Cam is a cynical untrusting grump
Feb. 9th, 2009 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misscamSo around David Tennant comms this link has been floated. It's basically a YouTube user warning against online fakes pretending to be David Tennant, and don't trust anyone contacting you pretending to be him unless you have independent confirmation it's him.
So far, so sane - this is good advice in general. Don't trust everything on the Net.
But youtube user also claims David Tennant contacted *him* and he's in contact with David's people and they're asking him to make this video, warning of the danger. He also encourages spamming the video everywhere (instead of just warning about not trusting anyone who claims to be David Tennant) and his video description says: Oh, and I forgot to mention. If you have been (or know anyone who has been) contacted by Not-David, please message me and I'll pass you onto the right people. :)
Okay, hold up here. Now maybe I'm just a cynical untrusting grump, but several things here seem a tad dodgy.
1) If someone actually is on the Internets claiming to be David Tennant and trying to lure people into meeting him/her, that is indeed serious. So why would David's people only be contacting some YouTube kid? Why not talk to the media? It would get the information out there a whole lot faster. I'm pretty sure more than one outlet - and certainly the BBC - would find it a newsworthy story and it would reach far more people then.
2) So David Tennant doesn't use social networking sites, but he has a YouTube account. Um. Sure.
3) Asking people who've been contacted by possible fakes to talk to the YouTube user first? If David's people really wanted contact with them, wouldn't they have left some more direct means of contact? It seems rather cumbersome going through him in every case.
4) Speading half the video telling people not to trust anyone claiming to be David just on their own, the expectation seems to be to take him on his word that David's people have contacted him about this serious issue. Kid, if your general point is not to trust anything on the Net without proof, maybe you should offer some of your own. Not to mention the warning could easily have been made without this particular claim at all.
5) The insisting about spreading the youtube video with the warning and so many helpful tips on how to do it makes me think the YouTube user just wants attention. It feels spammy and draws a lot attention to him rather than the message. In the comments, he gets a lot of 'you're a hero for spreading this!' and my eyebrow twitch a little. His other videos also get increased hits and comments through this.
In short, I find more than one reason to be a little sceptical here. But he does make a point - you should still be very, very wary of people making claims to be famous people on the Internet. If you come across cases of this, here's a few helpful tips:
- Check the IP. If this is meant to be some British celebrity, and the IP places him or her in Chile and the celebrity is not actually meant to be on holiday right now, I think you got your answer right there. If the IP is anonymized, ask yourself why a celebrity would want to or even have the know-how and time to do so.
- If it's an e-mail address it's coming from, check the e-mail provider. Hotmail and gmail will in most cases decrease the chance it's genuine. An e-mail tied to service provider, like celebrity.name@telenor, is a much better sign.
- Check if the celebrity has a history of interacting with fans. If not at all, it's a fake. I'm sorry, but you're not that special a fan to break years of modus operandi. If there is a history of fan interaction however, as with some Doctor Who writers, there is a higher chance it's actually for real.
- Ask yourself why the celebrity is contacting you. Most celebrities are busy and while they might appreciate their fans, they don't have time to contact all individually. What have you done that but you ahead of thousands of others?
- Ask for something you can verify. Perhaps most important of all, this. Get something you can independently verify. If it really is the celebrity you're communicating with, he or she should be able to offer you something you can check and be cool about it.
- If it's a facebook, MySpace or identity on some similar site, has celebrity mentioned in interview having one?
- If you're being asked for money, credit card details, meet somewhere or anything in this lane IT IS ALMOST GUARANTEED FAKE. Never ever give out personal details nilly-willy.
So, am I the only untrusting grump here?
So far, so sane - this is good advice in general. Don't trust everything on the Net.
But youtube user also claims David Tennant contacted *him* and he's in contact with David's people and they're asking him to make this video, warning of the danger. He also encourages spamming the video everywhere (instead of just warning about not trusting anyone who claims to be David Tennant) and his video description says: Oh, and I forgot to mention. If you have been (or know anyone who has been) contacted by Not-David, please message me and I'll pass you onto the right people. :)
Okay, hold up here. Now maybe I'm just a cynical untrusting grump, but several things here seem a tad dodgy.
1) If someone actually is on the Internets claiming to be David Tennant and trying to lure people into meeting him/her, that is indeed serious. So why would David's people only be contacting some YouTube kid? Why not talk to the media? It would get the information out there a whole lot faster. I'm pretty sure more than one outlet - and certainly the BBC - would find it a newsworthy story and it would reach far more people then.
2) So David Tennant doesn't use social networking sites, but he has a YouTube account. Um. Sure.
3) Asking people who've been contacted by possible fakes to talk to the YouTube user first? If David's people really wanted contact with them, wouldn't they have left some more direct means of contact? It seems rather cumbersome going through him in every case.
4) Speading half the video telling people not to trust anyone claiming to be David just on their own, the expectation seems to be to take him on his word that David's people have contacted him about this serious issue. Kid, if your general point is not to trust anything on the Net without proof, maybe you should offer some of your own. Not to mention the warning could easily have been made without this particular claim at all.
5) The insisting about spreading the youtube video with the warning and so many helpful tips on how to do it makes me think the YouTube user just wants attention. It feels spammy and draws a lot attention to him rather than the message. In the comments, he gets a lot of 'you're a hero for spreading this!' and my eyebrow twitch a little. His other videos also get increased hits and comments through this.
In short, I find more than one reason to be a little sceptical here. But he does make a point - you should still be very, very wary of people making claims to be famous people on the Internet. If you come across cases of this, here's a few helpful tips:
- Check the IP. If this is meant to be some British celebrity, and the IP places him or her in Chile and the celebrity is not actually meant to be on holiday right now, I think you got your answer right there. If the IP is anonymized, ask yourself why a celebrity would want to or even have the know-how and time to do so.
- If it's an e-mail address it's coming from, check the e-mail provider. Hotmail and gmail will in most cases decrease the chance it's genuine. An e-mail tied to service provider, like celebrity.name@telenor, is a much better sign.
- Check if the celebrity has a history of interacting with fans. If not at all, it's a fake. I'm sorry, but you're not that special a fan to break years of modus operandi. If there is a history of fan interaction however, as with some Doctor Who writers, there is a higher chance it's actually for real.
- Ask yourself why the celebrity is contacting you. Most celebrities are busy and while they might appreciate their fans, they don't have time to contact all individually. What have you done that but you ahead of thousands of others?
- Ask for something you can verify. Perhaps most important of all, this. Get something you can independently verify. If it really is the celebrity you're communicating with, he or she should be able to offer you something you can check and be cool about it.
- If it's a facebook, MySpace or identity on some similar site, has celebrity mentioned in interview having one?
- If you're being asked for money, credit card details, meet somewhere or anything in this lane IT IS ALMOST GUARANTEED FAKE. Never ever give out personal details nilly-willy.
So, am I the only untrusting grump here?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 04:26 pm (UTC)Suffice to say, you aren't the only one being all cynical about it.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 06:08 pm (UTC)I don't know anything else about this guy, and I do vaguely remember the video to which you are referring, though, as far as my understanding goes, those are two different videos.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 06:09 pm (UTC)I don't know anything else about this guy, and I do vaguely remember the video to which you are referring, though, as far as my understanding goes, those are two different videos.
(Sorry, wasn't logged in before. oops!)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 04:35 pm (UTC)Not to mention I find that bloke's hair quite disturbing.
Anyway, you're not alone in your 'do not buy this shit', I'm pretty sure.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 04:41 pm (UTC)YES. THIS. Anything that I want to writhe with embarrassment as I view it is probably something I won't be viewing for very long. That kind of thing makes me CRAZY OMG.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 10:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 01:25 am (UTC)i had to jump in with a big DITTO. i cannot watch a person embarrass themselves. i get embarrassed for them.
and yeah, his hair was just... whoa.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 05:17 pm (UTC)Search littleradge's videos for "THE TRUTH ABOUT DAVID TENNANT", and also see his FAQ video for the constant questions he gets about whether or not he's related to David Tennant.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 05:56 pm (UTC)I know we already discussed this, but this is what he has done that put him ahead of thousands of others. Over 90,000 others, in fact. Check the "more" info to the right.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 01:21 am (UTC)so i suppose i'm a tad cynical but not yet a grump.
have a good one (and avoid all those fake celebs!) :o)