When Sean was in high school, he used instant messaging all the time to talk to his friends. Sean was a friendly kid, and occasionally he would even IM with people he didn't know if they started a conversation with him. Whenever Sean had to go out, he would leave his cell phone number in his IM away message so his friends could get in touch with him.
One day Sean got an IM from somebody who claimed to be a kid from his school. They talked for a little while, but the other kid started asking a lot of questions that made Sean uncomfortable. Sean closed the conversation, and the other kid never tried to IM him again. But a couple of days later, Sean got a disturbing phone call on his cell phone. The number on the call was blocked so he couldn't find out where it was coming from. However, he knew the person must have gotten his number from his IM away message since he only ever gave his number out to friends and family.
The weird calls kept coming, until Sean finally had to change his cell phone number. He changed his IM away message too so that it didn't give out any information about him, and he removed any personal information from his IM profile. "I'm not taking any chances anymore," Sean said. "The only people who need to know anything about me are my friends and family."
To learn how to protect your personal information when instant messaging, see Community
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