How to keep private using Forums & Chat

I asked a ten-year old. Simple answer: don't tell anyone your real name.

If only it were really so simple to be truly anonymous. From a little data about you, collected from many different sources, it is very easy to find out who YOU are.

Usernames and Privacy

Does your username reveal anything about you? Interests and hobbies, type of work, expertise, domain name. What about the domain link in your signature? If you are on the internet, you can be found.

Who are you chatting with?

It is so easy to tell chidren to only chat with people they know first hand and to leave the chat if someone they don't know joins the chatroom.
We don't want children chatting to a 14-year old girl who turns out to be a graying 50-year old looking for teenages who have webcams on during the chat. Do you remember The Simpsons espisode where Bart Simpson wrote the love letters? Do you know who you are chatting to?

When it comes to adult behaviour, so many forget the advice given to children about being aware of strangers. As adults we are so much easier to scam. It won't take much careful chat before our 'friends' have a good idea about our family, our house, our interests. When do you begin to trust someone you chat to at least once a week?

I can't be Scammed

All the scams that work over the phone and at the door work even easier in forums and chatrooms. The evil can't be seen: no eyes to look into, no tense tone of voice, no shuffling feet, no leaning on the door to get into your house. Just carefully chosen words to recommend a penny stock that is going to be a really good investment in a couple of years. If it is only a penny now, think how much money you can make if goes up by just one penny. What about going over a Pound? Invest [put your own value] and in two years you will be rich. Everyone is tempted by greed.
It is so easy to accept the recommendation of a stock broker, so easy to forge share certificates, so easy to leave a forum or stay lurking under a new username.

Once you have been successfully conned you are easy pickings for the next scam.

Be private, take no one's word for it. If anyone tells you something, before you believe it, do your own research. If it is a scam, others will be screaming about it in blogs and forums.

So many people feel safe about revealing personal information to their peers on forums and chats. It is easy to forget that somewhere a database is making a record of everything you have ever written. It takes very little effort to find everything relating to your username: just search using Google or any other search engine to find what you have already revealed.
 

---

---