I was chatting with my daughter in law in New Zealand this morning. She had found an account on the app called Telegram that looked like this –
Well – I have not joined Telegram. (I use WhatsApp for my international free calling). My name does not look like that. (The dash is in the wrong place. The AI in the hacker program has corrected the grammar to make it look more authentic). Obviously constructed and launched by an Asian based bot and no I do not know this man. His image will have been stolen too.
This is not my legal name anyway.
AND I am not going to join Telegram to try and have it taken down.
So. If you are on Telegram ~ this is NOT me. Please flag it as a fraudulent account.
This is what will kill the internet for me and for our work. For all of us really. These infiltration programmes are using the very best of AI to flood the internet with fake accounts. They have been doing it for years but I think they are getting better. Though to be fair that is a terrible likeness of me!!
My research showed that Telegram is having terrible trouble with data fraud.
FaceBook suffers from this kind of thing too. Instagram to a lesser extent.
The only things we can really trust are our brick and mortar buildings with paper deeds. But can we? Those are all loaded into a data base somewhere. Maybe in a little town with antiquated security. Maybe already compromised.
What about fake electric accounts. Or fake bank accounts. Or fake traffic tickets.
We are so vulnerable. If you are on the internet only a tiny bit – you are still vulnerable. A little or a lot is the same risk.
This app has taken my name. My name is out there on all manner of records and platforms. It is not a secret. And what is there up on the interwebs now will never go away. It is too late.
I am not particularly worried. We were warned. We know this is a thing.
And I would say that we will seldom know when our names have been re-used. Unless we do an in depth search. And those search programs are too available and vulnerable too.
For a fee you can even see my birth certificate, my name, address and telephone number, marital records, criminal records – anything you can name is available to these high tech infiltrators. The recent advanced AI has given more tools to the the bad players.
But what to do?
I don’t know.
Nothing probably. The information is already there – our tax records are already on the internet.
Two things we can do – keep our kids faces off the internet. Keep kids off anything with a browser. The choice to enter their names into the thunder dome should be theirs when they are of age.
We can’t live under rocks.
But I do think we are entering a new phase of security breaches.
What do you think?
I can reach thousands of people daily with my message to Live Lightly and Live Simply. To grow and cook your own food and trust your ancient instincts. To be guardians of this good earth. To share the joy of my farm life.
Without the internet my people (you) would disappear in a puff. And I don’t want to lose you.
A Catch 22, I believe.And. I refuse to cower.
Celi
I am off for a walk while it is still cool.
Speaking of social platforms! Did I show you this reel?
The Kitchen's Garden 
33 responses to “Fraud: This is NOT Me”
Ha ha – you are the Pig Lady!
I often get fake emails from myself. Some tell me that I have been hacked, but I haven’t, they are a scam!
The scams are legendary really ~ they’ve been going on forever. This is the first time (that I know of) when an account has been set up in my name.
I know and could be believable for the slightly less wary.
hahaha, you tripped a memory, years ago when my grands were just kids and I had a potbelly house pig we had to go to a funeral and when I walked in three of them came running up shrieking ‘hi sherry pig lady!’ – in a funeral home no less.
That is too funny!! Ha!! In the funeral home!! Love it.
Well this isn’t good! I think you are correct though- there comes a point no matter how conscious we are of what we put out there that it’s all vulnerable anymore…nothing is really ours alone sadly. On to happier things, I love the video and the Bobby picture! Animals are oblivious to false narratives, lucky creatures 🙂
Yes! The animals make life easy really!!
Very nice crepuscular rays in that sky photo.
Way too much of our data is spread all over the digital world. I’m surprised security and stealing identity isn’t a bigger problem.
I love it when you give me the right words Jim. CREPUSCULAR A great word. Thank you.
I am wondering whether online security is not going to become a bigger problem. Frankly I think it would be an incredible weapon of warfare. And with the new AI tools learning so fast we may have an interesting few years ahead!
Happy to help with words. I got a new one last weekend from my wife. I was trying to play the Spelling Bee game in the NY Times. The word was Inveigle. The AI bots and trickery online can inveigle us very easily if we are not careful.
A great word perfectly displayed. We do not want to be inveigled in their web.😂
I am happy to report that not only am I not on Telegram, I have no idea what it is! And crepuscular is one of my favorite words.
Love the video. I assume that your daughter’s reported this fake account.
My DIL. I will check to see if she is on that platform so she can – will I hope. They are all asleep mow and who knows how long it has been up.
I just Googled how to report this on Telegram. You can email abuse@telegram.org with the fake users name and any other info you have.
Yes! Thank you – I sent them a note earlier. But I am not one of their clients. Fingers crossed.
I agree with the other Charlotte about the word crepuscular. Odd, that. Two Charlottes. A shared favorite word. The Fraud thing is sort of horrifying. I mean, the possibilities. Ugh. Deep breath, here we all go…
Our other Charlotte is a writer of books! I wish I could settle down long enough to write a book!
That is wonderful! I am a writer of partial books that stay in folders and wait to be finished! I am in awe of people who actually do it!
As am I!
I try not to worry too much about these things and of course, I try to be vigilant. I love the video. I am a woman with her dogs. I do share them with my husband, as it is the right thing to do.
I was thinking Sheila across the matrix could kick some butt! If we gathered an army of all our past companions, and sent them to root out the cyber garbage, things would be purged and set right in no time. In the meantime I have a handful of lawyers offering to settle up estates for me, so I best get busy!
No worries,I’m not on it
Nor was I – I thought!
I “vanity” Google my name and social media account name from to time. Amazing where it comes up but mostly legit. We can prevent hacking with authentication processes but I’ve had my Insta cloned once or twice. It’s the simplest of things too… our local council has uploaded forms we provided to them with our names and contact/address details under a council meeting link because we didn’t ask them not to. And I’m tired of fighting with them. Like you I value what the internet offers and value adds.
My grand daughter googled me the other day! Until then I was just Gramma!
I’ve learned to hit Unsubscribe the moment an opportunity presents itself. It’s hard; so many businesses won’t deal with you unless you provide all sorts of information. I also got very good at searching out the ‘I agree to receive marketing materials’ tick box and unticking it. In the end, if we want to partake of the digital world’s benefits (and some are VERY beneficial), I suppose we must accept the downside too. So much sweetness comes with thorns…
I love that Boo rides the tractor with you. I now have a vision of you taking an evening promenade around the Farmy followed by a motley menagerie of faithful creatures (and the ethereal shades of past beloved companions).
My past beloved companions. Wouldn’t that be marvelous.
I want to train Jude and FreeBee to walk with me like Sheila used to but two pigs are much harder to manage than one. They never stick together!!
Pigs are… well, pig-headed! And two pigs are by far more collectively stubborn than one because they’re not stubborn the same way. I want to come back as a pig. I wouldn’t even mind the becoming bacon bit, because bacon is the food of the gods.
We have the choice here as to who can get details from the Transport Agency by using our car registration. The only people we can’t block are the Police and Government agencies. So if I park illegally or overstay, if it is not a council car park, they can’t track me down using my registration number – advice from a techie grandson. But yes, we are so out there. I rarely go onto Facebook but when I do I am horrified to see people posting photos of their small children for all the world to see.
That’s interesting. Has your grandson tested that? Maybe if he looked up your address and see what comes up? That would be interesting too. Many parents are pledging not to put their children’s faces on social media now so I think there must be a slow awakening to the fact that once in the public domain anyone can do anything with that child’s image. I try to keep kids faces out but I think I should not have pictures of kids at all. There are bad players out there.
Yes. A couple of times I have overstayed my parking but have ignored the ticket. Recently when with a friend for ,lunch, we each got a ticket $80 for overstaying some 15/20 mi utes. I ignored mine, she had to pay.
Yes. On a couple of occasions recently I have overstayed my time in a parking area and received a ticket. One time I was with a friend for lunch and we both came out to find tickets on our windscreens. $80 fine for overstaying some 15/20 minutes or so – outrageous. I ignored the ticket, but she had to pay. So yes, it does work.