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Fraud Fighter "Bobbear" To Close Up Shop
Krebsonsecurity.com has a writeup on the decision of UK anti-fraud activist site bobbear.co.uk to retire from the fray. The 66-year-old fraud fighter said he was getting too old for the work, which takes him about 15 hours a day. "We had so many messages of thanks, and congratulations on the site, but it is so stressful and takes so much out of you, and there is always the worry of litigation hanging over your head." "The owner and curator of bobbear.co.uk, a site that specializes in exposing Internet fraud scams and phantom online companies, announced Saturday that he will be shuttering the site at the end of April. Bobbear and its companion site bobbear.com are creations of [the pseudonomous] Bob Harrison, a 66-year-old UK resident who for the last four years has tirelessly chronicled and exposed a myriad of fraud and scam Web sites. The sites, which are well-indexed by Google and other search engines and receive about 2,000 hits per day, often are among the first results returned in a search for the names of fly-by-night corporations advertised in spam and aimed at swindling the unsuspecting or duping the unwitting." Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.
Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.
Turn it into a moderated wiki. Allow interested parties to post, and a queue of submissions from forwarded emails to be reviewed. Like the slashdot of the spam underworld. :|
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.
Sounds like something that the Consumers Union might want to take a look at.
They publish Consumer Reports and recently acquired The Consumerist website.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Does a bobbear shit in the woods?
Not that I'm trying to run this guy down but 2000 hits a day is pretty small site. The /b/tards on 4chan have probably done more to combat online scams.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'll buy the domain and build up a business on it. I have a great way to get potential new employees too. I'll simply find 5 people and tell them about this awesome opportunity to do good for the general world. They can each pay me $50 to be part of this opportunity, but don't worry they can quickly recoup their costs. All they need to do is go out and find 10 more employees each and get them all to sign up for $50. They can keep 5% of whatever joining fee that gets paid. Then those people can each find another 10 people.... Soon I shall use my newly recuirted army to fight fraud!
"Hello, I represent Mr. Kopyambi, who died recently and left $28 million unclaimed. If you wish to claim a portion of this amount as a handling fee, just set the domain name administrator to Pytor Molotov, Russian Business Network, St. Petersburg"
...could take it over: www.scamwarners.com, www.scamorama.com, www.419eater.com, or www.aa419.org. They've already proven their worth on the anti-scam front and have people that can keep it current.
Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated
If one man can be acknowledged by the cyber-community to make a difference, (and, in passing, hats off to him), imagine what Government could do with a well-financed team of, say, ten people?
Cyber-crime costs a hugh, and increasing, amount of money, (see comments here on /. about the true cost of spam). Unfortunately, Governments do not seem to take it seriously enough. Maybe because it rarely hits to headlines, and so is perceived as less of an issue, (i.e. vote winner). Shame.
Since these sites keep turning up high in the search results, it would be to their benefit if there was someone to help cleanup the mess.
the 'experts' should be prompted to inhale some sulfur dioxide to get a more accurate take on any risks.
you have the right to remain silent.
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"The wealth of the universe is for me. Every thing is explicable and practical for me .... I am defeated all the time; yet to victory I am born." --emerson
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"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." )one does not need not to agree whois in charge to grasp the notion that there may be some assistance available to us(
boeing, boeing, gone.
...that I never heard of.
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If we had lawsuit protection and a loser pays rule it would be a lot harder to threaten these sites with frivolous lawsuits. Especially if a judge ruled that you had to put up a bond to pay in the event you lost before you were allowed to file. You can argue the other way that this denies the poor justice, but the current system is crap to innocent defendants.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I suppose it wouldn't make sense for Google to take some responsibility for essentially aiding and abetting this activity. Turning a blind eye to abuse would be akin to that.
That site sure as hell was designed by a 66 year old.
users. Surpr1se ARGUED BY ERIC includes where you
I'm probably too lazy to continue the fine work this guy's been doing, but I promise not to put up pictures of women being raped a la Ask Jeeves' retirement domain. That's gotta be worth something, right?
What I'd like to see is a PenTesting-style team of white hats. These guys could set up the scams and, when they get a bite, take funds for, say, 24 hours. Then, contact the user and let them know what happened, how they did it, and what the use can do to not get taken in the future.The system would be funded with a small percentage of the funds they take from people, say 1%. Basically, a fine; similar to a speeding ticket.
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Also, Dude..."Chinaman" is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
It's hard to tell which parts of this comments are tongue-in-cheek and which are sincere.
Given this, I'll point out that many- well, actually the vast majority of- "chinamen" (whether that's an acceptable term or not) are not and have never been "American" in any sense.
It reminds me of this article.
Also, while it might be *your* (i.e. Americans') socially accepted term, it's still pretty stupid- such usage of "Asian" is neither accurate nor universal. Asia is a large continent with many different peoples, and I don't see how "Asian" referring specifically to East Asians is helpful. At least the now-disliked term "oriental" was more specific in that respect.
Also, in Britain, "Asian" typically means South Asian ethnicity, i.e. from the Indian subcontinent. No more inclusive, but no less valid than the American usage- while being totally different.
It's not even like the nitpicky discussions over the term "American" that erupt periodically on Slashdot- English usage has standardised on that (cf. "North America"/"North American" and "The Americas"), which just isn't the case with "Asian".
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