QotW5: Who are you? Seriously?

As everyone knows, a blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order (‘Blogs’, 2007). The blogging community is an ever-growing population. As November 2006, there are nearly 60 million blogs worldwide. And with any Tom, Dick or Harry around the world, setting up blogs every other day, its inevitable that one blog will stand out amongst others. More so, the Internet allows that particular blog to be viewed from any part of the world.

In order for all of us to relate, let us narrow it down to a blog from Singapore and explore how a chosen identity establishes reputation. Forget Dawn Yeo’s www.xanga.com/clapbangkiss or Wendy Cheng’s www.xiaxue.blogspot.com, whose popularity and reputation have been aided, or marred, by the tabloids and local television shows respectively.

www.xanga.com/eleventhour is one of the most prominent blogs in Singapore, without the publicity of the media. In other words, Eleventhour’s popularity is by word of mouth. Friends or viewers of the blog will make enquiries from where is the best place to buy the latest fashion accessories, to questions like what brand of camera she uses for her collages.

Eleventhour’s blog entries include images of her partying with her friends at exclusive parties, wearing the latest in the fashion trend, thus enforcing her reputation as a ‘party animal’ and fashionista. In order for an online community to thrive, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction (Donath, 1996), and identity definition aids the motivation to contribute within an online community. A few of the factors that motivate contribution are reciprocity, reputation, a sense of efficacy, the need of information, and attachment to a group (Kollock, n.d.).

Like many other blogs, www.xanga.com/eleventhour has a tagboard (marked with the red square). A tagboard, shoutbox, saybox, or chatterbox is a chat-like feature of some websites that allows people to quickly leave messages on the website, generally without any form of user registration (‘Shoutbox’, 2007). Though convenient for communication, it is also an easy way for identity thieves to prey on their next victim. Mainly due to the fact that one does not need to register before using a tagboard, identities of reputable people can be assumed easily. This means that an identity thief can pose as a trusted member of a certain community and obtain personal information from others. Fundamentally, it is similar to using your friend’s mobile to communicate with his ‘hot’ friend, to obtain information about her.

This is just an example of how the public reacts to the comment of someone who has a reputable identity:

anonymous:
which site do you get ur fonts from for photoshop? I can't find pretty fonts for my photoshop texts :(

charme:
anon>> u can try www.dafont.com. i go mad downloading fonts there!

anonymous:
thanks for the tip, i just found the exact font that i was looking for

In this scenario, ‘anonymous’ posed a question for ‘charme’, the owner of www.xanga.com/eleventhour. I assumed the identity of ‘charme’ and offered her the advice that she needed. ‘Anonymous’ heeds the advice and assumes that ‘charme’ is truly the owner of the blog. What do you think would happen if someone with malicious intent, posing as ‘charme’, asked for the identity card numbers of the readers of the blog?

Victims of identity theft spend an average of 600 hours recovering from this crime and they struggle with the after-effects of it which includes increased insurance or credit-card fees and higher interest rates (‘Hooked on Phishing’, n.d.).

So what can be done to stop, or at least curb, this new breed of criminals? There is only so much that technology and the government can do. It basically starts with the individual. One can practice destroying credit card statements and other documents that contain private financial information or receipts from the ATM or purchases using the credit card ('10 ways to stop identity theft cold', n.d.)

One will be wiser knowing that leaving your ATM receipt on the coffee shop table or casually throwing it on the floor may not just cost you a fine and corrective work order. It might cost you your life savings.

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Reference:

Blogs
Retrived on 20/02/07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

‘The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace’ n.d.
Retrieved on 07/02/07
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Shoutbox
Retrived on 20/02/07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoutbox

Hooked on Phishing
Retrived on 18/02/07
http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/04/29/cz_0429oxan_identitytheft.html

10 ways to stop identity theft cold
Retrived on 19/02/07
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/P33715.asp