Internet Forums in particular French/English ones.

Chat Rooms, web sites and Internet Forums have evolved over the past decade into something unrecognisable from the early days of the Worldwide Web. Once the sole resort of the youthful, such activities have been joined by the silver surfer and the early retiree, who have settled in France or returned back to the UK and willing to impart their advice.

Advice and information which is literally so potentially invaluable for the enquirer and for the ever increasing searcher who is looking to 'go it alone' .

However, these places are not occupied by a totally benevolent and benign contributor or owner in these 'rooms' which in some cases you enter at your peril!

After serving 30 years with the Constabulary, I have experienced the good and bad that society had to offer . Some of those experiences were just as bad within the organisation and I looked forward to retirement. We moved to France, arriving in 2006 my eyes were opened up to a hitherto standard of human behaviour amongst the expatriate British community, via the Internet and in particular Internet Forums. This article is about those French experiences.

(There are obviously other Forums and my warnings are not restricted to ex pat sites only I've read some pretty awful material on Christian and Buddhist Forums nowhere is free of this behaviour.)

I acknowledge and respect the established Internet web sites that usually have a large port folio of French property and associated adverts and advice. Their forum sites are normally efficiently regulated against bad, offensive behaviour and illegal adverts. But they are not a 100 % safe! They certainly aren't beware that nepotism is rife amongst some of the site moderators.

Starting out life in a new country involves basically the 4 'F's'

Family. People want to know about local schools and amenities. Health care and all matters associated with family life. Young families want to know if their current lifestyle can be matched or improved.

Finance. .How are they going to survive in their new home, in France.

Future.As pensioners will they receive the right allowances and health care?

Friends. France is a foreign country and is huge compared to England and can be a lonely place and the search for new friends drive them onto forums.

The Internet has all the advice that one needs to start a new life in France. If one simply follows the official sites from the UK such as Customs and Excise and other Government web sites then you can link into other official web site in your new Country.

However, the majority of people have problems with research, limited by time, knowledge, language and total ignorance of everything to do with their chosen country and as a consequence become vulnerable.

In general people trust the Internet! Proper anti virus, firewalls, child security have lowered our natural suspicion of strangers, but we are denied an essential part of communication and that is the Person themselves.

Unknown to most of us, having your own web site and forum on the World wide web is not an expensive business. For less than 100 £ set up fee and 20 £ a year web maintenance, you can be up and running in days. Coupled with a punchy web site name and description, your new web site ( as I have found out with my fledgling art site) and forum can be on the top of the Google Search engine within days. There are even sites that offer free forums.

(I would point out that the companies offering the facility are in no way responsible for the persons who take up their offer. Bear in mind there is no vetting procedure.)

I was surprised at the cost but this means that some very un savoury characters are keyboard touch away from entering your life.

These Forums usually have a British connection and invite new members openly.

They normally don't have associated adverts but that doesn't mean that those forums are totally safe. The other feature of these forums, where danger can lurk, is that they don't confine themselves with advice about setting up life in France. They have 'Threads' these are subject matters which invite responses to an original posting on a given subject. It could be anything at all.

People hold an image of an ex pat as being a 'fellow' traveller escaping all that is bad of the UK and maintaining the standards of a lost era when Britain was the flagship of the world. Coupled with this is an expectation that a fellow 'Brit' is a kind sole with your best intentions at heart.

This is not the case, many are struggling financially and the 'newby' is fair game. There are those with serious alcohol problems who will cajole themselves, initially into your confidence but later turn on you with venom!

This further reinforced with their avatar which is a forum picture of the poster that they have chosen to represent them on that forum. These can be actual photos of themselves or property they own. Some can be funny, animated and have a punchy message, which can mask the true character of the poster. I recently had a discussion with someone who reckoned that they could learn a lot from a persons avatar. I disagree, it can be a deception in the pursuit of alleged Friendship.

There's those who treat your inexperience with contempt and want to announce to everyone your 'stupidity' a common response is to reply in French when a question is posed and the member has limited language skills.

I once posed a tax question for some friends and the person who responded, an administrator for the site, called them 'Idiots' and 'Stupid' Often reinforced with 'emoticons' of little round faces, happy, angry,confused and the list is endless, but used enforce the message in the absence of human presence.

These people are safe from you due to the fact they are writing from their own home and possibly many miles away! They can be anyone they choose to be and the unsuspecting can be subject to a verbal assault, which as a Doctor once told me, a mental assault is no less serious than a physical one. And once subject to one your new home becomes less secure.

It's like you've been burgled.

Up until just recently these vile critics of everything have escaped any libel laws but there have been recent actions.

That brings me onto how these sites are managed. They are in chief self regulating and have a list of rules as part of their conditions of membership. This in our experience has been efficient of the larger sites I have referred to at the beginning. . In one instance my wife received an abusive email from an established site in response to her thread about the cost of Immobiliers. This person had their account suspended immediately. We later found out that the person was a former detective who represented an established firm of Private Eyes. He was awaiting alleged trial for alleged assault and threats. We contacted the firm who were still marketing his services and they did nothing.

So don't expect the website or forum administrators to protect you under all such circumstances. However the smaller cheap sites are not so caring

A moderator/ Administrator is supposed to be the guardian of the forum but this is not always the case on these 'chez nous' 'anglo' this that and the other sites. Formatted by like minds they respond accordingly. My wife has been an administrator on a large website forum for years and recently she joined a new Anglo forum. They quickly enlisted her help because of the difficulties they were having with another such site. Yes these sites invade each others nests, like ants, with the intention of bringing the site down under the pressure of 'spam' and malicious threads.Having assisted, the site administrator threw her off the panel after a dispute involving a member who had commenced a campaign against her because she had only just arrived. But since then the Administrator and co owner of the Forum has been abusive.

The problem one has with a malicious Administrator is that they have access to more information about you than other forum members.

We quickly discovered that the Forum and a hardcore of its members harboured serious prejudices and were racist. One thread wanted to know how long Britain was going to tolerate the Asian presence in Birmingham and this evolved into a breathtakingly racist attack that if repeated in public in the UK would lead to your prosecution. I felt instead of having member titles such as 'hero member' these are allocated on the number of posts made, that they should adopt Grand Magician and Klu Klux Clan Avatars.

Having expressed the alternative opinion on many of these rants I have been subjected to scorn and threats from the website and its administrator.

Some people set themselves up on the back of presumed and well advertised expertise. The expert who concealed in his lair issues edicts to his followers. The followers have been fooled into believing that the advice impartial and based on self sacrifice a bit like one of those religious extreme camps. The danger from these people is to those who fail to follow their teachings!

Supported on a Forum which seems blissfully ignorant of his actions on other forums. They discipline anyone who might upset their resident star. They have 'camp followers' and unfortunately some of these 'dazzled' followers have low grade administration rules such as 'topic support' I read a recent report from one such person who was berating someone over an agricultural issue and in the reply told the unfortunate victim that they should 'leave it to experts because cows like to eat clover' ! They will step in to support the star and post in a similar vein. These 'topic supports' can be shallow and just like anything shallow can be dangerous if you dive in 'head first'!

Get a feel for the forum first and do not trust the self proclaimed expert. There are some very knowlegable people but they tend to post factually with supporting links and certainly never enter into a personal arguement.

So please do not trust anyone on these sites, you wouldn't do it in the UK why do it in France.

(I would like to thank the well known Francofile website whose name I will not reveal, except that is, the title is two words "sum of the amount" and a large Country sandwiched between Spain and Germany!, for the way in which they dumped my wife more recently after 3 years of trying to help their website.)

This electronic cottage hobby have a standard format for their site.

Having found the forum there is a 'Welcome' section where the 'newbie' can introduce themselves and give a bit of an autobiography. And people do! supply everything to with their lives. If someone walked up with a clipboard in a public place and asked the same of you, I would speculate that you would refuse. Furthermore there is a 'profile' section which in some circumstances is compulsory. Personally, I'd restrict what you leave on that page and the information I leave is usually innaccurate. Don't supply your normal email address that everyone else in your family or workplace use. Set up another address and don't use your surname in that address.

I was staggered a few weeks ago when a couple of our Friends had actually invited some Internet Friends to their home. The experience wasn't good, they drunk all the wine they had and bordered on being anti social to say the least. Although initially in our first year we made a similar error and the person transpired to have some serious problems. Again be aware just because the person responds on a forum in a jolly friendly matter or apparently shares the same moral standards means that they are good people. It most certainly does not and I would advise that opening up your home to them is a potentially serious mistake. Not least for those who after a short while offer to do work for you on a daily rate.

Forums can be useful places but they can harbour some seriously damaged individuals and I would caution the unwary about trusting someone based on a few words and a warm, jolly picture on their profile. (or their religious beliefs). Remember if you employ or take the advice off a forum there is no quality control. You will bear the responsibility. Thats why I would urge you to verify all information via the official body concerned. The French are bureaucratic but they are helpful and efficient, eventually....................