Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Will the real x please stand up?


I just got home from an epic night out when I got a text message from a friend of mine, saying "random. theres a fake FB account - Mark Garrido bashing Chris (Lao) on the fanpage. He also posted your ICT blog on the wall." The first thing that came to my mind was... "are you freaking kidding me?" SMH. Well, a moment of disbelief, followed by a hearty smile.

Well, I don't own the name "Mark Garrido." A simple Google search or even a Facebook search would easily yield several Mark Garridos. It is a pretty common name. But the aforementioned facebook account specifically pointed out my ICT blog last week (http://lawandict.blogspot.com/2011/08/former-up-law-student-trending.html) So I guess its true, someone is trying to represent himself as me. So this person first liked one of the hate pages against Chris. Then, he posted a link of my ICT blog and stated "pinagtatanggol pa oh mark garrido pangalan... baka parehas sila hehe" Thereafter, using this account under my name, he started contributing to the insults and harassment towards Chris in one of the fan pages in Facebook. As we can see, social media, apparently, brings out the worst in people.

Well, what can I say? Nice work dude. First, thank you for actually reading my blog post last week. Apparently, we have a wide array of readers out here. And by the way, you are free to post the link to this article in one of those pages, if you get off with that.

Identity theft is a form of fraud or cheating of another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. In this case, it is more of just to ridicule the person whose identity is assumed by the identity thief. Identity theft is an easy thing to execute. After just a few clicks in your computer, you can easily present yourself as another person, or create a new identity. The anonymity that the internet affords continuous to encourage, or shall I say tolerate, people to do such things. Indeed, anonymity is not without its benefits. It allows people to air their opinions about personal stuff more freely without the fear of judgment from other people. Anonymity also permits a more equal evaluation of people's messages because there is no status, race or gender to base from. However, the anonymity that the internet provides also allows offensive and disruptive behavior from people. Which is the case here. One can't help but wonder whether the same people would have the balls to continue such acts, if they would actually be held accountable for their actions. I guess the answer is a resounding "No".

So will the real Mark Garrido please stand up?

Entry # 8

The real Mark Garrido


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