This article was first posted June 3, 2006.

It's been a tough week for Passion Saving author Rob Bennett, the well-known Internet troll, persistent liar, fraud, and self-proclaimed "financial advisor & career counselor".

Mr. Bennett has a long history of plagiarism and copyright infringement which was brought to a head after someone complained about some stolen material on his blog. An investigation is now underway to determine the extent of the infringement.

Rob has been a frequent visitor to Morningstar's "Diehards" board over the past year. The Diehard's board is one of the legendary personal finance forums on the web. It was chartered to host discussions about Vanguard founder Jack Bogle's approach to investing using low-cost index funds. Several published authors like Larry Swedloe (The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need and Rick Ferri (All About Asset Allocation) regularly post there. The esteemed Dr. William Bernstein (The Four Pillars and The Intelligent Asset Allocator) even makes an occasional appearance. Three laymen with a long history on the board (Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf) recently published a well-reviewed book describing the Vanguard-centric index investing style favored by most board participants (The Boglehead's Guide to Investing)

Posting under the screen name "hocus" Rob Bennett attempted to portray himself as one of the founders and leaders of the Diehards board. This fraud was challenged within minutes by Mel Lindauer, one of the coauthors of The Boglehead's Guide to Investing. The thread goes on for over a hundred posts as Passion Saving author Rob Bennett's persistent pattern of lies is exposed and discussed by several contributors. See link:

http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/asp/FullConv.asp?forumId=F100000015&convId=176556&minReplySeq=41#replyTop

Perhaps the strangest event of the week was complaints of cyberstalking and unwelcome sexual banter lodged against Rob Bennett on the Best of Hocomania board. See link:

http://www.s152957355.onlinehome.us/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1139897264/15

It makes one wonder if the pressures of retiring with insufficient assets and mounting family responsiblities causes a rise in deviant sexual appetites?