#Internet Safety – Stalkers… know the signs | Daily Echo

 

Don’t be an easy target

 

Today’s topic is one I sometimes discuss with other authors, especially when I want to know if this is happening to them, and how frequently.
I often daily, get invitations from male strangers to befriend them. The majority of these invitations come from Google, Facebook, Goodreads, and Skype alerts.

 

As a person who is pretty well-versed on the world wide web, I’m pretty good at sniffing out the predators. My FBI-like tendencies send me off on social searches to find out more about these people before I accept any invitations. If I’m not familiar with their name I begin checking their profiles on social media to see what they’re about, if they’re authors or bloggers, if they have any posts from their websites, etc. Quite often there’s nothing to tell me anything about them and I hit delete. On Skype I don’t even look, I auto delete because there is no reason for anyone to have to Skype me that doesn’t already know me.

As an author with a very public profile, there are almost too many easy avenues to contact me, so I am always on guard before befriending strangers. But for others, particularly those who don’t have a public profile yet who are still visible on the web with their social media made public, they need to do their due diligence when it comes to accepting new ‘friends’ into their circles and sharing their personal lives with some of these predators who usually make first contact with compliments and sharing their relationship status.

In light of this important topic, I’d like to share a post that author/blogger Sue Vincent from the Daily Echo recently put up on her blog.

Stalkers . . .Know The Signs

 

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Sue Vincent

We all have different criteria and reasons for using any of the various social networks. For most of us, it is simply that… a place to meet friends, both old and new. I’ve just been through my inbox for one of those networks hitting delete. There are doubtless a lot of gentlemen on Google + and other social networks who are completely genuine. There will certainly be hopeful romantics amongst them who are simply hoping to connect with Miss Right.

Then there are the others. . . CONTINUE READING

 

Source: Stalkers… know the signs | Daily Echo 

 

D.G. Kaye ©2015