jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway) says: + Anonymity brings a new class of useless message, of which the + following from Black Unicorn <unicorn@net.digex.access> is a recent + example. I quote it in its entirety: + + Having worked in Liechtenstein banks, I can assure you numbered + accounts exist. + + "Black Unicorn" is an obvious pseudonym, and I'm assuming that it is + not one with an established reputation. (For all I know, "Black + Unicorn" might be as famous as the Legion of Doom, but for the sake of + argument I'll assume that it isn't.) + + What is the use of an unsubstantiated assertion, from an unreputed[*] + source, with no means of verification? Having read Black Unicorn's + bald asertion, I am as ignorant as before of whether numbered accounts + exist, in Liechtenstein or elsewhere. Well, that's as may be, but I would suggest to you that "actual identities" are unreliable. I believe that many here could trivially spoof almost any identity and that in any case, you would personally be unable to either verify the identity of your correspondent or hold him accountable for his output. A couple of recent examples: * A "Rikiya Asano" <ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu>, apparently a severely disturbed Japanese student at Carnegie-Mellon University, has been filling several newsgroups with a remarkable torrent of cross-posted flamebait for several weeks, including racist insults against whites and Chinese, physical threats and various assaults on American institutions. These rants are composed in hilariously fractured English and gain oceans of angry responses which disrupt the normal progress of the newsgroups to which they are posted. Today, I read a post by someone who makes a convincing case that Asano isn't Japanese and that the whole thing is a spoof. Maybe "Asano" exists and maybe he doesn't, but there seems to be no way of either verifying his true identity or making him stop disrupting these newsgroups. * On the other coast, "Andy Freeman" <andy@cs.stanford.edu> authored a particularly nasty piece of netmail forwarded on to me by its original recipient. In it, "Andy Freeman" attacks the practice of anonymity on Internet and claims to be in the government employ, implicitly in law enforcement, surveying Internet for illegal activity. He avers that all of those who post anonymously have been investigated and identified by their true names and are on a government hitlist, presumably thanks to his participation. Maybe "Andy Freeman" really is an unhinged cop involved in an illegal investigation of remailers or maybe he is just one of those sick fucks who like to impersonate policemen and bully people. * I personally challenge you, or anyone else on the net, to establish who these creatures actually are and whether they are what they claim. I've given you their "real" names and "real" addresses. In that both are bona fide assholes in any case, there's no need to be concerned with injuring or harassing them - they've got it coming.