Someone managed to trash my first Gmail account in a “Joe Job”. That’s where someone spoofs your name and email address and commits naughty acts which get you in trouble.
A few years back when Google Mail was brand new, I got an invite and set up my account. I used that address for people I didn’t know or didn’t trust. Much as I like Gmail, it’s still a throwaway, something not essential for my life. It’s nice the account unlocks other Google services, but only my Blogger account gets used for much.
You should never rely on free services for anything which really matters to you. Those people don’t know you, and don’t know when some idiot is masquerading as you. They can’t even really secure it from relatively light-weight cracking attacks, so treat it as expendable. Always maintain at least four such free accounts and make sure the people with whom you really need to maintain contact know all of them. I have at least a half-dozen on different services, and keep track of a half-dozen more free servics just in case I need a fresh one quickly. Just Google for “free webmail” and you’ll never run short. It helps if, like me, you can read a couple of foreign languages and register accounts on services in countries which use those languages.
It was with my old Gmail account I contacted the service provider for a spammer who was posting links to pornography one of my blogs. Turns out the service provider was the spammer. He cracked my Gmail account, registered for a large number of high traffic forums, then proceeded to post his nasty porno pictures on each one. Then he changed his domain registration and I couldn’t find him again. Meanwhile, all these fine people sent me torrents of angry messages about those nasty forum posts. Most had never heard of me, and haven’t heard from me since. I had to close that old Gmail account.
One forum he found I already had an account, the Ubuntu support forums. I contacted the admin from another address and explained the situation, and made sure my old account was deleted. He recognized the porn spam was not at all my style, and assured me I could create a new account any time I needed. He had experienced the bruising of a Joe Job himself.
People who know you will not believe it when they see something like that. Those are the folks who can always find you if you have to close one or more free accounts. For the folks who don’t know you well, you’ll just have to work at keeping track of those who matter for whatever reason. Not every one you meet in virtual space is worth that effort, and it doesn’t always mean it’s because they aren’t nice people. However, it typically does mean that. Some of them are predators of various kinds looking to take whatever they can for their use or simply for their entertainment. I won’t pretend to analyze the motives of them all, but the world is full of folks who would not missed if they disappeared. They are well represented on the Net, in part because it is so very easy to get away with things you can’t pull off in the real world.
It helps if you aren’t stupid enough to provoke people needlessly. This is another of the Net psychology things, in that most people act differently on the Net than any other part of their lives. It’s like “flaming” — sending vicious messages through email, Usenet or forums. Some of those people understand the Net better than you, and can do some very nasty things to you. I don’t regret hammering that spammer, even if he turned out to be running his own service. You can let a lot of stuff slide, but when they don’t quit after once or twice, you have to act any way you can. When deleting the filth didn’t work, I traced the source and complained. I should have taken it up one level, but I had no way of knowing that.
At any given time, I’m only a couple of incidents away from simply dropping off the Net. That is, while I would surely keep some things alive if I could, blogging is not a “have-to” thing. None of the forums are essential to my life. The people I really need to talk to know where to find me, and I can always get hold of them in other ways. If you have friends on the Net you truly value, now would be a good time to elicit their snail-mail address, phone number, or other means of contact.
