Safety First!!
I got a message on Facebook yesterday – someone who said they are a big fan, who really liked my videos and my Daring Adventures on Ravenwood Radio. He said that he had a present for me, that he would give me 1000 crowns because he was such a big fan!!
Now of course I was very excited about this – I just bought my beautiful house in game, which was very expensive, and I don’t have a lot of gold left. 1000 crowns, well that a lot of money, that would buy me a lot of nice things, right? And well, if he was a fan of my blog, it’s not so strange to think he might want to give me something nice, right?
Then he asked me some more questions. Like what my account information was in Wizard 101, so he could ‘get the crowns to me’. He also asked me where I lived in real life. He asked me how old I was. That’s when I realized that maybe he wasn’t trying to give me something nice at all. That’s when I knew that he was probably a bad person.
To be fair, maybe this person was really just a very nice person and was very curious about things and didn’t mean any harm – but I couldn’t possibly know that, and neither can you, so you have to be safe, because that’s a scary thing about the internet; people aren’t always who say say they are, and people who seem really nice can actually be pretty awful.
So, if someone who you meet online, in game, on Facebook, or whatever – even someone who has been talking to you or chatting with you for a while – asks you for any kind of personal information, like an account name or a password, or where you live, or your phone number, you need to be really careful. If you’re a younger person – as I know some of my readers are – you should really tell someone older, like a parent, etc… before you give out any kind of information like that. This isn’t just for younger kids, though – a lot of grownups have given out important information to ‘friends’ on the internet that got them into trouble as well, so everyone should be careful.
Just a little friendly advice from your furry neighborhood Fabricated American, because I think everybody who comes here and reads my blog and watches my videos and likes listening to my Daring Adventures is really great, and I appreciate every single one of you!!
Ditto Monster's Bloggy Thingy 
As an adult, it is my responsibility to my family to safeguard all of my personal informaiton. As a mom, it is my responsbility to remind younger people of the dangers of giving out personal information (including contact info), especially on the internet. As we have seen on Facebook in the past two weeks with individuals establishing pages pretending to be Malistaire and Cyrus Drake, there is nothing ot stop anyone from misrepresenting themseves! Thanks for this post, Ditto!
July 28, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Ditto
I think more kids should read this, Thank you for this awesome post
July 28, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Good for you! I know everyone thinks they know this stuff but as you can see, it kind of creeps up on you, one bit at a time, and you have to think about people putting those pieces together.
Glad you did the right thing and that you took the time to share. You’ll never now it, but this may save one of your readers a lot of trouble someday.
Keep up the great work.
July 28, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Good reaction on your part!
Thanks for reminding us to stay on our toes. đŸ™‚
July 28, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Thank you for writing this up, sir! More people, especially children, do need to be aware of this. This goes for people you’ve made as “good” friends too…just because they’ve been a pal for a month, it doesn’t mean they have zero chance of being a malicious person!
July 28, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Very well written, Ditto. I met someone like this, and I was very scared when they started asking for account info. I didn’t trust him at all. Everyone should be very careful!
July 29, 2010 at 1:48 am
Well Said Ditto!
July 29, 2010 at 2:19 am
Hey nice work u do i like it …..thanks for sharing
Internet Safety for Kids
August 1, 2010 at 11:51 am
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