The internet is scary. Let me elaborate. Awhile ago someone IMed anonymously, and refused to give their name, or for that much any information whatsoever other than the fact that it was a girl. However I noticed that fairly frequently they would put their phone number in their away message. Just today, she did it again while I was at work. I had a tiny bit of free time, so I decided to see what I could dig up on her. I did better than I had hoped for. I knew from her area code that she was in the LA area (somewhere near Santa Monica). At work I have access to a couple of reverse lookup tools that occasionally provide good results, so I thought I'd plug it in. Bingo, a name. Yet not all was well with the data, the number was listed as being in Illinois, which didn't sit well with what I had expected. I double checked the NPA-NXX (area code, prefix) to make sure it was where I thought it ought be... and it was. So it didn't add up. I figured I'd continue with the name I got anyway and see where I could go. I stick that into google and pull up some intersting hits. The man that owns this phone number is a bankruptcy attorney (and a Jew). He lives in Santa Monica, but has connections to... guess where? Illinois. This must be the guy, so I refine the search a bit and find a family reunion / genealogy page that is about his family. Bam, the full names of his wife... and bam,daughter. Not only that, their birthdays, places of birth and current city of residence. I'd always thought she seemed a bit pedantic (OMG!11!! LOL!!1!!1), but didn't I laugh when I found out she was 14! So what do I do now? Oh, nothing. In honesty it was a personal challenge. Yet, it also proves a valuable point. Be careful with your information, if I can find out things like that with only about 15 minutes of actual work... imagine what people of lesser moral stature might do =P

The internet is scary.