BoatBanter.com - Just Plain Insane aka Todd Behrmann: a study in compulsive USENET trolling

Just Plain Insane aka Todd Behrmann: a study in compulsive USENET trolling

Foo wrote in
:

On 22 Aug 2003 13:46:00 GMT, PROCKET (King
Mondo) wrote:

He threatens to tell and or sue my parents over me. He claims that AOL
has givenhim my home address. He also claims that AOL has given his
the master screen name to my account

Let me assure you that he does not have *any* access to your home
address or your master screen name based on your AOL address. He
cannot possibly get any of that information that way. He cannot
contact your parents or determine *anything* about you from your AOL
address (other than whatever he can figure out from web site you have
linked in your AOL profile). And AOL would NEVER give out any
information about you themselves, much less the insanely private
information this dim bulb claims to have. They'd be sued in a
haeratbeat for that, and they don't like getting sued. So don't
believe his hollow threats.

Actually, a group I frequent did exactly that to a teen troll a few years
ago.

As a web site and mail server administrator for 10 years (as well as
working several years as customer service for an "online service"
similar to AOL), I can promise you that this guy's threats are
completely hollow and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. He
doesn't have any information about you that is not in your USENET
headers or your AOL profile, which is why he can't come up with that
master screen name he claims to have. So unless you have posted more
information about yourself somewhere else online, don't worry about
him. This is just another sad attempt by a sad man to hassle someone
weaker and more inexperienced than he is, banking on the fact that
they are not aware of what is and is not possible on the Internet.
It's a classic tactic for mental midgets like our dear friend Todd
Behrmann to stretch the truth so far that it becomes ridiculous, which
is exactly what he's done here.

Mondo, I know that you're going to play nice when you're on USENET now
that you know better. I'm sorry that a clown like Todd has chosen you
to hassle, but the Internet can be a rough place. People often make
mistakes when they are new to something, and Todd counts on that for
his entertainment. All you can do now is try harder to be a better
participant since you know more now about how the game works. Just
ignore/avoid losers like Todd, because if you let them see that they
are getting to you, they win.

And unlike Todd, I suspect I can count on you to learn from the
experience and become a better netizen. I hope so. Peace.