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Author
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Topic: The Importance of Protecting Yourself on the Net
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Werner Molders
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 01:34 AM
  
I'll spare you the gory details, but some nutjob claiming to have the same name as me obtained my email from one of the sites I run, and quickly after one or two emails suggested we meet in person. Tonight, I get another email with a picture he claims to be him, signed "all my love". People, make sure you know how easy or hard it is to track yourselves down on the net. These psychos are out there, as I have discovered. In my case I'm lucky, while this 'vert knows my name, address, phone number, icq, alma mater and current educational institution, I have been able to yank access to personal information about me across the internet, especially my email address. Even here, with a group of people that I do trust, I have had to yank my email address. I may yet have to remove it from my FS site too. Eventually this guy will get tired of silence from my email account, and the non-deliverable messages from my ISP which has been great in blocking this guy's successive hotmail accounts, but it's still not over yet. Don't let this happen to you, learn from my example and go to every search engine you can find, input your name and see what comes up, you may be unpleasantly surprised, especially if you have a unique name. Trust me guys, this is serious business. I'm writing this mostly for the benefit of the younger folk around here, guys like Aladar and ArgonV and semmern, sure we're big enough to beat the **** out of a wanker like this, but steel, in any of its many forms, is a remarkable equalizer. Don't let it come to that. Werner IP: Logged |
semmern
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 04:41 AM
You're right, mate. I did a search on my name this Christmas holiday, and found remarkably much shit about myself that I'd totally forgotten, apart from my posts here.IP: Logged |
wakeup tailgunner
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 08:18 AM
I make a point of never putting any real address stuff in when asked for 'registration details'. I also never post my private e-mail address anywhere. Those who need it, get it, but only directly from me. I post up my Hotmail address whenever I need to put a contact mail address, and use that as a filter. Hotmail has no real information on me at all...Call me paranoid, but after 2 years, I have never received unsolicited mail on my private e-mail address. Werners warning is well worth taking note of though. There are a lot of very odd people out there, and you never know who has access to anything placed on the web. Banks and Military sites get hacked, and they have vast budgets for security. I know EXACTLY who knows what about me ( I hope..) and I trust these people. BUT nobody knows where I live! I have a wife and 2 young children....the thought of Werners loony paying a visit while I'm out is scary. BIGTIME! Thank heavens for my paranoid streak! IP: Logged |
Da Jug head
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 08:18 AM
Werner,For most places wher I have to post my e-mail, and for contact info on a website, I have different e-mail addresses from my personal ones (and then I have two of those). Open up a Yahoo e-mail account for using with any site you have to register on you care about getting e-mails from. Open another for mailing lists with your ISP. keep a third for private use, and change passwords regularly. Another fun thing to do is get that guys real e-mail account and post it here. Tell everyone to set up a calendar account on yahoo using a yahoo e-mail address. Set up one appontment each hour- call it YOU SUCK and make all of them repeat evvery day. Go down to the reminder box and enter his e-mail address. He get's an e-mail for every appointment every day with the message YOU SUCK. If only 10 guys do this He-He-He I'm on two beta tesing mailing lists where someone broke in and thought they were so cute spamming us (this has happened several times- we got one idiots business e-mail address). We pulled stunts like this on them and within 2 days they were begging and pleading for us to stop. We usually kept them on it for 2 weeks after they cried UNCLE and then would send them a lecture on the final e-mail about being good boys from now on. ------------------
"Where'd he GO!?!?"
thunk-thunk-thunk-zing-OUCH
That answered my question IP: Logged |
Werner Molders
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 02:30 PM
Thanks guys. My fatal mistake was a grad website. In my zeal to keep in touch with everyone in my very small graduating class (~50) I set up a website with everyone's contact info. I didn't bother to check that invasive search engines like google could pick it up. I run three websites, one is my work, one is my play (AF for SDOE), one is for grad, and I have info on two other places, here (although linking me to my alias here is next to impossible) and another University site that has since been yanked at my request. Before the grad site went up, I was fine. I have a second email account with bogus login info, but it's a p.i.t.a. to use. Again, before the grad site the only places you could get my email were fsic, AF, and if I gave it to you. This guy will give up eventually, I mean he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It took him a month to figure out I had my ISP block him, and any serious predator type wouldn't have suggested a meeting after three emails. In the meantime, the grad site is still there, but behind a password firewall and the content pages can't be picked up by search engine now. Aladar, if you're reading this - a few weeks ago I posted angrily after you included my real name in your reply. I'm a bit of a privacy nut too, obviously not as hardcore as some, but enough that I try to be hard to track down. This is why. Had you posted my last name as well, that page might have turned up on a search, and then not only my grad site, but AF and my affairs here would have been compromised, and I would have been forced to leave here for a while. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, but I want you to understand why I got mad about you writing my name in your post. hehe, on a lighter note, like I said I'm not too worried yet. Long distance is cheap cheap cheap right now, and this nut hasn't picked up the phone so I'm not too worried. If I vanish from fsic for a long period of time however...  Regards, Werner ------------------
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DanW
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 07:35 PM
Hey why don't you arrange to meet this guy and have some of your buddies waiting. When and if he shows up, beat the living piss out of him and steal his wallet.That may discourage futher harrasment. IP: Logged |
darthbob
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 07:55 PM
knee cap him. it works over here.IP: Logged |
Werner Molders
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 09:13 PM
DanW - LMAOI was actually going to ask you this evening via email about your experience with those college punks and how you traced their IP. The alleged sicko did in fact call me this evening, but it seems this was all his idea of a joke. I know this guy, he's somebody I know from high school who has a bizarre sense of humour, and rarely considers the consequences of his "jokes". I calmly explained to him what it was like on this end, not knowing who was doing this, and he quickly started apologizing. Profusely. In the final analysis, I'm not that upset really. This whole episode caused me to re-evaluate my practices on the internet, and at no time did I fear for my safety, although I admit the picture email pushed me a little closer to that point. The lesson still applies though, so take heed. Thanks all, as always you're a great bunch.  Werner ------------------
Visit Abbeville Field Today!
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DanW
Pilot
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posted 01-06- 10:40 PM
Well, I'm not sure what happened. I think MH had sent some email to where they were posted from...so it was taken care of.I get a few spam mails now and then, but I usually just block the sender. IP: Logged | |
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