Be safe, your life is important

It’s good to be cautious but at the same time if you completely wall yourself off due to your fears then you’ll miss out on connections and experiences that would have added so much to your life otherwise.

Some basic common sense rules when interacting with people online. Never meet someone you haven’t seen on webcam and heard on discord or whatever. And if you’re under 16 never divulge personal information.

I had a specific, separate MSN account to talk to friends when off WoW that had no personal information. As we got older, we were allowed and eventually met etc.
Met all my BFs on WoW and also a couple of weirdos. I learnt quickly not to trust everything you read.

It’s very easy to get sucked into being popular online, mistakes were made but no amount of warning could stop me from learning it without undergoing it myself. I was just smart enough to keep my parents in the loop and lucky for them to be gamers.

I imagine its a lot harder with parents/family who aren’t into computers. And imo, voice chat is too freely given these days.

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I shouldn’t give my personal information? Oh okay. Hey guys did you know that I live in sea area? Yeah it’s really nice and sunny, got a beach and everything. Oh and I have a really nice neighbor I get along with, and another one I’m warming up to. I also work in a restaurant, mostly making burgers. My best friend and my neighbor is unfortunately a little mentally slow, but he’s a sweetie, I also have a pet snail. I’m having trouble getting my driver’s license, I keep failing, but one day… My boss is kinda greedy, and there’s some short guy across the street trying to steal our recipes. Overall I’m happy with my life.

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Lol don’t trust any personal information either :joy:

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I kNoW WheRE YoU liVe.

I’M ComINg FoR YoU…'Re BurGeRS. TWo PLeaSE.

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I think you forgot the part of you living in a pineapple

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Post cute snail pics

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I did actually work, for more than ten years in an industry where data protection was massively important (Banking Fraud Investigation). There are a lot of things you can do to safeguard yourself. Weirdly, one of them is the strangest. You can’t be Doxxed if you just make the basic assumption that your information is online somewhere, and given enough determination, could be found.

How you make yourself immune is by effectively becoming invisible to hucksters, fraudsters and stalkers. Got my Date of Birth? That’s cool bro. I don’t use it for any passwords All you know is how old I am. You’re not getting penny one out of my bank account, and can’t use it alone for ID purposes. You got my phone number? Cool man, nuisance calls are all you can do, and a phone number can be changed.
You seen some whacky pictures online or a youtube clip of me doing something stupid (There are unnervingly, a few of those) then what you expecting me to do? Quail and beg that you don’t show them to my parent, or my employer? Good luck, my Mother knows I am an oddball, I’m in my 40’s and I am self employed! My Boss is likely to go “Oh, man, yeah, I remember, that was a good party”

I know what makes a good password, and I know how to hide in plain sight (Probably down to having worked in Investigation of such crimes)

You could ask me 50 questions, and you wouldn’t even get my password for this website, a very low risk, low confidentiality site. You want my bank account passwords? Jog on mate, even robots couldn’t figure those out.

Always be safe. Never send pictures of yourself to anywhere/anyone that you would not put out in the open for all to see. Once you have sent it, its not your property anymore, and you don’t get to choose how it is viewed/used. Only Send if Sure.

If you are using passwords based on your date of birth, change them. If they’re based on your siblings date of birth, change them, if your parent’s date of birth, change them, if based on a famous historical date, like 1945, or 1066, change them.

Don’t include your first, or last name, in any passwords, or the first names of any relatives.

Do not provide links to any website that contains confidential material

Got a favourite Football/Rugby Team? Don’t use that or anything linked to that as your password either.

You can live a completely open and safe life on the Internet, as long as you take basic safety precautions. If in doubt what these entail, most country’s have what in the United Kingdom, is called the Citizens Advice Bureau. Seriously “I got an email from an African Prince who is also an Astronaut and they need my bank details to get him home” Is an obvious warning sign.

They’re not always that obvious.

If in Doubt. Don’t give it Out.

Jaysis bloody Christ, I feel like one of those ‘Protect and Survive’ adverts, or the ones with Charlie the Cat. I’ll stop rattlin’ on now, I’ve a Gnome that needs his bleedin’ Heritage armour…

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You should always be careful. Online and offline. There is a lot of false information about this case out there but here are the important ones hat come from a friend of the girl.

  1. The guy was not a stranger she met online. He was an irl friend known to her, her friends and her family.
  2. He did not cut off her head but he did post pictures afterwards on discord.

It was terrible thing and it feels actually worse to think that it could happen to anyone even if you are careful.
Overall there is of course a lot of dangers involved with meeting someone online but you can make very good friends that way. My guild has done some meetings before, that I was sadly unavailable to join, but it was a great time from what I saw on WA and been told.

oh you dont care if it happen to a male?? got it

http://www.cartoonbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Gary-The-Snail-Eating-Food-pu711.gif

For you, a gif.

Dunno who you are replying to, but its a fact that girls online get way more messages from strangers and among them more creeps. Heck even if you just talk somewhat “girly” in a game you get much more attention.

Everyone needs to be careful with giving information and concidering who they might be dealing with. But girls certainly are a bigger target online

I did give limited personal info to people from these forums, but only if I know I can trust them.

There is nothing wrong with giving it as long as you know who you’re giving it too, and if you are prepared for the worst case scenario’s. Usually, giving your age, your country and even your name won’t really give people anything to work with.

Still, never post it here on the forums or in any public spaces.

Are you sure? if you have the right name age and country you should be able to look someone up pretty precise on facebook for example. Then you could find information based on facebook post/pictures where such person might live or other more personal info. Giving certain info is more like leaving a breadcrumb trail someone might be able to follow, if they are obsessive enough

Yep, you’re certainly right about that. But it mostly comes down to the matter of how much you share on the internet yourself.

If I’d give you my name (a name that is pretty unique), you’ll be able to find a lot of basic stuff about me but nothing specific. If I had FB, Instagram, a public Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. you’ll be able to find out much more about me than what you can find out now.

It’s not a matter of not sharing your own information, such as a name… it’s more about control. If you control the information you put on the internet, you’ll be able to keep much more info private. If you don’t, then giving out your name will be more riskier and even dangerous. And sharing your name happens often, when you give someone your card, when register for a website, when you send an email to someone, etc.

I mean, you should definitely be careful with private info, but it’s far more important to control the information you have about yourself on the internet.

It’s a process. When you start giving info you’ll gradually give more.

Ofc I didn’t have in mind saying your gender/age/country. Those are pretty safe.

But you should always be aware, careful and suspicious about people fishing for more.

Idk, I know what info I give and share with others.

The bigger danger is giving out private information without being conscious about it. For example, I know where you’re from. You probably don’t mind that, but give enough other information and people can track you down if you want to.

Ofc, I agree.

what happened with OP has nothing to do with it.
regardless, I personally find people who refuse to tell their name, veeery weird.same for any basic info.
imagine you meet someone in university and you ask their name and they’re like “uhh cant tell uwu”. yeah idk, I’d not take that person serious that’s for sure.

schizophrenia’s a mental illness for a reason after all

Because people differentiate between irl and online, believe it or not. Online you have user names or character names you refer to when talking to someone. When someone you meet someone in a university they give you their first name not their full name either most of the time.

You are always quite the master in giving horrible examples. Especially using putting in stuff like uwu wich literally nobody uses irl to make it more bad than it is. same with mentioning schizophrenia wich is totally unrelated to any of this and only serves as word to make your point look more severe.

If you can’t see some differences between online and real life perhaps you should be more worried about your own mental condition, don’t you think?

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This is about on line behavior, not real life.
All analogies are invalid.
For instance I could reply with:
Do you find it normal to ask people that ride the same bus with you their name?

Analogies are non productive.