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Security Notice -Please READ
I've recently read a few messages about "Trolls," people who hang out on forums looking for victims or just to sort of be a pain the neck. Sometimes they report other people for posts that they say are a violation of the rules, in an attempt to get the member booted. Whatever the specific behavior, their agenda has nothing to do with the forum.
These folks can be dangerous, because they will use private messages to ask for your regular email address, start up a correspondence there, and move on to snag personal information about you. Often, they present as people who are down on their luck, just looking for someone to talk to and sometimes they seem to present romantic possibilties. Because forums such as ours often have a high population of people who feel "safe" here, it is easy for a troll to form and then violate a trust.
How do you tell a troll? Some are easy: they engage in profane, pornographic or threatening language, try to pick a fight, etc. These are the obvious ones. Just pass them along to me and I'll make them go away. The others are usually new to the forums, and while they may present a credible enough picture of themselves, watch out for requests for your personal email address, phone, address or anything else that might disclose who you are and where you are. They may also not post much on the public forums, but rather present themselves in private messages. Bear this in mind -the professional troll may already HAVE some information about you, such as a credit card number, and be looking for one last bit of data to set you up for identity theft. These folks are now often working for organized crime, and can be very clever.
If you think that you've been dealing with a troll of any kind, let me know. If the individual has been successful in learning some details about you, an advisory to your local police is not a bad idea -taking their advice on what you can do to protect yourself.
I personally have seen no evidence of trolling on the Anxiety Forum, but then again I cannot see what is in private messages other than my own, and that is an area where the trolls will focus attention. If you have any suspicious private messages, feel free to copy and paste them in a message to me (don't put it on the forum). In one of my former careers, I assisted police on computer forensics, so I have some familiarity both with the type of personality involved, and how to find them.
By no means am I attempting to start a witch hunt here -we have demons enough of our own! And, as I said, I've seen no evidence of activity HERE and I personally feel safe. All that said, as your Community Leader, I think being alert and aware is a good thing, so I'm posting this on the forum for your review, and will also have it in my journals for access at any time.
Questions? PM me.
-Scott
These folks can be dangerous, because they will use private messages to ask for your regular email address, start up a correspondence there, and move on to snag personal information about you. Often, they present as people who are down on their luck, just looking for someone to talk to and sometimes they seem to present romantic possibilties. Because forums such as ours often have a high population of people who feel "safe" here, it is easy for a troll to form and then violate a trust.
How do you tell a troll? Some are easy: they engage in profane, pornographic or threatening language, try to pick a fight, etc. These are the obvious ones. Just pass them along to me and I'll make them go away. The others are usually new to the forums, and while they may present a credible enough picture of themselves, watch out for requests for your personal email address, phone, address or anything else that might disclose who you are and where you are. They may also not post much on the public forums, but rather present themselves in private messages. Bear this in mind -the professional troll may already HAVE some information about you, such as a credit card number, and be looking for one last bit of data to set you up for identity theft. These folks are now often working for organized crime, and can be very clever.
If you think that you've been dealing with a troll of any kind, let me know. If the individual has been successful in learning some details about you, an advisory to your local police is not a bad idea -taking their advice on what you can do to protect yourself.
I personally have seen no evidence of trolling on the Anxiety Forum, but then again I cannot see what is in private messages other than my own, and that is an area where the trolls will focus attention. If you have any suspicious private messages, feel free to copy and paste them in a message to me (don't put it on the forum). In one of my former careers, I assisted police on computer forensics, so I have some familiarity both with the type of personality involved, and how to find them.
By no means am I attempting to start a witch hunt here -we have demons enough of our own! And, as I said, I've seen no evidence of activity HERE and I personally feel safe. All that said, as your Community Leader, I think being alert and aware is a good thing, so I'm posting this on the forum for your review, and will also have it in my journals for access at any time.
Questions? PM me.
-Scott
Your question: Is it never safe to give out our personal email address? I've met a few people on here who I would like to give my personal email address to but I'm afraid?
The answer is that if you don't know who you're giving the info to, you don't know how "safe" it is. If people have asked for your email address, the logical question is, why do they want it? In other words, it is not so much the giving of an email address that is important -as it is what you disclose in the email. If your email is fairly innocuous, such as "dogbone123@yahoo," then there is no big problem UNLESS your yahoo profile says a lot about who you are and where you are.
My approach is to never disclose more than what is disclosed to me, and to never ask for more than what I am willing to say about myself.
One way to deal with this is to set up an email account on a completely different email service than the one you usually use, and to enter only the minimal possible info about yourself on THAT service. Be aware that the IP number of the service you use will be a part of the email header data in emails you send, which is usually not displayed. Likewise, the IP of the sender appears in the header of emails sent to you -which is how bad actors are tracked down.
Ask yourself this question: would you disclose your location to someone you just met in a bar? If "No," then "No" on the internet as well. Or, ask yourself this: what do I stand to lose if I tell someone more about me. If you don't like the answer -then don't do it.
I hope this helps.
The answer is that if you don't know who you're giving the info to, you don't know how "safe" it is. If people have asked for your email address, the logical question is, why do they want it? In other words, it is not so much the giving of an email address that is important -as it is what you disclose in the email. If your email is fairly innocuous, such as "dogbone123@yahoo," then there is no big problem UNLESS your yahoo profile says a lot about who you are and where you are.
My approach is to never disclose more than what is disclosed to me, and to never ask for more than what I am willing to say about myself.
One way to deal with this is to set up an email account on a completely different email service than the one you usually use, and to enter only the minimal possible info about yourself on THAT service. Be aware that the IP number of the service you use will be a part of the email header data in emails you send, which is usually not displayed. Likewise, the IP of the sender appears in the header of emails sent to you -which is how bad actors are tracked down.
Ask yourself this question: would you disclose your location to someone you just met in a bar? If "No," then "No" on the internet as well. Or, ask yourself this: what do I stand to lose if I tell someone more about me. If you don't like the answer -then don't do it.
I hope this helps.
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