For people who aren't familiar with the Internet, this can be a big worry. How do you know what you're reading is worth reading? How do you know someone isn't having you on, leading you up the garden path on a trail of deceit, fraud and intrigue, which will end with you the bankrupt victim on one of those TV shocker shows telling the world how you were swindled out of everything.

Actually, it's not so difficult to stay safe here. In the same way as you're unlikely to fall for a major scam offline, you're unlikely to fall for one online and here you have the added bonus of many thousands of other people keeping an eye open as well. Phoniness is very easily detected on the Internet.

Let's get back to basics. When you're talking to people in the pub you can usually answer the following questions pretty quickly:

"Is he one of my friends?"

"Is she a regular?"

"Do I owe this guy a drink?"

"Are they drunk?"

"Has he just walked in off the street?"

These are similar to the questions you want to ask yourself online. Continuing the homely pub analogy, let's consider trust in four situations:

1. You're in the pub, you're talking to your best friend. You trust them a lot.
2. You're in the pub, you're talking to one of the regulars who you have heard many times talking to other people, but have never chatted to yourself. You have always quite liked what that person said. You trust them, but not quite as much as your best friend.
3. You're in the pub and you end up talking to someone off the street. You don't know them at all. They have no past history with you, so you're naturally more cautious.
4. You are in the pub, there is the distant sound of breaking glass from the car park and a few minutes later a geezer walks in and starts trying to sell a car radio with wires hanging out the back.

Our behaviour in each of these four situations is entirely understandable and based on our assessment of it. Of course we're going to be more cautious with people we barely know. If they reliably talk good sense, however, they will go up in our estimation. If they seem about as trustworthy as Del Boy in "Only Fools and Horses", on the other hand, we're likely to steer clear of the obvious con man.

The principles are the same in the online world; it's just that we use different clues to help identify who is worth listening to and who not. Here are some things to think about when assessing the credibility of a message on a discussion board:

Is it a user name you recognise?

If so, and if you like the person, you may even want to consider adding them to your Favourite Fools list by clicking on the happy face just to the right of their name. The consequence for you is that in future you'll be able to see their latest posts in the "Favourites & Replies" area, and further, the number of Fools who love them, listed on their profile, will tick up by 1. Ahhh.

How many lucky charms does the poster have?

These tell you how many posts a user has made and therefore how much of a regular that person is here at the Clown and Sceptre.

This is what the charms look like and they sit up next to the user's name at the top of the message:

	One star for 50 posts
	Two stars for 250 posts
	Three stars for 500 posts
	A big red star for 1000 posts
	A big gold star for 5000 posts

Naturally, someone with many more posts has a history of credibility built up at the Fool. You're likely to pay more attention, or at least give them more benefit of the doubt. Of course every pub has its regular who is a complete bore, but at least this is a start.

How many recommendations does the post have?

These are displayed on the message boards main page, in a column just to the right of the message title. They're also displayed at the top right of the message itself. Most messages attract no recommendations, so one or two recommendations is pretty good going. Five or more and "Wow!". The recent messages with the most recommendations are listed on the "Best Of" page.

If you like the message, of course, you may also want to add your voice to the Hurrahs by clicking "Recommend it!", at the right of the message title area. If you don't like it because you think it is inappropriate in some way, please hit "Report this Post", next to the Recommend it! link, and let us know why.

Now, read the post.

This is, of course, the acid test. Is it well-written? Does it contain apparently useful information, backed up by facts? Is it well-argued and do its conclusions accord with common sense? Or does it display any tell-tale features of the ramper' the person who tries to manipulate a share price for their own gain? In our archives you will find an article written by Alan Oscroft, entitled, "The Ramper's Charter", and this details the classical features of an attempted share ramp, which often include:

• Subject of the posting is a penny stock (easier to manipulate the price, you see)
• No facts
• Innuendo and rumour
• More innuendo and rumour
• LOTS OF CAPITALS
• Many!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Por grammer and speling

Also, check the personal profile of the poster.

You do this by clicking on the name of the person who has posted the message. This takes you through to a page which lists information about the person, including how many posts they have made and how many recommendations their posts have received. You have one of these too, if you are a registered member of the Motley Fool. If you want people to respond to your messages you should establish trust by filling in your profile.

From here you can also view all their recent messages and see what the general tone of their messages has been. Not only that, but you can see how many recommendations their previous messages have attracted.

You'll find this process becomes pretty automatic after you've been reading a while and you will get to know who you want to listen to and who not. To be honest, although we're talking a lot here about how to spot untrustworthy posts, you're going to find the majority of them entirely trustworthy.

Reading Guidelines

1. Can You Trust What You Read Here?

Posting Guidelines

2. Make Your Posts Informative
3. Civil Discussion for Mutual Benefit
4. We Cannot Give Advice by E-mail
5. Make it Readable and People Will Respond
6. You Are in a Public Forum
7. Treat Copyright Right
8. No Advertising or Solicitation
9. No Touting, Hyping or Other Disruptions
10. No Spamming
11. A Message Board is Not a Pub
12. Hands Up If You Have Used a Poll

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