A little security hint

[numbuheightbitstar]

Yo guys.

I just wanted to inform you all that if you've put up any AIM contact handles or ICQ Numbers in your fanfiction.net author bio, you should probably take it out.

I say this because I've already had two people I don't know contact me through AIM. The first one, fortunately, turned out to be a fellow KND fan, but the second one was this really unstable girl who, first, acted all nice and wanted information about me such as my age and where I live. When she found out how old I was, she said "Bye" and left, and I thought that was the end of it.

But then, five minutes later, she sends another message to me, in ALL CAPS, asking me why I'm talking to her when I don't even know her. I point out that it was SHE who made contact with ME, but she just tells me to shut up and calls me a freak. I ended up blocking her, then I went to fanfiction.net and deleted my AIM handle from it.

EDIT: I decided to also remove my AIM handle from here, too, replacing it with a message stating that anyone who wants to know my AIM handle has to Private Message me on this board first.

[NumbuhInfinity]

James' post confirms why I never release my YM and AIM and e-mail address to the general public.

[numbuheightbitstar]

Personally, I only keep my Hotmail address listed, because Hotmail and MSN Messenger are pretty easy to defend in the case that a whacko shows up, and furthermore people have to be able to contact me somehow.

But on that topic... one thing that peeves me is when people add me to their MSN contact list, and we're both online... and they don't say anything. Personally, I do not like having to be the one to make first contact, because there's so many unanswered questions about anyone I may be talking to. Who are they? Where did they find my E-Mail address? Etc. If someone adds me to their contact list, then I want them to talk to me first, not the other way around (if I add you on the other hand, that's another story entirely.. but if I'm adding you to my contact list, chances are we've spoken before).

Now, I have a few more security tips for everyone here:
1. The first sign that you're dealing with someone potentially dangerous is that they ask a lot of personal questions, such as your name, age, and (worst of all) where you live. If they ask the last one, either give them a false answer or (better yet) refuse to answer altogether. If they're legitimate, they'll understand. If they try to pressure you, they're psychos. Block 'em.
2. Beware of anyone who, online, claims to have a romantic interest in you. Particularly if these people try to get you to break rules or perform questionable acts, such as calling them on the phone (especially if it's long-distance--yes, this actually happened to me, too).

That's all. If anyone else has something to add, please share it.

[parron]

JamesEightBitStar said:

1. The first sign that you're dealing with someone potentially dangerous is that they ask a lot of personal questions, such as your name, age, and (worst of all) where you live. If they ask the last one, either give them a false answer or (better yet) refuse to answer altogether. If they're legitimate, they'll understand. If they try to pressure you, they're psychos. Block 'em.
2. Beware of anyone who, online, claims to have a romantic interest in you. Particularly if these people try to get you to break rules or perform questionable acts, such as calling them on the phone (especially if it's long-distance--yes, this actually happened to me, too).

That happened to me once... *laughs* but then again, the creep thought I was from Georgia (the state, not country) and that my name was Jennifer (it's not)... When people I don't know ask me personal questions I lie, lie, lie.

But in all seriousness, I tend not to worry about creeps when chatting. I've met two of my closest friends through MSN (and another from e-mail), and I'm certainly not afraid of being stalked. It's usually pretty darn obvious when someone *is* trying to stalk you, after all. Besides, when someone new IMs me for the first time, I always ask them "do you know me from ff.net?" if they don't immediatly give it away (I've had people say, "I love your 'fic!" for example straight off). It's not a problem; if they aren't from ff.net and I don't know 'em from school, I just ignore them. My personal advice for all you who may *want* to strike up a conversation with someone on ff.net (or wherever) you might get along with:

1. Right off the bat, tell 'em in some way why you know them. "Are you _____ of ff.net?" or "Did you write/draw _____?" are good.

2. Tread lightly. No asking *any* personal questions (besides "what do you like to be called" or something nuetral -- sometimes someone's pen-name is different from what they like being called) until you'd spoken at least 3/4 times. Bear in mind that they probably have no idea who you are and are quite apt to decide you are a stalker. On the same note, keep to conversation about things you both agree on -- couples, characters, etc., at least for a while.

3. No stalking. I don't mean in the "hi what's your name where do you live let's meet up sometime okay?" sense, I mean that people get weirded out if you strike up a conversation every time you're on-line.

4. No picking fights. I know this seems really basic, but you'd be surprised. The fastest way to get blocked is by trying to "convert" the person you're talking to, whether it be for couples, characters, religion, or whether or not 'writer's block' is real. Seriously, you'll just come off as a flamer.

(Since, after all, a lot of people want to meet friends on the 'net. We ain't all stalkers, y'know.)

[343kndfan]

I have had this happen to me before alot on yahoo (geez I hate yahoo). You try blocking someone and yet they somehow always get back to you. One time I had someone so obessed they changed there yahoo ID just to talk to me. *sigh* I really hate these stupid sicko pervs that always IM you any way they can. Its a different story for me on MSN though, I have only had one stupid person send me a message, and when they do like parron said I lie lie lie! And the dumba**es actually believe it. But yeah sorry that happened to ya James, I don't have AIM and from what you said I don't think I ever will.

[Stardrifter 8]

How do people find your screennames? I keep mine on here in case people need to IM me for help or something, but no one ever IMs me. I guess it might be the fact that I never go into chatrooms or something. I dunno. I like AIM better than yahoo though, cause you can warn people for being sicko and if you warn them enough they wont be able to log on for a while. ( Like, a day or so).

[maxk]

I feel pretty safe. I only give out my first name to people but I never give out my last name. I also never tell people where I live. I only tell them the state. I haven't had anything like that happen to me yet, but that's pretty creepy.

Speaking of creepy, it reminds me of something that happened to me three years ago. When I used to hang out in gameing chat rooms, which I don't go to anymore as well as all chat rooms, a twelve year old IMed me if I wanted to cybor..... Back then I had no idea what that meant. When I ask, "What? I don't understand" she just replyed with "nevermind!" and left. When I learned what cyboring about a year later, I though back on that day..... a twelve year old..... That's really wrong.....

[numbuheightbitstar]

MaxK said:

I feel pretty safe. I only give out my first name to people but I never give out my last name. I also never tell people where I live. I only tell them the state. I haven't had anything like that happen to me yet, but that's pretty creepy.

Speaking of creepy, it reminds me of something that happened to me three years ago. When I used to hang out in gameing chat rooms, which I don't go to anymore as well as all chat rooms, a twelve year old IMed me if I wanted to cybor..... Back then I had no idea what that meant. When I ask, "What? I don't understand" she just replyed with "nevermind!" and left. When I learned what cyboring about a year later, I though back on that day..... a twelve year old..... That's really wrong.....

That IS wrong! Personally, most of the time I think I see where the "Sex is Evil" people are coming from when they make that claim... especially since I believe Overpopulation is the root of all evil and sex leads to that, so...

[numbuheightbitstar]

343_KNDfan said:

I don't have AIM and from what you said I don't think I ever will.

AIM's not so bad. In some ways it's better than MSN, but I personally find MSN more manageable in some ways (furthermore it's practically impossible to hide your MSN name anyway if you use a Hotmail address), thus I prefer to make MSN my main IM program, and reserve AOL IM for talking to either A) My closest friends or B) talking to friends of mine who don't have MSN IM.

[dc13]

I quote our lovely James...

2. Beware of anyone who, online, claims to have a romantic interest in you.

...

[juigikario]

I'd like to post a little tip of my own: NEVER trust somebody without enough proof that he would NOT be an enemy in disguise. Believe me: I made this same mistake TWICE against the FE7SBians (actually, it was one of them, and the one who makes the FE7SBians seem like good guys by generally playing innocent to boot), and payed for it both times too.

[lordseth]

Uh...why bother lying about where you live and stuff? Why not just refuse to answer the question?

I really haven't had much trouble at all with any weird people on YIM...and if I do, I just go about my ever-so-annoying-correcting-every-single-small-spelling/grammar-mistake-they-make. That usually drives them off quickly enough. I could always just put them on my Ignore list, but annoying them to death is so much more fun!

I usually list my e-mail address if I have an account somewhere, because if someone wants to contact me, they can easily do so. I've been really annoyed when I want to send someone a nice e-mail only to find out I can't find out what their e-mail address IS! Gah!

[numbuheightbitstar]

Juigi said:

I'd like to post a little tip of my own: NEVER trust somebody without enough proof that he would NOT be an enemy in disguise. Believe me: I made this same mistake TWICE against the FE7SBians (actually, it was one of them, and the one who makes the FE7SBians seem like good guys by generally playing innocent to boot), and payed for it both times too.

1. Most of us won't even know what "FE7Sbians" are.

2. This is a SERIOUS topic, for how to avoid real, potential threats to your personal security and well-being, not how to avoid people you've fought with on a forum before.