Personal security is something everyone must be concerned about. The world HAS become a dangerous place. Actually, the world has always been dangerous. Some predator animals have and will always look at us as a meal. Fire and firearms have offered humans some protection during our history. Humans have been hurting other humans probably since we learned we could. It is looking as if that will never change. Today we must be very aware of our surroundings when shopping, entering our work/school and homes. They are always looking for the opportunity to take (our kids and valuables), rape, kill or a whole list of other horrible inhuman deeds. The war on drugs has given black market a broad base to excel in crime. Our leaders in the world are each day giving criminals more power and rights as they take away the rights of law abiding citizens. The Internet has made the world like a small village. The World Wide Web is a place where we hang out. Criminals hang out here too.
As of the time and date of this post there are 250,681,017 malicious websites online. Each one is crafted in some way to take, steal or hurt users and computers. This list grows each hour. There are more than 114,120,414 security threats too. These include but are not limited to virus, worms, bots, traps, algorithms and other programs designed to once again steal or control. I recently came across a WordPress Gravatar profile that had a malicious website listed as the link.
I wrote about this before and posted it on my former Facebook. This is something my ex-girlfriend and I completely agreed upon;
When you are adding friends on Facebook would you want this person to come to your house? Would you let them in your home? Would you let them around your kids?
If you answered NO to any of these questions why would you let this person see any personal information about you? Would you expose your friends to this person?
People fail to realize that when you post something on the Internet even though it may SEEM private it really never is. Because a friend of a friend of a…. you get the point right? Also these social media places own anything you post and can sell/share it to companies. You agree to this when you accept the terms of use.
Think about this.
You (not really you, an example) post photos of your kid(s), where they go to school, where you eat-out at or shop. Where you work, go to school or pictures of your home/car. You post photos or describe places nearby you frequent. Even pics of the night sky give geographical information. Are you thinking yet? The lion lays in wait, no matter how long it takes to get his prey. Human predators sometimes will take months or even years to get a victim. We MUST be careful in everything we do on-line. Everything you publically share is a clue for that evil person to located you, a loved one or even a friend.
I recently learned this.
A few months ago I received an e-mail from a former colleague who worked in a call center I set-up in the Philippians. She was telling me she saw my profile on a popular internet dating website and asked if I was available. HUH? I never, not ever have been on ANY Internet dating site. I actually do not see the point in a long distance relationship. Even one that is 100 miles away is difficult. Why would I want to date someone hundreds, thousands or halfway around the world? Seeing each other would be few and far between. Okay my point may be wrong on this reasoning. But that is not my point concerning security on-line. She gave me the link to this “profile of me.” It was my photo from the former Facebook page. It contained enough personal information about me, age, city, MORE PICTURES from the web and things I have posted here on WordPress like quotes and a general “feeling” of the things I write. It took me 7 weeks to gain control of “MY PROFILE” that was found out by the dating site to probably have been set-up by someone in Nigeria or what they told me. They kept a record of the IP Address used when profiles are created and it was not one from the USA. There were over 2,500 letters in there from unsuspecting women who had written to “Me” who was not me. That is scary! What this person or persons had hoped to accomplish by creating a fake profile is beyond me. But I am sure it was for some evil purpose. Be careful ladies. You never know the predator that is behind the profile until it could be to late.
Today a phone call came to my cell phone. This call is what prompted me to write this post. It was from NYC – Bronx area. The caller had some of the worst English imaginable, could hardly understand the guy.
Now this is me, someone who has talked with people from all over the world and this guy was broken. As best as I could understand he was offering me a job. Said he found my “Resume'” on Monster or CareerBuilder. (I don’t have one on either) but explained he didn’t know which. He knew my name. My cell is not listed and I only share it with a select few. Though I did use the number on that damn Facebook app a few years back and Twitter. You can only use Instagram on Mobile (because they have no access by PC) so I am thinking maybe one of those.
PLEASE EVERYONE BE SAFE! Be aware and protect yourself, your family and friends.
Wade Lancaster 