Sacha wrote:
On 26/5/05 12:11, in article ,
"Janet Baraclough" wrote:
The message
from Alan Gould contains these words:
I recently received the following very pleasing e-mail:
Hi Alan, my name is Haydn Carter and I am from New Zealand. At my
school we are starting a compost heap and I was just wondering if
you could give me a few pointers on how to start one and what to
use. I am 9 years old and my mate Sam is helping me as well he to
is 9.
I replied giving what information I could. It is always good to be
able to help and encourage youngsters into gardening.
It's lovely, but a bit worrying these days to think of a nine year
old striking up email contacts with complete strangers found on the
internet.
Janet
Especially an adult masquerading as a nine year old which was tried
on with us. Check the headers.......
There was something in the Telegraph not so very long ago (some time last
year). An 8-year-old girl had been approached through a MSN chatroom, I
believe, to do with the computer game /Babyz/ (game for kids where they can
create, er, virtual kids...). This girl had set up, without parental
intervention (they interviewed the parents), her own website offering some
of her Babyz for adoption. She was approached by another girl (claiming to
be 9) wanting to help her create graphics for her site.
The girl's parents didn't notice anything was wrong, until her (I believe
her name was Jessica) schoolwork started to suffer. She then started
receiving emails from this other girl (who called herself Debbie) which
became more and more explicit (if you catch my drift). "She" started asking
Jessica to send her photos (which she did) and then, after a couple of
months, asked if they could meet. Fortunately, Jessica's parents checked the
computer after they were called in to see her class teacher. It transpired
that "Debbie" was a known paedophile - British by birth, but living in
Amsterdam.
On a slightly different tack (but still about parents not knowing what their
kids are up to) I was recently defrauded by a 16-year-old on eBay. This
little bugger was selling the latest version of Photoshop for £150. He said
he'd received it as a birthday present (complete crap as I later
discovered - he lived with his parents, grandmother and six siblings on a
council estate in Kettering - nobody could afford to give him £500 worth of
software) and didn't want it.
Fortunately, in order to register, you are compelled to give an address and
phone number - this toerag had used his parents' landline (without their
permission - they're ex-directory). So I called, spoke to his mother (and
his grandmother!) who was totally shocked (the computer is his own and is in
his bedroom, they don't know the half of what he does on it) and promised to
read him the riot act when he got back from his Saturday job. She called me
back and told me he had refunded me £200 - the £150 he stole and £50 as
compensation for defrauding me.
Had I not had his number, I would have handed it straight to the police -
and he'd probably be wearing an orange boiler suit by now!
--
In memory of MS MVP Alex Nichol:
http://www.dts-l.org/