This is my Brother Bob

Ottawa Boy

This is my brother Bob McCabe.
He is six feet tall. He works in farming. Yes, he owns his own business, his
farm in fact, now that you ask. His intersts are quilting and news. He was
born January 1st , 1980, and oddly enough , has the same phone number,
address , and postal code as me.

However, his mothers middle name is Daphne, and his fathers middle name
is Roger.

Why is this important ?

Bob is not a real person. I'm afraid he's a bit of an imposter. A cyber-shadow,
if you please.

So what good is a cyber-shadow ?

Have you ever tried to buy a computer monitor, or any piece of equipment,
even paying cash , and they want you to fill out all these forms ? Have you
ever worried about identity theft ? Why the does this company , that you
are giving money to, you're not asking for credit , you're paying cash up
front , why the heck do they need to know anything about you ?

This is where Bob comes in. The advantage of a well thought out
cybe-shadow is simply that if they demand any kind of secret question, or
ask for your mothers middle name or some such , you know the answer.

And if someone knocks on the door asking for Bob , stating that bob
applied for ten credit cards and racked them up and hit the road, well ,
I'm afraid I never heard of him. Sorry about that. It's the company's own
darn fault for taking information they shouldn't have had in the first place
and then getting it stolen. Better they steal Bob than my real identity,
that way I'm not on the hook for all sorts of stuff in my name.

This is my brother Bob. I'm sure you'll get to like him if you think about it
long enough.