Not Everyone is Who they Seem on the Internet

When my youngest son discovered the power of the Internet back in high school, he trusted everyone to be who they said they were. I didn't and felt the innocent young woman my son started chatting with might really be some middle-aged man. My son didn't believe me but agreed he couldn't definitively prove me wrong and stopped talking with her.

I have had a lot of experience with people not being who they say they are. It is pretty easy to fool someone into thinking you are significantly different than you really are. Don't believe me, look at the number of anecdotal stories of people showing up on first dates with connections that don't look anything like their picture. I'll be honest, if I needed to create an online dating profile, I might Photoshop myself some hair. Fortunately I am happily married and don't need an online-dating profile.

In the past, I have also received e-mails from a number of African royalty asking for help recovering significant assets. Fortunately we all know that these e-mails are scams and not to be trusted. That doesn't stop certain criminals from trying new tactics that are just variations on this theme. Perhaps you have received an e-mail from a name that looks familiar and asking for help. My dad recently got an e-mail from a supposed grandchild that didn't exist. While there are a lot of grandchildren in the family, there are not so many that my dad doesn't remember them all.

Lately there are a lot of criminals posing to be law enforcement. Perhaps you have seen an e-mail telling you there is a warrant for your arrest. The message goes on to say that you can get out of trouble by paying a fine using gift cards. Should you ever be asked to pay a fine with a restaurant or store gift card, take a second to stop and think about it. Nobody ever asks fines to be paid with gift cards. You can ignore the message.

Some past scams have been obviously fake but criminals are getting more clever. All it takes is a fact or two to convince you someone really is who they say they are when that could be false. That is why it is so important to guard your personal information. Treat it like gold as that is how cyber-criminals view it. I also recommend a healthy amount of skepticism as there are a lot of fakes on the Internet. It is in your best interest to challenge identities and ask for more information from someone simply to verify his or her identity. If the answers don't match reality, it is okay to stop communicating.