I should have known better than to buy your lies...

**My Backstreet Imposter**

My Backstreet adventures have not always come with fun and laughs.  I became a fan in my teens and at that age there is a lot of naivety.  Anything that anyone says must be true, as in the case where I was able to chat with "AJ" online.

In July of 1999, I began talking with a fellow fan through AOL chat.  I had found her by searching for people with common interests.  We hit it off great, as I do with most BSB fans.  Not long into our chats (only one short week), she informed me that she had AJ's screen name that she had gotten from a friend and would be willing to share it with me as long as I promised not to share it with others.  I wrote to "AJ" immediately to see if it was truly him.  He answered almost immediately and we started chatting soon after. I truly thought that it was AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys because of the way that he talked in his e-mails and chats.  I would ask him questions that only "true" fans would know about him in order to see if it was really him.  He was able to answer all of them, of course.  However, it never occurred to me that if I knew the answers, then anyone could know the answers.

I was a teenager at the time so of course I told people that I had gotten AJ's screen name but I didn't share the actual SN right away.  I had a friend who was very computer savvy and was very leery that this was actually AJ.  He volunteered to do some research on the SN and see what he could find out.  And it was actually at this point that AJ became my second favorite BSB (Nick had been from the beginning) because I truly thought that I had a personal connection with him.  While I loved talking to "AJ," I had one objective in mind....get Brian's screen name.  Oh and I truly thought that the chatting would lead to a friendship which would lead to me being able to get front row tickets and backstage passes to the Into the Millennium show in Chicago that fall.  Looking back at it all, I just have to laugh.

The AJ Imposter Sleepover

During one of my many BSB sleepovers with Jenny and Stephanie, we chatted with this impostor.  We were on a high that entire night, especially since that as the evening that we were able to get the screen names of "Brian," "Howie," and "Nick."  I only talked to "Brian" once and he was kind of a jerk.  I should have known then and there that whenever I was talking to a "Backstreet Boy" it wasn't really true.  But again....young and stupid.  After I talked to "Brian" that night, it was almost a month again before I heard from any of them.  I am not sure if it was the same person impersonating all of them or not, as they did talk differently with each Boy.  However, I believe that fans know the personalities of each Boy and can easily convey this.  The night that I talked to "Nick", my friend Jenny was also talking to him.  While she had been totally convinced at the beginning, she kept pounding him for more information to prove that we was really Nick Carter.  This led to Nick getting upset, AJ going over to his house, and Nick changing his screen name.....oh the story just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?  Just wait....

In about August, it was revealed to me that the screen name that "Nick" had been using actually belonged to a friend of "AJ's."  The friend's name was Spice and she shared with me that she had actually had AJ's baby but she had to sign a confidentiality contract that she would not tell anyone.  She decided that she could not hold it in any longer so she decided to tell me.....I told you the story got better!  Spice decided to call AJ to inform him that she had spilled the beans but he was okay with it because he trusted me not to tell anyone.  Of course I told my good friends....again teenager....and I loved gossip.

I didn't really talk to them much after that since school had started and I had always chatted with them late at night.  I think I finally figured it out in about October after I had gone to my Millennium show in Chicago.  The day after the concert, all of the screen names that I had been using to chat with them had been completely deleted.  DUH!

Like I said before, it is something that I can look back on and laugh about now.  I was so convinced and truly thought that my dreams of meeting them at the time were going to come true.  That is what happens when you are young I guess.  At the time, BSB was huge so I never in a million years thought that I would get to meet them so I was too hopeful that all of it was true.  If only I knew then what I know now....