Bloggers victims of impersonation

Helen had an afterthought :

Here’s Helen’s proposal:

Let’s compile now a dossier of the known episodes of ‘identity theft’.

Then we’ll collate a chronological list – sort of a ‘wiki’ with a précis (summary of incident) and links to the clarification made by the affected parties. After which, we’ll ask the good offices of a blogger to permanently host the page. A blog carrying a Malaysian directory, e.g. Sopo Sentral would be the best choice to do this.

Want to pass the word around? And also suggest ways we can curb this mischief?

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By Helen Ang

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On Jan 24, 2008, I received an e-mail purportedly from Rustam Sani headed “Help Needed!” The e-mail said ‘Rustam’ was stranded in Nigeria because he lost his money, passport and other valuables, and asked for money to be wired.

Even though the e-mail address was indeed Rustam’s, I did not for a minute believe the message.

In February, the false communication was cleared up by Pak Rustam himself with his explanation circulated via e-mail, as well as in a blog posting.

http://karya-merdeka.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-blog-to-replace-suara-rakyat-vox.html

The real Rustam said: “What happened was that some people with nothing better to do had hacked my Gmail account and changed my password to enable them to use it to write to my friends whose email addresses are in the address book.

“Many such friends have indeed received hoax emails asking them to send cash immediately … I hope none of my friends and readers of my blogs have been duped into sending cash to ‘rescue’ me from that African country with enough problems of its own!”

Pak Rustam passed away on April 23, al-Fatihah. One post he wrote last year ‘I am not an ‘objective’ blogger – and not apologizing for it’ http://suara-rustam.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-am-not-objective-blogger-and-not.html left a deep impression on me, and I’ve returned to it again and again.

But Anil Netto has paid a better tribute to Rustam, one of Malaysia’s foremost ‘public intellectuals’ than I ever can, here. http://anilnetto.com/2008/04/23/malaysias-leading-public-intellectual-rustam-sani-passes-on/

These thinkers have immensely enriched Malaysian blogosphere and for me personally, the most thoughtful and measured voice worth listening to is lawyer Malik Imtiaz whose blog is ‘Disquiet’. A new blogger I’ve recently bookmarked as favourite is Dr Mus, whose writing – as I’ve told a friend – is “like a glass of warm milk … wholesome goodness”. http://anilnetto.com/2008/05/05/farewell-blogger-rustam-welcome-blogger-mustafa/

A downside though is that bloggers can fall victim to impersonation because of the public nature of their writing and the free-wheeling nature of ICT.

Zorro, the kolorful K’Temoc, Hafiz Noor Shams (‘the_earthinc’) and others have been impersonated before. It is certainly unethical of individuals unknown to take on the public identities of people who have some cache to their names.

I hope that the Anonymous who does this sort of thing would write in their own names and also refrain from sending mischievous e-mail using a created e-identity that pretends to be the better-known writers. Please, believe in yourself. If your arguments are sound, you are worth listening to and your views are worth an airing – in your own name!

If not, then you’ve only been malicious. Not nice.