in a recent post the subject somehow got changed to a question of the authenticity of screen names.anyway several people mentioned that only a fool would put their real name on here,you,d have to be crazy to use your real name,or words to that effect.maybe i,m like a 2 year old getting ready to pet a lion but i just don,t get it.what am i supposed to be so scared of that i couldn,t put my name or even phone number on here.years ago i was a professional hitchhiker and after sevaral years of that i just don,t see the danger in this unless it would be identity theft which doesn,t really seem plausible.what should i fear?

Fear that lion You are about to pet.

Fear them putting you email in to every search engine available to you....to find you....to make friends via chat and try to hack you pc and friends and family......That's all

Name and phone number? Easy target, I'll bite.

With your name and phone number I can figure out your address, with all three of those I can rack up your credit debt to unimaginable amounts of money. I can open an entirely different phone number under your name, in an entirely different state, and then...to take it further, I can go through your mail (well, because I already know where you live) and get bills, bank information, credit cards, etc.

In the wrong hands, your name and phone number can amount to an awful lot of debt. In a perfect world, you could put all that information down online without concern...but, in case you haven't noticed, we obviously do not live in a perfect world.

What doesn't "seem plausible" about identity theft?
You might oughta do a bit of research on that subject... see how damaging it is and can be to you... but do what ya' like.

Plus there's the whole idea of not really knowing very much about anyone else on here. I am not sure if men are as concerned about that as we girls are, but guys prolly should be if they're not.

I consider most of the forum regulars fine - as fas as I wouldn't care if they knew my name, phone etc. But there a ton of folks on here who just troll, or just contact via email for dating who do not use the forums...could be anybody with any kind of criminal, mental health background w/e

What surprises me is that OP would need someone else to point these things out

Oh shoot! I'm in trouble. Ahhh, no that's not my zip code...

I used my real name for my screen name. I'm not worried about my privacy on that issue - but never, ever would I list my number, email address or any other personal information.

You said you used to be a professional hitchhiker? For a man to hitchhike, it WAS less dangerous. In today's world, even men are not safe under any example of being victimized by violence.

The world has changed. This used to be a typical phrase: “That would never happen in my town.” Not any more. Crime can happen to anyone.

yeah..I dont get that fear part either, if you have a telephone, your first, last and sometimes even home address is listed in a public and free book available to all....

well any of U 2 ladies above could have my phone # ANY day!!!

thanks for the education.

You're welcome, I did IT for about a year or two. Security is big in IT, and amazingly a lot of peoples PC's I worked on had information like their names, addresses, even phone numbers on social sites like Myspace, Facebook, etc.

Careful of what information you put online, I can even find things like your address and phone number off a screen name if I wanted too. The internet is an awesome thing, just remember, with every tool...there will always be people abusing it.