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ShiftedJewel -> RE: Common Sense Tips (5/8/2005 5:26:33 AM)
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I know that a lot of these things seems like a bit of "overkill"... but I honestly believe that the jist of the conversation is safety first. I know so many people that look at the "drama" and say... oh, just block them... and being totally honest here, I'm real tired of hearing that. Been there, done that, granted, 99% of the time it works great, it's that 1% that bothers me. Giving out personal information helter skelter is sooo far from sensible! Now, before you start ripping me apart....
A while back I met someone, not from here, although he easily could have been. We talked a lot in a chatroom, I gave him my personal email addy, we talked on instant messenger, everything was great, or so I thought. We talked about setting up a meeting. I told him that I would prefer that he meet me at my home (mainly because I had two roommates that would tear him apart if he tried anything "inappropriate"), but I had NOT given him my home address as of yet. He didn't like the idea, instead he wanted to meet at a seldom used freeway overpass.... that sounded WAY to suspicious to me. So I said nope, don't think so. Long story shortened a bit, I ceased talking to him. Blocked him, the whole nine yards. Not that it mattered, he had already hacked into my computer. I got phone calls, both at home and at work, from this man. Again, I know, caller ID, I don't have to answer it... But let me tell you something, when a man that lives in another state can tell you what you have in your back yard you tend to get worried. That was followed by waking up EVERY morning to at least one flat tire.
I found out that I wasn't the first "victim" of this man. The first three disappeared, the fourth one received death threats and parts of dead animals in the mail and ended up having to hire an armed guard. I dropped off the face of the earth. I have a big enough family that I was able to effectively hide, my name is on nothing, not my computer, no utilities, no vehicles. I let my drivers license go rather then renewing it just to avoid being found. Yes, the FBI was looking into it.. internet stalkers are hard to prosecute, they can prove that it was one particular computer that was used, but how do you prove specifically who it was that was using that computer? Sure, he posted a pic, but who's to say it was really HIS pic?
Do I feel safe now... yes.. I have a wide range of weapons here and know how to use all of them, but my name is still rarely found on anything.
I know this is NOT the norm, but it does happen and there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with using a little common sense when it comes to meeting strangers off the internet. I have two firewalls on my computer and many other protections, I am also more then willing to produce real life people that know me, I belong to a local BDSM support group and insist that anyone that wishes to meet set up a safe call, I know I do. I'm also willing to produce "spur of the moment" pics, I have a web came and a couple of digital cameras, it isn't that hard to do, and I expect them to be able to as well.
Can't afford a web cam? Can you afford to go into hiding for a couple of years? Please don't treat internet stalkers like a joke, it can and often does, go real life in an instant. Believe me, anyone worth knowing will understand the safety precautions and will most likely have their own set of them. All it takes is a little common sense to be safe and not a statistic.
Jewel
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