Question For Tech Journalists Like Kirk McElhearn of MacWorld, At What Point Are You Responsible For Supporting The Frauds/Scams of Podcast Hosts Like Gene Steinberg by Appearing as a Guest on Their Apple Tech Podcasts? Every 3/4 Months Steinberg Asks His Audience For Free Money (Donations for Pseudo Emergencies) as He Claims He is About to be Evicted.
There is a clear record of ticking clock scenarios, over 100 emails per year since the year 2006 from Gene Steinberg, sent to his forum and newsletter and podcast subscribers, all with the same copy and paste tactics, he is about to be evicted or he needs money for medical care or his wife needs money for medical care. Each time Steinberg claims his situation is temporary, at the final hour he is saved, only to repeat the process in two to four weeks.
Here is a current (2018) example of a classic Gene Steinberg copy and paste scam/fraud job perpetuated on his audience, this Gene Steinberg grifter posts the same “about to be evicted” story every month:
Gene Steinberg, “Hi,
The new property manager just notified me that we have to prepare to leave this apartment. They will not stop the constable even if I hand them the rent. A constable can show up any time now or as late as early next week. There’s no advance warning.
Once the constable shows up, we have 15 minutes to leave.
We have nowhere to go and no solutions.
Once again, the rent payment won’t be accepted. We have to leave.
What this means is that if you can provide help for us to survive and find another place to live, you can use PayPal again, since we won’t have to deal with a cashier’s check payment.
Barbara is crushed and I’m packing what I can.
Go to: https://www.paypal.com/Send-Money, login and use the Send to friends and family option. Enter my email address, gene@technightowl.com, and click or tap Next to continue the transaction.
If you want to send a donation by a different method, let me know and I’ll work out something.
If you’re not able to send a donation, feel free to forward this message to someone who might assist.
If you have any questions about my situation, please don’t hesitate to write.
Peace,”
Gene
At what point do the guests on Gene Steinberg’s podcast have a responsibility to not appear on his show, what kind of character does it display to appear on a show whose host scams his audience. Many of these tech journalists hide behind the mantra that they are freelance and it is difficult to survive in this economy but that is no excuse to support scams and run dubious fake reviews of products that you are only promoting because the said company paid you money.
If you can’t survive as a freelance journalist then get a real job or a side job but just because you are freelance, don’t assume you won’t lose a reading/listening/viewing audience if you throw your journalistic morals out the door.
If you want to be a journalist, practice journalistic integrity.
Here is a running list of technology journalists that frequently appear on Gene Steinberg’s tech podcast, you should contact them, their advertisers, and Steinberg’s advertisers and ask if they feel it is good for business to support and profit off the cons of Gene Steinberg:
Josh Centers, managine editor of Tidbits
Bob “Dr. Mac” Levitus, Apple technology columnist for The Houston Chronicle
Jeff Gamet, managing editor of the Mac Observer
Jonny Evans, writer for ComputerWorld
Adam Engst, publisher of Tidbits
Joe Kissell, author of Take Control Books
Rob Pegoraro, tech writer for USA Today
John Martellaro, senior editor at the Mac Observer
So as we start listing the tech journalists that appear on Gene Steinberg’s Apple Tech Podcast, The Tech Night Owl, we start with Kirk McElhearn, what are your thoughts on Gene Steinberg’s laundry email/website/twitter chain of scams?
Come on tech journalists, Steinberg is such a professional con man, there is an entire Twitter Page dedicated to documenting his fraud emails entitled “SchemeGeneRC”.
But because tech journalists like Kirk Mcelhearn are freelance, they can support a scam artist as long as they can pimp their journalism on a scam artist’s podcast.
Update: As the fraud continues journalists like Kirk McElhearn refuse to comment on Gene Steinberg’s constant emergencies. It is worse than MikeFrancesa.com realized as Gene Steinberg’s begging emails are being sent out multiple times per month as documented here and here.
Will the tech journalists continue to support the grifter Gene Steinberg and the continual bilking of his audience by continuing to appear on his tech podcasts?
Update II: We are alleging fraud because the evidence is clear that Steinberg is posting these “emergencies” over 100 times per year. But these are only allegations, nothing is proven and the reader should be aware of that however one should visit the links in this post and consider the evidence.
We believe there are only two possibilities, Gene Steinberg is outright lying about his situation and is therefore asking for donations by using false pretenses or he is lying about the context of his donation pleas and he is using his audience to fund his lifestyle as he has been sending out these emergency plea donations since 2006.
Both possibilities are scumbag behavior as we see it and possibly fraudulent as defined by the law but it will be up to the local authorities to determine if they can prosecute. We hope that Gene Steinberg is declaring his donations to the proper authorities and paying the requisite taxes.
At this point Steinberg has nobody to blame but himself for his situation and dwindling donations as anyone with half a brain can see that nobody has an emergency that lasts 12 years.
So if he is indeed truly homeless then he can post all evidence of this (documents, photos, witness statements) on his website. He can post an action plan that will prevent him from needing donations ever again and a pledge to not accept donations past 2018 if it ever happens again. He should also apologize for asking his audience to donate for over 12 years to support his lifestyle.
Perhaps a few remaining people will then once again donate to his cause but if not, if his history is too much for any intelligent person to ever give money again, then Steinberg must ditch his podcast career and start working a real job because there are many legit charities that one can donate their money to. Charities that prove how much of their money actually goes to helping people.
Update III: Gene Steinberg is now openly lying about people contacting his podcast guests and advertisers, he claims they are demanding that his guests not appear on his show, no such emails or calls exist, Steinberg will never produce the evidence and his listeners have the right to contact his guests and advertisers to question if they want to support a grifter.
In addition Steinberg is now claiming his bank account has been hacked, another lie for we must assume that a professional liar is lying if he can’t produce the evidence.
Update IV: The company that is the prime support for this grifter operation is GCN Live, are they aware that Gene Steinberg uses his radio shows to gain a listener email list that he can continually beg for money to support his lifestyle, well you can call 1-877-996-4327, Adam Miller ext 148, and let GCN know what Scheme Gene Steinberg is up to.