I've always just treated people as who they tell me they are.
But then I've been online since acoustic couplers & have built various personas online.
I firmly believe I could turn up on your doorstep with a takeout bag of ihop pancakes and get you to agree to help me hack the Gibson. (We'll just ignore the whole I have no idea where you live, where the nearest ihop is, there is no Gibson, & there is doubt that I am actually completely harmless)