Category: Let's talk
I watched a programme on tv recently about how easy it was to steal someone's identity. In fact, one of the people who made the programme stole David Blunkett's identity just to prove the point. All you had to do was to obtain a copy of their birth certificate, and from there, you could get their national insurance number, and from then, the world would be your oyster so to speak, because once you had that, you could get a passport, a driver's licence, credit cards in their name, the possibilities are endless.
so just imagine, if you were creating a ficticious identity to obtain money by deception so to speak, on the internet, it would be that much easier, not for the purposes of obtaining money necessarily, but to perhaps gain respect, friends you potentially don't have ... etc. All you'd have to do would be to think of a name, any name would do, and from there you could build your life, a house, a husband/wife, maybe a couple of kids, maybe a career of some sort ... and as long as you were convincing, nobody would ever know, after all, this is the internet, and it's only text.
But how easy would it be to maintain such an identity, after all, if you chatted on line a lot, there would always be the chance you could slip up, they do say to be a good lier you have to have a good memory, so you'd have to be careful, always on your guard, always watching out what people said, how could you keep it up. And yet all the time people make up identities on the internet, pretend to be something they're not, for whatever reason.
so, do you really know who the person is you're talking to? and do the people who are talking to you know who you are?
Good point. Well, I have my experiences with people who act someone else they are. Personally I think this is stupid. Now imagine you are acting someone else. Someone falls in love with you via internet. That might work as long as you're only chatting online - but wha tif this person wants to meet you?
I honestly would never want to act someone else.
how do we know who anyone is on here an incident comes to mind ..I was mailing with this woman from Michigan for quite a while,when she asked for a picture I dont normally bother as a script does the job, and it also makes people think alot more however this once I sent her a few pictures, 1 of which, she emailed to a friend of mine, for verification her paranoia was such that the pic could very well have ended up with the FBI ...
Hm, the only thing I think about a picture is that people would not like me anymore because of what I look like.
Well ines you make a good point, it's all very well making up a persona, but that could potentially go wrong if you wanna meet someone, but I think the reality is that the majority of people on the net never intend to meet the people they talk to in person. they're happy just having on line conversations, and yeh sometimes things go deeper than that, course then if you've made it all up you have to come clean and the trust is potentially gone, but if you're just gunan live our your internet life and never meet the people involved, then I guess it doesn't really matter what you tell them, I guess in a way, it doesn't even really matter if people doubt that you are who you say you are, after all, nobody knows you you are ...
personally, ide never make myself out to be something im not. thats just not cool, and i have more respect for myself than that.
Yeah, I agree with Love4all. I couldn't pretend to be someone I'm not, whether or not I plan to meet the person. I'm either honest about what I say online, or I just won't mention something if I don't feel comfortable sharing it. What I rarely do is give out my picture though, because even though I might be curious about what people look like or they might be curious about me, I wonder how easy it would be for someone to misuse it. I've never had that happen before, and would never think of doing that to anyone else of course, but it's just something that crosses my mind, so if I do give out any personal information (including my picture), I'd really have to feel sure that I could trust the person, which means I wouldn't just put that information out in public. So if people wanted to know, say where I live, I'd usually say something general like my state or something. OK, that was somewhat going off topic toward the end there, but you get the point. *smiles*
Leilani
wow SB, I love your posts! this one was sooooo imagineative! .. it could be a good story! .. I am 100% who I am in real life when on the net, but I've played pranks on ppl before on here making up an identity. and I can't do that in real life cos I can't disguise my voice? Are you my next victorm/ ha ha ha! j/k :):) but interesting, as I say, SB! :)
Yeah, so am I. It's true that most people on the net don't want to meet - but imagine you would act someone else and someone wants to meet you? What do you do then?
from the majority of people on here there is only 1 I would ever think of meeting
Heh too many people know perfectly well who I am, and I'm fine with that. I know how identity theft is easy, but when I started my life on the net, I didn't know that. And I wouldn't act out someone else anyway. I don't give out my picture, not because it bothers me, but because I don't have one on here. lol
I don't do picture sending anymore over the net. Only close personal friends will I do this. Internet friends 99% of them are all blind/vi so why would they want to see a picture of me when they can barely or not see at all? One guy asked for my pic and I was ok with it the first time but then I just didn't feel all that secure with that idea, especially on MSN Profiles you can post a pic of your choice on your profile. Then the same guy wanted to meet me. Fat chance in hell as I don't do internet meetings in person. But I'd never do that kind of stuff though with the idenity stealing. I am who I am and I'm gonna be honest 100% of the time so why fake it?
I only sent one picture in my lifetime and I will never do it again. Anyway, the majority of tmy friends is blind so it would be useless anyway, lol.
well, I guess sending out a picture is a personal thing really. some people have their picture on their msn for instance, next to their name or whatever, like stated here though, as a lot of the people we talk to on line are VI it probably would be fairly pointless, however, you could send a picture to someone and their friends could tell them what you looked like. but ok, if you didn't want to send a picture, would you send a voice file? that's fairly similar isn't it?
and I don't think it's necessarily a case of stealing someone else's identity on the net, but say if you had no life of your own, if you were a very lonely person for instance, wouldn't it be tempting to let some of the world at least believe that you had friends/family etc? And what better medium to do that than the internet.
is this leading somewhere... and in retrospect I think the risk of meeting someone from a website is too great...I must learn to curb these rash impulses...
I think I would meet someone from the zone. Like, if I talked to them on the phone and internet for a while. I would just be careful. And about the lieing about who you are.... Lol I could never do that cause I'm such a bad lier! Lol and I could never keep track of my lies.
well I think meeting someone is ok as long as you go into it with your eyes open and realize that the person may not be quite the same in real life as on line, and as you said above, as long as you're careful, i.e. do it in a public place and let someone know where you are ... etc. You make a very valid point though heather about being a bad lier and not being able to keep track. That so often is where people slip up when they invent a life for themselves. after all, if you're not consistent, then eventually someone will figure you out, smile.
Lol yea clair, your right about some people are different in person. I met my friends friend on line then met him and I didn't like him as much in person as I did on line. And about the lieing, I would slip on my first day of pretending lol
I would not mind sending a voice file or putting that in public, because it's just my voice. I mean, if a person and I were going to voice chat (which is pretty similar to text chatting), they'd hear my voice anyway. I don't know; I don't think sending your voice to someone would be too much like sending a picture. *smiles* I don't know why sending a picture is a big thing to me since I can't even see my own picture anyway, I guess it's just because of hearing that it could be changed. I don't know if it can be, but just hearing about that at one point makes me nervous to put it where everyone could see it. I know it sounds weird since I do still sometimes give it to some of my friends, but yeeah. *smiles*
Leilani
Once more to the pictures: If friends would describe someone to me - how will I know if they describe it truly? Maybe they make him real ugly to me or they make him more beautiful because he's too ugly. You can not count on their honesty. And, yes, I would definitely send a voice file if I knew what to say on there, lol.
wel Ines I guess it depends on whether you trust your friends to be honest with you. I guess personally I wouldn't really be interested in having a picture of someone I'd met on line, a voice file would be much more signifficant, as for me, voice is one of the things I judge on. A contact of mine on msn did send me a voice file once, and his voice was absolutely nothing like I could ever have imagined. it was so different in fact, that I was completely shocked.
I'm an 89 year old woman with cancer and multiple personality disorder, at least today, who knows who I will be tomorrow? Maybe a mexican, maybe a successful black man, maybe someone who actually has a hart.
well. I really have tourrettes syndrome fuck mother damn shit! Anyways. I cope with it as well as I can fuck you blindguy ass whore walrus! some peole look at me like I have problems go fuck youself you rmother whore banana mushroom!
well that was mature and he's a community leader says it all really
I surely trust my friends, but still pictures are not the right thing for me. Because even if friends describe people I can not really imagine how they look like.
Well, I write deadly computer viruses, have at least two dozen scams running, am a professional spam writer, and collect illegal pornography. I also pose as several different people on chat rooms so I can lure victims to my house and murder them. This is what the TV magazines say I am, in fact, everybody on the net is exactly like this. And tomorrow I shall be Napoleon! LOL!
Oh, interesting. No, I'm honestly trying to be as honest as possible on the internet.
I was actually kidding, but the way some people talk about the dangers of the net, everyone is to be suspected and is up to no good.
and are your walls lined with the severed heads of your victims?
Nononononono, that's too obvious! I have a special industrial-strength freezer in the basement for that. LOL!
Well if a person like this would be on here, he/she would certainly not tell you, so this is already obvious enough to know that you're not like that, lol.
Lol I have a second cousin who sent a picture of her lovely slim friend around cos she was kinda big :)
hehehe wouldn't we all if we knew we were never going to meet the people in question? I have a friend who is currently a member of an internet dating agency, and so far the two guys she's met looked nothing like their pictures. she said the pictures were definitely of them, but they both appeared to be about 10 years younger when the pictures were taken.
personally i find honesty to be the best policy, no matter where you are. after all, people are people, even if they're on the net, offline, whether you're gunna meet them or not. having been on the receiving end of the exact opposite of that, I can honestly say that I'd never even think of lying, pretending to be someone I'm not, or telling someone one thing, and meaning something completely different. hmm, maybe the last bit could go in anothe rpost about telling someone you loved them. Course now I'm lucky, and have found someone who, not only is very honest, and very real, but someone who I have met, 3 times, in person, and am going to marry!
No. Even if I knew I would never meet this person, I would send my picture, no matter what I look like. Honestly.