I've just been reading to get past level ten you need a salute, now salutes can be a good way of proving you are you, but in the wrong hands they are also a good way for someone else to "prove" they are you.
Let me tell you what happened to me 7 months ago.
I actually wrote a little bit about this tonite, before I read that you need a salute to level up past level ten.
I used to have a salute on this site, before you ever needed one, and I thought I was being clever having one, because I'd seen them on plenty of other sites, but someone who was here at the time, and decided to make trouble for me, ripped my salute from this site, and then proceeded to use it on other sites as a means of verification.
As the salute spread around the net more and more people started to use it, and I had a hell of a job trying to keep up with things, and to protect my identity.
Now at that time my sister had not long given birth to a new baby, and the baby was very sick, so my offline life was not one where I needed to worry about what was going on online, but around 6-6 1/2 months ago that's exactly what I had to do.
On another site, a Canadian based one, someone was again using my salute, but this time they were also spinning a story, and pretending to be raising money for a "charitable" cause.
Obviously being a fake person they were therefore committing an act of fraud, and using my face to do it.
Now someone just faking you on the net is one thing, but someone committing a fraud in your identity is quite different, so I contacted the site and told them.
Of course their first reaction was "well he has a salute, so he must be genuine", but I told them he wasn't, I told them it was me.
At that point they said that if I wanted to make a complaint I had to sign up at their site to make it, so I did, and then they told me I had to make a new salute, and publish it on their site, within 48 hours.
Well, first things first, I'd got into this mess in the first place, by making a public salute, so I was obviously not that eager to make the same mistake again.
But apart from my reluctance I was also unable, as I was at the time living with my sister, trying to help her with the baby situation, and didn't have access to my cam (and she didn't have one, or a digital camera) so I wasn't able to make the new salute within the 48 hours, and was subsequently banned from the site!
Because of my salute a fake, carrying out an act of fraud was allowed to stay, and I was banned!
In the end I had to go to a lawyer, produce ID, sign a statement, and pay him to approach the site, who then did take down the guys account, but that was a hell of a lot of crap to go through, to protect myself from a potential fraud charge!
When I was doing that I spoke to the lawyer about the whole fraud business, and he told me that had the fraud gone undetected for some time, and only surfaced at a later date, with my verified salute being used in the fraud, I'd have had a tough time of it, if it had been linked back to me, and it might have been very difficult to prove it wasn't me who was responsible.
I've been browsing around in the last half hour, and based on what I've seen I would imagine that more than half of the salutes on this site could easily be adapted to any other site, or venture, with a little photoshop creativity, and don't forget, even the ones that can't be can still be used to give some level of legitimacy to a fake account, on another site.
I'm not saying don't make salutes, or that salutes are bad, but I am saying that anyone who makes one should be aware they are a double edged sword, and just as they can be used to prove you are you, someone else can also use them to "prove" they are you.
Making a salute public can be similar to making your credit card details, driving license details, or any other compromising details public.
It's a case of saluter beware!
I have suggested, in the support lounge, that for those who are more cautious, or don't want to take the gamble, with their personal security, that a private option should be available for salutes.
I mean it's still a salute, it's still verified, but you ain't compromising yourself by making it public.
I certainly don't think anyone should be compelled to take such risks to move past level ten. I think that's very unfair.
