Tips on how to spot scammers and/ or stalkers

[Marigold Devin]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

I live by this rule! Context is always key.

[Marigold Devin]

1 hour ago, Jackson Redstar said:

technically speaking, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Ironman and a number of other like that, are "alts'.....

Just sayin......

 

And they're all good guys  

 

[Ivy Mysterious]

Alright I fixed the issues with the post, hopefully lol. I still have 14 more hours to edit this so if you all see anything else wrong with it, quote the area in your responses and underline it so I can see it.

[kiramanell]

24 minutes ago, IvyLarae said:

Alright I fixed the issues with the post, hopefully lol. I still have 14 more hours to edit this so if you all see anything else wrong with it, quote the area in your responses and underline it so I can see it.

 

I really appreciate all the work you put into this, and for explaining (and rectifying) how 'alts' made their appearance in your start-topic. All is much clearer now. Thank you! 👍

[Lindal Kidd]

Ivy's mention of "tells" bears some discussion.

She's right...everyone has a distinctive "voice" (whether it's your actual voice, or the way you type).  In typed communication, this is sometimes referred to as one's "fist".  That term comes from old-style telegraphy and Morse Code radio communications, when operators could tell other operators apart from the unique ways in which they handled their telegraph keys.  One's hand on an old style key does resemble a fist, and that's the origin of the term.

I've noticed that my own typing has some "tells".  One is that I almost never capitalize the first word of my first typed sentence in chat or IMs, but I do capitalize the first word in subsequent sentences.  Of course, plenty of other people do that too, so if you meet someone who does, it's not a sure thing that it's one of my alts.

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

In typed communication, this is sometimes referred to as one's "fist".  That term comes from old-style telegraphy and Morse Code radio communications, when operators could tell other operators apart from the unique ways in which they handled their telegraph keys.  One's hand on an old style key does resemble a fist, and that's the origin of the term.

Interesting, had not heard of that.

While I might consciously note the usage of commonly used words by a poster, I more recognize them by the way their words flow - everyone has a unique rhythm, almost like a song.

[Lindal Kidd]

These days, the few radio operators who still use Morse typically use a keyboard and a computer to generate the dots and dashes.  A computer at the other end reads them and generates text...so although there is still some Morse code communication going on, the concept of an individual "fist" has faded into the mists of history.  I'm nostalgic about it, because I got my ham license when I was a teenager, and learning the code was a licensing requirement.  At one time, I owned an actual, barebones-basic telegraph key.  Later I had a "keyer", a little box that generated a string of dots when you pushed the paddles in one direction, and dashes in the other.  Then computers came along.  That both diverted my attention from ham radio, and at the same time killed it off when the computers shrank and became cell phones.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Lindal Kidd

[kiramanell]

FTR, I have zero alts. Which is to say, I have one alt, a system avi, I merely use to test next-owner permissions on. She doesn't post, though.

[Luna Bliss]

22 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I'm nostalgic about it, because I got my ham license when I was a teenager, and learning the code was a licensing requirement.  At one time, I owned an actual, barebones-basic telegraph key.

I've always been fascinated by communication across distances. These days it seems nobody is wowed by it as it's so commonplace. I loved a series I watched about a group of women who aided WW2 efforts with, I assume, the type of code you're mentioning here?

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I have a group of land alts, but none of them have ever posted here. I own my words, as I have mentioned before. If I were to, say, own an SL store and was worried about how my behavior here might affect my store's business, I'd simply alter my behavior to be more acceptable if need be. I wouldn't slink around using alts, but that's just my preference. Others' mileage may vary, obviously.  

[Lindal Kidd]

2 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

I've always been fascinated by communication across distances. These days it seems nobody is wowed by it as it's so commonplace. I loved a series I watched about a group of women who aided WW2 efforts with, I assume, the type of code you're mentioning here?

Yep.  It's kinda weird.  You sit in your basement and listen to faint beeps coming through the static.  You hear someone calling.  You send back a reply...and they answer!  There you sit, beeping away at each other, communicating with a stranger half a world away.  Mostly, all you exchange is call signs, good wishes, and maybe a few words about yourself and your equipment.  You can then send them a postcard, called a "QSL" card, to commemorate the contact, and they'll send you one in return.  Some hams collect these, and have them from pretty near every country.

[CandyCole]

On 5/27/2020 at 5:57 AM, Lindal Kidd said:

You send back a reply...and they answer!  There you sit, beeping away at each other, communicating with a stranger half a world away.

Kind of like now, only far more ubiquitous these days .. as we all send todays version of beeps in 0s and 1s via our modern communicators 😀 

[Harper Held]

People on alts often don't put a lot of effort into changing their grammer, favorite turns of phrase, etc. 

At least I don't -but then again the folks I hang out with know who all my alts are so it'd be kinda stupid 😛

[Ansiri]

16 hours ago, Han Held said:

People on alts often don't put a lot of effort into changing their grammer, favorite turns of phrase, etc. 

At least I don't -but then again the folks I hang out with know who all my alts are so it'd be kinda stupid 😛

There can always be alts who are pretending to be someone else, so probably they could use the other person's grammer, favorite phrases etc.

[Bree Giffen]

I started looking around to see if this has been tackled by other people on the internet in the past.... AND IT HAS.

Quote

The science is called stylometry, the analysis of a person’s writing style. Stylometry examines word choice; the frequency, sequence, and length of words; and other telling tendencies. 

Experts in the field, known as forensic linguists, maintain that a trained eye can pick out these similarities between texts. But computer algorithms are much faster and just as accurate, if not more.

Software like this has been used to identify the true author of a will and even to analyze Shakespeare’s plays. But another use coming to light is in seeking out hackers, malware writers, and anyone else who wouldn’t want their online identities traced back to them. Graduate students at Drexel University studied leaked conversations and texts from hundreds of anonymous users in underground online forums. By using stylometry the students were able to determine 80 percent of the creators.

So there you go. I wonder how many people would be sweating if something like this is used on the SL forums?