August's Im Confessions Recorded

[Guest]

The amount of personal info for most people on the forums and chats is minimal except for what people have openly posted.

If anybody got access to all my "secret" personal info on Laura's, all they'd have would be an email address.

The worst that they could do to me would be to have me spamed with offers for Viagra.

No that;s not the worse thing that can happen. When you are on the internet your IP address precedes you. What can you do with an ip address? Depends on the software you use. Law enforcement can figure out you Internt service provider. While used to be if you were on a phone line or aol you couldn't be traced. With advances now they can find anyone right down to your couch. The average person though can take that IP and map programs like Google by satellite can see the number of your house and where your house is on that block. DO you feel safer? I don't

Know too that anyone with access to logs like a site owner see's your IP. Certianly few have time to trace people down. An unscrupulous person though would and could easily find you. Let's imagine some gay or transgender person who is still in the closet on a web site getting hacked. They find the log and have the abilty to out people right down to the next door neighbors. Think this doesn't happen? As my resources tell me this happens often. You seem to think it's a joke when I talk about security. Your not alone. I tell people here DOn't give out your phone number or address. Do they listen, NO. August has bragged on the site before how many phone numbers he has. I assume he was trying to say he had lots of friends. With what you knoe now would you give him your phone number again? Of course not.

So what's the point? August is not the only charlatan on the internet. There are thousands of them engaged in criminal activity. They love to run into people like you who don't think security is a big deal. The thing is how do you know that everyone on the Internet is who they say they are. You don't, they could be anyone.

Believe me your much better off with a site owner who takes responsibility for his users saftey and security then someone who believes they are invincible and can't be touched. Go to the anti-virus sites and learn about how many users are hit each year by computer viruses or trojans and trackers. This is why I push hard and spend so much on safety. We are more vulnerable than most. THing is if I was listened too instead of being thought to be an overeactive Old Lady how many transgender telephone numbers would be on Augusts cell phone now. None 'Z' None. I'm not going to say I told you so., nope not going to say it. ee maybe you'll conced that once in a while I might know what I'm doing.

Laura

[Guest Rev. Michal]

Gimme.

Rev. Michal,

-Will make sure his contact info gets to the right funny hands.

[Guest Rev. Michal]

No that;s not the worse thing that can happen. When you are on the internet your IP address precedes you. What can you do with an ip address? Depends on the software you use. Law enforcement can figure out you Internt service provider. While used to be if you were on a phone line or aol you couldn't be traced. With advances now they can find anyone right down to your couch. The average person though can take that IP and map programs like Google by satellite can see the number of your house and where your house is on that block. DO you feel safer? I don't

Know too that anyone with access to logs like a site owner see's your IP. Certianly few have time to trace people down. An unscrupulous person though would and could easily find you. Let's imagine some gay or transgender person who is still in the closet on a web site getting hacked. They find the log and have the abilty to out people right down to the next door neighbors. Think this doesn't happen? As my resources tell me this happens often. You seem to think it's a joke when I talk about security. Your not alone. I tell people here DOn't give out your phone number or address. Do they listen, NO. August has bragged on the site before how many phone numbers he has. I assume he was trying to say he had lots of friends. With what you knoe now would you give him your phone number again? Of course not.

So what's the point? August is not the only charlatan on the internet. There are thousands of them engaged in criminal activity. They love to run into people like you who don't think security is a big deal. The thing is how do you know that everyone on the Internet is who they say they are. You don't, they could be anyone.

Believe me your much better off with a site owner who takes responsibility for his users saftey and security then someone who believes they are invincible and can't be touched. Go to the anti-virus sites and learn about how many users are hit each year by computer viruses or trojans and trackers. This is why I push hard and spend so much on safety. We are more vulnerable than most. THing is if I was listened too instead of being thought to be an overeactive Old Lady how many transgender telephone numbers would be on Augusts cell phone now. None 'Z' None. I'm not going to say I told you so., nope not going to say it. ee maybe you'll conced that once in a while I might know what I'm doing.

Laura

Actually, IPs are quite simple to change, if you know how.

Rev. Michal,

-Might know how...

[MaryEllen]

IP's can be changed but you can still be tracked down. I'm not going into specifics because I don't want to jeopardize Laura's case.

[Guest Rev. Michal]

IP's can be changed but you can still be tracked down. I'm not going into specifics because I don't want to jeopardize Laura's case.

Mmmkay.

[Zufrieden]

Hi Laura:

Yes, I'm a skeptic, always asking questions.

Thank you for your answers.

Z.

[Guest Chessiecat]

Hey Laura...errr...this is Chessie. I think it'll say that. Don't know. Not much experience with forums.

Well, let me just start with a simple read of the characters involved. Olivia, if this is to be believed, is psychotic. August is sociopathic. Anon's IM is probably a fabrication, probably by August trying to save face and if it's not, it's an insight into one of the most vicious people I've ever met...but we shouldn't be afraid of August. Olivia's the one to be scared of. She can be found and arrested if she's in the US.

Hate crimes disturb everyone who comes into contact with them. Hate is the most irrational and instantaneous of human reactions both to persons and to experiences. Certain sociopathic personalities tend to 'glom on' to characters around them which exhibit strong directed behaviors (impulses) as an example for themselves because they don't feel the same sets of emotional states most people do.

Publishing those numbers would be gigantically dangerous though and may be a violation of federal law. Give them to law enforcement. They can make use of the information to find at least some of the people involved.

[Guest matthew41]

Laura,

Reading the IM's by and about August showed me just how gullible I can be. August and Olivia are professionals at deception. I bought it all hook line and sinker. I gave him my number based on the trust others showed by giving their numbers to him. There were no red flags that I could detect. I trusted him more then I would others because he was a moderator. In error, I believed these were valid reasons for an exception to the policy of not sharing phone numbers. I never doubted whether he was being honest with me. Go ahead and say I told you so, this is a reality check I never saw coming. A lesson learned the hard way.

Thank you for all the security you have in place. I feel better already knowing you have a network behind the scenes to keep us all safe and inform law enforcement of criminal activity.

Matt

[Guest Ryles_D]

Reading the IM's by and about August showed me just how gullible I can be. August and Olivia are professionals at deception. I bought it all hook line and sinker. I gave him my number based on the trust others showed by giving their numbers to him. There were no red flags that I could detect. I trusted him more then I would others because he was a moderator. In error, I believed these were valid reasons for an exception to the policy of not sharing phone numbers. I never doubted whether he was being honest with me. Go ahead and say I told you so, this is a reality check I never saw coming. A lesson learned the hard way.

I'd say I told you so. Only, I didn't. That also wasn't addressed at me. Anyways...

The internet's really weird sometimes. It's not bad to be that trusting, pretty much a sign that you're the kind of person that can avoid the people who'll take advantage of that. It's hard to decide whether people need your help or not, or what the best kind of help is. Some things are hard to read over text and voice helps. Unfortunately, not giving phone numbers is, in general, a good rule.

Besides, like you said, professionals at deception. Kinda counterracts the 'gullible' abit.

[Guest]

Laura's Playground is not going to change it's support policy here. It's not just the staff that gives support to others it is also you our users. For every August and Olivia out there are thousands of Transgendered people who need help and support. We can't miss the opportunity to help our brothers and sisters by withdrawing into oursleves for protection because of this. You can protect yourself best by keeping your personal information private. Most haters online are not patient and reveal themselves early. This is the only case I had where 2 users planned to cause damage for over a year. The hate mail I get is up front and at least honest. I see it as an opportunity to educate as most have erroneous information. Most of the time I am successfull. Some though won't be persuaded.

Things are getting better. Many hate sites have lost their web hosting just this year due to changed hate intolerance policies. Internet Service Providers (ISP's) are more co-operative too. They no longer stand for hate mail that flows through them. This of course has stirred debate. Is it discrimination to stop hate speech or crimes if it is part of your religous beliefs. IS that a good excuse? If so would that bring back stoning? It's in the bible. Let's hope not. I'm not really looking to start a religous discussion. I'm just wondering.

Laura's has had a hand in closing 2 anti-transgender sites this year. Here's an article on one of those: http://www.lauras-playground.com/transgend...steals_logo.htm . A major site to come down was Fred Phelps "Westboro Baptist Church God hates F***" Website. Fred is known as a picketer of the funerals of US serviceman and claims they died because Gay's are being tolerated. The father of one man sued them and one a Judgement last week (see Transgender news). The site came down due to violations of his hosting policy. Bio on Fred: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps .

So let's recover and move on. There is much work to do in this community,.

Laura

[Guest GoldenKirbichu]

Hope for the best, expect the worst, right?

There's nothing we can do about this kind of thing. Like Laura said, hate crimes happen all the time. As long as stupid people exist, hate crimes will exist.

We can't just clam up and stop helping people because a couple of people are whackjobs. We just have to hope that most people are telling the reasonable truth - and still make sure there are ways to catch 'em if they don't.