Regarding the original question:
If the references supplied cannot confirm that the email address or at least one piece of other personal contact information (such as phone number) through which the hobbyist has contacted you was also how he contacted them, then you should ask the hobbyist to have his account reactivated so he can PM you or otherwise contact you through a mode familiar to his references. In other words, require that he prove ownership of an email address or phone number recognized by his refs. I would strongly advise against relying on spidey sense.
Regarding outing the prospective client's personal contact info:
Benign intentions won't help a hobbyist who lands in divorce court or loses his job because of someone's carelessness. Unwise as it would be, he may use that email address with others outside the hobby. Even if it's a hobby email as it should be, his real name may be linked to it in some way a third party would recognize it, or that a court order could easily obtain. Email providers have literally implemented automated systems to provide such information to courts and LE because they get so many it was cheaper than detailing a human being to hand them over.
Even if you think it's his fault for not being savvy enough, you've just handed that email address to everyone. Now, even if it does belong to him and he's the hobbyist he says he is, anyone who knows how to spoof an email address could effectively appropriate it and pretend to be him. You've enabled others to do exactly what you're afraid he's doing. You've burned his email by outing it and, if it's an email address by which his references remember him, those references are basically useless to him now until he contacts them through PM and gives them a new email address or phone number to know him by.
Outing anybody, whether client or provider, is simply unacceptable, regardless of how well-intentioned the reasons for doing so. Many providers will only divulge their personal contact information once screening is accomplished via PM or P411. They would and have been outraged when clients have published that confidential information, and with excellent reason. There is no greater breech of confidentiality here.
Some lapses in judgement demonstrate a tangible risk in doing business with the individuals who commit them. An apology acknowledges that lapse in judgement and the risk the outed party was put at without their consent. It lets others know the person who committed it understands the mistake, however honest in intent, and will not repeat it in the future, that it was a one-time error the person who made it regrets. In short, it sends the message that the person is safe to do business with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gfejunkie
Better give up, sexylatinabooty. Or else they'll absolutely harass the living shit out of you until you do.
Even then there's no guarantee. Don't become another victim.
Just sayin'.
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You might sing a different tune if it was your personal information that was published for any and all the world to see.
You're welcome.....
