The Chicago Tribune reports that a plaintiff named Bonhomme alleges she has been the victim of an elaborate hoax run by a woman in the suburbs of Chicago who pretended to be a man.

James, his young son and about 20 other friends and family members Bonhomme had been communicating with for months were characters allegedly created by a woman in Chicago’s west suburbs.

The depth of the alleged deception stunned Bonhomme. Janna St. James, who lives in Batavia, had allegedly used a voice-altering device to pose as Jesse James on the phone, coordinated numerous storylines with her characters that advanced in emails and instant messages, and sent and received mail — including children’s drawings — from all over the world.

The attacker courted the victim online for years. The victim has filed suit for damages and apparently also hopes to force the attacker to explain her motivations for social engineering.

At first the suit was dismissed but an appeal has been successful; this could lead to precedent on those who falsely present their identity within the context of social engineering. The court ruled that the persistence of the attack helped them allow a claim used for businesses — fraudulent misrepresentation.

Hoping to find some answers, Bonhomme filed a lawsuit that was eventually moved to Kane County, where in December 2009 a judge dismissed her complaint. But last month, a divided Illinois appeals court reinstated the case, rejecting St. James’ argument that she was creating fiction and therefore wasn’t liable.

“The concepts of falsity and material fact do not apply in the context of fiction,” her attorney had written, “because fiction does not purport to represent reality.”

The court allowed Bonhomme’s fraudulent misrepresentation claim, which typically applies only in a business situation, to move forward, in part due to St. James’ “almost-two-year masquerade of false statements.”