Nick Fakers - How to tell and what to do about them

[TNTease]

Lately we have been getting someone (or several someones) who join and then "fake" regular chatters' nicknames and private other chatters with rude comments.  Their purpose is to piss people off and cause trouble by making you think someone you know is now being nasty, or simply to get people stirred up and arguing about it in the main chat.  Don't be fooled by these cowardly fakers and mimics.  You CAN tell if they are fake IF you pay CLOSE attention.

Clues:
1.Someone who seems to be familiar or a regular chatter suddenly privates you with nasty or rude comments or suggestions or questions.  If it is out of the ordinary and seems unlike the regular chatter, real chatter who is likely in the room denies sending the rude message(s), then it's probably a faker.

2.type /whois nickname (example:  /whois TNTease) Most of the regulars and ALL of the admins/ircops/chanops/helpers have registered nicknames and we will all have a vhost ("virtual host"), which means that there's something besides a bunch of letters and numbers after the @ in the whois information. For example, if you type /whois TNTease (you can type it where you normally type to chat), you will see some information that starts with this:

TNTease is [email protected] * An expert at anything was once a beginner

The information after the @ is what you should look for.  All the admins & ircops have their main nickname and "ircop.icq-chat.com", all chanops will have their nickname and "chanop.icq-chat.com".  Helpers have their nick and "helper.icq-chat.com".  NO other chatters will have these designations after the @ sign.
Registered nicknames will have either "user.icq-chat.com" or they may have a special vhost that looks like a sentence, such as "I.survived.bonaroo" or something that isn't just numbers and letters.

This can help because most (not all) of our regular chatters have registered their nicknames, and therefore when they come online and identify, they get their special vhost.  Fakers usually don't bother to register.

3.The faked nicks are SIMILAR but not EXACTLY the same as the usual nick the regular chatter uses.  You have to be careful to catch this because if LordJamez- privates you with something rude, it's easy to miss that the nick has a dash at the end (the real LordJamez doesn't have the dash at the end).  When they private message you in the channel it usually shows up as the nickname with a dash at the begining and end of the nick, so if the real LordJamez privated you, it would look like:

-LordJames- Hi there

but the fake one with the dash in the nickname would look like:

-LordJames-- Hi there

or it may be B|ueeyes or BIueeyes or B1ueyes instead of the real Blueeyes.

Remember, on some fonts, the capital i, lowercase L, the number 1 and the pipe symbol | all look very similar.
Hazeleyed
HazeIeyed
Haze|eyed
Haze1eyed

As far as what to do about them.... First rule, there's nothing that says you have to respond to any unwanted private.  So if someone privates you with something weird or nasty or strange, simply don't answer them.  You can close the private window, or just minimize it and let them talk to themselves in the little corner of your screen.
You can also report them in the #help room or on the helpdesk.  Try to copy/paste whatever line they give you along with the nickname they used. If you copy/paste it, it will be easier for us to determine if it's a fake nick or not.
You can copy/paste the nickname they use into the chatroom so others can help determine if it's a faker or not, but please don't post whatever rude message they have used.  This can get YOU kicked, as the bots may auto-respond.


I hope this helps somewhat.  If you have any questions or need assistance, you can /join #help or open a  ticket on the helpdesk:  http://icq-chat.com/helpdesk/
click Submit a ticket and type out your issue.

TNTease

[andy]

This is very good advice to what is sometimes, unfortunetely, a common problem. Please remember that ultimately you are responsible for your own protection so please use common sense when dealing with a troll or faker.