Off-Topic: Unclear on the Concept

The concept is simple. Send an E-mail like that to a whole pile
of E-mail addresses, and perhaps the claims in it will seem
credible enough to at least one of the recipients so that you will
have made $1500 from very little work.

There are automated E-mail clients.

John Savard

Andrew McDowell

2021-02-26 19:05:32 UTC

Post by Quadibloc
The concept is simple. Send an E-mail like that to a whole pile
of E-mail addresses, and perhaps the claims in it will seem
credible enough to at least one of the recipients so that you will
have made $1500 from very little work.
There are automated E-mail clients.
John Savard

I can confirm that this is a bulk scam. I got one to a personal email address some time last year, and a week or so later a company-wide notification went out because somebody got one to a company email address and they were trying to work out if this was an attack directed to a particular company or just a scatter gun. In fact I am going to predict that I can correct the details of your report from the email that I got and from stereotypical notions of human behaviour: the email claimed to originate from a woman, and assumed that you were a man (thereby also ignoring your first name).

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-26 19:19:20 UTC

Post by Andrew McDowell

I can confirm that this is a bulk scam. I got one to a personal email
address some time last year, and a week or so later a company-wide
notification went out because somebody got one to a company email
address and they were trying to work out if this was an attack directed
to a particular company or just a scatter gun. In fact I am going to
predict that I can correct the details of your report from the email
that I got and from stereotypical notions of human behaviour: the email
claimed to originate from a woman, and assumed that you were a man
(thereby also ignoring your first name).

Well, my login name is ***@kithrup.com, so that wouldn't have
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

J. Clarke

2021-02-26 22:02:13 UTC

Post by Andrew McDowell

I can confirm that this is a bulk scam. I got one to a personal email
address some time last year, and a week or so later a company-wide
notification went out because somebody got one to a company email
address and they were trying to work out if this was an attack directed
to a particular company or just a scatter gun. In fact I am going to
predict that I can correct the details of your report from the email
that I got and from stereotypical notions of human behaviour: the email
claimed to originate from a woman, and assumed that you were a man
(thereby also ignoring your first name).

given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 01:24:56 UTC

Post by Andrew McDowell

I can confirm that this is a bulk scam. I got one to a personal email
address some time last year, and a week or so later a company-wide
notification went out because somebody got one to a company email
address and they were trying to work out if this was an attack directed
to a particular company or just a scatter gun. In fact I am going to
predict that I can correct the details of your report from the email
that I got and from stereotypical notions of human behaviour: the email
claimed to originate from a woman, and assumed that you were a man
(thereby also ignoring your first name).

given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Kevrob

2021-02-27 05:27:13 UTC

[snip]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.
--

Are those of us who are Dorothy's "stans" Heydters?
And are the ones also on LoTRO Heydter-Players?

:)

--
Kevin R

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 05:41:51 UTC

Post by Kevrob
[snip]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.
--

Are those of us who are Dorothy's "stans" Heydters?
And are the ones also on LoTRO Heydter-Players?
:)

I didn't think I had any "stans." And my name rhymes with
"fright," not "freight."

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-27 09:52:18 UTC

Post by Kevrob
[snip]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.
--

Are those of us who are Dorothy's "stans" Heydters?
And are the ones also on LoTRO Heydter-Players?
:)

I didn't think I had any "stans." And my name rhymes with
"fright," not "freight."

And height. (I forgeyt.) We'll advertise you as "500 Foot Dorothy".
In The House. (About all of the time, currently.)

Kevrob

2021-02-27 13:34:44 UTC

Post by Kevrob
[snip]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.
--

Are those of us who are Dorothy's "stans" Heydters?
And are the ones also on LoTRO Heydter-Players?
:)

I didn't think I had any "stans." And my name rhymes with
"fright," not "freight."

And height. (I forgeyt.) We'll advertise you as "500 Foot Dorothy".
In The House. (About all of the time, currently.)

My apologies to Dorothy. I'll try to remember what she is hight!

--
Kevin R

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 15:33:43 UTC

Post by Kevrob

Post by Kevrob
[snip]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.
--

Are those of us who are Dorothy's "stans" Heydters?
And are the ones also on LoTRO Heydter-Players?
:)

I didn't think I had any "stans." And my name rhymes with
"fright," not "freight."

And height. (I forgeyt.) We'll advertise you as "500 Foot Dorothy".
In The House. (About all of the time, currently.)

My apologies to Dorothy. I'll try to remember what she is hight!

Okay!

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 15:33:05 UTC

Post by Kevrob
[snip]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Heh. Even wronger.
--

Are those of us who are Dorothy's "stans" Heydters?
And are the ones also on LoTRO Heydter-Players?
:)

I didn't think I had any "stans." And my name rhymes with
"fright," not "freight."

And height. (I forgeyt.) We'll advertise you as "500 Foot Dorothy".

Let's not.

Post by Robert Carnegie
In The House. (About all of the time, currently.)

That part is true. I can't do stairs any more.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Joe Pfeiffer

2021-02-27 19:36:36 UTC

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Almost certainly hasn't even looked at the email addresses the message
is being sent to, and so has no notions of what sort of site it is.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 19:56:54 UTC

Post by Joe Pfeiffer

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
given him/her any clues either to my gender or to what kind of
site kithrup is.

Probalby thinks it's a hip-hop site or the like and "heydt" is the DJ.

Almost certainly hasn't even looked at the email addresses the message
is being sent to, and so has no notions of what sort of site it is.

Oh, yeah. S/he/they collected every edress they could get their
mitts on, and sent out a blanket threat.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-26 19:17:53 UTC

Oh, yeah, I understand the principle. But it's so funny, how far
off the mark the guy was.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Dimensional Traveler

2021-02-26 21:39:20 UTC

Oh, yeah, I understand the principle. But it's so funny, how far
off the mark the guy was.

Its not worth the spammer's time to do any research into the email
addresses they've collected.

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Leif Roar Moldskred

2021-02-27 17:28:36 UTC

"I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying 'flee at once -
all is discovered.' They all left town immediately."

(Attributed to both Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle, and probably
never claimed by either of them.)

--
Leif Roar Moldskred

Robert Woodward

2021-02-27 18:35:27 UTC

"I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying 'flee at once -
all is discovered.' They all left town immediately."
(Attributed to both Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle, and probably
never claimed by either of them.)

Such a telegram did appear in a Sherlock Holmes story (as every 3rd?
word in a longer telegram).

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward ***@drizzle.com

Joel Polowin

2021-02-27 20:14:42 UTC

Post by Robert Woodward

Post by Leif Roar Moldskred
"I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying 'flee at once -
all is discovered.' They all left town immediately."
(Attributed to both Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle, and probably
never claimed by either of them.)

Such a telegram did appear in a Sherlock Holmes story (as every 3rd?
word in a longer telegram).

"The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life." in "The
Adventure of the _Gloria Scott_". Yes, every third word.

Joel

--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 22:24:20 UTC

Post by Joel Polowin

Post by Robert Woodward

Such a telegram did appear in a Sherlock Holmes story (as every 3rd?
word in a longer telegram).

"The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life." in "The
Adventure of the _Gloria Scott_". Yes, every third word.
Joel

Hmmm. I haven't read any Holmes for a quarter of a century, but
maybe I'll dig out the two-volume _Annotated_ and read that one.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Michael F. Stemper

2021-03-03 22:59:26 UTC

Post by Joel Polowin

Post by Robert Woodward
Such a telegram did appear in a Sherlock Holmes story (as every 3rd?
word in a longer telegram).

"The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life." in "The
Adventure of the _Gloria Scott_". Yes, every third word.

Hmmm. I haven't read any Holmes for a quarter of a century, but
maybe I'll dig out the two-volume _Annotated_ and read that one.

I read that last summer for the first time. I noted Poul Anderson
cited in a few of the annotations.

Given the number of Holmes pastiches in his SF, it wasn't all that
surprising.

--
Michael F. Stemper
Deuteronomy 24:17

BCFD36

2021-02-27 22:44:52 UTC

Post by Robert Woodward

Such a telegram did appear in a Sherlock Holmes story (as every 3rd?
word in a longer telegram).

"The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life." in "The
Adventure of the _Gloria Scott_". Yes, every third word.
Joel

‘The supply of game for London is going steadily up,’it ran. ‘Head-
keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders for
fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant’s life.’

--
Dave Scruggs
Captain, Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
Sr. Software Engineer - Stellar Solutions (Probably Retired)

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-26 19:05:02 UTC

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
So I just got a long email (here on my kithrup account) from a
guy who says he's hacked my account and copied all my dirty
videos, plus videos of me ... responding to them, and unless I
send him $1500 worth of bitcoin, he will send the whole enchilada
to all my mail lists.
This, to my *kithrup* account, which runs BSD UNIX and does no
videos whatsoever.
If only I could be a fly on the wall watching him try to copy my
(nonexistent) dirty videos to my (nonexistent) mail list. But of
course he's not going to try.

Well, someone in your household watched a lot of cartoons
last year when they were supposed to be doing home work.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-26 19:21:00 UTC

Well, someone in your household watched a lot of cartoons
last year when they were supposed to be doing home work.

Yes, but I could see them over his shoulder and I can testify
that they were just silly, not porny. He hasn't hit puberty yet,
but any time now. In any case, he wouldn't have been watching
videos on kithrup.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-26 20:34:59 UTC

Well, someone in your household watched a lot of cartoons
last year when they were supposed to be doing home work.

Peppa Pig really likes jumping in puddles.
Muddy puddles.

There is a licensed Peppa Pig toy "Muddy Puddle" that
you can buy and set up and fill with water presumably,
and jump in and out of. If you happen not to have a
real muddy puddle for this activity.

It seems to me, Peppa Pig is in a lot of dirty videos.

And, someone apparently likes putting bootleg videos
online with children's cartoon characters that go
extremely, violently wrong. I suspect Russia or China
or both. Or "corners of the universe which have bred
the most terrible things" generally.

-dsr-

2021-02-26 19:18:27 UTC

This is, of course, a scam. It's a very low-effort scam, since it does
nothing except spam an infinite number of email addresses setting the From
sender to the same as the recipient, which it presents as "proof" to the
unlearned that You Haz Been Hacked.

As with all spam, they send out millions and are happy if even one idiot
sends them coinage.

-dsr-

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 01:26:13 UTC

Post by -dsr-

This is, of course, a scam. It's a very low-effort scam, since it does
nothing except spam an infinite number of email addresses setting the From
sender to the same as the recipient, which it presents as "proof" to the
unlearned that You Haz Been Hacked.
As with all spam, they send out millions and are happy if even one idiot
sends them coinage.

Well, I won't be that idiot.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Jonathan

2021-02-27 12:12:07 UTC

Ya know it really isn't a good idea to use your real name
and email address on the net. Once an identity thief
has your name and home address they can change your
mailing address to theirs and get your mail.

After than identity theft becomes easy, and you won't
know it until your new second mortgage payments
come due.

https://www.whitepages.com/checkout/summary?wpId=PbyPWjeBNp9&wp_medium=PersonContactInfoUpsell&wp_source=PersonResults&wp_term=serp_sb2&funnel_type=person_onepages_1&wp_content=cta

Everyone should have one of these policies.

https://www.identityprotectionreview.com/best-identity-insurance-services?gclid=Cj0KCQiA-OeBBhDiARIsADyBcE7g_kCpuEIVxEDi0UbBJLOBXEwtIc3_SAyMoN9PBSgP93BZ8RRNY5QaAhTLEALw_wcB

--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-27 13:02:45 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

Jonathan

2021-02-27 14:50:29 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-27 15:37:10 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.

I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 16:45:49 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

Since I never watch porn,

(What, never?)

No, never.

(What, NEVER?)

NO, NEVER.

I don't foresee having that problem.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Jonathan

2021-02-27 19:45:34 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?

What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?

They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-scammers/

--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-27 20:52:42 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-scammers/

I have a policy of caution about following links to
serious dangers to my internet security, in case the
link /is/ a serious danger to my internet security.
It's s good way to trap people who are suspicious
but not suspicious enough.

Your headlines seem to be muddling "knowing your
e-mail address" and "being able to read or send
your e-mail". The person who wrote to Dorothy and
to me does seem to be claiming to do all of that.
(I just realised I forgot to "report as junk". Now done.)

In real life it's likely that John Carter of Mars has
a work e-mail address of ***@mars.com
with a reasonable amount of automatic spam deletion.
And you know, or guess, that goes for his friends
Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas. They're not at a big
risk, although a faked message apparently "from"
John Carter to the others or vice versa could
cause trouble. It is something to be careful of.

Michael F. Stemper

2021-02-27 22:24:08 UTC

Post by Jonathan
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Post by Robert Carnegie
Your headlines seem to be muddling "knowing your
e-mail address" and "being able to read or send
your e-mail".
In real life it's likely that John Carter of Mars has
with a reasonable amount of automatic spam deletion.

Surely it would be:

***@barsoom.mars

--
Michael F. Stemper
Life's too important to take seriously.

Jonathan

2021-02-27 23:35:29 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

...a 'big leap' from here to there.

--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

Dimensional Traveler

2021-02-28 00:03:09 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Shirley it would be ***@helium.barsoom.gov

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-28 00:14:42 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

(Hope I got the proper noun right; it's been a LONG time since I
read any Burroughs. I could've just written "Tertian.")

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Dimensional Traveler

2021-02-28 02:08:34 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."
(Hope I got the proper noun right; it's been a LONG time since I
read any Burroughs. I could've just written "Tertian.")

As I recall he became Warlord of Mars, an actual ruler's title there.

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-28 03:42:33 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."
(Hope I got the proper noun right; it's been a LONG time since I
read any Burroughs. I could've just written "Tertian.")

As I recall he became Warlord of Mars, an actual ruler's title there.

You may well be right. I read them all once, but that was back
when rocks were soft.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-28 09:26:11 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."
(Hope I got the proper noun right; it's been a LONG time since I
read any Burroughs. I could've just written "Tertian.")

Oh, come to think, there's .mil addresses. General spam,
the last that I heard, does avoid hitting those; they hit back hard.
What would come their way would be specialised.

Kevrob

2021-02-28 19:33:07 UTC

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."
(Hope I got the proper noun right; it's been a LONG time since I
read any Burroughs. I could've just written "Tertian.")

Don't forget ***@thark.net. [dotarsojat (at) thark.net]

I'd say it was his "sock puppet," but does anyone on Barsoom
wear socks?

Oh, come to think, there's .mil addresses. General spam,
the last that I heard, does avoid hitting those; they hit back hard.
What would come their way would be specialised.

I don't think someone trying to hack a thark.net account
would like the security challenge. :)

--
Kevin R

Quadibloc

2021-03-02 15:52:52 UTC

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

He is _not_ just the consort of Princess Dejah Thoris, daughter of
Mors Kajak and grand-daughter of Tardos Mors.

John Savard

Michael F. Stemper

2021-03-02 19:19:09 UTC

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

However:
The .gov TLD is limited to United States governmental entities and
agencies as well as qualifying state, county and local municipal
government agencies.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#Original_top-level_domains>

I don't think that Barsoom is a state or even a territory of the US.

Carter's TLD will not be ".gov".

--
Michael F. Stemper
I feel more like I do now than I did when I came in.

J. Clarke

2021-03-02 20:24:08 UTC

On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 13:19:09 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

The .gov TLD is limited to United States governmental entities and
agencies as well as qualifying state, county and local municipal
government agencies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#Original_top-level_domains>
I don't think that Barsoom is a state or even a territory of the US.
Carter's TLD will not be ".gov".

You tell that to Tars Tarkas.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-03-03 01:20:54 UTC

Post by J. Clarke
On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 13:19:09 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

You tell that to Tars Tarkas.

You got his edress?

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

J. Clarke

2021-03-03 02:54:00 UTC

Post by J. Clarke
On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 13:19:09 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

You tell that to Tars Tarkas.

You got his edress?

Flashing on transvestite Thark. My eyes, my EYES!

Juho Julkunen

2021-03-03 05:00:26 UTC

In article <***@4ax.com>, jclarke.873638
@gmail.com says...

Post by J. Clarke
On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 13:19:09 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

You tell that to Tars Tarkas.

You got his edress?

Flashing on transvestite Thark. My eyes, my EYES!

Well, it's not like the ladies of Barsoom wear dresses, so wouldn't
that just be vestite?

--
Juho Julkunen

J. Clarke

2021-03-03 11:09:34 UTC

On Wed, 3 Mar 2021 07:00:26 +0200, Juho Julkunen

Post by Juho Julkunen
@gmail.com says...

Post by J. Clarke
On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 13:19:09 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
Depends on whether Col. Carter has any office in the Barsoomian
government, as distinguished from "Oh shit, the fat is in the
fire again, call in the Jasoomian."

He _is_ Warlord of Mars, after all. So he indeed does have an office in
the government of Barsoom, just as Joseph Robinette Biden holds an
office in the government of the United States of America.

You tell that to Tars Tarkas.

You got his edress?

Flashing on transvestite Thark. My eyes, my EYES!

Well, it's not like the ladies of Barsoom wear dresses, so wouldn't
that just be vestite?

Good point.

Quadibloc

2021-03-03 12:45:12 UTC

Post by Michael F. Stemper
I don't think that Barsoom is a state or even a territory of the US.
Carter's TLD will not be ".gov".

That's quite true, of course. If Barsoom got connected to Earth's Internet, it
would get its own country domain, and their government would have a domain
under that.

Given that while Barsoom has only one spoken language, but each of its
cities has its own writing system, and those writing systems are usually
described as 'hieroglyphs', of course there's going to be a lot of work for
the Unicode Consortium before Barsoom can take advantage of the provision
for having an IDN... although of course Helium will get priority.

John Savard

Robert Carnegie

2021-03-03 21:18:02 UTC

Post by Michael F. Stemper
I don't think that Barsoom is a state or even a territory of the US.
Carter's TLD will not be ".gov".

That's quite true, of course. If Barsoom got connected to Earth's Internet, it
would get its own country domain, and their government would have a domain
under that.

I think it's nearly connected but not quite yet...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet

https://marspedia.org/Internet
(untested web page, but nothing unusual is happening
after visiting it, earn $$$ working from home :-)

Post by Quadibloc
Given that while Barsoom has only one spoken language, but each of its
cities has its own writing system, and those writing systems are usually
described as 'hieroglyphs', of course there's going to be a lot of work for
the Unicode Consortium before Barsoom can take advantage of the provision
for having an IDN... although of course Helium will get priority.
John Savard

Dimensional Traveler

2021-03-04 00:14:12 UTC

Post by Michael F. Stemper
I don't think that Barsoom is a state or even a territory of the US.
Carter's TLD will not be ".gov".

That's quite true, of course. If Barsoom got connected to Earth's Internet, it
would get its own country domain, and their government would have a domain
under that.

I think it's nearly connected but not quite yet...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet
https://marspedia.org/Internet
(untested web page, but nothing unusual is happening
after visiting it, earn $$$ working from home :-)

I can't quite figure out if I should ask if anyone has told Perseverance
about that option or just note that NASA seems to be doing the most
extreme version of working from home....

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Robert Carnegie

2021-03-04 11:22:09 UTC

Post by Michael F. Stemper
I don't think that Barsoom is a state or even a territory of the US.
Carter's TLD will not be ".gov".

That's quite true, of course. If Barsoom got connected to Earth's Internet, it
would get its own country domain, and their government would have a domain
under that.

I think it's nearly connected but not quite yet...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet

Incidentally: <https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere>

With the blue tick?

Posting pictures and videos...

Post by Robert Carnegie
https://marspedia.org/Internet
(untested web page, but nothing unusual is happening
after visiting it, earn $$$ working from home :-)

J. Clarke

2021-02-28 01:57:03 UTC

On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 16:24:08 -0600, "Michael F. Stemper"

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

***@Helium.gov I believe.

Wolffan

2021-02-27 23:13:46 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-
scammers/

Clicking those kind of links is usually a bad idea.

Post by Robert Carnegie
Your headlines seem to be muddling "knowing your
e-mail address" and "being able to read or send
your e-mail".

yep. They’d have to gain access to the account. In my case, they’d need
to break a 12-digit (lowercase, uppercase, number) passphrase based on a non
Indo-European language which I know mostly because my roomie in uni spoke it.
There’s a lot of non-Indo-European languages. Good luck guessing which one.
Then good luck guessing how I deliberately misspelled stuff. And that’s
what I use for a throwaway account; a serious account gets a bit more effort.

Post by Robert Carnegie
The person who wrote to Dorothy and
to me does seem to be claiming to do all of that.
(I just realised I forgot to "report as junk". Now done.)
In real life it's likely that John Carter of Mars has
with a reasonable amount of automatic spam deletion.
And you know, or guess, that goes for his friends
Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas. They're not at a big
risk, although a faked message apparently "from"
John Carter to the others or vice versa could
cause trouble. It is something to be careful of.

Anyonev of my friends who gets an email from my zoho account will not think
that it’s from me; they’re in two groups, those who know my zoho account,
and who know damn well that I don’t usually send mail from it, and those
who don’t know my zoho account, in which case they wouldn’t have clue one
who this is and would just dump it to spam. If someone tried to fake a post
from one of my business acounts, the peoplew I email would pick up the phone
and call me if they got something strange, ranging from a request to do
something with company money (“Send $100,000 to this account to pay for
FunWidgets”) or something supposedly containing strange pix. My personal
accounts, well, I’ve got a whole lot of them, going back 30+ years. _I_
have to have a cheat sheet to keep them straight, someone trying to hack in
would have no end of trouble.

Jonathan

2021-02-27 23:43:53 UTC

Post by Wolffan

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-
scammers/

Clicking those kind of links is usually a bad idea.

Post by Robert Carnegie
Your headlines seem to be muddling "knowing your
e-mail address" and "being able to read or send
your e-mail".

That's all fine, but most people aren't so careful.

But even for careful people none of that helps if a
company you frequent suffers a data breach and the
hacker gets the passwords too.

My bank has canceled my cards 3 times for mass
data breaches.

Post by Wolffan
There’s a lot of non-Indo-European languages. Good luck guessing which one.
Then good luck guessing how I deliberately misspelled stuff. And that’s
what I use for a throwaway account; a serious account gets a bit more effort.

--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-28 00:09:48 UTC

Post by Wolffan

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-
scammers/

Clicking those kind of links is usually a bad idea.

Post by Robert Carnegie
Your headlines seem to be muddling "knowing your
e-mail address" and "being able to read or send
your e-mail".

yep. Theyâd have to gain access to the account. In my case, theyâd need
to break a 12-digit (lowercase, uppercase, number) passphrase based on a non
Indo-European language which I know mostly because my roomie in uni spoke it.

Oh, good one.

Post by Wolffan

Post by Robert Carnegie
The person who wrote to Dorothy and
to me does seem to be claiming to do all of that.
(I just realised I forgot to "report as junk". Now done.)

I don't have a "report as junk" function on kithrup. I do on my
other accounts, and that is where I get most of the scamming
spam. Fortunately, I know too-good-to-be-true when I see it, and
Hal has taught me to look at the actual originating edress, which
is generally not what it claims to be. Sometimes I have to
google "TLD" and find out from what remote corner of the world
the scammer is scamming from.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Leif Roar Moldskred

2021-02-28 00:59:55 UTC

In my case, they???d need
to break a 12-digit (lowercase, uppercase, number) passphrase based on a non
Indo-European language which I know mostly because my roomie in uni spoke it.
There???s a lot of non-Indo-European languages. Good luck guessing which one.

I'd guess Finnish. It lies within in the Western cultural sphere and has a
relatively large number of speakers, it's written with a (slightly modified)
Latin alphabet so it'll be good for passwords and among all the non-Indo-
European languages it is probably the one most commonly referred to as
"a non-Indo-European language."

--
Leif Roar Moldskred

Dimensional Traveler

2021-02-28 02:09:46 UTC

The lesson here being don't give ANY clues out, no matter how badly you
want to brag about how smart you are. ;)

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Wolffan

2021-02-28 03:26:03 UTC

The lesson here being don't give ANY clues out, no matter how badly you
want to brag about how smart you are. ;)

It was a nice guess, but it was wrong. Several of the premises used to make
the guess were wrong.

Hint: at my uni there were native speakers of:

Magyar
Hindi/Urdu (same thing, just don’t tell them, that’s a really bad idea.
And don’t mention cricket, that’s a worse idea.)
Farsi
Japanese
Cantonese
Korean
Tagalog
Xhosa
Zulu (not quite the same thing as Xhosa)
Afrikaans (which is NOT Dutch) (one of the Zulu speakers was also an
Afrikaans speaker)
Arabic
Hebrew
Spanish
French
Portuguese
Russian

The above is not the full list. The language I have in mind might be among
those listed, or might not. It should be noted that all of the Farsi and most
of the Cantonese and Korean and Japanese speakers were graduate students. The
Farsi speakers couldn’t go home thanks to the mad mullahs, and yes they
were bitter about it.

Spot the non-Indo-European languages. Spot the different writing methods
sets. There are a lot of non-Indo-European languages and a lot of character
sets. Arabic and Hebrew go right to left while Latin and Cyrillic go left to
right. Japanese can use any of _three_ writing systems.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-28 03:46:31 UTC

The lesson here being don't give ANY clues out, no matter how badly you
want to brag about how smart you are. ;)

And we all know how smart we are already.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Wolffan

2021-02-28 02:56:55 UTC

I'd guess Finnish.

not even close.

Post by Leif Roar Moldskred
It lies within in the Western cultural sphere and has a
relatively large number of speakers, it's written with a (slightly modified)
Latin alphabet

who says that I didn’t transliterate from a non-Latin character set? Who
says that the language in question didn’t inherit a character set, Latin or
otherwise, from former colonial masters or similar? Who says that it isn’t
written in a modified Latin character set?

Post by Leif Roar Moldskred
so it'll be good for passwords and among all the non-Indo-
European languages it is probably the one most commonly referred to as
"a non-Indo-European language."

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-28 03:45:39 UTC

Hmmmmm. Maybe I should convert all my passwords into Quenya.
But they'd be even harder to remember than they are now. (I have
them all saved on a file in the depths of my computer; every now
and then I have to bring it up and find the one for such-and-such
a site, not having used it for a year. Or two.)

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

J. Clarke

2021-02-28 01:56:28 UTC

On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 12:52:42 -0800 (PST), Robert Carnegie

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...
They Can Learn When You're Out.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-scammers/

I have a policy of caution about following links to
serious dangers to my internet security, in case the
link /is/ a serious danger to my internet security.
It's s good way to trap people who are suspicious
but not suspicious enough.
Your headlines seem to be muddling "knowing your
e-mail address" and "being able to read or send
your e-mail". The person who wrote to Dorothy and
to me does seem to be claiming to do all of that.
(I just realised I forgot to "report as junk". Now done.)
In real life it's likely that John Carter of Mars has
with a reasonable amount of automatic spam deletion.
And you know, or guess, that goes for his friends
Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas. They're not at a big
risk, although a faked message apparently "from"
John Carter to the others or vice versa could
cause trouble. It is something to be careful of.

On the other hand, if those individuals were real, the scammer would
be at very considerable risk of eating a radium bullet. _If_ he was
lucky.

Wolffan

2021-02-27 22:45:45 UTC

If I used your e-mail address on the internet instead
of my own, then "my" e-mail would go to you instead
of me, anyway.

It would get bounced back to you, I don't post
a valid address on Usenet. But I was talking
about an identity thief getting your home address.

Some spam posters should worry about me getting their
geographical address. You have a point; I've seen people
use their house address in their e-mail domain - or their
wi-fi - and it seems unwise. But many services require a
valid e-mail for your membership. What they maybe don't
do is share it on.
I think your real argument is to use a discreet alternative
e-mail address and user name when you register for porn.

How many accounts do you have where your user name is
your email address? Most of them right?
What Can a Scammer Do With My Email Address?
They Can Impersonate You to Your Friends. ...

Bullshit. First they’d need to have a list of my friend’s accounts. If
they can access my contact list I’ve got far worse problems than theorv
being able to pretend to be me in email.

Post by Jonathan
They Can Crack the Passwords on Your Other Accounts. ...

Bullshit.Not if I use proper, strong, passwords and/or a password manager.
Even my throwaway accounts (such as, oh, the one I use for usenet) have 10 or
12 digit passphrases. Accounts that I use for serious business have 15 to 20
digit passphrases. Go on. Crack ‘em... if you can.

Post by Jonathan
They Can Use It to Crack Email-Based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) ...

not if you don’t actually use email-based 2FA...

Post by Jonathan
They Can Collect Sensitive Information. ...

Nope. They can’t get in. For example, I use my throwaway Zoho account on
usenet, but the Supernews account itself uses an entirely different account,
one which has never been seen on usenet. Go ahead, crack it. If you can.

Post by Jonathan
They Can Steal Your Identity. ...

Any attempt to steal the identity of a throwaway account will get a laugh
from me. Real accounts (plural) used for serious work are properly secured.
And I don’t use the same passphrase twice. Hell, I alternate accounts so
that no one account sees everything. And some of the accounts have deliberate
errors in them; the account for my ISP, for example, is used just to
communicate with the ISP and nowhere else... and has two extra letters in the
name. If I, or any of those who know me, see anything from an account that
has those two extra letters then we _know_ that the ISP has been hacked.
Hint: I use AT&T. AT&T, being useless, lazy, submorons just barely smarter
than you, Jon-boy, uses Yahoo for its email. 100% of all Yahoo email
accounts, including the AT&T accounts, were hacked
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_data_breaches some of them twice, some
of them three times. Yes, I saw idiots attempting to use the accounts in
question and not getting far, as I changed passphrases on a semiregular basis
precisely because I don’t trust Yahoo. And as the only place which had that
account _was_ AT&T, well, they couldn’t steal much. They couldn’t even
get into my AT&T account...

Post by Jonathan
They Can Learn When You're Out.

nope. Not if you don’t set an ‘out of office’ or similar auoreply up,
they can’t.

Post by Jonathan
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-your-email-address-can-be-exploited-by-sc
ammers/

Bullshit and FUD.

Robert Carnegie

2021-02-27 16:08:03 UTC

I just got a very similar e-mail demanding money...
they didn't tell you to forward it to six friends I hope :-)

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-02-27 16:47:32 UTC

Post by Robert Carnegie
I just got a very similar e-mail demanding money...
they didn't tell you to forward it to six friends I hope :-)

Nah, they just wanted me to send them $1500 in bitcoin.

"Not all that men desire do they obtain." --Housman

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

Jonathan

2021-02-27 20:48:54 UTC

Post by Robert Carnegie
I just got a very similar e-mail demanding money...
they didn't tell you to forward it to six friends I hope :-)

I got a robo call yesterday that was 'from'
The Homeland Security Dept stating my
SS# is involved in suspicious activity and
they need...

--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

Bice

2021-03-01 14:15:47 UTC

I got a similar email a while back with the threat being that they'd
send embarrasing footage from my webcam to all my Facebook contacts.

Which would be quite a trick, since I don't have a webcam or a
Facebook account.

On the other hand, I got an email from a hacker where the subject line
was an old password that I used on a few web sites. That one got my
attention. Fortunately, I had long since changed that password to
more secure (and unique) ones on any sites that mattered.

-- Bob

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-03-01 14:42:19 UTC

Heh. I don't have a Facebook account either. I do have a
webcam, but I've used it (I think) twice, and when it's not in
use it is disconnected. Hal describes himself as an old used
programmer, and he is professionally paranoid about the web. He
won't use Wi-Fi and he won't use the Cloud.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

William Hyde

2021-03-01 20:23:08 UTC

I got a similar email a while back with the threat being that they'd
send embarrasing footage from my webcam to all my Facebook contacts.
Which would be quite a trick, since I don't have a webcam or a
Facebook account.
On the other hand, I got an email from a hacker where the subject line
was an old password that I used on a few web sites. That one got my
attention. Fortunately, I had long since changed that password to
more secure (and unique) ones on any sites that mattered.

There's a site you can go to to find which of your passwords have been stolen. I too received a demand for money, the email citing their possession of one of my passwords as "proof" that they'd hacked my computer (though as I too have no webcam ...).

I forget the site, but a brief google search showed that my password had been part of a data breach somewhere six years before.

William Hyde

Torbjorn Lindgren

2021-03-02 17:25:36 UTC

I got a similar email a while back with the threat being that they'd
send embarrasing footage from my webcam to all my Facebook contacts.
Which would be quite a trick, since I don't have a webcam or a
Facebook account.
On the other hand, I got an email from a hacker where the subject line
was an old password that I used on a few web sites. That one got my
attention. Fortunately, I had long since changed that password to
more secure (and unique) ones on any sites that mattered.

There's a site you can go to to find which of your passwords have been
stolen. I too received a demand for money, the email citing their
possession of one of my passwords as "proof" that they'd hacked my
computer (though as I too have no webcam ...).
I forget the site, but a brief google search showed that my password had
been part of a data breach somewhere six years before.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Currently tracking:
pwned websites: 514
pwned accounts: 10,623,471,650
pastes: 113,995
paste accounts: 199,574,646

You can run checks and sign up for notifications for any known
(important qualifier) leaks that include your email address, and if
you're an domain administator you can run scans and/or sign up for
summaries for any email address on your domain - to preserve some
anonymity for the users these just list how many for each "leak".

Some of them are low-grade leaks (like "list of valid email addresses"
from a spam service) while others are rather bad (like "forum breach,
with email addresses and plain text passwords").

Some password managers also use their password checker service to find
leaked passwords, they have a VERY nifty crytographically secure
protocol that allows them to check "has this password been published"
without revealing anything about what the password to haveibeenpwned
or someone else (a LOT of work went into that protocol).

And if you're not using a password manager... Well, you're probably
part of the problem :-)

These days one really, REALLY needs to use different passwords on EACH
site and that password really should be substantially different from
any other of your password (ideally randomly generated but kept
pronouncable) and very few or no people can reliably keep 100's or
more likely 1000's of different random passwords in memory.

Because any leaked password WILL be quickly be tried on all other
services they can think of, so password sharing is a very bad idea.

So unless you don't have more than 3-5 accounts in total the only good
option is some kind of Password Manager. Could be a free local one
like KeePass (which I use), the free tier of an online password
manager service or a paid premium service.

William Hyde

2021-03-02 18:57:52 UTC

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

I got a similar email a while back with the threat being that they'd
send embarrasing footage from my webcam to all my Facebook contacts.
Which would be quite a trick, since I don't have a webcam or a
Facebook account.
On the other hand, I got an email from a hacker where the subject line
was an old password that I used on a few web sites. That one got my
attention. Fortunately, I had long since changed that password to
more secure (and unique) ones on any sites that mattered.

There's a site you can go to to find which of your passwords have been
stolen. I too received a demand for money, the email citing their
possession of one of my passwords as "proof" that they'd hacked my
computer (though as I too have no webcam ...).
I forget the site, but a brief google search showed that my password had
been part of a data breach somewhere six years before.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/
pwned websites: 514
pwned accounts: 10,623,471,650
pastes: 113,995
paste accounts: 199,574,646
You can run checks and sign up for notifications for any known
(important qualifier) leaks that include your email address, and if
you're an domain administator you can run scans and/or sign up for
summaries for any email address on your domain - to preserve some
anonymity for the users these just list how many for each "leak".
Some of them are low-grade leaks (like "list of valid email addresses"
from a spam service) while others are rather bad (like "forum breach,
with email addresses and plain text passwords").
Some password managers also use their password checker service to find
leaked passwords, they have a VERY nifty crytographically secure
protocol that allows them to check "has this password been published"
without revealing anything about what the password to haveibeenpwned
or someone else (a LOT of work went into that protocol).
And if you're not using a password manager... Well, you're probably
part of the problem :-)
These days one really, REALLY needs to use different passwords on EACH
site and that password really should be substantially different from
any other of your password (ideally randomly generated but kept
pronouncable) and very few or no people can reliably keep 100's or
more likely 1000's of different random passwords in memory.
Because any leaked password WILL be quickly be tried on all other
services they can think of, so password sharing is a very bad idea.
So unless you don't have more than 3-5 accounts in total the only good
option is some kind of Password Manager. Could be a free local one
like KeePass (which I use), the free tier of an online password
manager service or a paid premium service.

I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.

I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).

William Hyde

Dimensional Traveler

2021-03-02 20:01:38 UTC

Post by William Hyde
I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.
I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).
William Hyde

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

William Hyde

2021-03-02 23:09:59 UTC

I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.
I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).
William Hyde

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem. Figuring out where all the diamonds are, a problem.

William Hyde

Juho Julkunen

2021-03-02 23:51:25 UTC

I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.
I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).
William Hyde

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem. Figuring out where all the diamonds are, a problem.

Mathematicians can't count beyond two. It happens.

--
Juho Julkunen

Dimensional Traveler

2021-03-03 00:05:30 UTC

I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.
I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).
William Hyde

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem. Figuring out where all the diamonds are, a problem.

My father was a geophysicist working in the hydrocarbon exploration
industry (mostly seismic "stuff"). Figuring out where anything
underground is, a problem, but I'm pretty sure he could count above 13. ;)

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

William Hyde

2021-03-03 19:56:06 UTC

I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.
I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).
William Hyde

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem. Figuring out where all the diamonds are, a problem.

Then he missed a lucrative career in professional bridge. I understand that you can make huge amounts of money, up to, say, twelve dollars!

William Hyde

Dimensional Traveler

2021-03-03 20:29:00 UTC

I don't bank or do anything of a financial nature online. This admittedly became a bit more difficult when my local bank branch was closed, and more so now with the pandemic, but I manage. I operate on the assumption that this computer is compromised.
I do play on bridgebase.com. Where people can learn the Awful Secrets of my play (the secret is that I can't count to 13).
William Hyde

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem. Figuring out where all the diamonds are, a problem.

Then he missed a lucrative career in professional bridge. I understand that you can make huge amounts of money, up to, say, twelve dollars!

Alas, there were ... other considerations ... that made that unlikely.

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Michael F. Stemper

2021-03-03 23:01:55 UTC

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem.

"No problem," he says. First class that I dropped in close to
forty years.

--
Michael F. Stemper
Deuteronomy 24:17

William Hyde

2021-03-04 19:09:40 UTC

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem.

"No problem," he says. First class that I dropped in close to
forty years.

The first course I took in this was classical, packed with Rieman-Christoffel tensors and that sort of thing. Taught mainly from a Schaum's outline, it was accessible to anyone with second year calculus. The second was from a book called "connections, curvature, and cohomology". It took a bit of work to see any connection between the two. The second was more fun, the first more useful. I was asked to take a third course, but felt I'd been pushing my luck in the second - I could do the work but felt that basically I had no idea what was going on.

I remember approximately zero of all this now.

The course I dropped was "Quantum Mechanics in Hilbert Space". The prof was utterly mad, but it still might have been OK except that the prof who taught the prerequisite was utterly irresponsible and had simply failed to teach the required functional analysis, preferring to spend more time on areas that interested him. Other people toughed it out and got a gentleman's C, I was (finally!) not going to do that. Two hours into the one-hour first test that went on for three hours I handed in my paper, told the prof not to bother marking it, and dropped the course within ten minutes.

Dropping that course was a very satisfying feeling. I took an extra fluid mechanics instead. From a heavy smoking, heavy drinking, sane professor. I figured a little second hand smoke would be less dangerous that months of stress.

William Hyde

Dimensional Traveler

2021-03-04 21:22:20 UTC

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem.

"No problem," he says. First class that I dropped in close to
forty years.

Of course he was mad! He thought he understood quantum mechanics and
Hilbert space enough to teach it!! That's one of the definitions of
insanity. :)

--
I like living in the suburbs of Sanity. I can commute there when I need
to be serious or mature but otherwise I can do as I please.

Tony Nance

2021-03-05 14:16:35 UTC

Aren't you a scientist of one sort or another? :-P

Differential geometry, no problem.

"No problem," he says. First class that I dropped in close to
forty years.

The first course I took in this was classical, packed with Rieman-Christoffel tensors and that sort of thing. Taught mainly from a Schaum's outline,

Heh - sounds about right. Back in the day, about the only text choices were
Do Carmo and...Thorpe, I think. I don't know what the situation is nowadays -
maybe Michael can fill us in on what he was using.

it was accessible to anyone with second year calculus.

Mathematically true for sure, but I had a rough intro to the material,
since I was mathematically immature[1] and wasn't savvy/solid with
the shifting between global and local.

Tony
[1] The department & the number of majors were small enough that
major classes were only offered every other year. Just the way
the rotation went, I was taking this one as a junior in a class
half-filled with seniors, and the prof surely aimed at the older end
more than the younger end. Aside from 3 semesters of calculus,
the only other math a typical junior hit this class with was a
course in linear algebra or a course in abstract algebra, but not both.

Dorothy J Heydt

2021-03-02 19:34:36 UTC

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

I got a similar email a while back with the threat being that they'd
send embarrasing footage from my webcam to all my Facebook contacts.
Which would be quite a trick, since I don't have a webcam or a
Facebook account.
On the other hand, I got an email from a hacker where the subject line
was an old password that I used on a few web sites. That one got my
attention. Fortunately, I had long since changed that password to
more secure (and unique) ones on any sites that mattered.

There's a site you can go to to find which of your passwords have been
stolen. I too received a demand for money, the email citing their
possession of one of my passwords as "proof" that they'd hacked my
computer (though as I too have no webcam ...).
I forget the site, but a brief google search showed that my password had
been part of a data breach somewhere six years before.

Would you care to explain how a password manager works and how to
find one?

This is reminding me of the days back when I was just beginning
to look at the Web and all the flashy advertisements were driving
me nuts. (I have since learned to ignore them.) And Gary Farber
kept saying, search on "ad blocker," you'll get a whole list of
them, pick one and install it."

Which, now I look back on it, is horrible advice. Fortunately,
at the time I didn't know how to install anything.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

J. Clarke

2021-03-02 20:47:47 UTC

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

I got a similar email a while back with the threat being that they'd
send embarrasing footage from my webcam to all my Facebook contacts.
Which would be quite a trick, since I don't have a webcam or a
Facebook account.
On the other hand, I got an email from a hacker where the subject line
was an old password that I used on a few web sites. That one got my
attention. Fortunately, I had long since changed that password to
more secure (and unique) ones on any sites that mattered.

There's a site you can go to to find which of your passwords have been
stolen. I too received a demand for money, the email citing their
possession of one of my passwords as "proof" that they'd hacked my
computer (though as I too have no webcam ...).
I forget the site, but a brief google search showed that my password had
been part of a data breach somewhere six years before.

Would you care to explain how a password manager works and how to
find one?

It keeps your passwords in an encrypted file with a copy on your
computer and a copy on the vendor's web site. I want to log into a
web site, the password manager pops up and with permission fills in
login name and password. It can also fill in address and other
information. When you create an account it will generate a string of
random characters for a password (or for a login for that matter), so
every account has a different password and none of them are
susceptible to social engineering or dictionary attacks.

The password manager has a master password--that's the only one that
you have to remember--use a passphrase, where you use the first (or
second, or third, or last, or whatever) letter of each word, and
substitute numbers or symbols where they fit.

The one that my employer (Fortune 100 financial services, 3/4 trillion
in assets under management--whole floor of a large building devoted to
data security) provides is LastPass, which works on Windows, OS/X,
IOS, and versions of Android prior to 11 (it kind of works on 11 but
not well). LastPass has recently been bought up by another company
that has tripled the price and eliminated most of the utility of the
free tier, so I do not recommend it. But have not found a completely
satisfactory replacement either.

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
This is reminding me of the days back when I was just beginning
to look at the Web and all the flashy advertisements were driving
me nuts. (I have since learned to ignore them.) And Gary Farber
kept saying, search on "ad blocker," you'll get a whole list of
them, pick one and install it."
Which, now I look back on it, is horrible advice. Fortunately,
at the time I didn't know how to install anything.

Torbjorn Lindgren

2021-03-02 21:53:46 UTC