TimelessFinance is honoUred to share a post from the unassailably funniest, and quite possibly greatest, personal finance author: Greg McFarlane. (Adina’s column will be published tomorrow.)
In case you missed it, Eddie Kadic of Finance Fox got exposed as a recidivistic plagiarizer. (Laurels to Cait Flanders at Blonde On A Budget, Krystal Yee of Give Me Back My Five Bucks, and Nelson Smith of Financial Uproar for cracking the case.) Kadic stole from dozens of sources, ranging from modest little blogs to heavyweights such as CBS News and MSN Money.
Kadic started Finance Fox in November of 2010, and it immediately began serving as a counterargument to Americans’ laments about the shortcomings of their nation’s education system. Because not only did Kadic graduate high school in Canada, but suburban Toronto’s Sheridan College chose to award a diploma to a man whose primary purpose in life is the waging of a blood feud against the English language:
A coupled (sic) of hundered (sic) bucks here and there has turned into a modest part-time income on monthly basis. On top of it all my readership has expanded and my akwardness (sic) is dissapearing (sic).
(Get comfortable with the [sic]. You’ll be seeing dozens more of them soon.)
Alas, within a month, Finance Fox was starting to get stale. The font of creativity had dried up. Kadic’s muse was no longer taking his calls. Fortunately for Kadic, there was an inextinguishable resource to draw from: everything else on the internet.
At this point Kadic had already established himself as an illiterate of the first order. The content of his posts was disturbing and puerile, while their form was a hideous mélange of misspellings, bad grammar and random capitalization.
On December 10, 2010, that all changed drastically. Within the space of a single post, Kadic went from mouth-breathing Cro-Magnon to someone infinitely more readable:
A consumer proposal works only if you’re committed to paying back what you have agreed to pay. If you miss several payments, you can expect the agreement to be annulled and you will be back where you started. Also, consumer proposals are limited to situations where debt is less than $75,000 per person.
This from a post titled “Traped (sic) in Debt? …Here are your 4 Escape Routes!”
Or as Maggie Gilmour of MoneySense Magazine put it in May of 2009,
A consumer proposal works only if you’re committed to paying back what you have agreed to pay. If you miss several payments, you can expect the agreement to be annulled and you will be back where you started. Also, consumer proposals are limited to situations where debt is less than $75,000 per person.
On first glance, you might not detect the subtle similarities between Gilmour’s work and Kadic’s. If you can’t, many of the remaining examples of Kadic’s theft, too many to post here, are more blatant than this. Nelson Smith showcased a few, and there’s a comprehensive list here (over 70 examples and counting).
The real tragedy of Kadic’s chronic plagiarism (well, aside from betraying the people whose work he lifted) is that it takes attention away from the magnificent posts that he did write. They are a testament to the limitations of a single human mind. What Hamlet was to the 17th century and Ulysses was to the 20th, Kadic’s post “What Men Want In A Woman” is to the 21st. It’s the definitive literary work of the era. To quote Kadic, and we’re pretty sure he didn’t steal this one:
Attraction is key, no matter which way you put it. Anyone who says otherwise, is just lying to them selves (sic). That being said, attraction comes in many shapes, sizes and forms. What works for one, does not work for the next. You’ll often hear, “He’s a boob man” or “an Ass man”. To each to their own, it’s what that guy finds attractive. Personally speaking, I’ve never been a boom (sic) or bum man.
Or from “In the Hunt”, again, quoting Kadic, because attribution is important for most of us:
For the married men, despite all the attention, there are two downside (sic) to being married: A) you can’t hav (sic) sex with other women. B) you can’t satisfy your ego, by finding out if the other woman would have sex with you. Shitty, I know, but those are the rules.
Notwithstanding this Swingin’ Slovene’s fondness for the ladies, he saved his best work for last.
On February 27 of this year, having amassed a body of evidence that continues to grow even now, Smith formally presented the open-and-shut case against Kadic as an unrepentant thief. And for the next 4 days, nothing from Kadic: not a post nor a tweet. The only implicit acknowledgement Kadic made was banning Smith’s IP address from accessing FinanceFox.ca. Then on March 2, Kadic addressed (“addressed”, not “confessed”) his crimes. Kadic’s pseudo-apology was astonishing in its brazenness and is best enjoyed with commentary.
What has transpired nearly a week ago was as much of a surprise to myself as it was to many of you.
At some point, scoundrels are going to stop going to the passive voice as the first line of defense against overwhelming proof of their transgressions. “What has transpired”, as if the Fates were cutting-and-pasting other people’s work onto Kadic’s site while he just stood there helpless to stop it.
whether I did it or someone else, I’m taking the blame.
Kadic hasn’t offered up the name of the second shooter, but later on we do get the vaguest of descriptions of such a possible perpetrator.
I fully take the rap on what has transpired five days ago.
Again. Kadic just minding his own business while things transpire around him. If you think his use of the passive voice is his preferred method of deflection, hold tight. Even when the evidence against someone is stark and comprehensive, when you point your index finger at that person, just remember where your middle finger, ring finger and pinky are pointing:
Likely that post you or I post on our blogs has already been written elsewhere before.
Likely for some of us, or to be precise, one of us. Not at all likely for others.
Likely it has already been written hundreds of times already with different or similar views.
My 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Maledy, would have sent me to the nurse’s office and had her check whether I had inhaled paint fumes if I’d written that sentence. But I digress, because Kadic’s plagiarism spree isn’t about me. No, wait. It is:
[W]e likely snoop around the internet to find similar articles in existence in order to help us build our own post. Nobody is perfect in terms of how we go about using existing content to build our own
See what Kadic did there? He might have stolen other people’s work, but that doesn’t mean you and I didn’t. So don’t go being all smug and self-righteous just because no one’s ever uncovered you as a filthy plagiarizer.
And so to the climax. In the very next paragraph, O.J. Kadic locates the real killers:
The Use of Ghost Writers
Ghostwriting has been around for quite a while now. Even though it serves a great purpose, it does come with one major downside – if the piece is not carefully edited, reviewed and triple checked you as the author will be on the hook. […]
I completely failed in setting the parameters for what (sic) and how I wanted the ghost writing to occur.
Kadic didn’t do a thing wrong, which is why it’s noble for him to take the blame here. The true culprit is his ghostwriter. Her name? Lennay Kekua.
I don’t blame my ghostwriter, but instead fully take the blame for not properly addressing the approach to writing the posts, what’s acceptable and what’s not and properly editing the posts that were written.
As imaginary defenses go, the construction of this one went miles beyond Kadic’s obvious intellectual limitations. No ghostwriter exists who would put herself out for hire without knowing the most fundamental commandment of writing: Try not to steal entire paragraphs of other people’s stuff.
Kadic then shifts blame from a phantom to someone corporeal. No, not himself; don’t be silly. Instead we learn that the real crime here isn’t plagiarism, but rather blowing the whistle on plagiarism. And the real criminal isn’t Kadic, but Nelson Smith:
“Cyber bullying is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner.”
I certainly don’t mind being called out, but there’s a difference between doing it in a professional manner and doing in a disgusting, deliberate and offensive manner. There’s always a way of going about things, but … kicking them while they’re down is certainly not the way go (sic) about it
Kadic, because you’re doubtless reading this, or at least reading the shorter words: You’re “down” because you stole reams of other people’s work. Some of those aggrieved parties were faceless to you, but Investopedia entries and newspaper columns are still written by someone, which you should have acknowledged. Others were people who counted you as a friend or compatriot. The nerve of your ghostwriter, lifting those people’s work instead of writing something original.
Wait…maybe we’re being a little harsh. Besides, we’re forgetting the person who’s suffering the most here, and by now you should all know who that is:
Being a victim of cyber bullying is hard
This is Olympic-caliber chutzpah. Sure, Kadic stole from dozens of honest people, but does that mean his feelings should be hurt? Especially by a big meanie like Nelson Smith?
who [the cyber-bullying] came from isn’t surprising one bit as this person has done it on many occasions and will likely continue to do so in the future. When someone cyber bullies someone else, they’re likely doing is (sic) because of all or some of the following reasons:
- Resentment
- In Search of Authority
- Boredom
- Anger
- Frustration
In my bully’s case likely sexual frustration
Sexual frustration or none, Smith has yet to share with his readers whether he’s a “boom” or bum man.
being an out of shape loner who stacks chips at grocery stores for a living will bring you to stoop to such low levels.
But I’m not here to judge
We checked with Strunk & White, and we’re almost positive that gratuitous attacks count as being here to judge. They might even count as cyberbullying.
learn both of the story (sic) before formulating your opinion. Sadly many jumped the bandwagon like a pack of hungry hyenas on a piece of meat.
Yes, Kadic even managed to plagiarize the one guy who defended him.
That being said, Kadic has finally come around and embraced humility. Or at the very least, demanded it of everyone else:
I believe in second chances whether for this blog or most things in life…
Passive voice? Check. Blaming others? Check. How about anchoring for the trifecta?
…except for murder. But we all know that didn’t take place here.
The next time you’re in traffic court, try that on the judge. “Your Honor, I didn’t murder anyone, therefore my offense is practically nothing.” Wait, it gets better. Like we said, he saved the best for last:
thank you to those who’ve come out of the woodwork and openly shared how they truly feel about myself and my blog. The positive of this is that as much you discovered some things about this blog/myself, I’ve also discovered who you are in the process as well and in no shape or form want to be associated with some of you.
So if you’re keeping score, the real offenders here in order of magnitude:
- The guy who outed Kadic as a fraud.
- The rest of us.
- Kadic’s nonexistent ghostwriter.
[T]o those who’ve reached out personally – thank you! Your words of encouragement and support are more than enough for someone who finds himself in these difficult times or as I call myself a ‘a (sic) piece of meat surrounded by a pack hyenas.’ (sic)
It seems that Kadic thinks that there’s no transitive property of plagiarism: If he steals the hyena line from someone, then uses it again 4 paragraphs later, it counts as a fresh and original thought.
At least Kadic was smart enough to disable comments on his “apology” post. If you wanted to share your thoughts there and couldn’t, you’re welcome to do it here.
The post “What Men Want In A Woman” may be held up centuries now as the pinnacle of literary achievement in the 21st century, but I believe this article deserves an honorable mention. Well done.
“What Men Want in a Woman” is probably the only post of his that I ever read. Not a good first impression — aside from the “boom” typo, which I found disproportionally hilarious
Considering the amount and variety of content that was stolen, I’m surprised the blog remained so consistently boring.
Top Kadic typos:
4. “Faucets” for facets.
3. “Boom” for boob.
2. “Full proof” for foolproof.
1. “Asses” for assess.
His site has thousands of these.
Looks like he is back. Today’s post: Using a credit card to sepErate business and personal expenses.
BAHAHAHA. This is gold. Thank you!!! Love the Lennay dig.
Epic post! Love it. Sidebar, use of passive voice severitates (sic) me.
Great points, Greg, but more importantly: are you a “boom” or bum guy?
[Too crass? I knew I shouldn't have had my ghostwriter write this comment for me!]
Adina, I heard you also use the services of Lennay Kekua. I’ve been thinking about employing her when people don’t like my articles; is she any good?
Trade secret, PK. But, if you send me a check for $500, I would be glad to fill you in.
[This is how you monetize your ghostwriter, right? Inquiring minds want to know.]
GREAT POST I NEVER THOUGHT OF IT THAT WAY
I have no idea who this guy is or isn’t but I know this to be excellent writing. Not his! Yours! Great read.
Greg is an incredible writer. He blogs multiple times a week with his writing partner (can I call Betty that? I don’t know but I just did.) at http://ControlYourCash.com/blog
“…how they truly feel about myself and my blog…”
Come on … no one is outraged at the inappropriate use of reflexive pronouns!?
lol yes that’s totally the first thing that infuriated me…
I read Nelson’s post, and the comments that followed, but didn’t participate myself at that time. I find it sad that FinanceFox doesn’t seem to understand that his second biggest mistake in all of this is not taking responsibility for his actions. He’s just digging a deeper pit for himself.
He may not be a “boom” or bum man, but it also seems like he’s not much of a backbone man either.
Wow. Lennay certainly gets around……
(Roll Tide!)
Thank you for writing this awesome post about Finance Fox.
I had no idea this was happening until the lovely Krystal Yee told me about Eddie Kadic’s “ghost writer” (ahem) also stealing my work.
And when I wrote Eddie to take down the articles that copied my work — and I gave him examples of it — he had the gall to ask me to send him more information about the blog posts, such as the URLs or headlines. I guess he really doesn’t want to take any responsibility at all, and search the entire paragraphs I sent him. Sigh.
The fact he not only brushed off the plagiarism is bad enough but he also wrote how it’s common for posts to look alike, lol, and he attacked those who exposed him.
Brutal.
Anyhow, keep up the great work with Timeless Finance,
Marc Saltzman
Thanks for dropping by, Marc. Agree on all fronts. In the beginning of this scandal I tried to be a voice of reason. After all our ties were cut with him, I was anxious to see the world return to normal. And then his non-apology re-victimized a whole bunch of people including good friends. I can’t believe he wouldn’t just delete everything when you emailed him. Goes to show he’s being a total ass behind the scenes, too.
And, just so Readers know, this is the guy from the Cineplex preview show that talks about new tech gadgets!
Thanks Joe.
Ah yes, Cineplex is my claim to fame, lol. Thanks.
Have a good day and I’ve bookmarked your blog!
Cheers,
Marc
[No sockpuppeting on TF even if you're in agreement. That might fly elsewhere, but it doesn't here unless it's some kind of funny insult about me, in which case I've allowed IP proxies and fake emails on a case-by-case basis.]
Pathetic smugness. It is a comment. A passing, non-critical comment about a non-classified subject on an important blog !! Not access to the CIA database.
Take the comment or leave it but lose the silly self-importance.
Thank-you for complying with the policy on Sockpuppeting.
Maybe Finance Fox could get a job with the Toronto District School Board. I hear there’s an opening there for an education director ; )
lol zing! Yeah that was a pretty pathetic situation. What a horrible example for our youth.
It’s just so sad that someone would do that. I’m disgusted.
Wow, this was an interesting read that almost makes me not want to write! I’m relatively new to this so finding fresh and new topics (for me) to write about is relatively easy. I’m sure that the pool of material will eventually run dry. If it does, I’ll have to find new ideas for articles. I definitely do NOT want to use other authors works. What I’m seeing though is that there is overlap in topics, especially with current events. I’ve seen this just this week with the “Sequester” topic. There are similarities between the articles posted but nothing that is duplicated. My fear is that when there is overlap there is always the possibility that some themes may sound similar and could be mistaken for plagiarism. I guess that is a risk you take when you write on a topic that is popular with blogs and the news media. Any suggestions to avoid that would be appreciated!
Jose, take a look at the list of (now over 90) examples of Eddie’s plagiarism that this post links to. This is not about “overlapping topics” this is about the literal use of entire paragraphs of copy.
Thanks for taking the time to construct this post. Thanks for clarifying that there was no place to comment as I was surprised I could not find one.
I have to say I too was shocked by that non-apology. I had never heard of Finance Fox before Nelson’s post. His greatest concern is that he sees some bad writing on the wall. His traffic disappearing and maybe advertisers pulling out = loss of cash flow from his blog.
If he was so apologetic, why go after Nelson with those grade 3 level shots at him? Everything above that became instantly irrelevant to me when he did that. Besides we all know that Nelson has several supermodels that are after him on any given week
Benefits of being smart with money and having an endless supply of chips….
lol I’ve seen Nelson’s bunker, built into the side of a tall snowy mountain, designed to weather any storm, like this blogosphere crisis. Every Frito Lay product one could imagine and an indoor swimming pool around which many babes lounge.
I know you’re all waiting for this, so I’ll clear the air. I’m not so much a “boom” man, I’m more into “busts.”
I’ll let myself out.
Ah, ha, ha, ha…….nice!
Unbelievable. And sad. What a plague on the English language. Here’s to those who exposed this blatant theft. Hopefully that will discourage more of his ilk.