Are there scam artists on PSN?

Dr. Strangepork

Dr. Strangepork

CAGiversary!
Recently I started getting some friend invites over PSN. I had posted some vids to Singstar and started to get some responses a few hours later.

I thought they were a little too friendly considering we hadn't played any games together.

This may be naive, but are there scam artist out there on PSN? They haven't asked for anything yet, but their messages were all about how great my videos are and asking me questions about other games . . .

As I write this it sounds innocent, but it just felt different than any other exchange I've had with PSNers. Do I gotta worry about the same a-holes on PSN that I do on the general internet?

Dr. SP
 
They might just be interested in you in a completely friendly and benign way.

But, you're right, there could be other sinister purposes. To avoid those just use your normal cautionary measures when dealing with anyone on the internet.

What you have to remember first off is, the market that Singstar is made for is a pretty casual market made of non-gamer types, many of which can and will be pretty outgoing and friendly.

There's not too many ways to scam you via PSN unless you send a message with some private financial or other identifying information.

On the other hand, how old are you? Are you male or female? Who are the people contacting you and what are they asking? There's always the case of stalkers, pedophiles, and just plain sick people out there.

By the same token, they might be normal people who have just seen your videos, think you're either a cute, or perhaps you look like a fun person in general and are interested in finding other fun people to play games with.

As usual with any internet contact, just don't give them any identifying information, especially so since you posted a video online so they already know what you look like, so be extra careful to not say where you live, go to school or anything.

This also applies to sites like myspace and facebook, if you give a random person online a link to your profile on a social network site, there's a lot of things you put up on those sites that can be used to identify you and where you are.

Same goes for any financial information.

But, if you handle things with care and the other person is legitimate, you might find some new friends.
 
I've actually had one person that wanted to buy my PSN name. I told them no and still kept bugging...finally blocked and that was the end of it.
 
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