Posted on 09/24/2011 5:17:20 AM PDT by decimon
One of the odd things about the Internet is that so many people don’t seem to understand that it’s real. Sure, they realize that there’s a computer in front of them, a “series of tubes,” and then…it gets kind of foggy. It’s like they think there are magical pixies from the land of Lulz on the other end, as opposed to their family, friends, co-workers, and old boyfriends who are obsessively poring over their Facebook page.
Granted, they are aware that they do need to be careful about a few things: viruses, hackers, identity thieves, Nigerian princes who want to give them millions of dollars — all the standard stuff. But there are some lesser known dangers of the Internet that can steamroll your life like Paris Hilton stampeding towards a line of cocaine.
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Ping
I ran into one of these problems. I was arguing politics with a foaming liberal, and although she knew only my first name, general location, and some generalities about my profession, she figured out who I was and threatened constantly to contact my boss and get me fired because she hated my guts. Then she spammed the chatroom with my full name and address over and over, and urged other liberals to contact my boss (or just come “put a bullet” in my head.) I just kept on keeping on, and acted like I wasn’t one bit afraid of her, but I really was a nervous wreck for months.
“don’t have a political blog and stupid boss.” So a smart boss would be happy with employee writing on his political blog during work hours?
That was a terrorist threat, I would have gone to the FBI.
It’s not just liberals.
A “foaming” FReeper [who claimed he thought I was a guy, as if that minimized/justified anything] once said he’d like to “meet me offline in an alley”.
Another FReeper sicced her ‘hacker’ goons on me and my bank account was hit.
Psychotics are everywhere.
Just, wow.
You know, a lot of what I post is tinged with a good deal of humor (not all, but certainly some). However, your experience is frightening. Chilling even.
I saw just this situation on the NYT forums during the Clinton fiasco with Monica. Fortunately, it didn’t happen to me, but it did result in lawsuits and, as the nutty behavior escalated, the eventual closing down of the NYT forums (which were absolutely the best). There is a pale, highly filtered version of the NYT forums still in existence, but they are neither worth participating in, nor reading.
And they’d have done exactly nothing.
Our bank manager [a personal friend] could do no more than “flag” my account for unusual activity/tracing after I got hit because the hacker was ‘smart’ in that she had others do it, avoiding first-person involvement and the FReepmail I got from a [now banned] poster warning me that it was coming, beforehand, was not “serious” enough for anybody but the Mods and JimRob to take action.
The skank who directed the hackers got banned as well but her agent provocateur is still posting here.
good article. I’m going to show it to my kids.
HHC’s husband.
Be careful, they might even hit you with sticks.
Oh, wait...
I didn’t know who SHE was, though. She had a series of proxies and screennames (later I found out that she did that sort of thing all the time, so she was practiced at covering her tracks.) I to this day don’t know if my boss ever was contacted... if she was, she blew it off and didn’t tell me.
Looking back, that's beyond stupid, more like double dare stupid.....
I can't tell you the trouble it caused me on FR posting about the Whitewater Clinton files.....by liberals and their assorted minions who used that knowledge to do all sort of problems for me
If you've signed up with the forum then people with the forum may have, at the least, your email address.
I was once a member of a forum that went inactive. I later discovered that my personal information from that forum was on available with a search of my name. The revealing of personal information needn't be done maliciously, it's just in the nature of this medium.
You'll probably need a drill press to get it into their heads but this is a start. ;-)
Looking back, that's beyond stupid, more like double dare stupid.....
Yeah, you don't want to be one of those anonymous cowards, blah blah... But in time you realize it's wearing a bullseye on a battlefield to use your real name.
I can't tell you the trouble it caused me on FR posting about the Whitewater Clinton files.....by liberals and their assorted minions who used that knowledge to do all sort of problems for me
Sadly, I have no trouble believing that. Your political beliefs, religious beliefs, race, ethnicity or failing to capitalize a letter can be cause for retribution.
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