Infiltration

You're not thick at all gillybob. As I said upthread, the volume of kind, supportive and helpful responses on that "other" thread simply demonstrated how many kind and empathic members are on GN. You were one of them.

Area of the IP address is traceable if noxious posts appear. Then the ISP if moderators do tracing. Then they can be blocked no matter how many ID's are used.

re, using the word 'onesie* - it's a bit scary to be the first person to mention it. I did the equivalent once and was turned on by some of gn!

EllanVannin, did you read Elegran's post upthread.

Elegran Wed 05-Dec-18 11:18:51

They can use a different device, which will have a different IP. The IP is assigned to the computer, not the person, and it can be changed. Article on that here - whatismyipaddress.com/ip-basics

There seems to be a spate of these heart-rending posts at the moment, but they are becoming instantly recognisable because they are so heart rending. I was very tempted to reply to the current one by telling her to get a grip on herself and get out and do something to help herself and not lie around moping..

The trouble is, there is always the 1 chance in 100 that the post is genuine

That's the problem M0nica; some people do have such sad and horrendous lives that some could be genuine.

Which makes the threads started by those trolls out for mischief seem even more nasty.

Apparently when Richard Ingrams edited Private Eye he would run stories if they passed the ‘ring of truth’ test.
I tend to use the same test when deciding whether to respond to the heart-rending threads.
Unfortunately the test isn’t infallible!

A new heart rending one seems to pop up every day now.
There is now another one, with all being kind and helpful to the OP.
Put yourself in the place of the OP, would you really put out all that outrageous information.No, you wouldn’t!Especially a man. One or two posters are having a larf at what they consider to be old biddies.

lemon sometimes people are desperate and genuinely in need of help.
I think that it’s better to be mistakenly kind, than judge too quickly and be mistakenly cruel.

It brings into question whether these open forums are suitable places for looking for advice on personal/emotional/family problems.
Personally I wouldn't do it, though I have in the past on minor things. And one very personal situation I asked to be removed.
But it would be a shame - who else can some of us turn to?
Everything online is open to the whole world nowadays.

This whole business means that I am now wary of any new posts, unless it's from someone I recognise.

A week ago I reported two posts, put up very late at night, which contained links to Malware.
Someone who is perhaps not very tech savvie could have ended up with a virus on their device, if they had opened the links.
This poster posted on three different threads, trying to cause trouble. It was done at about midnight, I suspect the poster thought it wouldn't be noticed.

People like that spoil GN for genuine posters.

I found gransnet through twitter, I am not on Facebook, I am not technically savvy. I am now considering at least three or more times before posting on a thread when I do not recognise the OP. Which is very sad, as it was not long ago since I was the new poster.

At least we are now on the look out for them and more aware as we have had a spate over the last week but as you say it’s so unfortunate because you are scared it might just be true and you don’t want to hurt anybody
They must have very boring life if they get their kicks this way
If you read them fairly carefully you can usually find a ‘mistake’ you need to have a very good memory to be a good liar and some are just so far fetched you get a feeling but it does make you less keen to offer help
I don’t like to be made a fool of

I agree JaneA which is why I never ever put anything that is cruel on those threads.
However I won’t get sucked in to anything that is attention seeking or something that I suspect is just put on there for the amusement of the OP.

In my time as a Sam we had many hoax calls, often obscene and some of them clearly time wasters.
The thing which struck me away that they all had a problem though not necessarily the one they were presenting.
So even our time wasting hoaxers must have something wrong or missing in their lives to gain satisfaction from these hoax threads.

Another thread been removed today so they are still at it

Oh dear, I posted on that one
You'd think I'd have learnt by now

Eh? I missed one? Drat!

Which one?

grandchild and toilet words

My comment was deleted then the thread disappeared !

Yes Cavewoman I commented that I agreed with you then it was pulled
They keep getting through
It’s so hard as you don’t want to upset or offend anyone who is innocent and is genuinely looking for help

That one was really obvious!!

Where has the thread gone re child screaming during meals out please?

Oh yes the one year old who had screamed from birth. Why just why would you make this nonsense up?