In order for this to have the proper impact, you have to understand that in another online life I write non-technical articles about computers, the Net and Web, many of which have to do with computer and online security. I know a lot about computer and online security — the nuts and bolts aspects, not the technical stuff — what to do, what not to do, and so forth. Now that we have this in perspective…

I recently received a comment on the “Me” page of this blog. (If you go to look, scroll down to the bottom.) The writer, clearly upset and insulted, took me severely to task for a comment that was made beneath a picture of him on a site called “commander.com.” He failed to leave a link to the offending remark, and the email address he provided bounced my reply (it may well be a junk account that expired, so we can’t hold that against him — in fact, should hold nothing against him; the man was clearly angry and hurt), so I can’t relate the content that offended him. The incident was, apparently, some time ago.

The only thing is, as far as I’m aware I’ve never been to the commander.com site in all my years on the Web, nor left any remarks there. I’m reasonably sure of that, in addition to my recollection, because I checked the cookies on the computers I use and found none for that URL. Neither am I in the habit of leaving derogatory remarks on the sites I do visit.

Nonetheless, the writer found me via a photograph and link to this or a different blog, so some portion of my Web persona was on that site. Whether I failed to sign off on some computer (unlikely) or someone guessed a password to the blog (possible; it was too easy and I changed it some time ago) or due to some other reason, someone was there and used my name and ID in such a way that it allowed the gentleman to track me down.

This. Is. Not. A. Good. Thing.

Although there are much worse forms of identity theft (I don’t know what else to call it), that routinely cost victims many thousands of dollars, this one is serious, too. As the complainant pointed out, I engage in a lot of writing that is, essentially, based on my good name and reputation on the Net. A man who writes about lovingkindness is not well-served by being thought a hypocrite and sneak. (Or “punk,” as the gentleman put it.)

Lest it seem that I am protesting here to cover up some wrongdoing, I would point out that I published the gentleman’s comment. This is a moderated blog, and I didn’t have to. I did it, first of all, because the man was hurt, his self-image besmirched, and he should at least have some commiseration even though there’s no good answer I can give him, but also because I wanted to write these remarks and illustrate to you all just how easy it is to get in trouble online.

Please go here, read what the experts have to say, and apply the information to your own surfing behavior, not to mention the data on your computer. I didn’t think it would happen to me, either, and I’m thankful it wasn’t something worse.

And to my “victim” I say again, I’m sorry this happened.