French surnames

[Coco]

No, no, no, you're all wrong - I know Will personally - it's Mitsubishi! 

[Gemini_man]

Hmm, my French claim to fame is that my arrière arrière grand'mère's family name was Poulain -

I think it must be the French equivalent of Smith [:$]

[Alan Zoff]

French, or otherwise, it's not a good idea to post real names on a forum open to public view.

Chap on news item this morning showed how viewing a chat forum for a few seconds gave him a name. A few minutes further cross-checking with sites for registrar of births and marriages, electoral roll, Land Registry, etc and he had a complete profile of the individual - name, address, date of birth, parents' details, children's details, where they lived, how much they paid for house, etc, etc - the works. Scary, really.

He said the problem is people get sucked into internet "conversations" and forget that they are not making the information available to a select few but to the public at large - perhaps a billion people, many of whom will be more than happy to misuse the information gained.

So be careful before posting your - or anyone else's - personal details. It is surprisingly easy for someone who thinks laterally to convert trivial comments into a serious profile. If that chap could build up all that information in a few minutes, just imagine what he could have done if he had then gone back into the forum and searched for other clues to extend it.

So before you post, ask yourself - do I really want a billion people to be able to read this? (OK, not all sites receive a billion hits, but the risk is there, all the same. And the criminals will know just where to look.)

[Cassis]

About 5 seconds with a phone directory would have given him thousands of names with addresses and phone numbers  - what was the idea of getting a name off a forum? [8-)]

[Alan Zoff]

Of course they can, which is one reason a lot of people prefer to be ex-directory. An open forum can also supply: names and ages of children, how well the house is furnished/equipped, the make of your car, who you bank with , and so on. All this sort of information regularly pops up on the forum. Just needs someone to trawl through and piece it all together.

[Dick Smith]

And "I'm off to England for two weeks from Friday".  But in general, I think the risk is pretty small, hence logging in with my real name...

[Cassis]

I see - I'll be more careful.  Meanwhile, just off to Le Mans for a couple of hours, back later.  Key's under the doormat. [:)]

[Dick Smith]

Which door? I don't want to waste any time.

[Cassis]

Too late - I'm back.

[Dick Smith]

Couldn't find the key. And had a lot of trouble with me box joint jig, so got delayed. Can you pop out again later, please?

[Cassis]

No probs.  I'll give a bit more notice next time.

[Suninfrance]

Fascinating site.  My main hobby is family history - mine and others, if anyone wants me to start/do theirs or give them some starter tips!!

One of the families I am researching is Fleuret and I notice there are a lot of them in the Haute Vienne.  I find that really spooky as I am now living just "down the road" in the Correze.

Jan

[Higgy]

I checked our friends Surname in Dept 19 but it does not show up, others with the same name do up North. They

have lived in the village for 7 years.  I thought I would check how up to date or factual it is.