgments (usually erroneous) about what people have chosen to spend their money on ... and then proceed to do exactly the same thing. Post pictures of their own clothes, bags, homes, cars and junk ...

God forbid someone says a single negative word about anything they choose to spend their time doing, or their money buying. It won't be tolerated. And yet, they feel they have the right to spread lies about other people, post as others on forums, harass them at their places of work and homes. And encourage others to do likewise.

Why is this ok? Well, quite simply, it isn't.

But hey, it's just another example of TonelloLogic, where what they do is ok (authenticate from photos, post pictures of their possessions, etc., ad nauseum) but what others do is the predictable twaddle of nefarious, scam, blah, blah, blah. PFA has become a predictable blur of internet white noise - the same names over and over (all of whom Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen went after on PF and other forums and continue to pursue) so even though he's taken his name off the blog, it's clear with every post and comment that he's still behind it.

Not surprising, really. Just rather pathetic.

Why is it Michael Tonello's business...

Where anyone posts online?

Where they work? (Nice of him to have been calling people's offices and businesses ... someone has way too much time on their hands.)

What anyone buys, anywhere?

We'd just like to remind everyone what Michael Tonello's true goal is. It isn't to catch all those "nefarious scammers" he seems so fond of. It isn't to "shed light" on a single thing. It's just to get back at people who post on and run an online forum because they - gasp! - rightfully called him out and rejected him for being a jerk.

He says his site is a parody. We say he's the joke.

They're stalking again - or should that be still?

Notice the comments emphasis at PFA on long-gone posters? Wonder why?

It's the return of Stalkerella! Donna Lehtonen and her wacky, Madras clad sidekick Michael Tonello. (Madras? Really, Michael??)

No satisfying these two. If people post pictures, the items are fake. If they don't post pictures, why not? Must mean something terribly nefarious! If they don't post at all, where have they gone? THAT must mean something sinister. And how dare they deprive Donna and Michael of their sport of making fun of people?

Michael Tonello may have taken his name off his lousy blog but he hasn't gone anywhere, folks. Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen still = bully.

Keep watching for the names of long gone posters to be dredged up on PFA. Any time you see comments over there about grand fonds, melliesmom, floppykelly, gigi123 and a host of others, you're looking at the not so anonymous Donna and Michael. We've received a bunch of comments anout these people, all from Michael and Donna, all very nasty and no, we won't print them.

But know who's behind these when you read them over at PfA - Donna and Michael. Because quite simply, no one else cares.

Peace and rememberance

.... as the world commemorates ...

Maybe Bravo needs to know

Exactly who Michael Tonello is. Perhaps they would be interested in Michael Tonello's activities harassing people about Ebay sales and purses over a ten year period.

We find it difficult to believe this is the kind of person that NBC wants to give any profile to at all.

http://www.bravotv.com/contact

It's "yes, no, but yes" time again

As one of our commenters astutely pointed out, Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen have long ragged on PFers for daring to authenticate bags from photos. Cannot be done, they opined. Nada, nyet, non. And yet, since he started his hate blogs, Michael Tonello has been picking and choosing, by photo, which bags are authentic and which are not. And Donna Lehtonen has taken up residence at another blog happily pontificating about which bags are authentic. From photos. In fact, that was her specialty on PF. Well, not much of one, actually, since everything she looked at was fake, fake, fake.

Amazingly, there are professional authentication services for all kinds of things - not just handbags - that do just that: authenticate from photographcs. It is not new, nor is it radical.

But of course, it fits into Michael Tonello's plan for harassing people at PF. Though near as we can tell, Donna is just brainless and clueless. (Maybe that should be the name of their little detective agency.)

We also love the insistence by their followers (hello again, Donna!)that posters reveal in full glory whatever their collections may be. Otherwise, according to their rather dubious logic, they are lying about owning these things. We guess it's a twist on the old "if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it happen" theory, only it goes like this: if someone I don't know buys a bag I can't see because they won't post it for the world to judge, then it did not happen! The illogic is stunning.

And of course, this leads to another question: why is it their business? The answer: it isn't. So while they accuse posters on PF of being jealous and liars, once again, they're just projecting their own qualities on others.

Crystal clear

It couldn’t be clearer that Michael Tonello is still behind The Purse Forum Advisory. Why? Simple. No one else shares his particular vendetta against specific people associated with PF and parts of the forum.

Like gigi123. Like grands fonds. Like promoting Createurs de Luxe (and why they want to get into bed with him is beyond us. Several people have commented both privately to us and for publication here that knowing this, they would never now do business with this company) and his friend Peter Nitz at Luxury Zurich. Like the whole Hermes obsession. Quite frankly, no one but Michael Tonello and his sidekick Donna Lehtonen care a whit about those things.

He also has several, shall we say, unique turns of phrase that he has used consistently over all his hate blogs. And that always gives him away. We loved that the blog is now noted, at the bottom, as being a “parody”. Since Mr. Tonello doesn’t seem to know what the word parody means, allow us to enlighten him: a humourous imitation of a serious piece of writing. Exactly what Michael Tonello seems to feel he’s parodying is a mystery to us. In our dictionary, what he’s doing is spelled “harassment”.

So don’t believe for a second that because Michael Tonello took his name off his blog and put our blog title on his (and thanks again, mate – it’s driven a ton of traffic our way and we really appreciate it!) that he has nothing to do with PFA. As is his persistent habit, he’s just lying to PFA readers. Again. It’s just who he is.

Why does Michael Tonello want your IP address?

It's a good question for those who visit PFA to ask themselves. All web sites have the ability to track internet protocol information, if they use the appropriate software. (We have no interest in tracking you, contactng anyone who visits here or publishing any of your personal information.)

Michael Tonello has made no secret of the fact that he not only tracks his visitors, he actively looks up information like their names, city and street address and other contact inrformation.

Why would he need or want that information? Well, as the saying goes, past actions predict future behaviour. Mr. Tonello has frequently published people's street and work information and has contacted people with, shall we say, messages that are not warm and fuzzy and reassuring.

Don't think you're safer if you post agreeing with him. Michael Tonello has frequently published people's personal information if they so much as disagree with him.

Why does he care where you're located? Why does he want to post photos and personal information? Maybe it's time all his fans asked themselves that question; we assume you use anonymous and made up names on his blog for a reason. Ask yourself how you will feel when you become the target of Michael Tonello's very pointed interest in your personal information. And don't kid yourself - it's only a matter of time.

Coming soon to a remainder bin near you. Maybe.

Michael Tonello has been blathering about a new book for several years now (of course, it's always "just about to be published!") Supposedly, this latest opus is all about his time in Barcelona. We certainly hope that in addition to writing about how he scrounges around for various flotsam and jetsam to sell on Bonanza, he includes all the details about his stalking people, and his PFA blog. Doesn't seem as though he's had time for much else, so we suspect it will be a rather thin memoir. But as shown in book number one, he has a very active imagination, so anything's possible.

We just think his publisher, assuming there actually is one, would be ever so interested in the activities he's really been involved with for the past few years. We find it difficult to believe they'd tolerate an internet bully among their other, real authors.

So what?

So there may be a place on Purse Forum where moderators gather and sometimes say mean things about posters. So what? Don't all forums, workplaces, etc. have a place for those who work there to talk privately? What's that? People aren't nice all the time? We only have to look at PFA to see this in action.

We've had plenty of comments submitted here (and no, we didn't publish them, as the purpose of this blog is not the Purse Forum) about how the threads prove Michael Tonello right. About what? Actually, if they're real (and there's no way to know) what they seem to show is that his and Donna Lehtonen's antics were likely the subject of distress for a very long time. Exactly what we've been saying here.

Mr. Tonello has made up so much of what he and his commenters have posted, why should we believe this?

Show us some actual thread content and not titles. Oh, you can't? Gee. Shocking.

Thanks, Michael!

We love that you prove us right with every post and every comment that you allow to be published on your blog.

We love that you keep sending people to our blog. Readership grows day after day!

We love that as every day passes, your true intentions become more transparent. (Sorry, we don't buy the "I sold PFA to someone else" fable. It's just another in an unending stream of lies.)

Kisses!

Who's behind this blog

Since there seems to be some confusion and speculation (perhaps you are new to our blog, as we've discussed this before), here is what we can tell you.

None of us (and yes, there is more than one person at Exposed) has ever been mentioned by Michael Tonello on his dirty little blog. Not real names, not screen names from anywhere. Not one of us is a moderator or an owner or even a very frequent poster at PF. Nor have we met Michael Tonello or Donna Lehtonen. Therefore, we will not publish guesses about who is supposedly behind this blog (and nearly all of them have come - surprise! - from Michael Tonello, especially the most recent where he continues to target the lady who called foul on the scarves he sold her TEN YEARS AGO on Ebay. Mr. Tonello clearly has a hard time getting over traumatic experiences.)

If you saw someone getting mugged on the street, wouldn't you do something to help, even though the victim would be a stranger? This is the exact same situation. We don't have to know the people targeted by Tonello + Lehtonen to know this is wrong. Obviously, the good Samaritan concept is unfamiliar to Michael and Donna.

We were approached by people who had been targeted by Michael and Donna over a period of years, and listened to their stories. And we were disgusted. And we believed then and now that people needed to know that the Michael Tonello who was presenting himself as some kind of refined luxury expert was in fact someone who tracks IP addresses, publishes personal information, makes wild and unsubstantiated claims about people, and then does this at their homes and places of work for years. Joined by his friend Donna Lehtononen, who has been similarly guilty of setting up fake accounts in other peoples names across a broad spectrum of forums/blogs/internet sites to post as them, and harassing people. Not so refined, in our opinion.

That is at the heart of why we have no intention of revealing who we are. Why set ourselves up to be stalked like these poor souls? And no intention of publishing the details of any action being taken against the two of them - why would we?

We have also been very clear since day one about the purpose of this blog, and when we will stop. If fact, it will give us great pleasure to stop this blog as that will mean Michael Tonello has also put the lid on his PFA garbage can. (And no, him removing his name from PFA doesn't count.)

We're ready to see the PFA garbage taken out for good.

An advocate for no one but himself

We read with amusement Michael "Sherlock Holmes" Tonello's vivid pursuit of a scam artist. Guess it takes one to know one.

For those who can't seem to find our earlier posts enumerating some of Mr. Tonello's activities deserving of this title, let us briefly recap.

He lied about owning PFA and denied it repeatedly. Shook his little fist and stamped his little feet and threatened to sue the "owner". Recently took his name off. Lying again.

As for "stealing the name" of his blog, well, that's quite rich. Truly. 'Nuff said about that. We're pretty sure our readers can figure it out. But we appreciate that you've added "exposed" to your blog - we love the additional traffic, including a couple of media outlets - keep it coming!

And yes, he did indeed stalk people over years, publishing personal and work information and yes, actually harassing people at their jobs. Don't believe the denials.

His goal is not avenging, exposing, or going after anyone but the owners of PF. Why? Poor widdle Michael can't stand that he was booted. Why else would he keep going back?

If anyone reading this has been legitimately conned out of money by a fake reseller, go to your local police. Giving your personal information to Michael Tonello is an invitation to being harassed into eternity. After all, what else does he have to do with his time? Not much that we've seen.

And we'll say this again too - we are happy to stop posting as soon as he does. Until then, someone needs to point out his lies and the true nature of his blog. We're happy to play that role as long as we have to.

He loves us not, he loves us

Must be, since yet again, Michael Tonello is hiding behind someone else's name Only this time, he picked ours! Thanks for obsessively reading us, Michael. Though we still don't understand your rabid fascination with your poor Ebay trades and being booted off Purse Forum and Ebay. Really dearie, it's time to move on.

But for all your braying about truth, it's rather predictable to see you revert back to your natural state - lying yet again.

Gladys Kravitz. AKA Michael Tonello

We love YouTube ... so interesting to come upon old videos of Mrs. Kravitz from the American series Bewitched. Always with her nose in other people's business. Always seeing plots. Scams. Nefarious goings on!

Rather like Michael Tonello. Busy pecking away at his keyboard, Googling all and sundry. Because if someone chooses to spend a lot of money on handbags, why, that's awful! How dare they! If someone chooses to post pictures of themselves online that Mr. Tonello does not approve of, indecent! Terrible! Couldn't be real!

Michael Tonello fancies himself some kind of avenging angel of .... well, we're not sure. Internet poseurs? It actually makes sense. Takes one to know one.

Fake

We find it highly amusing how Michael Tonello faffs on about how he's all about "exposing" and "reporting" fakes and scams.

Highly.

Since, of course, he is the ultimate fake himself. Perhaps he should buy himself a dictionary, because he seems to have confused the word "report" with "stalk" and the word "expose" with "lie".

Folks, he LIED about being behind PFA. Lied, and lied, and lied. Over and over and over. His lies are actually too numerous to count. Threatened to sue (himself). He goes after people he claims misrepresent themselves, yet we do believe he posted a photo of himself in Bob Lehtonen's car on StyleForum.net and tried to pass it off as his. Tries to pass himself off as an expert. Hysterical how he's taken out his little sleuth outfit to "investigate" the latest Hermes fake .... oh, by the way. Some of those photos have watermarks from the legitimate owners still on them. Guess you need a larger magnifying glass, friend. And anyone going to him for help? We'd be really careful about handing over any personal information to this dubious character.

Tries to pass himself off as wealthy. Because all the wealthy people we know have stalls on Bonanza selling scarf booklets. Keeps them occupied between charity balls and cruises in the south of France, we guess.

And heaven forfend someone should make the grave, grave error of criticizing his work of literary genius (a work of bad fiction that was obviously miscategorized) ... his poor benighted ego just can't handle that! We can think of lots of authors ... doesn't make them worthy of respect. Does Mein Kampf ring a bell, Mikey? He was an author, too.

We especially love it when he gets all hot and bothered about what we write here. Can't handle the truth, Mikey? That's OK. The rest of us know it when we see it. Even if you don't. And we're happy to keep pointing it out to you.

Toxic

We can't help feeling a tiny bit sorry for Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen.

How sad must it be to see the world as they do.

That it's full of dishonest people. That everyone lies and scams and cheats. That no one can be trusted. That they are the only ones who have some special truth.

It's a lonely, paranoid, awfully constrained outlook to have. If they didn't project these qualities onto innocent people, we might even feel sorry for them. Almost.

Lies, lies, damned lies

Michael Tonello, stating the obvious that he is two, continues to present a hilarious bunch of contradictions, as does his sidekick Donna Lehtonen.

To recap ... he is not an advocate for anything other than promoting himself. His objective is not, as he says, to save people from losing money or buying fakes (because if they've bought what he's selling, they've bought the biggest fake of all). His objective, which he has yet to admit to, is to harass and stalk people, to intimidate them into not posting on several forums where he has set up his bully pulpits, and to strike back at a PURSE forum where he was banned. That's it, folks. That's always been the only motivation behind his blog. If he tells you anything else, he's lying, plain and simple. Substitute Donna's name for Michael anywhere in the above paragraph, because she's equally guilty.

And they're quite comical about turning the truth when it suits them. Couldn't help noticing that Donna, the shrillest of the shrill when it comes to stating that nothing can be authenticated from photos, is now the star authenticator over at EffenHaute.

And we'd sure like to know if Michael Tonello was reporting all that income from his purse reselling days. Didn't he write in his book that the reason he got into reselling was because he didn't have the papers to work legally in Spain? Hmmmm. It does make one wonder. And didn't Donna have bags shipped from her Florida store outside the state to retrieve them elsewhere .... gee, wonder why she would have done that? Another case of pot, kettle, you've got to be kidding us.

Michael Tonello takes great delight in making things up and then not realizing he is describing .... well, himself. He's the one who's been booted from Ebay and various forums, he's the one who sold dubious mechandise to people, he's the one who stalks and harasses people on his blog. With his trusty sidekick Donna Lehtonen, of course, no slouch in the bullying department herself.

Hey Michael and Donna ... if you're so concerned about "exposing" scams and liars, a) take a look in the mirror and b) maybe put your time to some actual good use. Volunteer. Help someone. Maybe make a positive difference in the world instead of spewing the crap you do.

Years of that is nothing to be proud of. But hey, it's no surprise that you two are.

Do you...

Let's play a game.

You break the rules on a forum or an auction web site and you are banned.

Do you ... take your business/comments to another venue?

Or do you ... target every poster/person you feel wronged you for years, stalking their threads, their responses, their home addresses, their online footprint, and then publish derogatory comments about them?

You lie about being behind a blog created to essentially harass people (see above) and deny, deny, deny being the person responsible and deny, deny, deny your motives (yes, see above ... notice a pattern here)?

Do you ... blythely ignore your previous denials because you figure your readership is too stupid to notice?

Or do you do the adult, dare we say grown up thing, and move on. Find something productive to do with your time. Perhaps actually contribute something positive to the world.

But no. There are little scarf booklets to be sold (a guy's gotta pay rent and buy those used Thom Browne suits SOMEHOW, after all) and people must pay.

We continue to be amazed (though we really shouldn't be) that PFA still goes on (and on and on and on) about long buried threads, and petty grievances about bags. Why, PFAs owner is spending more time on PF than anyone else, it seems. A curious case of obsession with something he can't stop howling is sooooo awful.

Do you think it's quite right?

No, neither do we.

The Wizard of Nothing

Mr. Tonello denied being the owner of PFA for the longest time. He posted as Michael J. Tonello threatening to sue the "owner" of PFA, if you'll recall.

He blustered and was most indignant. He kept saying it wasn't important who was behind PFA. Well, before he revealed himself as the owner, that is.

Remember the end of The Wizard of Oz? When the seemingly powerful wizard was revealed as a little man with big pretensions? Sounds awfully familiar.

Now that we know who is behind PFA, he's been revealed as yet another little man who sustained his position with tricks and lies. And you know the saying, lie big, lie little.

If he had no problem lying for years about being behind PFA, what else is he lying about?

Guess who spends more time on PF than anyone else?

We're feeling generous - the first two guesses don't count.

If you said Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen, you win! For two people who have nothing but disparaging things to say, they sure do spend a lot of time there. Rummaging through old threads. Being nasty about people (strangers, we would like to reiterate yet again). Busy, busy, busy. On PF and then rummaging around for rubbish photos and creating rubbish posts on their blog.

We think it's kind of funny. They keep saying they hate PF. It's an awful place, they say, over and over. They hate the people there. And yet ... they can't stay away. Adding to the hit count for the owners, and adding to the ad dollars, too. Nice work, Donna and Michael!

Is it that you haven't yet convinced yourselves that you don't like the site and its denizens? Do you need to sneak back every day under multiple IDs (also increasing the membership, we might add, and we know that bigger member numbers mean bigger ad dollars, so keep those fake memberships going, all of you bitter banned PFers!) just to convince yourselves how awful it is?

Imagine the scenario this way: You eat at a restaurant that makes you ill, or whose food you don't like. But you go back every day, for multiple meals - just to make really sure the food is as bad as you thought on first taste.

A bit dim, aren't you, Michael and Donna? Unless, of course, you really, really do like PF and just can't stay away.

Logic fails Michael and Donna

So the fact that someone said they didn't receive two items bought from Michael Tonello means, in their twisted logic that:

a) they were lying about feedback left on Ebay (no way to show that this wasn't for a completely different transaction, now was it? And not everyone left negatives for sellers because of the fear of retaliatory feedback - that's why the system changed a few years ago, folks.)

b) this person lied about everything! Because that's just how it works with TonelloLogic. But again, if you apply it right back to him, shouldn't it mean the same thing?

c) this proves to Donna Lehtonen that she didn't go after this person on PF. Um .... how? Still her word, and if you apply TonelloLogic, well ... you see the problem, we think.

Again, worth pointing out: two presumable adults, obsessed with an Ebay transaction nearly a decade old, and being banned from a place to talk about purses. This apparently gives them licence to have their internet tantrums.

Grow up.

Getting warmer

Getting to the heart of why Michael Tonello started his hate blog is like lancing a boil. A lot of pus has to come out before the entire mess can start to heal.

So Mr. Tonello's screeds against various resellers and Ebay transactions from the stone age is rather enlightening, we believe. The man cannot let go. I mean, we ask you, is this normal? Do you even remember your Ebay transactions from 2003, good or bad?

What grown man spends his days burrowing through years old Ebay feedback, publishing the personal information of people he is presumably busy Googling, and stamping his little feet over being banned from a PURSE forum? We suspect he's in a category all his own.

We know this hurts, Mr. Tonello, but the boil really must go. And you'll feel ever so much better when you focus on more positive things.

Take two paracetamol and DON'T call us in the morning.

Thank you, anonymous

We like this comment. Thought it bears highlighting...

Does he have anyone else to talk to? Besides Donna, his dimwitted billfold beard?

I saw the guy on YouTube videos as larambla17 (ouch. painful to watch) and as himself hawking his book. The thing that struck me is what a boring little man this is. I couldn't make it halfway before clicking him off.

Can you imagine being so boring that you are a supporting character in your life story? Can you imagine being less interesting than an inanimate object, a handbag? He acknowledges his role as secondary to the bag with his own book title. The Birkin gets full cover, big font. The My Life in Pursuit gets a toss-away spot on the cover and tiny font. Even his editors and publishers knew he was more boring than a handbag.

A man that boring is forced to talk to himself if he wants to talk at all. I'm sure even his dimwitted wallet finds him tedious beyond words unless he's preaching about her favorite obsession: How other rich people aren't quite as good as she is and how every other bag out there is fake.

True nature

Think about this for a moment.

Michael Tonello is a 52 year old man who has bitter vendetta against a purse forum. And is now taking public shots at woman he has never met ... because she happens to be wealthy and have a large collection of luxury items.

If this was a kid, you might expect this kind of frankly childish behaviour. But from a grown man?

We wouldn't expect any less from you, Michael. And you've shown that we certainly shouldn't expect more.

Do the words "grow up" mean anything to you? Try it. You just might come to like it.

Through a mirror, darkly

PFA and Michael Tonello are just full of contradictions. To the point that this post should probably be called "what I hate, I love".

Hates resellers? Check!
Is one? Check!

Hates PF? Check!
Can't stay away from it? Check!

Is gay? Check!
Publishes comments that are derogatory to homosexuals? Check!

Says you can't authenticate anything from photos? Check!
Calls out bags as fake from photos? Check!

Takes down his personal information and that belonging to Donna Lehtonen? Check!
Allows anyone else's on his blog? Check!

Says he isn't behind PFA? Check!
Says he is behind PFA? Check!

Claims to be out after scammers? Check!
Posts as other people all over the internet? Check!

Claims that everyone at PF is a bad and dishonest? Check!
Is no longer a registered user on Ebay? Check!

Really, we just don't understand how Michael Tonello remembers who is he is from one day to the next. Well, here's a helpful offer. If he forgets, as he seems prone to do, he can just clip this out and put it where he can see it. It will save him the trouble of making all the visits he pays to us, though as ever, we do appreciate the traffic.

And today on the playground

In her own words, Donna Lehtonen. We believe she is in her 50s, though it's hard to tell from this. Sounds like the kind of "sticks and stones" trash talk little kids use.

theduchessofH said...

Michael, there are some comments that need **** on this post.

The TPFE has a few of their so called facts wrong about me.
I'm NOT my husbands fourth wife; but I definitely am his LAST wife. lol. My son IS Canadian and was born IN Canada, as was I; as was my husband. Our son will be attending college IN Canada this fall.

I have never posted anyones real name or personal information on the internet. I have posted the names of some purse forum members, and changed their PF (in brackets) name. Names such as mrsspankles, mrsskankles, mrscankles, (mrssparkles), smelliemom (melliesmom10), Greenteeth (Greentea),PeanutButterCups (PeanutBabyCakes),Fladulence (Vlad, aka Flad, in the 'Starbucks Fail thread), Dregs (Megs),Crying Jag (Jag), and a few others that I fail to recall at the moment.

Hardly personally revealing info, in my opinion; but I could be wrong.

And I can't leave out Grand Fibs (Grands Fonds)
And because turnabout is fair play, for myself; some creative person came up with The duchess of Herpes (duchess). lol.

Shout out to Flossy Pigaro (Flossy Figaro)

Elizabeth Smart

What does the harrowing ordeal of Elizabeth Smart have to do with Michael Tonello? Lots, as it turns out.

Poor Mr. Tonello simply cannot get over an Ebay transaction from 2002. In his blog, he asks a commenter if they would be able to get over someone breaking into their home and stealing their electronics.

Ms. Smart, as many of you may know, is the young American lady who was abducted by a deranged man at 14 and raped nearly daily for 9 months before she was rescued. When you see her in the media talking about her ordeal, she is the embodiment of grace, resilience and the human spirit. She is focusing on positive things in her life. Where no one would blame anyone if this had crippled them emotionally, she has been able to move on.

Mr. Tonello, on the other hand, simply cannot get over some Ebay transactions that did not go to his satisfaction in 2002. He cannot get over his experiences on a purse blog. These terrible things are clearly gnawing away at him, to the point where he has remained rather focused on the people who bought from him and were apparently unhappy with their purchases. Focused to the point of writing a blog whose comments and posts harass many of the people who spoke out at the time of these transactions years ago by printing personal information and threatening comments.

In the end, it's embarrassing to put Mr. Tonello and Ms. Smart in the same sentence. One of the worst things you can possibly imagine happened to one of them. One has the wisdom and maturity and grace to see a situation for what it is, not allow it to define her life, and to seek satisfaction and happiness (by helping others, as it turns out). That person is 24 years old.

Somehow, we think a break in or a bad Ebay deal wouldn't even be a blip in her day.

A comment worth highlighting

Go to www.toolhaus.org and enter ebay user ID won4the$ which is Michael Tonello's ebay ID. These are some of the negative/neutral reviews he has received:

"Over two weeks later, and I still have not received what I paid for."

"Customer held item hostage, took a month to return, Unprofessioal $$ refunded"

"DEADBEAT BUYER - REFUSED PAYMENT FOLLOWING WINNING BID"

"never received" "Not so great condition, but super delivery. Next time I will inquire more info."

"No HS tag, stain, but I love the scarf so I guess it goes with the territory"

"Sold me a misrepresented item then called me a sucker.Im deeply hurt by this man"

"Doesn't understand that an echeck takes 3-7 days to clear! AVOID"

"Freaked out and overreacted. AVOID. Not a good ebayer."

NO WONDER they booted him from ebay!!!!! Complaining about flossyfigaro? Pot, Kettle anyone???

Good question

Several people commenting here have asked why a 52 year old man would be so obsessed with women and their handbags.

We think that's a fair question.

So we'd love to have Mr. Tonello answer it. Go for it, Michael. Tell everyone the real reason behind your little blog project. No one's buying what you're selling (or should we say reselling) about being oh so concerned about people's financial well being as they buy and sell on Ebay or wherever. Or their ability to post or not on a handbag blog.

After being pushed and denying it for a long time, you finally came clean about writing that piece of trash (blog, book, take your pick). So how about going all the way and telling people the real reason why?

Or you can just continue to let us speak for you.

A little honesty, please

Michael Tonello still hasn't been honest with his readers about why he started his PFA blog. Or about why he continues it. And it's very interesting to us that we have had two comments in total (of hundreds) that we did not print because the language was foul and in keeping with PFAs style, not ours.

PFA is what it is because Michael Tonello allows (and we suspect, writes many of) those comments.

We love it that he finally admitted to being the owner of PFA, despite many denials. And we also were delighted to see that he admitted to writing reviews for his own book under different alters and that consequently, those alters were responsible for a lot of nastiness over several blogs and forums. Were sales that poor that you needed to puff them up by pretending to be a bunch of people who liked the book, Michael? As Robin Williams said as part of a comedy routine about Tennessee Williams, that's not writing. It's typing on a page. And wait. Didn't you jump all over other people for pretending to be someone they weren't or own things that they didn't? Guess it's ok when you do it, Michael.

But we digress. We're waiting for Mr. Tonello to come clean - all the way. Come out, come out, Mr. Tonello. We're all waiting...

Seems the folks over at PFA are slow learners …

Michael Tonello denied being the owner of The Purse Forum Advisory for a long time. Now he’s asking the owners of this blog to give him their names. Anyone providing their contact information to Michael Tonello would be very foolish indeed, given his past. Why would we want to subject ourselves to that? Indeed, why should anyone be subjected to unwelcome online harassment – contact at their work place, contact at their homes through email and telephone calls – because Michael Tonello has decided he doesn’t like something they wrote on a purse blog, of all things?

We suggest that anyone questioning why this blog started go back and read the comments and posts over at PFA. Have a towel ready because it’s likely to make you feel like you need a shower, all those curses and the nasty comments directed from “anonymous” to people they’ve never met. If you think it’s ok to trash talk strangers and smear their personal information all over the Internet, we shake our collective heads.

Maybe all of the PFA commenters doing that should have the courage of THEIR convictions. If you’re going to call someone names and print their personal information, post under your real names. After all, you’re the ones who trust Michael Tonello so very much.

Not missing much

Thanks for the invitation, Mr. Tonello.

Are you saying that “the owner” of PFA didn’t say over and over that Michael Tonello had nothing to do with the blog?
Are you saying that, posting as Michael J. Tonello, you said you had nothing to do with the blog and were planning to unleash your lawyers on “the owner” (have fun suing yourself, it seems)?
Are you saying that bags can’t be authenticated from photos and yet you proclaimed several bags as undeniably fake on PFA? And called their owners scammers and fakesters for no good reason that we could see other than personal dislike?
Are you saying that there is some underground, covert business to actively sell fakes (based on the photos in which bags can’t actually be authenticated as fake, according to you), and yet you haven’t shown a shred of credible proof?
Are you saying you didn’t print people’s personal information repeatedly, despite posters asking for it to be taken down?
Are you saying that as reconfortante and advent and Lord knows who else, you didn’t post as other people and take a rather intense personal, and over the top interest in people on StyleForum, GQ and PF?
Are you saying you didn’t take a rather obsessive interest in some people to the point of repeatedly posting about them, printing personal information and pejorative comments and threats against them from commenters?

Whatever appeared on that site was either written by or permitted by you. So what exactly did we get wrong here, basically mirroring what you’ve said in various places, over and over, and reading what’s been written on PFA? Um, nothing.

And why is it you want to fight? We don’t. We just want people to see you for who and what you are. Thanks awfully for helping with that, and for continuing to drive traffic here.

Seems like drinks are on you, Mr. Tonello. But given your history, we think we’d prefer to be teetotal.

Cyberharasser arrested; charged

We see some interesting parallels here. And we're heartened to know that this kind of behaviour has consequences.

The video shows the victim talking about her experience. The text below will update you.

http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/05/13/6638282-online-businessman-bully-pleads-guilty-

Also please check out this site, www.aftab.com, for more information on cyberharassment and cyberstalking and what you can do about it.

Comments that matter

In the roughly two months we have had this blog, there have been nearly 700 comments. 700. Not all of them are supportive of what we are doing here and that's fine. We are grateful that these people chose to express themselves calmly and without name calling and they are entitled to their opinion. And for those reasons, we published their comments and would do so again. It shows that dissenting opinions can be offered without being offensive and resulting to childish and obscene name calling.

But the vast majority are people whose lives have been touched in an ugly way by Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen. He started a blog and allows commenters on it malign total strangers with unproven allegations. She chimed in, repeatedly. His own posts did the same thing as his commenters. He continues to do that to this moment, as far as we are aware. He has allowed covert and outright threats to be posted. People have related stories of being threatened at home and at work because of things written about them on PFA. Some we have published; others, we have been asked not to publish and we respect that. In fact, we have received many comments with information and have been asked not to publish them and we have respected that, too. We appreciate the tips and ask you to keep it coming.

He has allowed the posting of information that would identify people in the real world. Obviously, this has put them at risk of real, not "I'm posting as anonymous so I can hide behind that and call you names" harm. And he and his followers think that's ok.

He admits to having posted fake reviews of his book under various names and he thinks that's ok too. Maybe the book would have stood on its own merits but because of his admission, now no one will know how many of the reviews are from honest readers or from the author trying to pump up book sales. Interesting that he appears to have so little faith in his own work.

He admits to having posted as various people on a number of forums and he thinks that's ok too. Remind yourself of some of the things he did as those alters. And ask yourself if any of these things are truly ok.

We can't help but notice that when he was denying being the owner of PFA he blustered as Michael J. Tonello. Hey all you fans over at PFA - feel lied to by him yet? He's still hiding behind the name of the blog. He's still denying the real reasons for starting it. And he still thinks it's ok.

We don't. And we're proud to keep saying it.

Too much time on his hands

Sure must be the case. Because if you do a search on the name of Mr. Tonello's darling blog minus the blogspot.com, it's amazing what comes up. He's been the proverbial little busy bee, posting hither and yon and spreading his own unique brand of joy on the interwebs. We'd tell him to grow up but we think, sadly, that this stunted state of affairs is likely to be as tall emotionally as he will ever grow.

We wish no ill to Mr. Tonello. We do wish he would focus on the good things in life instead of peering in the windows of other people's lives and seeing shadows and conspiracies where none exist.

Blogger issues

If your comment was not published, it's because Blogger was having update issues and wiped out anything that was approved after it's planned outage Wednesday evening. They say they are restoring them but we wanted to let you know it was them, not us!

We love our fans

We’re delighted you find us so very intriguing. Really, though it’s just another facet of narcissism, isn’t it, to take such delight in being written about, even if what is being said isn’t terribly flattering?

Because people’s opinions of you are, shall we say, low. And it seems you haven’t learned a thing in the past few weeks. You are still dragging innocent people’s names through your muck and allowing people who comment on your site to do the same thing. Is that what your mama taught you? Naughty, naughty.

Allowing people to speculate about others on your site (yes, speculate is a euphemism for lie) is nasty, Mr. Tonello. But everyone is on to your real agenda – and it has nothing to do with helping anyone. We plan to stick around until you figure out a more constructive way to channel your tantrums. But we hear it can take toddlers time to learn how to handle their negative emotions. Have a few rusks to teethe on whilst your growing pains work themselves out. It might help. Or as the punchline to an old joke about a flasher goes, interesting, but does it come in adult sizes? We doubt it.

Mirror, Mirror

We want to say we're sorry for Michael Tonello. Sorry if he doesn't like seeing what he's written laid out here. All those alters, all those interesting comments he's made over the years. He's saying he doesn't think what's being written is the truth but ... all we've done is hold up a mirror. So again using TonelloLogic (which, frankly, is like saying jumbo shrimp), is he REALLY saying he DIDN'T mean all the things he's written? Because if what he's said as luxeguru and advent etc. is untrue, then what he is so vehemently insisting upon at PFA must also be untrue, by the application of TonelloLogic. So he DIDN'T post his own comments shilling his own book? Didn't post as other people on StyleForum.net and GQ.com and elsewhere?

It's all quite a puzzle. Reading Michael Tonello's work on PFA should carry a warning: caution - may be headache inducing.

But then, nothing is quite as it seems at PFA because they seem to be using a rather distorting fun house mirror.

Michael Tonello says you can't authenticate a bag from photos. But then proceeds to pick out photos of bags he says are fake so he can mock their owners. Seems he's an expert on all sorts of brands now. All those paid authenticating services had better watch out!

Michael Tonello says an entire site is bad because it has a few posters he doesn't like or suspects of (yawn) nefarious doings! (Can we all chip in and buy him a thesaurus and a book on common English usage?) Remind us again - we believe he is shown as no longer a registered user on Ebay, where he sold his little trinkets as won4the$. So maybe he has personal experience with this theory after all.

Michael Tonello (aka Chicken Little) says beware! Sites are full of scams! He is really only looking out for you - there are nefarious scams EVERYWHERE. You just need to use common sense, which is in very short supply over at PFA.

Michael Tonello feels he has the right to say whatever he wants about people. People he's never met, by the way. Why is that? And is turnabout fair play?

So we say buyer beware. And nowhere is that more important than when you are reading what is being dished out on PFA, or what Michael Tonello is writing online. Because one day he'll tell you it's the truth. And the next ...

How utterly apropos!

We had to laugh when we saw this charming description of Senor Tonello's neighbourhood, Las Ramblas. Between that and the fact that he lives in reassuringly close proximity to several sex shops and shows, now we know why he finds Barcelona so much to his taste:

Las Ramblas is a popular tourist attraction in its own right. Any time during the day or night several thousands tourists will be meandering along the Ramblas soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the activities.

However there is also another group of individuals that are attracted to the Ramblas for a completely different reason. They are interested in taking advantage of the tourists. Who are they? Pickpockets and scam artists!

Sound familiar?

We don't make this stuff up, folks.

http://www.gq.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=538827

We especially love this part of Jason85s reply. Gee. Alters. Posting as someone else. Wondering if they are gay (and the sentiment wasn't meant in a nice way.) NO. Get out. Really???:


What really caught my attention was when you said that you "discovered my alter ego." Whoever started that "Is Jason gay" thread may or may not have been you, but I am 100% positive that you posted later on under "spyeye." Even Twist thinks it's you, based on what he told me in the PM he sent. You have about a billion other alter agos, which isn't really shocking. You claim that you're not "stalking me," but not only do you stalk me in this forum, you mention me in other forums, as well. Please don't even try to prove your innocence with one of your many alters that posted on Style Forum today. http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?p=3231989#post3231989
Someone PM'd me a while ago saying that they believe it's you, and I'm not really that surprised. This just proves that you use your alters to obsess over(scratch that, I mean attack) me, not only on this forum, but on other ones. You even ripped off the last paragraph where you wrote "Oh, and in case anyone is interested, I did a lot of shopping this past weekend; think Gulfstream, Veyron, Monaco, Breguet, etc. (haha)" off the guy's thread in Style Forum, thinking it'll be smart and funny. In other words, you're not really unique. You're unoriginal!

Some things Michael Tonello seems unable to understand

1. We know you'd like to believe otherwise, but we aren't affiliated with Purse Forum. We HAVE seen our friends slimed on your blog, though, as well as other people we also presume are just as innocent. We didn't care for it. As we said the other day, you don't have to be mugged to know it's wrong and try to help if you see a mugging in progress. And since your PFA propaganda mugging blog doesn't allow opposing views, we feel this blog is necessary. Also, since up to very recently you denied (and denied, and denied) being the owner of Purse Forum Advisory, we felt it was important to highlight that lie. Why? Because ...

2. You may not like it but all we are doing is drawing attention to the things you yourself have written for many years. Maybe you needed a better editor.

3. No one believes there is a higher purpose or noble calling behind PFA. Except, sadly, you. It's obvious that your rationale for running PFA is simply to create havoc in people's lives. And as long as your readers were unaware of that, they might have been more likely to buy into your BS. Remember folks, this is all about a bad Ebay sale from years ago. And being denied posting privileges on a forum about purses. Seriously. It is to laugh. That's it. Obsess much?

4. Now that you've owned up to being the person behind PFA we still have to ask (yet again) ... WHY? Tons of people always knew it was you behind PFA and we really don't see the merit in you continuing to publish people's nasty, racist, homophobic, curse filled and lying comments and the seeming pride you take in it. We just hope that by keeping PFAE going, more people will see this side of you. After all, since you seem so very proud of it, why shouldn't it be brought to the widest possible audience?

5. The things pointed out here are the things you said online, Mr. Tonello. You've left quite a trail ... when you posted as advent and centralparkwest and reconfortante and luxeguru and larambla17 and God knows how many others where you initially coyly sidestepped being Michael Tonello. Because it seemed to us that you admitted to your true identity several times in the course of many of those alters. What are we missing here?

6. The answer? Not much. We feel for you, Mr. Tonello. We really do. We can't imagine spending our years (never mind our days) focused on something petty like this. On going after people relentlessly online for .... what, again? It makes all of us here feel good to give the people your blog has harmed a place tell their side of the story - the truth. We have compassion for you and hope you can find it within yourself to move past this childish vendetta and use your life and your time for a better purpose. That would be truly wonderful to see. And no, we aren't being sarcastic.

Oh, and thanks for driving traffic here. We truly appreciate the thousands of visits we've had. The more people who see a mirror held up to your words and posts, the truth of what you're trying to do, the better.

MWAH! Hugs and kisses!

Consumer advocacy? We don't think so.

Michael Tonello would like you to believe he is motivated by some sense of consumer advocacy. But a cursory review of his posts on PFA and elsewhere on the Internet reveals that a latter day Ralph Nader he isn't.

Let's deconstruct, shall we? His main argument seems to be that PF is bad because it has bad posters in it and that members and owners are complicit in some kind of evil (ok, nefarious) plot.

So his line of reasoning can be summed up as "bad posters = bad site". Or, one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch. And the orchard. Is this possible? Because if we extend his thesis, it means that every site that has bad posters must by extension be wholly bad. So Ebay and Bonanza (where Mr. Tonello currently peddles his wares), using his logic, are 100% bad and/or complicit because they have some bad posters who sell items that may not be significantly as represented (SNAD, in Ebay parlance), or may be outright counterfeits.

So, again using his "one bad apple" logic (such as it is), Blogger must also be bad for allowing a cesspool like PFA. Or, like the other sites mentioned, is Mr. Tonello merely taking advantage of Blogger's availability to peddle his stories?

You make the call. We call PFA SNAD. But given his Naderist bent, we can't wait to see Michael Tonello take on Ebay, Bonanza, and really, the fate of the free world. An advocate's job is never really done.

Why taking a stand is the right thing to do

You don't have to be personally affected by bullying to step in and stop it. To reach out, help others, and declare that something is wrong. Would you walk past a mugging without trying to help or summon help?

What is going on at PFA is a mugging in progress.

It is a personal grudge, Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen's personal grudge against The Purse Forum. They have allowed The Purse Forum Advisory to be a place where anonymous commenters are free to say whatever they like about whomever they feel wronged them at The Purse Forum. They have continued their attacks using pseudonyms on various forums. PFA is not the only blog Mr. Tonello started in this vein; it just happens to be the one that gained traction. In our opinion, the only intent can be to cause harm and distress.

We've said it repeatedly and we will say it again. What they are doing is wrong. They are free to have opinions. They are free to hate PF. They are not free to make accusations of misconduct against people they have never met, with absolutely no proof. And worse.

That is why this blog started and why we will continue for the time being.

This comment (not written by us - we sign all of ours) expresses it perfectly; thank you.

I guess I see this blog as an attempt to right, or at least marginally equalize, the wrongs done to so many strangers over the years by Michael and Donna. Most of their victims either had more money, more freedom, more bags, and more intelligence than those two, bless their evil, black hearts, or else they publicly called them out on their eBay or tPF lies. Either way, their grievance didn't call for 4+ years of stalking and hate spewed over the Internet, where it will be documented for eternity. This blog stands in contrast to that, and offers back Michael and Donna's actions and words, pseudonyms and nasty comments, to anyone who would like to understand who they are and why they have been so unkind to so many. They hid for years. This blog is about not allowing them to hide. If they still want to be sociopathic, narcissistic assholes, no one can stop them, but EXPOSED will be there to document their every nasty move.


I don't see this blog as a general hate-fest, to be used for mocking anyone who disagrees, under the thin guise of "consumer advocacy". PFA and Michael Tonello have chosen that role. He is welcome to it, IMO. No one sane would want that as a life's work or monument to their memory.

Aw. Cute!!

It's really quite adorable that a commenter over at PFA thinks we're obsessed with Michael Tonello. Nothing could be further from the truth. We've never met him or Donna Lehtonen, and have absolutely no desire to. Nothing would make us happier than never hearing either of their names again, or having to see their poisonous posts on PFA or other forums, or the even worse comments he allows on his blog. Interesting that he's proud to put his name on the spew over on PFA.

No, what we ARE obsessed with is trying to end the bullying that goes on over there. We don't see any of PFA's anonymous commenters being forthcoming with their Ebay names, real life names and contact info even as they're baying for the same content for PFers. Funny, that.

We'd really like to see them both decide to do the adult thing. Which, in case we haven't made it clear, would be to let go of their grudges against being banned from PF and, in Michael Tonello's case, get over a couple of Ebay sales gone bad from YEARS ago. Really, we think it would do them both good. Come on over to the light side. See how it feels to treat people right for a change. You both might even enjoy it.

God bless Google

We've noticed and been alerted to the fact that Michael Tonello has been busy pimping out his links to PFA and his book. Gee - unemployed much, Mr. Tonello? But people haven't been too busy to come here.
We want to thank all of you for looking for us, too ... and for your readership.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? Or more to the point, what's good for PurseForumAdvisory.blogspot.com is also good for PurseForumAdvisoryEXPOSED.blogspot.com.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

Why can't Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen admit they were wrong?

Frankly, we shouldn't be surprised that they don't get it. But we kind of are.

Michael Tonello said for a very long time that he had nothing to do with running PFA. Donna Lehtonen said she had no idea who was behind it. And now her feelings seem hurt that people are on to her games. We don't recall her protesting at all when her good friend Michael did the exact same thing to people on PFA. Oh, correction. DOES the exact same thing.

Now he's come forward as the blog owner. So ... why wouldn't they just take down all the personal information they know they were wrong to post? Yes, all you PFA fans. Wrong.

We'll say it again. You can hate PF all you like. It doesn't give you or Michael Tonello the right to arbitrarily dig up personal information and make incorrect assumptions about people.

We might have a shred of respect for him if he admitted his agenda here and did the right thing.

We aren't holding our breath.

Michael Tonello aka Nancy Drew

We're guessing Michael Tonello has a thing for detective stories, because he seems to fancy himself quite the amateur sleuth. Thing is .... he has a little reputation. For commenting all over the Internet using multiple names. If he doesn't like something or someone, he posts whatever flighty thing pops into his little head. Or if he's in a good mood, he posts glowing reviews of his book under pseudonyms.

So why would you believe anything he says on his blog?

Let's recap, shall we? He has an agenda. A very simple one. He was booted from PF and seems to be very unhappy about that. Unhappy enough to go back again and again and again (and again) under different names. Unhappy enough to make up stories about what goes on there, the people who post, and the things they buy. So why would you believe any of his sleuthing theories about nefarious scams and reselling liars? Or should that be nefarious liars and reselling scams? He uses the same words over and over to describe .... well, nothing we've seen any proof of.

Hey Michael. Life's really too short. Why don't you spend your time doing something good in the world? Instead of making up nonsense.

Wait lists. Bespoke Bags. Mountains. Mole Hills.

What's the ridiculous obsession with Hermes all about? WHO CARES? Ask a random person in your office if they a) know what Hermes is b) know what a Birkin is or c) know if there is a wait list for a bag there. You are likely to be met by a) a blank stare ) b) a possible reference to maybe kind of sort of knowing what it is c) a blank stare.

We don't get it. Not the brand obsession, not the insistence that it really matters. And especially not the frame of mind that makes someone think it's ok to post misappropriated photos of other people, track their purchases and then decide that they and their belongings are worthy of continued harassment.

We've seen photos of Mr. Tonello and his bags. We haven't taken to this blog (or anywhere else) to decry his purchases, his taste in clothes or his looks. Or call him anything at all. We don't care if what he buys is fake or not. What he spends his money on is his business. What others do is not.

Can't let it rest

Posting as advent, Michael Tonello said this in December of last year on styleforum.net. Perhaps it's time to move on? But then he'd have to stop promoting his name under a different user I.D. At least Scott Adams was just talking himself up and not tearing down anyone else.

http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.php?p=3946962&postcount=1147

So now that Michael Tonello's name is on PFA

and he's openly acknowledging ownership .... we'd like to ask him why?

As in, why continue? That blog is nothing to be proud of. So why, after all the strenuous denials, come forward now? Well, as we wrote earlier, we think we know the answer to that one.

But in the meantime, he's up to his old ways. Everyone is "f'n" this and "f'n" that... he thinks it's funny to post personal information about people he's never met and who probably don't even know who he is but have a tenuous association with PF.

As we've said before, disagree. Dislike or even hate PF. Putting his name to it just confirms what a lot of people already knew. What name do we put to it? Pathetic.

Correcting a misconception

We noticed that someone over on PFA complained that we did not publish their comment despite repeated attempts. Frankly, that's a lie.

Actually, we publish nearly all the comments we have received. There have been a tiny handful, perhaps fewer than 10 of the many we've gotten, that we have not made public. When we have edited a comment to further protect someone's privacy, we have stated that we have done so.

What don't we publish? As we said, personal information about Donna Lehtonen's son. Or profanity laced tirades - we aren't PFA, thank you very much, and have no interest in that kind of language as it hinders, and does not progress, any discussion. And nice to know that Michael Tonello has no issues with continuing to publish private information in his comments section about people who have nothing at all to do with him, purses or anything else.

We have not published the real names of some of the victims of PFA. We are not going to engage in any further pursuit of those innocent people.

We are not interested in publishing he said/she said tPF threads about authenticity, people's buying habits, or personal lives. We don't know those people - we don't care. And actually, we don't even care much about what goes on at PF, whether the owners make or don't make any money doing it, or people's claims and lies. If they want to make themselves out to be mega rich owners of watches, cars, bags and houses, so what?

We do care in showing the patterns that Donna Lehtonen and Michael Tonello have very clearly left all over the Internet. Their own words, their own actions. They said it, often repeatedly. Once you know their various user names, it isn't hard to see those posts, patterns, and personal obsessions. And now that he has admitted to being behind PFA, we're puzzled about all the denials (which he's now removed from the site). We also think it's quite telling that Mr. Tonello removed the link to this site he originally provided in a post saying all publicity is good publicity (something he has said as Michael Tonello on numerous occasions about other things, by the way...)
We do care in hearing your stories, so keep them coming.

Michael Tonello admits to running thepurseforumadvisory blog. What a shock. Not.

So Michael Tonello's name is finally on the masthead at PFA. (And if it gets removed, we're happy to post the screenshot we kept). Of course, this only raises more questions.

• Like ... why would he even care what goes on at tPF?
• Why would he have denied being involved with the site?
• Given that he and Donna Lehtonen are best buddies (he's posed in her husband's gull wing car on StyleForum.net and tried to pass it off as his own ride, we recall), of COURSE she knew it was his blog all along. Why keep denying it?
• Why allow the kind of homophobic, racist and curse filled comments he so delighted in?
• Why publish the personal information of people he's never met and refuse to take this info down when asked?

So for all the doubters, at least now you can plainly see why Michael Tonello always removed personal information and negative comments that had anything to do with him or Donna Lehtonen. You can see why PFA focused on things that were important to Michael Tonello, like a years old Ebay grudge. And people who had the gall to make posts questioning him all those years ago.

Here's our guess about what happens next:

Michael Tonello will post in the comments at PFA, all outraged, that PFA is NOT his blog and he will say he is going to sue the "owner" to get the blog closed. And then suddenly - poof! - it will close. That's going to be his way to shut it down and still save face. Frankly, we don't care how he does it. We just think he needs to move on. (For those of you who followed PFA, remember the love fest between the supposed owner of PFA, and Donna and Michael in NY? Yeah. It sounded bogus to us too. Maybe they need a crystal ball or a seance to get all those personalities together in one room. Or a psychiatrist.)

How are you liking your PFA propaganda now?

Bringing Home the BS

The modus operandi on PFA... Let's start with frequent comments or posts about the following:

1. Grands Fonds (a PF poster with whom Michael Tonello had an Ebay run in - in 2007. Do you even remember your Ebay sales or purchases from 2007? And since Mr. Tonello wasn't banned from Ebay until long after that, that doesn't seem to be the reason.)
2. Amazon and sales of Michael Tonello's book Bringing Home the Birkin
3. Gushing about Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen. We particularly loved the one about how the PFA "author" met with MT and DL in NY in January. It's seriously time to get those multiple personalities integrated.

There is also the insistence that there is are all kinds of nefarious scams going on at PF. Yawn. As we've said previously, perhaps there are. Any large blog where people interact in real life is going to have them. It's called buyer beware. Where's the outrage over what happens on Ebay or Bonanza or ANY other large interactive site? We're waiting to see that.

This actually is authentic

The criticism of the authenticators on PF is constant but we won't repeat the claims since we don't use that kind of language. We think - the logic over at PFA, if it can be called that, since it makes no sense - goes like this. 
a) they authenticate from pics which PFA claims no one can do
b) then the moderators supposedly say a bag is fake so that they can scoop it up for themselves. Or
c) they direct the potential buyer to a reseller they work in cahoots with and then get a cut of the profit.

Okaaaay. That's PFAs view of the world.

Having looked now at all of the authentication threads on PF (and yes, we're tired), someone please show us evidence that any of this is actually happening? We just aren't seeing it. And why is it that PFA insists on putting up photos and calling the items fake when ... well, see point a) you can't authenticate a bag from photos. Quick! Tell that to the authentication services we found online who seem to do just that!

And at the end of the day, if all those people care so very very much about fakes, great! Let them get involved to help stamp them out where it matters - at flea markets and local stores. There are places you can go online funded by the luxury and fashion industries that will give you more info. The bag on some stranger's arm (or computer screen)? Not your business.

Thanks for saying what we were thinking

From the comments earlier this week...

Donna IS telling the truth when she says she had questions about bags and "notified someone". She notified lots of someones. Just not anyone in charge. Not mods. Just other members via emails or PMs in hateful, harsh, mocking words. She wasn't concerned about getting fakes off tPF. She was morbidly concerned and obsessed with the possessions of COMPLETE STRANGERS to the point of trying to rabble rouse among Hermes sub forum members. I know. I saw some of these PMs. They were promptly reported them to the Hermes sub forum mods. And they reprimanded her, but it still took overt and open harassment of melliesmom to finally ban that psycho. TPF tried very hard not to ban Donna, even though tons of members despised her for her mean, patronizing, nasty comments.

April 13 was anti-bullying day

It was aimed at kids, who were asked to wear pink. To commemorate a boy wearing a pink shirt who was bullied horribly as a result.

So what's your pink shirt?

Is it that you participated innocently in a blog, sharing your love of bags or cars or fashion or pets?

Did someone mock you, use your pictures in an unauthorized way, spread lies about you? Just because?

In the same week as this event, yet another blog tracking people's IP addresses and mocking people for their (of all things) handbags started up.

It's nothing to be proud of.

It isn't ok when kids do it but they're kids. Presumably, they dont know any better? What's an adult's excuse?

Need a laugh?

It's comedy time at the PFA.

Someone sent us a recent comment over there from the lovely DuchessofH herself and it included the immortal lines...

If Vlad knows about these other sites, he might be wise to ask them to refrain from involving his forum, in any slanderous content.

Um ... like AT PFA?

Or this one:
Even the tPF advises you to not use your real name/email address when choosing a member ID.

Golly gee. Why do we think that is? Hmmm. Let's see. To make it more challenging for the sleuths at PFA and other hate blogs to try to out their real names? Sure. That's probably it.

And our favorite:
The info posted on those other sites regarding me is untrue, and they HAVE posted my real name.

They must be serving up the good stuff over at PFA, really. The place where they not only publish your real name but find lovely other things to say about you that are .... BINGO! Untrue! Funny. We don't recall many people over at PFA disapproving of real names being posted. Including the DuchessofH herself.

Really, it's quite funny. Well, to us at least.

Just to clarify

When you become obsessed with one person ...
When you register as someone else on multiple forums and post as them ...
When you post untrue things about that person all over the Internet using a forum name they have established ...
It's called cyberharassment.

We are not going to mention the forum names of the people (yes, plural) who have been targeted. Because they've been tormented enough. But they know who they are. And some of them were successful in stopping the woman who was doing that to them. So it's rather disingenous for her to claim she's never bothered a soul online.

They know who's responsible for the online harassment they've suffered. And so do we. And for once, this woman who professes to be SO concerned about fakes, maybe she'll be honest with herself.

We aren't counting on it, though.

IT'S WRONG. Can't say it any plainer than that.

Why Michael Tonello changed his user name on GQ.com

Michael Tonello was using readily identiable names like LuxeGuru or HermesGuy but interestingly, his new nicks are different. Google reconfortante and it will no longer link you to his GQ posts because it is a common Spanish word. Ditto advent, for his posts on StyleForum.net (where he also admits to being Michael Tonello and shills his book as someone else, then comments on it as advent).

And of course, he is hiding behind the PFA. Though every now and then he posts as Michael J. Tonello. And comments on his own posts anonymously (it's easy to tell which ones - the style is nearly identical). And we suspect he has other blogs to bash PF. Some were not active. Some are new.

Michael Tonello has been a prolific forum poster and so he has left a trail. A slimy one. Frankly, we prefer breadcrumbs.

Thank you

We want to thank you.

For sharing your stories.

For standing up to cyberbullying and cyberharassment.

For treating each other politely and with respect. There have been only two comments we did not feel were fit to publish because they were basically just name calling. And a handful more (maybe 4) that either levelled accusations we were not comfortable allowing to post, or were speculation about people selling fake merchandise (they may well be - we are not qualified to say so we didn't want to post these) or wanted us to go after Donna Lehtonen's son - by name. We've already explained why we will not do this.

Even in disagreement, people have been civil and that is much appreciated.

We couldn't help noticing that even though Michael Tonello has not updated the content on PFA he has allowed several comments calling people the usual awful names. WHY? He has to approve every single once of those since he has comment moderation on. How do you feel good about hitting "permit" on a comment that calls a stranger a c__t. It's bad enough if you at least know the person, but a total stranger? For the amusement of other strangers.

It's just wrong. And no grudge can make that right.

LuxeGuru = Michael Tonello = purseforumadvisory.blogspot.com

Equals the person who keeps promoting purseforumadvisory, purseforumlies, purseforumconfidential.

Equals the person who made some poor kid's life miserable on the GQ forums - where LuxeGuru (now reconfortante) quite happily admitted to being Michael Tonello. Who also posts as advent on StyleForum.net, where he shills his own book.

Still believe Michael Tonello isn't behind PFA?

http://boards.style.com/message.jspa?messageID=146925

Kudos to Jason85 for taking on Michael Tonello

We don't know his real identity, or care if he was bs'ing about where he went to school. But he stood up to Michael Tonello (first posting as LuxeGuru and then changing his GQ forum name to reconfortante) and he was onto his tactics way before many others. Why would he care and hound this kid for post after post after post ... why?

But this shows a pattern. An ugly one.

Here is Jason85 fighting back in 2010. (From this thread if you want to read more for yourself: http://www.gq.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=62936&start=4680&tstart=0)

How many of you have even heard of it before this Luxe guy brought it up? I went there for a year, and made that very clear. Also, it was something I said in 2007, 2 years before Luxe joined this forum. It was in a "Tell us more about you" thread or something like that. I don't remember where I said it, since it was almost 3 years ago. If you were here last year, you would have noticed how he was stalking me, and how he read every single one of my posts dating years back. You'd think he was writing a biography about me and doing extensive research, since he would bring up things I don't even remember writing. It's creepy, and many pointed that out. He's really that desperate of a person. He has made tens of threads about me, calling me anti-semetic, or this and that, based on nothing. He's trying to get back at me for revealing what he did to those women, which you sent me via pm, btw. He has gone back and searched in his "notes" to find some dirt on me, and make things personal, but I'm not buying it. If he really has something, he would have said it last year, when he was constantly hounding me, since I said that one-third of a decade ago, and not something I randomly said last week.

I swore off responding to him, and made that clear in my last post. Actions speak louder than words. Nothing can justify what he has done by scamming people. I don't know what he's trying to prove. But if he thinks that "lying" about going to a highschool is equivalent to scamming hundreds of women by selling them damaged goods for $10,000-$50,000 and threatening them, then he truly is crazy. It's not even close of being on the same par. It is the internet after all, and no one forced this Tonello guy to reveal his name, and go all Dan Brown on us.

In a "how old are you" thread from last year, he said he was 31, but then suddenly claims he wrote that Birkin book a few months later, not that I don't believe him. It's not like he's a Pulitzer prize winner. His book is ranked #259,590 in Amazon's bestsellers rank, ha! I mean how hard is it to write a book about being blacklisted and thrown out of Hermes? In the end, he has been given way too many chances. He was also "revealed" too many times, as well. First by Hermes for re-selling bags and other goods, which is illegal, then by hundreds of members at the Purse Forum whom he ripped off, and like Hermes, they also banned and blacklisted him, and then by me.

For getting back at Hermes, he wrote a book, and revealed the "secrets" of how to buy the "exclusive" bag. To get back at members of the Purse Forum whom he ripped off, he published their names, addresses, etc., as revenge, and lastly to get back at me for posting the awful things he has done, he's TRYING to do the same thing. Don't you get it??? It's the oldest trick in the book! He truly never learns... Karma is a bitch! As I stated earlier, I swore off not only responding to him, but to not even mention his name. His name is so cursed at the Purse Forum that his last name "Tonello" is forbidden to to be used, and types star symbols instead, like *******, haha! That tells you a lot, when even computers tell you what a fraud he actually is! He can go to hell for all I care.

Open post to PFA commenters

We have one question for you - would you be proud to put your names to your comments on Michael Tonello's blog?

Those names you called people (and we won't repeat the names or the people) .... would you say them again but this time, own it?

We bet not.

That's the thing about anonymity. It frees people to say things they would never admit to having said. If confronted, we bet nearly all of you would be really ashamed.

That's the acid test, folks. If you would 'fess up to it and it wouldn't bother you .... and we don't think the majority of people on PFA who comment would feel comfortable with that.

Another guest post ...

Thanks to another commenter who asked to have their story told. We encourage you to please write us. We will not publish (nor are we interested in) identifying details.

OK, I'll go too. Thanks to comments published about me and personal information published about me, I received threatening telephone calls to my home. Referencing PFA. As you can imagine, my family was upset and scared. And why?? Because I posted some innocuous comments on PF? That's my guess. It's difficult for people to even understand this stupid situation when I explain it to them. I deleted as much personal information as I could from as many public places as I could - and this had a negative impact on my business. What bugs me the most is two things: that someone I considered a friend would betray me in that manner, and that Michael Tonello thought it would be fun and cute to post information that has nothing to do with anything in his life. I asked that my info be removed - no reply, of course, and the comments were never published on PFA.

Please understand that of course my name is online - probably yours is, too. But it's online in professional and personal contexts where I'm ok with it. To have it associated against my will with some scummy blog and to be threatened personally as a result? That is so not ok. I spoke to the police and they thought the comments crossed a legal line. I'm considering my options. So thank you to PFAE for allowing me to express my outrage here. Whoever is behind this, I'm very happy to have a place to speak out about what PFA is all about.

Real life consequences. Fake accusations.

Note: we have edited this to make the poster's occupation less identifiable. Thank you for coming forward.

I would love to take you up on your offer. I am not sure how to without identifying myself to Michael and Donna, and potentially subjecting an agency I love to being ridiculed and reviled. It's not safe. Michael and Donna are neither safe nor sane. And going up against them is scary. I'm really scared. But here goes: I trained for a career that pays a mid to high six figure salary. Instead of following that traditional pathway, I work for peanuts in a small, inner-city nonprofit, helping those who are indigent and ill, some terminally. I was shocked and distressed when Michael and Donna held me up for ridicule and encouraged others to pile on. I drew courage from my clients who face far worse than that every day, but it was painful, unjustified, and unexpected. The worst part was that I had weeks of terror, fearing that Michael and Donna would find out my name and my agency, and try to take it down. There are hundreds who might die if we don't exist, but I don't think Michael or Donna care about that. Thanks to those two, I was forced to go to my Executive Director and Board with a request to be removed from all websites and internet references to our agency. It broke my heart to ask to disassociate from a place I'm so proud of and have given so much of my life and soul to. The day Michael and Donna decided to make fun of me, I sat in my office and cried. I was still crying off and on when a client dropped in to talk to me. I talked to her for an hour about her life now, and she thanked me for helping her be brave enough to admit that she's HIV positive. She said that because of me she's able to go to local hospices and tell her story. So EFF YOU, Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen. I'm going to keep on helping people. You go ahead and keep on tearing them down and laughing at them. I have far less money than Donna, but oh boy, am I richer and more loved. Let's just see who leaves a better legacy, you jerks. So screw you, you pieces of human garbage. I hope this blog and your own words follow you to your graves. Oh, and my crime that was the reason I got "exposed" by PFA? Back in 2007 I bore witness to Michael Tonello's and Donna's lies, in real time, as they happened. I refuse to allow them to subsequently lie and deny their vile actions. If you're brave enough to bully, take your medicine when you're pushed back, Michael and Donna. Like most of those who are posted about on PFA, there was no proof given of any wrongdoing on my part, not in the original post, and not even after requests by commenters for proof. But that didn't stop those two.