Dog3 wrote:

> JimLane > wrote in
> :
>
> >
> > The only people who would really have to worry about this is someone,
> > somewhat like you - a jerk, living in a two-horse town and they are
> > both good horses. I live in San Diego, some may live in Boise or in
> > Gunnison, CO. Most of these places are big enough that if you haven't
> > ****ed on someone's foot, you have little to worry about (in fact, you
> > do have more to worry about, just taking a shower or driving to work).
> >
> >
> >
> > jim
>
> Not true Jim. I have several friends from other newsgroups that have been
> stalked, harassed and their financial status, addresses and employment
> posted. One stalker actually began faxing bogus info to a friend's
> employer. This ng is a tame one. Some of the other ngs are brutal. A few
> years ago an asshole posted another poster's bankruptcy info. Some freaks
> actually pay for this info. I suppose it makes them feel superior. If
> someone knows your name and general location, they can track you down.
I've
> seen it done countless times. The worst was a friend in Florida. This guy
> had be harassing her online for a couple of years. She got a call from him
> at work and he was talking about her new car (she had just gotten it the
> day before and not posted about it). She had the phone company trace the
> phone number from her caller ID. The call was made from a phone in the
> lobby of her office building.


Yup, this kind of stuff can happen. A rabidly conservative poster on
another group I frequent was in a political flame war with another liberal
poster. Mr. Right Wing Blunderbuss looked up financials (in this case
bankruptcy, delinquent tax info, court records...) on Mr. Liberal and made
them known to the group. A lot of this stuff is a matter of public record,
you just have to know how to dig for it...

On another group a disgruntled poster in RL worked for a credit card
collection agency. One of her MO's was to pull people's credit reports and
make unsavoury details known to the group. Charges were brought against her
and she was eventually canned from her job, AFAIK this person hasn't worked
in a few years now *lol*...


> This jerk is just pointing out that some people do not like their regions
> or citys know on Usenet.


OTOH you'd be surprised by the number of folks who give details of where
they work, hang out, their daily schedule, etc. Then they complain about
being "stalked", etc. It's a good idea *not* to give such details out in
the first place...

I've nothing to hide but if I were to start my Usenet "career" over again
(and a STELLAR one it's been ha ha ;-) I would post under an alias of some
sort...

One thing I used to see a lot of was posters with sig lines giving out their
work and home addresses and phone numbers. How dumb can you be? Don't see
that so much now...

One real danger area I see is where parents post pix of their kids on
websites or wherever, blithely unaware of the possible consequences. At
least make folks jump a bit through a hoop to access the pix...


> Jerk <- thinks this entire thread is absurd


You are no jerk Michael but I agree this is a silly thread :-)

--
Best
Greg