Internet Safety

[Fei]

I was searching through my inbox and found an old email. I thought I'd share this little bit of chainmail with y'all.

After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get
on-line . She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her
Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:

ByAngel213:
Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today.
It was really weird!

GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you?
Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?

ByAngel213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn't see anybody
when I looked out.

GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven't done that have you?

ByAngel213:
Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.

GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?

ByAngel213:
Yes and we won!!

GoTo123:
That's great! Who did you play?

ByAngel213:
We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like
bees. LOL

GoTo123:
What is your team called?

ByAngel213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really
cool.

GoTo123:
Did you pitch?

ByAngel213:
No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my
parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!

GoTo123:
Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for
her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He
took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.

Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North Carolina

Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall. Besides this
information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him.
He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until
her parents came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday
afternoons on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats.
Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the
eighth grade at the Canton Junior High School. She had told him all this
in the conversations they had on- line. He had enough information to find
her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from
the ballpark that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her
from walking home from the softball games. Parents were always overreacting
and hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe
if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.

By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her.

Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her.
It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base
position to see a man watching her closely.

He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she
looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the sudden
fear she had felt.

After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She
noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she
smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had
found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks
to Shannon's home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned
to the park to get his car.

Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came
to go to Shannon's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there
until time to make his move.

Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the
living room.

"Shannon, come here," her
father called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went
into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.

"Sit down," her
father began, "this
man has just told us a most interesting story about you."

Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never
seen him before today!

"Do you know who I am, Shannon?"
the man asked.

"No," Shannon
answered.

"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."

Shannon was stunned. "That's
impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14. And he lives in Michigan!"

The man smiled. "I
know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see, Shannon, there are
people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others
do it to injure kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who
do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach
you how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You told me enough about
yourself to make it easy for me to find you. You named the school you went
to, the name of your ball team and the position you played. The number
and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."

Shannon was stunned. "You
mean you don't live in Michigan?"

He laughed. "No,
I live in Raleigh. It made you feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't
it?"

She nodded.

"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky.
The guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone. Kids are taught
not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line.
The wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and
there on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to
find you without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned
a lesson from this and won't do it again. Tell others about this so they
will be safe too?"

"It's a promise!"

That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom all knelt down together and thanked
God for protecting Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.

[Agentpaw]

Wow, that was a very interesting story, with a good message. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Is it true? Or just a made up story to teach us the dangers of on line chatting?

[Fei]

I'm not sure. I actually think it is true. Glad to share it with you guys!

[WINDSHEAR]

Online chatting is so dangerous.


[/sarcasm]


but thanks for the scary story... it was good for laughs

[Fei]

Why do you think it's so stupid WINDSHEAR?

[WINDSHEAR]

well, let's see,... I've chatted online since I was 13. I now have over 120 contacts on MSN alone, and 70+ on Yahoo. I haven't been stalked once. Now ask me why I think stuff like that is only good for laughs.

Although I concede that it is wise to inform youngsters to be very careful about providing too much information, a combination of which could enable someone to locate you. Such as providing school names, or the name of a local business. Try and keep away from specifics. But I see nothing wrong with providing first name and general age, and after a while, perhaps the birthdate.

I just generally laugh when I run across stuff like this. Don't be bothered by me. But I guess the reason I kind of scorn stuff like this, is how irritating it is when I really want to get to know someone, and be their friend, and they won't talk, because their scared that I'm some freak that's going to come stalking. I find this extremely annoying, although I can understand the reasons for it. Half the time it's just based in paranoia.

[Kenric]

It's a good thing I don't use instant messengers. [I stopped after every chat room was filled with so much vulgar profanity, including those religion rooms.]

Wow. An interesting story, most likely fictional, but filled with a valid message. If little kids took these cautionary actions seriously, maybe a death could be prevented.

I don't see why someone would stalk me, though. I'm 15, 6' 2", and big. I guess anyone could find me and stare, but there's no reason to. A simple "Hi...my name is..." would suffice.

[Fei]

Internet stalked victims have a tendency to be adolesent girls or young children, boys and girls.

[WINDSHEAR]

I'll give an extra-simple rundown of what I just PM'd Birdie.

Basically, I conclude that it's useless to try to completely thwart stalkers attempts to find you. If someone really wants to, and has some know-how and some brains, they can find you no matter what you do. Your time and energy is better spent preparing yourself to meet a stalker face to face, or dealing with one in real life. Watching your back, not allowing yourself to get trapped alone in rooms, always be with somebody, and it's a good idea to have a phone around too. A good knowledge of self-defense techniques is also quite useful. Even if you aren't on the internet at all, there are still stalkers out there that don't use internet,... ultimately, you must be prepared to meet one.

I speak from experience of tracking people down, no matter how anonymous they may think they are.

Of course, just in case someone gets the wrong idea, I still think it's good to generally be clam-like with regards to giving out personal info. It filters out at least 75% of your every-day stalkers.

[Danadelfos]

A carry permit wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[Fei]

I'll give an extra-simple rundown of what I just PM'd Birdie.

Basically, I conclude that it's useless to try to completely thwart stalkers attempts to find you. If someone really wants to, and has some know-how and some brains, they can find you no matter what you do. Your time and energy is better spent preparing yourself to meet a stalker face to face, or dealing with one in real life. Watching your back, not allowing yourself to get trapped alone in rooms, always be with somebody, and it's a good idea to have a phone around too. A good knowledge of self-defense techniques is also quite useful. Even if you aren't on the internet at all, there are still stalkers out there that don't use internet,... ultimately, you must be prepared to meet one.

I speak from experience of tracking people down, no matter how anonymous they may think they are.

Of course, just in case someone gets the wrong idea, I still think it's good to generally be clam-like with regards to giving out personal info. It filters out at least 75% of your every-day stalkers.

WINDY asked me to post in this thread to show me and the public something. I'd like to go on record saying that I didn't feel it was such a good idea due to off-topicness.

Just to make it clear, WINDY. I was questioning your rude behavior in your first post in this thread. Not the internet issue itself. Anyhow, I don't mind the statements you've made recently.

In this post I've just quoted, I'd like to say, that's not how I saw your PM to. Anyhow, good advice.

But from the post above, I agree to some extent. As I said in the PM I just sent, everyone has a different comfort zone. Some are a little more cautious and some are a little more adventurous. Is either one wrong? Not that I can see.

BTW dan, carrying a sniper in my back pocket wouldn't be such a bad idea as well

[WINDSHEAR]

Ok yeah, Birdie thought I was being rude in the first post, and somewhat mocking, and I want to apologize if it seemed that way. It's just that I found it really annoying having people go off the deep end with internet safety, and I find it somewhat rediculous. Now, with what I've already said in above posts, I'm going to make a point.

Consider this... you are very careful, somebody asks you questions about where you live, how old you are, your name, etc... you of course, do not provide any info, you realize he is likely a stalker. The stalker, however, happens to be quite smart, and he knows that only people who want to avoid stalkers (which are generally the younger people, the older generation think they can take care of themselves, and quite a few can). This target audience is the adolescents and young girls that Birdie is talking about. He realizes this is likely a potential target, and possibly a juicy one too. Nobody else will be competing for this prize, because there aren't many other stalkers out there that think that deep, (or so he thinks, and he may indeed be correct, nobody has taken a poll of the stalkers yet ) He then does some discreet hacking, and finds out the IP address. He now has two or three options, he can trace the IP, and either hack the ISP to find the address, or he can go to the town, if he thinks he has sufficient information, and try looking. Or, he can try to pretend to be a friend that's already on the messenger, or, he can try a couple other tricks. One of them will succeed. Sooner or later, he will have the address. The victim thinks she is safe, because she said nothing, but the fact is that the very thing that she thought was keeping her safe, had put this stalker on her trail.

This is a realistic scenario, but it takes a stalker with a few brains. It is known that crazy people can be quite intelligent in some areas, so don't put it past them too readily. They can be quite cagey.

[Catspaw]

Internet-connected stalking incidents are not common, but I appreciate your concern, Birdie! Bad things can happen, and it's good to have reminders now and then that giving out your personal address to somebody you know nothing about is probably a bad idea.

Windshear, the scenario that you presented seems very unlikely, and while I'm sure that it is possible, I don't think that giving out all your personal information is going to be an effective way to stop being from wanting to hack into your info. I'm not suggesting that you're recommending that people do so, but I doubt that such a scenario is one that most of us need to concern ourselves with.

Being careful is a good thing, but let's try not to get too carried away too far to either side. Lying about every detail will probably bring you problems later, but telling everyone every bit of info about your life can also bring you problems. Some basic information, like perhaps your first name and your hobbies of reading and listening to AIO, are unlikely to throw you into harm's way, fortunately!

[Aram]

Of course, anyone that is er, unintelligent enough to give out that type of information over the internet, shouldn't be allowed unsupervised anyway.

It never hurts to be cautious, though.

[Waluigi Freak 99]

This story is false, although it does give out some good advice. Further reading:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/shannon.asp

You know, everyone on To Catch a Predator says, "I was just trying to teach her to be careful online!" when they get arrested by the police and realize that it's a sting operation. I wonder what made this guy different.

[Fei]

Of course, anyone that is er, unintelligent enough to give out that type of information over the internet, shouldn't be allowed unsupervised anyway.

It never hurts to be cautious, though.

Agreed! Thanks for tying this up Catspaw.

[The Top Crusader]

Yeah as has been said its a fake story. Though it is rather amusing.

[Kait]

Well, I thought it was a realistic story and I thank Birdie for posting it. Every one has thier own ideas about how much info to give out. For instance, I won't be telling you that my address 152 N 189th Ave. Chicago, IL. and that my SSN is 458-79-1259 or that I play Soccer on a team called the Chicago Losers. But you know, I won't tell you that so it doesn't matter

























PS that was all fake just so ya know....

[Agent3xq]

That story Birdie posted must have been out for awhile if her birthdate was in 1985 and she was 13 years old

[FrayedAroundTheEdges]

^^ lolly ya

thats an amazin story...so disgusting that there are people out there who would actually do that to someone...