I am deeply suspicious of the number of threads asking for personal details.

[KickAssAngel]

Over the last few weeks I've noticed several threads asking people for information which does it in a kind of 'just getting to know you' sort of way, but does mean that people are giving out personal information.

A while ago there was one asking people if their friends' names were typical of the dates they grew up - so people were inadvertently giving out enough info to narrow down date of birth to within a year or two, and potentially their best friend's name, a common security question.

there have been ones about middle names, and just various ones along the lines of 'AIBU to ask you what your favorite TV programme was as a child?"

In fact - all the kind of info that people use for their security questions for banks etc.

Yes, I could alert MNHQ to each of them, but that wouldn't get the word across to everyone that there seems to be a lot of digging going on right now, so be careful what info you share online.

MN is NOT a cosy little club full of trusted members who know each other. The questions may be a genuine person wanting to chat, or they could be a cunning plot to get info about people and start working out the answers to their security questions.

And if any/all of them are from genuine people just wanting to chat and get to know others - I apologize for my cynical stance, but even if the OP is genuine, people reading the answers may not be.

A while ago there was a poster who challenged people to find out as much about her as possible from her previous posts.

She hadn't posted her address on the site because you wouldn't, obviously. But from the stuff she had posted on name threads, kids' party threads & ante-natal, it wasn't difficult to find her & the DC's full names, their ages and rough location. Quick google, up pops her Pinterest page with pictures of the front of her house, her DD's bedroom and their village.

It wasn't even hard. But she was pretty shocked.

I notice how people love to talk about themselves. Those threads are always popular. They're falling over themselves to tell 'Mumsnet' about their profession, their earnings, their investments and most things in-between. About the only area of reticence is their sex lives.

I've often been wary of the information-fishing threads - not so much because I'm worried about financial fraud etc, but just because every time you confirm that you have a pet armadillo, 9 DCs and a pink front door, you're that much closer to confirming your identity.

And yes to the realisation that you can share that funny anecdote on MN or in RL but not both. I just know I'm going to cock that up sooner or later.

Empress that is why I will never link my accounts to an sort of social media. Facebook is practically implores me on a daily basis to add my hometown or my school or my birthday or my mobile phone number for 'security reasons' and it can fuck right off.

I will also NEVER sign into anything with Facebook or google, nor will I link my Pinterest or MN or Spotify or my Tripadvisor account to FB,much to the chagrin of all these places, I've deactivated my Twitter account and left any Facebook groups that were linked to MN.

I've witnessed some seriously nasty shit happen MN Facebook groups when it collides with real life and I never want to have any part of it or leave myself potentially exposed.

Really? Have you not read some of the sex topic?
I've always thought some mumsnetters can't tell you enough about their sex lives

I agree Pagwatch

AddictedToCoYo
I just assume those are trolls. Read it and think "not this shit again".

That's why I love chat. Gone in 30 days, I don't even have to trawl back. But my mumsnet children's ages, even the number of children I have is not accurate. Not trolling, just common sense.

Interesting thread, even if just as a gentle nudge to think about how much you're prepared to share online. I would never give my home town or occupation and like a pp I often put slightly incorrect details about certain things so anyone irl would be thrown off the scent if looking for me. I also name change every so often. The Daily Fail stuff recently has also been a good reminder to watch what I post. Lazy arse journalists!

I agree with AddictedtoCoYo. One can put things on here that have integrity but with small details changed. I didn't post on the famous people who went to your school thread because someone really, really famous went to mine and it would have been daft to share those identifying details.

How much do you earn - well if it's within a £10k band it really isn't that identifying if it's something people care to share. Children's names - mine have really classic ones so would be difficult to pin point, children's birthdays - one just shifts a month, children's ages - one just wavers with a year here or there. Uni, you say it's one very similar. Car - I drive exactly the genre of car I have said I drive on threads.

Me too dizzy . The trouble is I change it all so often I sometimes have to AV myself to make sure I am consistent within each name change, or it could get awkward.

I am also building a grudging admiration for posters with names like 356648955abfghiljg because it makes it so damned difficult to conduct advanced searches on them

Ah you see I think exactly the opposite about one off usernames like that. They're massively easily googleable so if someone in RL suspects your username they can easily find every post you've ever written.

After a stalking incident on here I name change every couple of weeks. I usually use single word names which are just everyday words, like tomato, so no hit when you google them. I have been getting lazy recently and instead using names of things which, if you google, will come back with the original "thing" rather than my posts. For instance this current name is a perfume.

Pagwatch. No . I haven't read any of the sex topic, ever. I really don't want to know.

Just thinking about this, there are lots of things on facebook about such stuff. Like what's your hooker name - it's your mother's maiden name and your first pet etc.

Gosh yes Iris I see your point. I always forget that rather than doing an AV on. Poster you can just put their user name into google. If it's a boring word then so many hits will be returned as to render it useless.

Tomorrow I will be and

Next week the

Well on AIBU sex threads tend to be very quiet. Maybe more liberated types post in the sex subforum.

I hate the sex topic. It's full of attention seeking women and slimed creeps and I wish the threads didn't appear in active convos.

So just to play devil's advocate, I post my birth year is 1968 , I live in Lancashire and I have £50,000 in my bank account- what are you going
to do with that infomation? You don't know my name, email, address, bank ID , bank , password

Slimy not slimed although I am sure they are also regularly slimed.

YANBU, although I've generally been more worried about outing myself than bank fraud.

I am loving this idea of Addicted's to feed false information into the information fishing threads.

Having just followed my own advice and googled my username, I think I need to go back to single words.

It's easy to get lazy about namechanging. Plus it's surprising how many of the truly boring words have been taken.

My exH printed off reams off stuff about me from here and a decent chunk of it ended up going against me in the divorce. It was like giving your worst enemy access to your private diary.

I feel quite liberated after reading this thread as for many reasons I'd prefer to name change frequently to avoid identification.

I'd sort of picked up it was a bit rude on mn.

But I think it's important to be anonymous given some of the things that are discussed.

After all, reception children are taught about esafety! Mums(net) need to follow suit!

But if you're also called kitkat on Twitter I might get somewhere. And I can advanced search all your postings on here quite easily for more info...

Remember, I'm a fraudster. I've got all day.

I quite often change my DD to a DS or vice versa, or say I have more or fewer kids than I have. Sometimes exh might become DH or DP. Can't harm to mix it up a bit as long as it's info which isn't pertinent to the post.

And I just name changed for this.

I sort of think I will keep the odd name for certain topics that are 'safe,' not involving info, and I don't mind being associated with the name.