I recently had a weird experience at work. I work for a company that is based in Hong Kong and has offices in the UK and in Sacramento California. I am new to the company, and of course, am still trying to prove myself. Out of the blue - someone sent an email to everyone in the company accusing me of being a different Mike Jahn, one that has a racist blog and pod cast. It became surreal. It became hectic. I found myself scrambling, trying to figure out, how does one prove that you are not someone else - on the internet ? My wife was ready to call in the Marines. My boss wondered if he should hire someone to do a background check. The CEO was annoyed that we wasted 48 hours on this during a product launch.

My boss wrote this person, saying that racism was horrible (as I suggested!) and that this was a case of mistaken identity - but this person remained unconvinced. They were CERTAIN I was the same Mike Jahn on this blog and was the voice in this podcast. Incredibly, this person did not simply reply to my boss, but again, sent the reply to EVERYONE in the company suggesting they were wrong, that they were right, I was a racist and I was one in the same Mike Jahn.

After doing my best to demonstrate that I was NOT this other Mike Jahn, sending history, screen captures - this person disappeared like a fart in the wind. No comments, no apology, nothing.

I feel like someone painted RACIST on the front of my house, then hid. What is my recourse ?

I use my real name on blogs, as opposed to jahny6723 - and this is the thanks I get, some lunatic launching a smear campaign on the wrong person. What a wonderful thing the internet is.