Watch what you say in forums!

Heres an interesting little article I came across, baring in mind some of the boastful antics of our posters.

Police monitoring a forum convict boastful motorist

(edited caps.)



[edit on 14-7-2005 by asala]

Sounds like common sense, to me....

Kind of like, if you're discussing the same thing when you're having your thrice daily triple-shot latte at Starbucks...don't be upset when the Cop on the next seat arrests you after he's overheard your conversation (granted, I do see the difference between casually overhearing something, and intentionally snooping).

In a public forum, you're out in the open.

Jus' waitin' for someone to take a shot....so to speak.

Of course, I've never ever committed any crimes. Ever.

Something isn't right here. Or at least not all the information is in that article.

How are the police supposed to know who is who on a forum?
What are the chances of the local police watching the same forum this guy is on and traced it back to a photo radar ticket?

This just makes no sense.

I always thought that you have to be careful about certain things. Like when people say something here about knocking off Dubya or something, the Secret Service might be listening in. They monitor phones, and I have heard people being picked up for questioning when certain red flags appear within the conversation. They have computers that can distinguish words like "bomb" and "Bush" and if enough words come up, they get a red flag. If you don't think they do this, think again. I'm sure they monitor forums the same as phones.

Oops... I put in too many red flags.

Have heard of this before on other UK boards (for example a guy boasted 'I'm not handing it in' re: a type of air pistol that had become restricted was visited a few days later by armed police).

Echelon and keywords make monitoring boards & e-mails relatively easy. How it works:

cndyorks.gn.apc.org...

an idea of how invasive / effective this sytem is:

Man questioned after message containing Clash lyrics 'went astray'

www.guardian.co.uk...

Originally posted by Umbrax
How are the police supposed to know who is who on a forum?
What are the chances of the local police watching the same forum this guy is on and traced it back to a photo radar ticket?

Take a note of the sites name - "Pistonheads - Speed Matters"

These guys are speed fanatics, whats the chances of the police not monitoring it?

And being only to willing to admit there crimes, it's like lambs to the slaughter.....

[edit on 14-7-2005 by Koka]

yeah, dumbos. Its like saying, 'im a terrorist' with a grin and standing infront of a wall for the SWAT to take you out!

Originally posted by Hal9000
I always thought that you have to be careful about certain things. Like when people say something here about knocking off Dubya or something, the Secret Service might be listening in.

I made that mistake when I first signed up. Luckily the thread starter PMed me and said it would probaly be best if I edited it out.

If the SS had to worry about every time someone said they wanted to kill the president, then they would never get any real work done.

take a note of the sites name - "Pistonheads - Speed Matters"

These guys are speed fanatics, whats the chances of the police not monitoring it?

And being only to willing to admit there crimes, it's like lambs to the slaughter.....

Good point but how would the police get the persons identity? Would the server owner have to release ip info?

I believe this to be the aforementioned thread:

Newbie in need of HELP Please!!!!!

I think the perpertrator left enough clues in the thread to make the authorities life an easy one.

I was looking generally at that site, and it predominantly looks like a site for those who justify speeding.

I cannot for the life of me, understand the mentality of these individuals.

Common sense should prevail in any kind of communication that is subjected to public scrunity.

Any one can say anything on the Internet. Who's to say if they're telling the truth or not! It can't even be proven if it's you or someone posing as you. Just last week I received a warning from AOL for violating their policies in a lesbian chat room. Well, it sure as hell wasn't me! Someone managed to get a hold of my e-mail address and my password. I've since changed my password but what's to stop them from "borrowing" it again?

Originally posted by dollmonster
Any one can say anything on the Internet. Who's to say if they're telling the truth or not! It can't even be proven if it's you or someone posing as you. "

IP addresses are very, very easy to trace; it narrows down the potential "pool of suspects" in a given case.

Then again, there are IP spoofers, too - but the folk who are posting on that speeding board didn't strike me as motivated enough to hide their real identities in that manner.

If your computer is secure, there's nothing to worry about, surely?

(assuming you're not actually guilty of anything...)

There are several entities that constantly monitor the internet ,forums ,emails and mesage-boards included .

The general population does not yet have a good grasp on how the Information Highway operates, in terms of it's place in society. That highway has it's little secrets, of all types and patterns.

A good ISP (Internet Service Provider), will record every packet's source, destination, and time of transmission. They do not record or view the content.
Example: Somebody sends a threat in an e-mail. Detectives go to the receiver's ISP, and get the sender's source IP address. They then go to the source ISP, and ask for the physical location and/or identity of the sender.

Your computer, if it runs a common type of operating system, records every e-mail address, search term, URL entered, and website visited. No exceptions. These records are not visible, and cannot be searched for on your computer. A computer also keeps a large amount of visible records also.

Law enforcement at all levels, have employees dedicated to collecting information, and basically "keeping an eye out" on the internet "street".
In some cases, independant consultants are hired to help with the task.

The good news: This is America, and no one cares about our dirty little secrets. On the other hand, felonies will not be tolerated. We have freedoms, even on the internet, that most other countries do not share. Be thankful for what you don't realize you have.

Someone once told me " Never put anything in writing that you don't want others to know".
Seems like good advice now.

I happen to be a member of Pistonheads, the site is not a bunch of speed freaks any more than this site is full of conspiracy nutters (make of that what you will )

If you READ the article it says the motorist was caught on another, unrelated, website. In fact there are many Police who are members on the site, which incidently is not about anti speeding per se, but more against the ignorance and cynicism of the governments policy of using speed cameras as revenue raisers and blaming speeding for almost all accidents when its obvious it isn't. Of course that isn't the sole aim of the website as it is aimed at those who enjoy motoring and motorsport. It's a website that is aimed at 'denying ignorance' as much as ATS, so there is no need to generalise and demean other forums, I'm sure ATS seems like a bunch of wacked out conspiracy nut jobs to most people from a quick look around as well.

As for the topic, you should be careful of what you say anywhere to anyone, and you should be especially careful of what you say in emails/txt messages or on forums, anything written down can come back to haunt you at a later late. Imagine in 30 years time, a politician could be campaigning for election and someone manages to dredge up some old forum entries that make him look stupid or worse. It could end his career, just because of a few stupid throwaway comments from 30 years previously.

QUOTE:
"Law enforcement at all levels, have employees dedicated to collecting information, and basically "keeping an eye out" on the internet "street".
In some cases, independant consultants are hired to help with the task."


ABSOLUTELY! I work in law enforcement and our dispatchers are part of some local network where they surf eBay among other sites in their spare time, looking for all kinds of things, from illegally modified vehicles for sale (amazing how idiots will post VINs and license plate information), to questionable weapons, to "hate group" discussions, then they submit a report to some central email address at the end of a shift. The central email address, which goes to a local task force (I believe it's the local DA's Internet Crimes Task Force or something along those lines, I do not think it is federal or even on a state level), then forwards the info into some database where it filters by name. I have seen it demonstrated once by one of the better dispatchers, he had a complete grasp of the system and it was a bit frightening to think what some of the lesser-competant dispatchers would choose to enter into the database. There is no double-checking, it is a form that is filled out and when it comes to something that can be instantly narrowed down to a person (like posting a VIN on eBay of a car with some questionable features), it is the sole judgement of the dispatcher to decide if the info is worth reporting. Scary because if the dispatcher is not in a good mood or whatnot, he/she could easily create a wrongful finger-pointing to an innocent person.
I could probably pry more info from the dispatchers if I had more time.

My question is simple. If there are speed limits, then why are the speedometers in vehicles faster then the limit signs? example: my speedometer goes up to 130 mph... my area speed limit at the highest is 70 mph. Is it so we can speed to get caught? Just think it's kind of funny.

Thank you,
Starr

I run redlights all the time, because in the morning omw to work there is nobody coming, the damn light just stays red for 5 mins.

Also I get really high and drive, come and get me coppers.



doobie doobie doo as I drive along, unaffected by the laws!