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[bluemoon72]

...deal with the ongoing fallout of having my Facebook and Gmail accounts hacked this weekend, with the requisite "help, I got mugged in London, send money!" email sent out to everyone I've ever known.   Note to friends: "Hey, how was your trip to London?" isn't funny.  I'm going to spend the next 6 months waking up with hate shakes because I'm worried about the hackers finding the one (there was only one) email that had my SSN in it.  Fuck off.  Besides, why the hell would I go to Jolly Old England during America's holiday of gastronomic excess?

They also set up a dummy email account on Opera Mail, but that account has already been shut down.  I was really looking forward to opening a Yahoo! Personals ad for them, with the headline "Small Dick, Big Heart".

Wow, Ted, London's kinda dreary this time of year, why'd you go?  (DON'T HIT ME)  No, what I really meant to say was, that frickin' sucks.  I feel for you.  Internet hugs probably won't help, but if there's a way I can internet punch that motherfucker in the eye, just let know.

[pmcd9]

Besides, why the hell would I go to Jolly Old England during America's holiday of gastronomic excess?

I spent London in Thanksgiving once.  My Turkey dinner was chicken curry.  Yumm!

[greenkoolayd]

...deal with the ongoing fallout of having my Facebook and Gmail accounts hacked this weekend, with the requisite "help, I got mugged in London, send money!" email sent out to everyone I've ever known.   Note to friends: "Hey, how was your trip to London?" isn't funny.  I'm going to spend the next 6 months waking up with hate shakes because I'm worried about the hackers finding the one (there was only one) email that had my SSN in it.  Fuck off.  Besides, why the hell would I go to Jolly Old England during America's holiday of gastronomic excess?

They also set up a dummy email account on Opera Mail, but that account has already been shut down.  I was really looking forward to opening a Yahoo! Personals ad for them, with the headline "Small Dick, Big Heart".

you must be a big deal if someone went through all that trouble.

[wombat]

Yeah seriously how did this happen?

[lprkn]

That sucks, dude.

My hotmail account got hacked once. My password wasn't complex, at all. It was only a matter of time.

[TedStriker]

I think they got into my Facebook first, and since I'm that dumbass who used the same password on both services, they were able to get into my Gmail after that.  Apparently, it's a common enough issue that Facebook has an FAQ about it.  Naturally, FB still has yet to respond, while Google restored me within 4 hours.

My password wasn't that weak: 8 characters, no real words, alphanumeric.  Only weaknesses were a repetition of the numbers and a lack of case-sensitivity. 

The goal of these scams is to find someone in my contacts who's out of touch with me/gullible enough to believe that this scenario is possible, and then give the fuckers some cash. 

All that said, I did get the oddest compliment of my life several times during this weekend: "We knew it couldn't be legit, because you're a better writer than that."

[wombat]

I wonder if I should go change some passwords, instead of the work I should be doing right now.

Of course this would mean I'd have to remember all the passwords I already have.

[jay-ell]

Fix your terrible, insecure passwords in five minutes

An article by my current internet-journalist crush, Farhad Manjoo. S'good.

[TedStriker]

Ironically, I read that article when he first posted it, and thought "Yeah, I should do that"

As you might have already guessed, that's about as far as it went.

[greenkoolayd]

i took care of some santa bidness today(what little im conducting this year...).  almost all of my out-of-state friends are taken care of.  also, my TOUAMBSS-person.

[wombat]

Ironically, I read that article when he first posted it, and thought "Yeah, I should do that"

As you might have already guessed, that's about as far as it went.

Oooh, that is the saddest thing.

I will consider that system next time around, but I just went and changed some stuff and finally managed to write them all down in one secret place where I can find them again if I need to, I can't bear to do it all again immediately. I've at least changed that thing where too many of the passwords were the same.

I honestly don't understand a business model that involves hacking into people's accounts and asking their friends to send money. How many people are really going to do that on the basis of one message without contacting the person? And if you know someone well enough to agree to send them money, wouldn't you know whether they were really in London at the moment, and realize something was up? The chances of success just seem so low. It just doesn't even seem like a good scam.

[bluemoon72]

Oooh, that is the saddest thing.

I will consider that system next time around, but I just went and changed some stuff and finally managed to write them all down in one secret place where I can find them again if I need to, I can't bear to do it all again immediately. I've at least changed that thing where too many of the passwords were the same.

I honestly don't understand a business model that involves hacking into people's accounts and asking their friends to send money. How many people are really going to do that on the basis of one message without contacting the person? And if you know someone well enough to agree to send them money, wouldn't you know whether they were really in London at the moment, and realize something was up? The chances of success just seem so low. It just doesn't even seem like a good scam.

A scam was going around here in Minnesota this past summer where elderly ladies were being targeted by young men.  The men were calling random old-lady-sounding names and saying, "Grandma, I'm stuck in jail in Canada, can you send money?"  Then poor Grandma would be like, "Mike?  Mike, is that you?"  And the guy would be like, "Yeah, it's me, Grandma, it's Mike.  I got in trouble here in Canada, and I can't get out of jail unless you wire $1000 to bail me out."  You would not believe the numbers of elderly women who were taken by these horrible people. 

[Choop]

watch this movie it is even better than it looks

[Mr Trout]

watch this movie and hope it is better than it looks

[Choop]

trout, i liked it. it's a wes anderson film, and no denying it. i haven't read the book but i can guarantee that most of the script isn't Dahl's words.

(the link i posted above was a response to bluemoon's post, i should have quoted her)