It's Always About A Girl

The Hellmouth
"I want some cocoa puffs!"

In-Security Questions

7:36 PM, Aug. 26, 2008 .. 3 comments .. Link

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/08/alm...ryone.html

Fooling people nowadays is too easy. The technology we use puts us in a very vulnerable place.

I know my ex roommate used myspace profiles to target retards, uh, young impressionable girls. He'd search for the ones "online now", narrow by age, maybe location and only those with photos. Then read a little over their profile (takes 30 seconds, seriously) and then he would send a message, in essence a form letter, along the lines of:

"hi

I saw your profile and noticed you were [insert info from profile]. I really like [comparative interest, from profile]. It's great to see someone who [insert activity listed in profile]. Your pictures are [insert witty adjective], especially the one where you are [bla bla bla]. . . "

Get the drift?

He would send 20, 30 or more, out of those not all replied, but many did. I can't say it's wrong, but imagine that was your kid or little sister?

We are also too lazy to build strong passwords and strongholds to keep our information private. We fall so easily for the phishing scam and the "enter your email/cell to subscribe to our crap, cancel any time, really, honest!" I don't care if they mean the best and are truly not scumbags, all it takes is one site where you have personal info to be compromised and you're in the shithole if you're not smart.

http://www.ghettowebmaster.com/myspa...s/#more-24

I mean, "password1" and "abc123" as passwords? Really?

So, take a look at your info and how it's distributed. Security questions are lame so spice them up. Make up an alter ego. When they ask you for your grandfather's middle name, say it was Sniffles and your first pet's name was JesusChrist, the school you attended was Corona and your favorite country is Uranus.

Check this out, at my job, we deal with a company that handles part of our clients' investments. All our clients are international, most from Latin America. In Latin America, most use both last names, paternal and maternal. Two of the security questions (you only need to answer two of six) are "what's your mother's maiden name?' and "what's your favorite country?"

Oh, and chain letters. A big FUCK YOU if you've ever sent one. I don't care if it was to give us the location of Osama Bin Laden's lair, use the blind copy. Even a retard manually copying the addresses can get to your info from the "To" header. Hello? it's right there!

In any case, if you're stupid enough to believe that Bill Gates will give you free money or that you will save a sick child by forwarding a message, then you deserve to be scammed and flooded with spam and viagra offers (but don't drag anyone else into it).

By the way, last I heard Snopes was pushing adware from Zango, but I'm not sure as of today.

And last, this is not related whatsoever to me being pissed at MySpace, Tagged and other sites being able to bypass my popup blocker. Not at all. Honest.

9:13 PM, Aug. 26, 2008 .. Posted by texican
I hate getting those chain letters, too. I get them from some friends and family members but never pass them on.

My passwords are usually nonsensical words that only mean something to me, so I feel pretty safe there. The one I have trouble with is my daughter. She'll practically click on anything if I'm not there to monitor her. Still, I have stuff like Spybot, Ccleaner, Adaware, Windows Defender, and AVG which I use constantly to scour my pc.

7:22 AM, Aug. 27, 2008 .. Posted by birdsnest
i have a mac. i dont need any of that crap.

1:47 AM, Aug. 30, 2008 .. Posted by lisalisabobisa
So, take a look at your info and how it's distributed. Security questions are lame so spice them up. Make up an alter ego. When they ask you for your grandfather's middle name, say it was Sniffles and your first pet's name was JesusChrist, the school you attended was Corona and your favorite country is Uranus.

Those are some great ideas Juan. I never thought of doing anything like that...

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