IN MEMORY: Paul Schlegel, 1963-2015

Paul Schlegel, a St. Louis-based musician and composer and longtime member of the antiscam community, has died. He was 52.

Word of Paul’s Dec. 7 passing was received from Lynn Edgington of Eagle Research Associates, via a post today at the RealScam.com antiscam forum.

Paul had assisted Eagle for years in its dual mission of educating the public about scams and working proactively with law enforcement. Paul also supplied administrative support to RealScam.

“He truly had a servant’s heart,” RealScam administrator Soapboxmom wrote today.

The PP Blog fondly remembers Paul for his support during a bizarre and concerning hectoring campaign orchestrated here by a cyberstalker who called himself “Almighty Joseph (the risen)” in 2009. The Blog was told it would be “scrambling to put out fires.”

The stalker was a supporter of the AdViewGlobal Ponzi scheme, later tied by federal prosecutors to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, a $119 million caper that affected thousands and thousands of people globally.

Paul also supported the Blog during the crippling DDoS attacks here in 2010. RealScam.com later would be targeted.

Paul supported the Blog’s efforts to report on a bid by a purported Zeek Rewards’ consultant to disable the HubPage of K. Chang of the MLM Skeptic. The page eventually returned. Zeek was a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that gathered more than $850 million, according to the SEC.

Zeek affected hundreds of thousands of people.

In 2014, RealScam and the PP Blog again were targeted in a bizarre hectoring campaign. So was Quatloos. Paul’s support never wavered.

It is the nature of Ponzi schemes to bring out “blind-faith craziness” in some otherwise normal people, Paul once observed.

Here is Paul Schlegel’s obituary. He is described as a loving family man whose life was filled with music from his heart.

We’d add to these loving words that Paul helped lots of people in the development of their online knowledge base about scams. He was there day after day to help his fellow human beings avoid the pain of losses, so that the music could continue to play in their lives.