Re: Anyone know

Marsha L wrote:
Am I confusing people?

Tuesday morning a man sent an email to a woman. It said they had graduated from the same very large urban high school. He gave her his cell number, his last name, and the year he had graduated.

They weren't in school at the same time, but she answered him.

Those notes, and every one which followed, were via a social website (such as Facebook and MySpace) which supposedly provides some privacy.

Her profile had her real first name, where she'd gone to school and where she lives now. The sort of things which one would expect to put on a site like that.

But his name wasn't the same on his profile as the one he signed his notes with, and his age was about 10 years off, so she asked him about it. That's when he said he was in debt recovery, and even told her the name of his company. The website needs spell check at the very least, but it also seems to substantiate his claim to be the boss. He said his partner is a bounty hunter. He said everyone in their office has a fake profile there and that they use it to trace people.

Several notes later he said he was married (his profile had said single), that his wife is older, and ill. He also said, "I enjoy your emails".

He sounded very much like he was the sort of guy who messes around (with women) on line, so she said she was uncomfortable with all of this... he kept saying that this was business as usual for him and mentioned that he had checked her out before writing that first note, and that he knew what street she lived on. She tried to be nice, and kept asking how he knew the name of the street, but he wouldn't tell her.

Then he said his wife would like to meet her. Huh?

She kept telling him that if there was a leak that she could plug, she wanted to do so. He appologized for scaring her(!), she's not scared of HIM, she's furious, and concerned that someone else (no one specific) could do the same thing. She's been very specific about how she feels, with the result that she isn't hearing from him any longer.

She asked me if I had any idea how he could have come up with her street, and I don't. It could just as easily have been me as her, so I'm none too pleased about the situation.

She's written to the website, but all she gets back are automated responses telling her how to set her privacy settings. That isn't the issue is it? But if they're in the habit of giving out information to someone who just asks, or if there's a hole in their security... they should be dealing with it.

In the mean time, she's replaced what had been a current photo of herself with an old one, removed her name and her school history. She went into the part that's supposed to be private, and removed her last name (the site claimed that last names were just used so someone could find someone specific if they were searching for them, and that had been fine with her. Not so much so now.) Since there probably isn't any point in keeping the profile itself now, that will go too. The only reason she said she still has it is that's where the messages are. She's removed herself from the school sites and would take herself off of anything else that she can think of, but obviously knowing where would help. I realize people in his line of work use intimidation to get what they're looking for, but she isn't the type to be intimidated. She just wanted to know how to protect herself, and if he'd tell her that, she'd drop the whole thing. But apparently he isn't willing to do that, so she's looking to see if she has grounds to take it further.

If anyone has any real ideas, please use common sense in replying.



Marsha,
I've been trying to follow this thread and I'm confused.

Your friend put her name and pictures on a website that encourages
people to contact her. Someone who wasn't who he said he was contacted
her. He used whatever means available to him, which with the Internet
today is vast. He used the information he got to figure out where she
lives. He made no attempt to contact her in real life. He told her a
bunch of things about himself which may or may not be true. She
continued to make contact with him, right up to the point where she
freaked out.

Now she is pissed off at the website? Why? She put her information up on
it. Is she that dumb to think the there might be people in
cyberspace that want to scam her? Or that there just might be a guy or
maybe not a guy who gets off on emailing women for whatever reason he
might have? The news is full of these kind of situations. Not a day goes
by without some kind of problem with facebook or yahoo.

She should just be glad that she caught it before it got out of hand.
Let her remove her profile and learn from the experience.

It could have been worse. She could have had Big Mikey trying to get her
to go out with him.

Gary
.

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