You are correct about innocent people not making those kind of posts. What I am referring to is the fact that some people have expressed thoughts about looking at the numbers alone and not reading the posts. I would plead against passing over someones post just because it contains a few,certain, numbers next to the name. As for using real names, there are two issues here. One is that the person we are talking about is using other peoples names and impersonating them. Ie. peter van der car. There is a person, Peter Van Der Kar that posts on the Strike Point. Further I have to dissagree with many who are so sensitive about anonimous or assumed name posters. There are legit reasons that A person may not want to use their name. We are talking about a public forum where there are many people out there reading that may not have good motives. Take this for a possibility.

A person is looking for opportunities to steal valuables. He/She finds this board where people are talking, sometimes about very valuable rare chips and tokens. People talk about taking their collections to a convention or chip show and discuss where they are staying or traveling. They are using their real names. What would stop a thief from doing a 411 search on the computer to find a home address. Or what would stop someone from going to a specified hotel and staking it out for the guest whose name they have from reading here. I do not mean to scare people but you do have to realize that there is the potential for non friendly people to be lurking out there. The point is there are many reasonable answers to why a person may post anonimously. There are, however, no reasons that a person should not be considerate and post their email address or an email address so that people can respond privately. While I personally do use my real name and try to be careful about mentioning sensitive info. I have taken my real name off of my email profile on AOL. I did that because I do post on USENET where there are far more unknown people there. I guess I was a little concerned about someone finding my AOL profile and getting my Name Town etc.

To sum up if you are using your real name, be careful of the specifics about your collection or travel etc. Be careful of the pictures you post, of yourself and family. If you are a collector that feels that you need to pass on detailed pieces of information to other collectors you might consider using a Handle or Assumed Name and Identity. I would like to stress an Identity. In place of a real name, I believe a consistant Identity would be very reasonable in that people will become familiar with you. Friends and acquaintences will know who you are but strangers won't.

A little off this topic but related to this post, I relay some information about a scam on ebay. You might want to relate this to your trading with strangers etc.

There have been buyers and sellers on ebay that have engaged in the auctions not for the merchandise but for information that can be obtained. You are a seller. A buyer who knows you sell a lot of certain types of items places a High bid. They are not interested in the item you have sold. They are interested in your address so that they can find where you live or run your business from. They have been known to rob people this way. Situation number two. You are a buyer. A person posts many items of value out there not to sell the items, in fact many times there is no merchandise. They cultivate a list of collectors of certain items, say old coins. When you send info about where they should send the merchandise they now know where you live and that there may be a valuable collection there. Also, you send a check or Credit Card Number. They keep the routing numbers on those checks or card numbers and can use them to steal money from your accounts or seek direct payments from your checking account for their own purposes. These reasons are why I maintain a PO Box instead of using my home address and I use Money Orders instead of checks or credit card numbers. Pay Pal and BillPay are good ways of making payments but I prefer not to have to register my card, have holds put on balances and pay fees for using my card. That is why I continue to use Money Orders. They are easier and there isn't anything that I would buy that I can't wait a few more days for.

It might sound paranoid, but you do have to be as careful as you can.