This isn’t a rant as such, but I’m really concern about a trend which I’ve noticed lately.
There’s no nice way to say this, but I’d trying to make you aware that if you use your real name as part of your email address you are possibly being too trusting.
In the last few days I’ve gotten emails (over 10) from people on this messageboard and others where people perhaps were not aware that they were revealing enough information by the email addy alone that I could track them if I was a nasty person.
On the one hand, I recognise that this might actually be a compliment and that people feel that they know me well enough from their “real” email accounts as opposed to their webmail ones. On the other hand, it’s something which scares me. Some of you have chatted or emailed or spoken on the phone with or sat at the pub with me long enough to justify that risk. But please, for those who haven’t done those things, get yourselves a webmail addy. I’m not a stalker or a serial killer, but you don’t know that and you’re making it far too easy for those people who are.
Please, if you’re all so worried about your names being online, then get offline. If you don’t want to be offline, then don’t and I mean never, get a broadband service, such as Cable or DSL.
My name is Sam Roza, I live in Los Gatos California, my E-mail address is samroza@hotmail.com . From my email addy alone, you could find me, stalk me and kill me if you wished…but I think I’ll play the odds that nobody out there really gives much of a fuck about me, and won’t bug me.
If you’re a naive little girl or boy, then maybe you’re at some risk, but if you approach the internet as it is meant to be used, and not try to date or anything, you’ll be fine. If you want to date, take the careful approach with people, and see them for what they are, aren’t, or may be. See people you meet in groups and such.
Honestly, there’s no reason for you to change your E-mail address out of paranoia, for fear of a stalker.
Did you even bother to read the OP GaWd? It specifically dealt with the issue of people who have no history whtsoever with me but who choose to email me from addys which reveal their real names in their email addresses.
We are talking about people who sometimes only know me through one or two posts and they are giving me their real names (not to mention the information contained in their email headers).
Already said I didn’t think it was Pit material, just wanted to make people aware that some of you are giving me far too much information with too little justification.
Obviously, other people don’t think this is an issue, so I’ll ask Lynn to close this thread.
Reprise, I certainly read the OP, but maybe you weren’t clear enough. Are you saying that people shouldn’t trust you with their names on this MB? If so, is there something else you’d like to talk about?
Seriously, are you a stalker or something then? I don’t mean to come off as smartass or anything, but why on earth would people trip out on their E-mail addy’s with you?
Zenster I dunno, drop me an E-mail and gimme the details.
reprise, I sent you an email from my business account and with my real name in the address a while back.
I am fully aware of the consequences of doing so, which is why I have an AOL account as my main email here. Those I “trust” occasionally will get email from my real name address. Other’s have my phone number, etc…
Many here, if they knew how, could get my phone number and address, but I am not concerned hun. I gots a big dog and a gun.
If I were that concerned then I would live in a military style compound with camaras and such.
Life is too full of problems to worry about whether or not you or anyone else has my real name. My family used to be plastered all about the city, doesn’t worry me.
Heaps of you have “known” me for a long time either through this messgaeboard alone or through chat or through phone calls or through physical meetings. I pretty much think that those of you who’ve known me for that long and chosen to give me your “traceable” addies have done so consciously.
What I find quite disturbing is the number of emails I’ve received in the last week from people from this board and others, who have no reason whatsoever to trust me, who have emailed me from an email addy which provides their real name in their nickname alone. I’m not trying to encourage paranoia here people. I’m just trying to make you aware that perhaps if you’re a new person to these boards (or others) you shouldn’t have an email addy which reveals both your real name and a lot of information about your location.
Heaps of people on this MB know my real name, my address and my phone number - they know it because I chose to reveal it to them. Please be extremely careful about using your real name as part of your email addy. Just please do.
