A word of caution....

[mommychic]

I don’t mean to be the party pooper here, but I just wanted to advise a word of caution about giving out too much personal information.

I really enjoy sharing things with you ladies and it’s interesting finding out more about each other, but don’t forget there are nuts out there and you take a risk giving out too much information.

The other night I was watching CNN they were interviewing a crazy woman who just kidnapped a baby in Wal-Mart parking lot. She said she’s not a bad person but she just had a miscarriage and was having trouble dealing with it. She wanted a baby so bad and just flipped one day. For all we know, she could have been a lurker on our site here.

This got me thinking. We give out so much info here. All you have to do is mention your last name and your town and anyone of us could look up all your info on anywho.com or walk into Babies R Us and get your registry. Especially with BuyBuyBaby’s registries where all your information is listed directly on the registry. Phone number, address, etc… This bothers me since our phone number is unlisted.

Maybe I’m just a paranoid New Yorker, but I really like you ladies and would never want anything to happen to any one of you or your babies for that matter.

If you want to share more detailed information, I think we should email each other. It’s safer.

Just my two cents,
Lisa

[nigele]

Lisa,

You are absolutely right. I was nervous about posting personal info. so I try to be a bit vague. Now that you gave us all something to think about, I am going to make sure I nut-proof anything I post. I know we have all made friends here and it is easy to get comfortable with each other but you are right - we do need to be careful.

[mama2be]

Lisa,

We all do get so comforatble don't we :)

This reminded me of when DH and I moved here and he got a job offer. His "new" collegues actually admitted to him that they did a 'search" on his name on the internet and they actually knew what we had registered for our wedding. that gave me the creeps because they made a comment on how much my china was...this is when I wish I did not have an unusual name :)

[mamahill]

DH and I have recently been victims of identity theft, so I totally understand what you're saying. I've looked at a couple other bulletin boards, but have only felt comfortable posting here (you are all such a nice, positive bunch!). Even with our IT problems, I guess I am still too trusting. I would never have thought about looking up people's info (talk about a Peeping Tom syndrome!). Thanks for the heads up. I did enjoy reading about everyone. You ladies (and gents!) are the loveliest bunch I know.

[jojo2324]

Too true, I never think about lurkers even though I lurk all the time at parentsplace. (Actually, not entirely true...Just de-lurked to get stroller info...Bertini M5 here I come!) To be honest, I've looked myself up on the internet (Why, you ask? Because I am a dork.)and can never find anything about me. I don't have a typical last name, but it certainly doesn't have a strange quality to it. DH has the most typical name in the world and when I do a search on him it reveals that there are about 14,000 others with the name just living in the state.

Speaking of looking people up, Sarah! I need your help! I am going to e-mail you from my yahoo address so DH can't find it. (Christmas gift related.) So don't be freaked out by some strange entry in your inbox.

[kathsmom]

To those of you who responded to my post on this forum (post 270) about Sanford/Raleigh/Cary/Apex, please feel free to delete/edit any info you need to. In fact, I would like to erase the whole post to protect all of you and me - can you delete a post? Let me know if you can and how to do it!

I think I am going to be going back and editing a lot of posts!

Toni

[mama2be]

Toni, I swear when I think of you I think the name name "Kathy"...s I wonder if I have called you that or emailed you with Kathy...(I know DS's name), anyway apology if I have....

That is the only post I can think of where I might have put more than I should have, but I'm not too worried about it :), in all honesty anyone with my name can find my address more specifically than that if they did a "yellow pages" search.

Anyway did you get my email back from you...you are more than welcome to come out to our house when here in town :)...

[kathsmom]

Neve,

Yes, I did get your e-mail. Thank you so much for the invitation to come to your home! I would love to come see you and meet you in person! DH is flying into Raleigh next week and will drive to Sanford to train for his job.

I haven't had a chance to e-mail you back, because someone is coming to look at our house tomorrow afternoon. We got a call from our friend who knows someone who is interested in buying a house. This person drove by our house twice on Tuesday and told our friend that he wants to see the inside. Well, our friend called Tuesday night and told us this and we have been on a cleaning binge!! My poor DD is not allowed to play with anything! I tell her just to watch all the TV she wants (I know - bad mom!!) so that I can keep the house picked up at least until tomorrow afternoon! Thank goodness she is in school and DS is too little to mess anything up (other than his clothes and diapers!). Wish us luck! We would love to sell our home without having to list it with a real estate agent!

I'll let you know what is going on!

Toni

[mama2be]

Good luck with the house...my fingers are crossed for you :) I'll chat with you once things wind down. Please let your DH if we can help him with anything while he is here to let us know...:)

[Melanie]

I try to be cautious as well, almost to the point of paranoia I think. For example, on Ds' website I do not put any links to or specific names of places we visit. I figure if someone is creepy enough they could figure out where you live that way. We have a friend who puts all that stuff on her website, so when she asked if she could link to ours I didn't give permission. I guess I should probably tell her why so she's not offended, just figures I'm a freak. =)

I try not to let my caution get crazy, but babies are at such a risk, IMHO. We go to a class and the teacher hands out a roster with our names, addresses, phone numbers & the kids' birthdays! Thank goodness we've moved since and our correct address isn't on there! It's not the people in the class who worry me, it's the fact that I don't know where they may leave this piece of paper laying around.

My Two Cents as well...

Mommy to Jonah