False Online Identities/Why People Create Them/Why We Believe

AuberriJean · ‎04-09-2014

I think this topic is fascinating. Probably important when we spend more and more time socializing on the internet, where people can pretend to be anyone they want to be.

🤔🎭

This is a portion of the very long article, use link to read more about why people create these alter egos.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/this-is-why-people-create-false-identities-on-the-internet#.sxj...

"People creating fake identities and catfishing victims is widespread online. But what prompts people to create alter egos? And what drives people to believe their stories and mistruths? BuzzFeed News speaks to victims of online identity hoaxes and experts in cyberpsychology to find out."

"...........But why then do people fall for it time after time?

.............there are real reasons why we choose to see what we want to see when it comes to meeting people online.

“If someone presents to us an intact, detailed identity, we immediately trust it,” says Short. “That’s because if we recognise just the outline of the individual – online or in the real world – we assume that that is real, with no verification. So identity equals trust, even if it’s not real. If someone looks like a person, we think they are a person.”

She explains that it got a lot to do with instinct: “It’s partially an evolutionary default. We’re social creatures, that’s just what we do: We see a pattern that looks like an individual and we think it must be a real person.”

Unconscious social cues tell us what we want to know about someone depending on what we want, says Short. So if we’re looking for a friend, colleague, or a lover, we’re predisposed to find people who fit the bill.

Even if there are details missing or there’s something suspicious – for example, someone’s webcam is always broken, or their career seems sketchy – human brains are happy to fill in the blanks.

“Just as we stereotype people in the physical world and immediately make judgments, I think the same thing is happening online,” Short says. “We look at profiles and fill in the gaps – you do the dot-to-dot and make all sorts of assumptions about who this person is.

“This is happening very, very fast and we’re not switched on to the fact that verification is very poor [online]. In the physical world, people lie but at least you know it’s them in front of you. You just don’t know that in an online relationship.”

millieshops · ‎03-09-2010

ok, that explains why we tend to believe - although it leaves pretty open why those identitites are created in the first place.

As a "survivor" from the era of personal ads (yep, I know that dates me), I'd say take everything you read from an online stranger as suspect. Besides the states untruths, there are even more important omitted truths. Whether you're looking for a friend, a lover, or even someone to employ or to hire you, don't turn off your b... radar too soon.

AuberriJean · ‎04-09-2014

@millieshops wrote:
ok, that explains why we tend to believe - although it leaves pretty open why those identitites are created in the first place.

As a "survivor" from the era of personal ads (yep, I know that dates me), I'd say take everything you read from an online stranger as suspect. Besides the states untruths, there are even more important omitted truths. Whether you're looking for a friend, a lover, or even someone to employ or to hire you, don't turn off your b... radar too soon.

@millieshops The article goes into why they're created too, it's just too long for me to post it all here in the OP. I edited to make that more clear. It's all at the link.

Your advice about our radar is great!😊

ChynnaBlue · ‎05-22-2012

I have more fake names than the roster at a strip club.

I've never lied to anyone about any details (age, occupation, qualifications, etc), but I don't use my real name in internet forums and when I wrote a blog, I did so under a pseudonym. (Fake names have existed long before the internet.) It's always been a safety issue for me.

When I was 16 and online in chat rooms in 1986, there were creepers even back then. I remember one guy who was always asking the girls online if we had long hair and did we like to have it brushed. I learned early on that it was important to guard personal information carefully, especially a name that could be used to track down a phone number or an address.

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Puzzle Piece · ‎06-29-2010

The LIes, the lies, the lies. Tells you a lot about our society. Before social media, people were lying but you could approach them and face them and call them on it.

Why are people so afraid of just being ordinary? There isn't a crime in that. But to put out that they are this or that or involved with this person or that person, and other baloney is just sick and immature.

Never Forget the Native American Indian Holocaust

shoptilyadropagain · ‎03-19-2014

Watch Catfish on MTV (currently Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m.). Although I believe a lot of the show is fake or scripted, it does help you to understand some (and there are a lot) of the reasons why people do this.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
- Author Unknown

nun ya · ‎03-09-2010

My aunt just got a long love letter and was swooning. It was a form letter from some male scammer site. I'm not sure of what info she gave him but her bank account was drained 2 weeks later.

SoX · ‎03-15-2010

We've even gone further with these false identities ... here on this board, for example, why do posters change nics and reappear under another name?

I honestly don't know who I'm chatting with more often than not these days. I wish posters would let us know who they were before under the old board before changes were made. I look at these nics with a couple thousand posts and don't know where the heck they came from.

AuberriJean · ‎04-09-2014

@nun ya wrote:
My aunt just got a long love letter and was swooning. It was a form letter from some male scammer site. I'm not sure of what info she gave him but her bank account was drained 2 weeks later.

That's terrible @nun ya! I'm sorry.🙁

nun ya · ‎03-09-2010

@AuberriJean wrote:
@nun ya wrote:
My aunt just got a long love letter and was swooning. It was a form letter from some male scammer site. I'm not sure of what info she gave him but her bank account was drained 2 weeks later.

That's terrible @nun ya! I'm sorry.🙁

Thanks, It is horrible. But...I tried to warn her. She just got a tablet and it's the first she's been on the internet. It did make me a little sad that she thought this person was real. But I guess they know who to look for. They didn't get a substantial amount but to her it was.