• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Do you think VPNs etc should be blocked?

L

Lemon Zing

Well-Known Member
On another forum I go on, they don't allow a VPN. I won't say the name of the forum here, as it's not for youngsters.

I honestly have no idea how you block a VPN either, but I was kind of astonished at how effective it is at making people use a real IP address versus hopping on free anonymity features, which I know some idiots like to abuse.

To join, they ask you pay for a 1 year or 4 year membership with Bitcoin. I guess that's so the registration is encrypted. But I honestly wish everybody had security features like this with disallowing a VPN or open proxies. The paying to be an active user thing, not so much. Although even this could deter repeat offenders.

Wikipedia has a similar security wall. Many proxies are blocked. But I noticed on a lot of forums, you can easily return with a new name because proxies aren't usually blocked. This means the same outed personnel could so easily rejoin, spamming, insulting and generally being annoying.

Don't get me wrong. I think people should be entitled to privacy online, at least to an extent. But if it means trolls can return like clockwork to be a nuisance, it would be useful to implement these restrictions. It's just something that I find to be irritating. People using anonymity to act immature.
 
Sad thing I learnt working in computers is that they bypass these and network that sells ID to these types of people.
So it restricts honest people, forcing them to adhere but doesn't get to problem.
For example you can't fight porn, you can only limit what shows to public for family values, however just can't do anything. Only times is where it's underage or disabled people,
It's ridiculous how easily they change their ID
 
It's problem with policing....in other words people responsible for upholding laws or rules.
Let's say I was moderator and someone has broken rules 3x and being insensitive in religious ideas, being abusive to other members or discussing explicit sex details outside of sex assigned section of the forum (then they are suspended from the forum) does it have to be reported or was it that came across comments that were not respectful towards others and reacted (policing)
There were people believed paediofiles can't be cured, there were many difficulties in plight because many were rich and powerful. So given difficulties of calling out these issues,....
This Belgium organisation isn't assertive enough, we need a proxy that's objective to law, never turning blind eye due to political upheaval or lacking in French interests. So where is website where we report URL or offender...
Do they respond to you with follow up or is email lost? Some organisations will take offenders and trace them to uncover other activities....and then be a big bust.
 
 
Somebody literally tried to maybe scam me yesterday. Perhaps. I wasn't sure.

She asked me to deposit 40 pounds, but after going on my online banking and entering the account number, sort code and company name that I was provided with, it didn't work due to what it said was a technical error. Evidence was shown by screen recording after she got into a bad mood. I told her it couldn't be helped. She went all huffy anyway.

Was she just at it?
 
It's a pointless question to pose for a simple reason. Consider the number of people deliberately using such technology who can just as easily employ tactics to bypass or avoid VPN blockers.

Generally blocking VPNs is something authoritarian states use to censor anything and everything. Where it's not a matter of the same people having the ability to bypass or avoid VPN blocking, but the simple matter of whether or not it is a crime to do so, and whatever the odds may be that they can be caught in the process. And of course the possible consequences, particularly in authoritarian states.

Otherwise proprietary web hosts can be free to attempt to block VPN users, while the same users are free to employ whatever it takes to get around them.

Of course none of this considers the limitations of VPNs, or just how safe or secure they may actually be for users.
 
Last edited:
With anti-virus installed it should protect your device or computer .....
Beware of phishing....it's scam to try get details of banking etc.
 
I have encountered a lot of people online who are a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but this Australian guy I know really takes the biscuit.

Despite being well over 30 years old, he keeps calling me a potato. Makes accounts using stupid looking potato faces as an avatar, impersonating this handle I use on gaming sites.

I know who he is too, as he left a Hansel and Gretel caliber of proof.

There's a legal advice forum I use. I made a topic about him in 2022, and he revives the thread with guest comments every so often. But why even bother?
 
Sadly he has taken your power.
I don't like social media much, and I'm specific about my online content out there. The truth is when you have something valid to say on media it is nulled out by sheer no of comments.
'' so repeat statements should just be collected as likes or agree and only original views displayed" sort of way ratings apply for searching.

Getting new phone and closing accounts for a while may help...
Just going low profile as if you come out saying something grabs attention he may track you again.
 
I'm inclined to think that in most cases, the best resources we have publicly speaking (and in a global sense) are those allocated to tracking down outright criminal suspects, well beyond any civil violations within the scope of personal injury. A matter of both technological pragmatism and priorities. And above all, based on fiscal restraints dependent on revenue gathering.
 
Last edited:
I had thought about quitting gaming forums...

A) Because the activity is very low.

B) People will defend awful games.

C) It's not healthy to dwell on things.

If I had a girlfriend, my time would be devoted to her and my other pursuits. In fact, I don't think I will add anything on movie databases anymore. Who honestly cares if I am an extra anyway? The only exception would be if I had an on-screen credit. But I don't think it is a good idea to post links to their funding campaigns or official Facebook entries.

I was very suspicious that he had provided anonymous tip-offs to people before about my problems, which I don't have to disclose for certain work. This was never proven, as I said. Although he did once tell someone that I uploaded something to Internet Archive. But what I meant was, I just assume he was sending poison pen messages to the producers. I had vibes he was behind that.

It's easy for him to Google all of that jazz.
 
They apparently make public connections safer too. A lot of people like to use free WiFi hotspots, but they can be unsecured.
 
Orange Chocolate Crunch said:
Somebody literally tried to maybe scam me yesterday. Perhaps. I wasn't sure.

She asked me to deposit 40 pounds, but after going on my online banking and entering the account number, sort code and company name that I was provided with, it didn't work due to what it said was a technical error. Evidence was shown by screen recording after she got into a bad mood. I told her it couldn't be helped. She went all huffy anyway.

Was she just at it?
Click to expand...

She tried to scam you. That recently happened to us.

Someone froze my laptop, I ignorantly clicked on their alleged "Microsoft" link, two guys with Middle Eastern accents started telling me that someone in Mexico had accessed our bank account and diverted $10,000 to themselves, and that I needed to immediately go to our bank to withdraw a huge sum of money and not to tell the bank what I was doing because the bank employees were "in" on it, said they had transferred my call to my bank, the fake banker told me that the bank cannot freeze our account over the phone and a bunch of other malarky. We don't use any online banking and have never authorized our bank to do it so I immediately knew that no one had hacked our bank account and that it was a scam.

Long story short, I pretended to believe them, told them I was driving to the bank to get them a money order payable to the odd name they gave me, pretended I had the money order in hand, pretended that I was driving to a federal express store to mail the money order to the address they provided (a post office box on the other side of the country from me where my bank doesn't even do business!), and the fools insisted on staying on the line with me the entire time. I strung them out for several hours, all the while pretending I was doing what they requested. LOL.

I scammed the scammers and notified my bank and filed a police report. I doubt the police even bothered to investigate.

You have to be careful and very paranoid about the legitimacy of anything like this. The scammers can be very convincing, and they do fool a lot of people.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom