It has been said that Facebook is a treasure trove of evidence in divorce matters.  We have previously blogged on how a person’s posts on social media sights can be used against them in a divorce.  More specifically, I recently blogged on how awoman’s permanent alimony claim in a NY matter was killed because she was blogging about her belly dancing affinity despite claiming in her case that she was disabled.

That said, there is an old saying to the effect "don’t believe everything you read."  That was surely the case in an article I saw today on Yahoo News by Katy Steinmetz which may be from Time.  In it, this maxim truly comes in to play.

The story talks about a case where a woman pretended to be a 17-year-old on Facebook to draw out incriminating evidence from her ex-husband.  The joke, however, was on her.  Suspecting that the 17-year old was actually his ex-wife, he prepared a notarized  document setting forth the particulars and stating that he actually wished her no harm.  Specifically, he said that "… he was engaging with this person and lying in order to gain proof that his ex-wife was tampering with his personal life, proof he would then use himself in court."  He then communicated with the alleged 17 year old claiming to put a GPS device on his former wife’s car and suggesting that the 17-year old find a classmate who would "… put a cap in her ass for $10,000."  Not surprising, the authorities soon came calling but armed with this notarized affidavit, the man was exonerated.

I have heard of domestic violence matters where the accuser tried to use alleged emails and texts from the defendant in order to get a final restraining order except that the so-called evidence turned out to be fakes.

So don’t believe everything you read.