Faux blogger Steven Frischling brags he carries knives on planes all the time! HAH!

Steven in his dreams

Firstly, he has not responded to any of our challenges to verify very simple claims (big surprise), like the name of the hospital where on Thanksgiving he supposedly heroically removed his own IV and walked out. He claims on Twitter he addressed everything we said but in actuality did not address any of it. Check for yourself.

Secondly, he just bragged that he flies with a knife in his carry-on bag and so do thousands of others "on a regular basis" - highly dubious!!!!

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@fotodave Oh ... you can. Keep in mind I fly with a knife and so do thousands of other people on a regular basis in our carry on

What kind of moron would try to bring a knife on a plane these days? What purpose does this serve and why does "a travel strategist" need a knife anyway? You can bring one in your checked luggage. You cannot, repeat, cannot bring anything in your carry on beyond a plastic or maybe a butter knife on a plane. (Google "can you carry a knife on a plane" or see http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5065786 or "Man charged with trying to bring knife onto plane"). If there is a way you can legally bring a knife in your carry on then please tell us how because every search we've found indicates you cannot. And, why does he claim there are "thousands" of other idiots even trying?

(And yes we've also made a screenshot of this tweet in case he tries to delete it.)

Update: FishTard obviously reads our blog as he responded on Twitter and pointed this article of his: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2010/02/12/travel-essentials-swisstech-utili-key/ about flying with a miniknife disguised as a key. 

First, we asked how someone can LEGALLY travel with a knife. In that blog he even admits it's not allowed, and several people comment that TSA is hip to that and confiscated theirs. If TSA is aware of this scam and checking keys for the Swisstech, this is further proof FishTick does not fly as frequently as he boasts. Especially after he bragged about it online (or maybe nobody at TSA reads his stupid blog because they know he's no frequent flier).

Secondly, why does Frischling refuse to answer our simple truth challenges? This entire blog is devoted to exposing him as a pathological liar. If he really wanted to discredit us, then he would take the two seconds to answer those simple questions whose answer ANYONE can easily verify. His silence is proof he's a phony.

We ask again: 

Where were you an EMT, as you said you were in 2007?

Which hospital's "Critical Care Unit" were you in on Thanksgiving, as you claimed on Twitter, where you supposedly removed your own IV and walked out?

Steven the lifesaving hero?! (BS challenge No. 3)

Didn't intend to blog so much but the funniest emails keep coming in with more tall tales. Check out this hilarious blog from a young/dumb photographer who had the amazing "opportunity" of spending the day with Steven in 2007.  She clearly buys everything he told her, which apparently included his tales of photographing for newspapers at age 11 on his bicycle and working as an an emergency medical technician (unsure if it this was also at age 11 and on a bike)!!!

She mentions "Steven's fearlessness as a former journalist (and EMT)..." (from Not So Still Life Photography blog)

So in addition to being a "globe trotting" award-winning photographer and fearless journalist, he's also a lifesaving EMT! He's practically a super hero! Holy stink, Fishman!

(Also hilarious are that the only comments on the blog over the past three years are from brides he defrauded and someone else who said he's a liar.)

So Steven, in which state were you an EMT? There is education, training, testing and certification required - they don't let just any idiot ride around on ambulances (which is why we're sure you never did).

Even if your imaginary EMT certification has expired, you would still be on record as once having a license. Which state was it? (More like, which planet?)

Fish challenge No. 3: We challenge you to tell us which state(s) you worked (or were certified) as an EMT.

Warning to national media regarding Steven Frischling

We contacted national media outlets to warn them about associating with Steven Frischling, including ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, NPR, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, US News and World Report, Associated Press, and USA Today.

An edited version of our warning (leaving out sensitive information) is below:

Dear media,

I'd like to warn you that an individual who recently has been used as a news source on airline travel is a fabulist and fraud in the vein of Stephen Glass.

According to his various websites, Steven Frischling claims to be a "globe hopping professional photographer, airline emerging media consultant working with large global airlines" who has "racked up more than 1,000,000 miles since he started to track his mileage in 2005."

In reality, he is a failed photographer who has invented an online persona to seek attention and profit. He has been expelled from professional organizations for his behavior and has no long-term clients or references. I believe he has used his inflated resume to gain contracts with notable corporations and publications, but given further scrutiny, there is a suspicious lack of long-term credibility in his employment history.

I'm alarmed to see him being quoted by national media in several recent articles. I have no doubt that his recent claim to have "interviewed 20 TSA agents" is an exaggeration or pure fabrication.

DO NOT use this individual as a source UNLESS he can verify every detail he is "reporting" to you, by producing credible witnesses, receipts and credit card statements, audio tapes of interviews, etc.

While much of the blog (fishfraud.blogspot.com) serves to make fun of him, this notice is very serious. Please pass this information on to your reporters, and urge them to do background checks on ALL bloggers used as sources.

I wish to remain anonymous because he is a bizarre individual, and I do not want him to show up on my doorstep. However, you may contact me at fishfraud@yahoo.co.uk if you need additional information.

Does truth matter to you?

I want to point out a well-written blog by ValetNon, who brought up this Frischling fiasco in a post called "Is There In Truth No Beauty?"

ValetNon is interesting because he's probably the typical Fish follower: He doesn't know him personally, nor does he really care about him, but finds his comments on travel entertaining. It seems like ValetNon actually took the time to read all the stuff compiled here, and just doesn't really know what to think. In fact, he wrote that for all he knows, Steven Frischling could be running this blog himself for attention! While that was good for a laugh, it made it clear this guy is smart because he questions.

The reason people get duped is because they don't question. For most things, why would you? If you've never met a pathological liar, you don't know that such people exist. In your naivete, you assume people lie to get out of things or to steal; you don't know they lie simply to lie or to make themselves more interesting. When people tell you stories or say they've been to a certain place or met a certain person or tell you a story, you most likely take them at their word. And on the Internet, your interactions with people are so superficial that you really can't be bothered to do any fact checking.

In his blog, ValetNon writes:

"I am sitting on a red couch, typing this out on my laptop. The TV is on, but the sound is down. At the moment, a Mercedes commercial is on TV and CBS has just gone back to the Texans-Titans game. 

You can’t verify this, by the way. And, in the end, does it really matter what’s true?"

In this case, no, of course it doesn't matter. However, you are not posing as a photojournalist. Here would be the Steven Frischling-ized version of his day sitting on the couch:

"I shot back-to-back football games in two states one day, despite being sick with 103 temperature and earache that made me totally deaf!  These two guys got in a huge brawl and as they were being dragged out, I went in to get a wide-angle shot and got too close as usual. I ended up getting 16 stitches in my head. Man, I tell you, they just don't pay photogs enough these days to put up with what we do in the trenches" (followed by a long rant about safety or something)

If you read this online, you're going to sympathize and think wow what a story. And if you're a photographer, you're going to think, right on! But are you going to demand medical records to prove he got stitches? Ask to see travel receipts or itineraries to prove his two games in one day story? Ask to speak to witnesses? Of course not. Why would you not take him at his word? That's why Steven's audience is entirely online.

From the messages I'm receiving, Steven's not really as respected as he claims to be, but he does have a few thousands followers on Twitter who are ignorant of his issues. Apparently a lot of people in the travel industry think he's a joke/idiot.

The point is, he's passing himself off as a photojournalist. He apparently even is quoted in the media (most disturbing). He spins elaborate tales to seek fame, and most importantly, influence that he hopes will pay off in financial contracts. While his opinions may be genuine, the fact is the majority of what he claims to base his opinions on are pure fiction. 

If the truth doesn't matter to you, then by all means, Steven Frischling is the guy for you.

Public challenge to Steven Frischling: Prove you're not a fraud

@flyingwithfish Flying With Fish

For those asking about what is going on, read my last 40 tweets. I need to get back to work, since my TSA coverage hasn't been challenged

Yes we ARE challenging it. You make up almost everything. You live in a fantasy world of your own creation.

Our first two challenges:

1) You claim to have racked up more than 1 million miles. We challenge you to back that up with evidence.

2) You claim to have been in the Critical Care Unit of an unnamed hospital over Thanksgiving. You claimed you oh-so-bravely removed your own IV and left because they were taking too to find your "discharge papers." We challenge you to back that up with evidence. What was the name of the hospital?

Most likely you will refuse to produce evidence on grounds of personal privacy. If so, we will then challenge the people at Boarding Area, where your blog lives, and suggest they ask for their own proof to validate anything you have ever written.

I bet 99 percent of it can't be verified. Steven Frischling is the Stephen Glass of travel blogging: A seemingly charming guy who spins entertaining stories that seem valid on the surface, but are in reality, wild exaggerations or outright fabrications.

But even that comparison is unfair to Stephen Glass, who actually graduated from UPenn and was employed full-time at a prestigious publication. Steven Frischling never graduated from anything and his professional claim to fame is having an internet blog and a Twitter account (so prestigious).

UPDATE: Silence from Steven on this simple challenge to verify one recent Tweet, though he continues to Tweet about this blog every six minutes. Surely he would at least say the name of the hospital he claims he was in, but he won't because he fears anyone can call and find out he was never admitted and made the whole story up. Anyone can call a hospital and find out what someone's general condition is (eg critical, fair, treated and released) by providing first and last name. His silence proves he's a liar.

Steven's pathetic tweets #idiot

First, I have received several interesting emails that unfortunately can't be posted as of yet, as they deal with ongoing investigations against Steven Frischling. And they have nothing to do with his wedding photography fraud. This guy is in serious trouble.

But the main point of this post is to laugh at how Steven is trying to defend himself via Twitter and doing a terrible job at it. Let's take a look at it. (We've taken screenshots of everything in case he tries to delete the tweets later and claim he never said that.)

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
I think my hater is I think this is aviation security related.They mention weddings but attack my TSA coverage & a photo biz that isn't mine

Hah, we're not related to aviation security. But fortunately we now have the attention of some people in that industry, many of whom found you "fishy" to begin with.

Secondly, Shoreline Photography IS your photography business. How can you claim it's not when 1) You registered the domain name 2) it has an identical template to your own website at stevenfrischling.com 3) Who is this supposed award-winning photographer describing if not you, and if the photographer is so great, why isn't he named? and 3) some of the photos are of your own children. You are disgusting.

Would you like us to contact Connecticut's Secretary of State's office to determine exactly who is associated with Shoreline Photography?

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
Is it funny or sad that many of the comments quoted on the Fish-Hater blog are unnamed? Unnamed is easy ... since they can't be verified

That's why we're posting links to court cases, which can be verified. People have sued you for breach of contract. Additionally, we found these court cases because Connecticut and New York offer public searches available online for free. Vermont, Rhode Island etc don't offer this service. How many lawsuits against you are in their systems?

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@jbernie No, I am pretty sure nothing on that site related to airlines & security ... but that image they have violates my copyright


Our linking to a photo on your own site is your only legitimate complaint? How about we use this photo to represent your stank instead?

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@FishFraud The address listed for that web address is not one I live at ... and I left the WPJA in 2007. Nice detective work!


It's the same, identical address listed for your personal website. (Though it's definitely probable you were evicted since then!) And you left the WPJA? Or you were thrown out?

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@FishFraud Also leaves out the positive reviews on Yelp & that my positives come from more consistent users than the 30+ fake negatives


As noted repeatedly, the positive reviews on Yelp are suspicious and all come from accounts opened around the time of posting and most don't review anything else. (Signs you planted them.)

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@FishFraud wants to call me out that I did poorly in the wedding photo business & yes, I did.My work flow was flawed & caused major problems


You've done poorly in all your business endeavors. You have no long-term clients and have been unable to sustain consistent employment. Additionally, you've been ejected from professional organizations and sued for fraud.

You claim to be a professional, "globe trotting" photographer, yet you admit your "work flow was flawed & caused major problems." How professional can you be if you can't even shoot weddings? You have weeks or even months to turn the job around. What is so hard about it? What did you find so challenging? At the end, some people didn't even care if you made them the nice book you promised. They were simply begging for their raw images on CDs and they would have left you alone if they had gotten even that.

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@thewinchesterau This person leaves out all the positive reviews & cites one negative review area where I publicly proved the review wrong


flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@thewinchesterau In the review I proved wrong,citing the bride's own blog, turned out someone else posted the review using the bride's name


This is so stupid. You never proved any review wrong, yet now you claim the review was posted unbeknownst to the actual bride, by someone posing as her? Do you think everyone is as stupid as you are?

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@thewinchesterau I had a disagreement with 3 brides who found each other on The Knot who created 30+ fake names for Yelp reviews


That is ridiculous. Who, looking at the evidence, would believe such a story? That a mere three unhappy brides would conspire to take down your professional reputation? I don't see these people conspiring to take down their caterer or the people who delivered their flowers. This is highly implausible.

The truth about your reviews on Yelp is exactly what it appears to be: heartbroken brides who are angry because they were defrauded by a con man who took their money and never delivered their photos. These reviews are backed up by the evidence in your court cases (including failures to appear on your part) and the solid F rating you have from the Better Business Bureau.

flyingwithfish Flying With Fish
@user47 Would you vote for me?I wouldn't! It's convenient those I sued were left out as were the positive reviews. Oh well


False. We included the links to the cases in which you brought suit, and noted they were dismissed. And stop mentioning the positive reviews because nobody buys them.

Steven Frischling DBA Shoreline Lifestyle

Beware, Steven is trying to still work as a photographer under at least one other business name. On the surface the business makes no mention of him, which makes sense since his reputation under his own infamous name is ruined.

"Shoreline Lifestyle Photography" (http://www.shorelinelifestyle.com) was supposedly created by Steven's wife, Susannah. Here is the description in the "About Us" section of the site. Glaringly absent is the name of this supposed fantastic, award-winning photographer she has an "exclusive" contract with:

"As a mother raising three small children along the Eastern Connecticut Shoreline I was unable to locally find the type of personal, and candid, photographs I was interested in for my family. Utilizing my years of experience working with professional photographers I created a plan to locally offer relaxed and personal lifestyle family photographs that are about my clients, their families and their personalities.

To achieve the highest level of photography standards, Shoreline Lifetyle Photography has an exclusive contract with a local Shoreline resident photographer to produce all the images for our clients. Our photographer has created every image you see in our photo galleries.

Shoreline Lifestyle Photography's exclusive contract photographer provides our clients with more than a decade-and-a-half of experience creating images for major international news outlets, Fortune 100 corporations, and has worked with private commission clients around the Globe. Our exclusive contract photographer's accolades include awards from The Associated Press, the National Press Photographers Association, the New England Press Association and the New York Press Association. His work has appeared in Life Magazine's Year in Pictures, Time Magazine's Year in Pictures, and Life Magazine's Annual Photo Album and has been ranked among the Top 35 Wedding Photojournalists in the world by the Wedding Photojournalists Association."

In typical Frischling fashion, most of the accolades are exaggerations or outright lies. Check http://www.wpja.com/wedding-photographers/connecticut-photojournalist.htm to see that Steven Frischling is not listed for Connecticut or any state for that matter. (Wouldn't he be listed if he were truly among the top 35 in the WORLD?)

To see who is behind Shoreline Lifestyle, simply look it up on network solutions:


http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/shorelinelifestyle.com

Registrant:
   S.E. Frischling, LLC
   18 Atttawan Rd
   Niantic, Connecticut 06357
   United States

   Registered through: EpicDomains.com
   Domain Name: SHORELINELIFESTYLE.COM
      Created on: 28-May-09
      Expires on: 28-May-11
      Last Updated on: 21-May-10

   Administrative Contact:
      Frischling, Steven  steven@stevenfrischling.com
      S.E. Frischling, LLC
      18 Atttawan Rd
      Niantic, Connecticut 06357
      United States
      (413) 626-2369

   Technical Contact:
      Frischling, Steven  steven@stevenfrischling.com
      S.E. Frischling, LLC
      18 Atttawan Rd
      Niantic, Connecticut 06357
      United States
      (413) 626-2369

Identical registration to: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/TheTravelStrategist.com

Registrant:
   S.E. Frischling, LLC
   18 Atttawan Rd
   Niantic, Connecticut 06357
   United States

   Registered through: EpicDomains.com
   Domain Name: THETRAVELSTRATEGIST.COM
      Created on: 13-Jun-08
      Expires on: 13-Jun-11
      Last Updated on: 14-Jun-10

   Administrative Contact:
      Frischling, Steven  steven@stevenfrischling.com
      S.E. Frischling, LLC
      18 Atttawan Rd
      Niantic, Connecticut 06357
      United States
      (413) 626-2369

   Technical Contact:
      Frischling, Steven  steven@stevenfrischling.com
      S.E. Frischling, LLC
      18 Atttawan Rd
      Niantic, Connecticut 06357
      United States
      (413) 626-2369