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The Five Nigerian Gangs Behind Most Craigslist Buyer Scams
itwbennett writes Five Nigerian criminal gangs are behind most scams targeting sellers on Craigslist, and they've taken new measures to make their swindles appear legitimate, according to a study by George Mason University researchers Damon McCoy and Jackie Jones. In a new innovation, they're using professional check-writing equipment plus U.S.-based accomplices to not raise suspicions among their victims. McCoy and Jones will present their paper on Sept. 24 at the IEEE eCrime Research Summit in Birmingham, Alabama.
The biggest scams happen on Wall Street - start there.
And what happens when they've spoofed their IP addresses to point to a law enforcement building ?
UPS Sucks
... is really old news. At least if you look at other parts of the world. These "agents" are duped into thinking they're involved in a legitimate business, and end up going to jail while the scammers laugh.
Know what? This is just American style capitalism at work.
You're free to not buy from the scammers, because that's how the free market works, right?
This is why every asshole who says "Yarg! Deregulation" need to be kicked repeatedly in the head.
In a lot of countries, that may not be spoofed.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Hilarity ensues.
Winning!
DOUBLE PLUS winning! ;)
You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Deregulation does not equal misrepresenting your product. An example of regulation would be prohibiting delis from selling wine / 20 ounce sodas. Deregulating would be allowing them to sell legal products such as soda and wine. It doesn't mean they can bottle piss and sell it as Sprite.
Deregulation does not prevent fraud charges, or lawsuits. As if our laws apply in Nigeria...
So, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If you've got some time on your hands, toddle over to 419 Eater and get educated. If you have even more time on your hands, become a scam baiter.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
Put it in context.
There is clearly an optimal level of regulation. 0% of the economy going to regulation compliance clearly isn't it. But 100% isn't it either.
How many pages/year of new regulation come out of DC? How many are removed from the books? You called out 'American style capitalism' specifically, but Europe is at least as fucked.
Someone needs a boot to the head. I saw them in a thread recently; calling for government regulation of airplane seat spacing.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
When I list something on Craigslist, I only accept cash or debit. While not foolproof, cash can be checked for legitimacy with a counterfeit detector pen. And while cards can be stolen, checking their ID will stop most cases of fraud.
the Nigerian 411 scammers is to simply give yourself the following test: "If it's too good to be true, it most definitely is." No one in their right is just going to wire several million dollars into your account in exchange for a small transaction fee. The best thing to do is just delete these emails. Or, if you feel intrepid, it might be fun to bait them along for a little bit.
Right, because there are no innocent children living there.
Idiot Americans!
the Nigerian 411 scammers is to simply give yourself the following test: "If it's too good to be true, it most definitely is." No one in their right is just going to wire several million dollars into your account in exchange for a small transaction fee. The best thing to do is just delete these emails. Or, if you feel intrepid, it might be fun to bait them along for a little bit.
411 is the telephone number for "information" in the US. You're thinking of 419.
Have a good day!
Craigslist provides seven tips for avoiding fraud. The scam in this article involves ignoring three of those tips. The funny thing is that those three tips have nothing to do with the ambiguous "too good to be true" line that people throw around. All of those tips involve how (not) to conduct transactions on a site that provides minimal protections for fraud.
and they've taken new measures to make their swindles appear legitimate
Oh crap, you mean they've hired people who are fluent in english?
In a new innovation, they're using professional check-writing equipment
nevermind, carry on.
I was selling off an ATI 9800 high-end model (was old by then though) & sent me $5,000 in money orders (wells fargo type): I was only asking for, iirc, $100 or so for the videocard too...
Right then, This crook began to attempt to "push me" into going to the bank immediately after I wrote him back via email & called him stating "Hey buddy - you sent me a *wee bit much* for this vidcard!"
He stated "It's a gift for your help"... lol, "yea, right"
So, right then, I called WellsFargo & they determined the money orders were part of a scam online + a known "bad" run of them that were stolen &/or duplicated...
Did this by their "MICR #'s" / "Routing Numbers" (for lack of a better expression - it's what I used on checks to do that in my old job back in the 1980's is why & it's similar enough here too) when I went to verify the funds being actually available or not!
They weren't, needless to say... however, were *I* to cash in on them? I WOULD HAVE BEEN LIABLE!
That's WRONG: Banks ought to be the ones doing THAT part of it, NOT I, as a depositor in good faith!
Now, I have a background in my past as a loss prevention mgt. figure & I had to verify personal checks A LOT on that job - that's pretty much HOW I did it too (bank calls, & verify funds etc. - et al) - so I did the same here.
Glad I did.
The bank it was drafted on THEN instructed me to call Wells Fargo to verify funds!
AGAIN - THE BANKS THAT ACCEPT FUNDS OF ANY KIND IN CHECK OR MONEY ORDER FORM SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS, as well as my OWN bank too, upon receipt of myself attempting to cash them in & deposit them!
However - Apparently, NOWADAYS @ least, THEY DON'T... & THAT, people, is TOTAL BULLSHIT!
Why?
Heck - It puts the depositor @ risk, & all it TAKES is a phonecall to the bank or money order company involved to check for funds being actually present, OR, if the money order or checks involved are stolen, or counterfeit, etc.
To me @ least?
It seems like banks are "in on the scam" by dodging THEIR DUTIES here, in not verifying check or money order funds being present OR if they are legit (not stolen or counterfeited etc.).
APK
P.S.=> In the end, I went to the local FBI office with the forged/stolen checks, with the email information the crook (a "reverend" out of Atlanta, no less) gave me, along with his phone number (disposable cellphone) - needless to say, the crook stopped calling me RIGHT after I did that... apk
cash can be checked for legitimacy with a counterfeit detector pen
"Counterfeit detector pens" don't exist. They're just iodine: they have no special detection properties whatsoever.
"Counterfeit pens are fairly accurate and save a lot of time, but they aren't foolproof. For instance, if the counterfeit is printed on paper with a low starch content, the pen won't detect it. If someone managed to steal a roll of unused currency paper and printed it themselves, the pen wouldn't detect it. If someone washed a $1 bill until the ink was gone and re-printed it as a $100 bill, the pen wouldn't detect it. All the pen really detects is whether the paper is made from wood pulp or an alternate, less starchy fiber."
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
double win?
You know, I can't speak to the rest of this, but the airline industry has been steadily making seats smaller and smaller for a long time now.
Eventually, you reach a point where your seat is smaller than at least half of the population -- some seats are reaching the point where they barely fit your average teenager.
Throw in people who are deciding that they can choose whether or nor people can recline the seat they paid for ... and air travel has become a really shitty experience to be avoided.
And that's before we get to the shitty customer service, overselling aircraft, and everything else. I wouldn't fly United Airlines unless there was no recourse and I absolutely had no choice, because they've gone from bad, to terrible -- and even then, you probably get a shitty regional carrier who does an even worse job.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I wish your government would accept that its rule of law ends at its borders..
but not for AMURIKA WORLD POLICE!
fuck your country USA is far far worse for corruption and scams, they just dont happen to be the low budget on craigslist kind .
Deregulation does not prevent fraud charges, or lawsuits. As if our laws apply to the wealthy and well connected in the US...
There. FTFY.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
If you are selling on Craigslist and you accept checks you deserve to be ripped off. I always do craigslist transactions at the local police station -- if the seller or buyer won't come there then I don't need that item that bad or I may have prevented myself from being robbed of my cash. Either way I'm better off.
Eventually if nobody fits in the seats, then people will stop booking seats on that airline. On the other hand, some people might think that stand up seating similar to the SkyRider would be a welcome option on shorter flights if it meant lower ticket prices. It's like saying that people shouldn't be able to operate a hostel or a capsule hotel because a large percentage of the population doesn't find that type of accommodation adequate, when it works well for a large number of people.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The Five Nigerian Proxies Behind Most Craigslist Buyer Scams
Osama bin Laden was only a couple blocks off from your target.
Seriously though, people alleging a world finance conspiracy to screw the little guy is exactly why the World Trade Organization was targeted. And a perceived American military hegemony was why the pentagon was targeted. I'm not trying to discredit you by comparing you to an international terrorist responsible for thousands of deaths, but instead trying to highlight that someone has acted on exactly this idea before.
It didn't turn out well for anyone.
Deregulation does not equal misrepresenting your product.
Why, is there some sort of super, underegulable regulation that says you shouldn't misrepresent your product?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
As tempting as that can be, there is an easier solution. In this digital age, it's inconceivable that an alert cannot be issued by the bank granting money based on these bogus checks. Checks should be immediately verifiable for NSF and for whether the account exists or not. If for, whatever reason, they are not immediately verifiable, the customer should be warned and payment should be postponed till verified. That this is still happening in the digital age, no one but the banks are at fault.
It doesn't mean they can bottle piss and sell it as Sprite.
Well duh. The color is all wrong. You have to sell it as lemonade, Mello Yellow, Mountain Dew or something else with at least a vaguely similar coloration.
Assuming of course the airline actually publishes their seat sizes and seat pitch (and that that isn't just a best-case). And it assumes that there is another airline servicing your airport which gives you choice. And that it won't be a zillion times more expensive.
In my case, my shoulders are at about the physical limit of seat width in many economy seats -- I mean my actual skeleton here. And I'm not what I consider especially broad in the shoulders.
But, really, another half inch or so, and the person next to me and I are going to have to cuddle during the flight. There's simply no more room for me to have less room to fit into.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to have a "Skinny Ass Airlines" where you publish that all of your seats are 12" wide, but when airlines are talking about cramming an additional seat or two into a row -- you're quickly reaching a point where an awful lot of people physically do not fit into the seats.
There's a reason why it's called "Cattle Class". And some of the airlines are going out of their way to give less service for more money, not give a damn if they don't uphold their contract, and act like they're doing you a favor.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
There are several ways to accept money safely, but a Certified Check has never, ever been one of them.
Seriously, how can everyone not know this?
This might help explain all the "your cv is being attractive to us" spam I've been bombarded with recently. Maybe they're recruiting (perhaps unknowing) accomplices.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I thought a good host file could protect against this?
I gladly accept Nigerian checks on CL. This way the scammers are out of FedEx/UPS fee and I add another fake check to my office collection.
Basic fraud statutes apply
how did the scammers get professional check writing equipment? Did they buy it on craigslist with a fake check??
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Only the the most wet behind the ears retard would think a mailed check for a craigslist item is legitimate. This wasn't even news a decade ago. I'm honestly amazed that this lame scam works.
Banks don't have time to make a phone call for every check you deposit, it is your responsibility to only accept checks from people you know so you can recover the funds if the check bounces. Your bank's job is to submit the check on your behalf to the bank it was drawn on and request that it be paid. You clearly are gullible and were fleeced, that isn't the bank's fault it is your fault. But because I'm a really nice guy I'd like to let you know that I have many contacts in the scammer community and believe I know the person who fleeced you. I can help you recover all your money but will need a $100 retainer sent via MoneyGram and will only keep 10% of the amount I recover. Reply for details.
> they're using professional check-writing equipment plus U.S.-based accomplices to not raise suspicions among
> their victims
Funny I was just posting my little anecdote about these groups on slashdo recently ( http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ), not only does this jive exactly with my limited exposure to these gangs, but, I even got them to try and recruit me to thelp them. Thing is.... this was a room in my house....I have not been a landlord in several years, and this was several years before I stopped so.... this was at least 5-7 years ago.
so while its true, its not new. In fact, I left this detail out of my previous tale but, after recieving the money orders that I knew were fake, I did look over them and attempt to verify that they were fakes, which the claimed issuer was happy to verify for me. That said, had I not known their source, they might have fooled me, they were decent fakes that were professionally printed, even then.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I think his point was that fraud statues are a form of regulation, which they are.
(Over) Regulation does not prevent fraud charges, or lawsuits.
Here is the deal, criminals are criminals. Period. All the rules and regulations in the world won't prevent them from being criminals.
IF you're making the case that regulation prevents crime, you're simply in error, it does not. Oftentimes it doesn't even prevent the crimes it was designed to prevent, it just adds an extra step in the criminal behavior. All the rules and regulations designed to prevent money laundering hasn't even put a dent in money laundering, it simply made it slightly more difficult. Meanwhile, it affects everyone who has legitimate banking transactions, costing everyone a little.
In short, Regulations rarely match the intended results.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Not to mention that the airlines have a financial incentive to make the seats smaller beyond fitting more people in the plane. If the seats are small enough and a passenger is going to take up more than one seat, they can charge him for two seats' worth. This might not have seemed like a major issue when the seats fit 95% of passengers. However, if the seats wind up fitting only 50% of passengers, then half of the passengers are going to have to pay double to fly. And while "well those people should just lose weight" *might* have been a semi-valid retort before, "losing weight" won't narrow the distance between the ends of your shoulder bones.
Sadly, as the airlines keep changing seat size, they don't publish this information. (That I'm aware of, I'd love to see a report on this.) This means consumers can't make an informed decision on the matter - just what the airlines want.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
LOL... but seriously, the Check21 law helped checks "clear" faster, and ushered in the era of check-less bill pay, but have mostly only helped the banks. They'll "clear" a check, then suddenly the bank it's drawn on will discover fraud a week later and do a chargeback. That doesn't sound clear to me.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
There's no such thing as IP spoofing on TCP/IP traffic. Get real.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
A friend of mine has a game where he responds to the "free vacation" guys with just "yes" for every question. He then posts the results to his FB along with how long he managed to bait the faux-telemarketer, and what their last words were (usually profanity).
Quite entertaining
Correct, to an extent. Regulations without teeth are a joke. Which is why we need a death penalty.
All the other air-freight carriers do.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I'm 6'5" ... and former swimmer (broad shoulders).... Airline seats suck.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I don't have an experience with this, but my identity was stolen once and I got the same impression about the credit card companies and credit agencies. If your identity is stolen, it's no big deal for them. They just push back and bad charges to the companies they came from. e.g. If Crook steals your identity, opens a credit card in your name, and goes on a spending spree at Electronics Hut, Electronics Hut will be caught having to pay for all of that equipment that Crook "bought."
The same seems to be true about this check fraud. The bank doesn't care if the check you deposit bounces horrendously. After all, if it does, it doesn't hurt them. It hurts you. Since they aren't hurt, they see check fraud as something for their customers to worry about instead of something that they could work to reduce. Now, if a "cleared" check gave the person that money, the money couldn't be yanked back once the bad check bounced, and the bank was stuck covering the deficit, you can guarantee that banks would have a fix in place for this scam within a week.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Indeed.
"Main St. built America,
Wall St. destroyed America."
An American or "Person in America" inventing something is not quite the same as "America invented it". If it wasn't financed/produced via the US Gov't America didn't invent it.
Every grocery store and quickie-mart I go to that does wire transfer has signs, brochures, etc. warning you about all the most common scams, of which this one is most certainly on the list. Those that persist in not yet getting the memo that using WU/MG to send money to anybody you don't actually know is insane are beyond help.
Hint: Why would somebody send you a huge check and expect you to forward the money on to their "agent"? Why would they just not pay the "agent" themseleves?
You can't fix stupid... while I feel sorry for those that fall for these schemes, I'm not sure what can be done to help them.
Not funny. I have a rich relative in Nigeria. He's sending me 6 million dollars.
Sure they suck. But would it suck worse for the government to mandate first class seats throughout?
There are _airplane_ models that I just won't fly on. Because the seats suck so bad. A large % of flight miles is by people who fly enough that market forces do work.
I'd still rather suck it up for 3-4 hours in cattle class + 1 TSA groping vs. 3 days on Amtrack. As soon as the Amtrack is behind schedule they put you on a plane anyhow.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Indeed.
"Main St. built America,
Wall St. destroyed America."
What America are you talking about? The one where you hope in your Chevrolet to go down to the McDonalds and get a Coke and a hamburger with delicious Heinz ketchup, all lit and powered by General Electric light bulbs and power plants. Is that all "Main St." to you? America is built by large corporations and those corporations get financing from Wall Street. There are people on Wall Street that will finance anything that they can and get so greedy for profit they don't realize how deep a hole they dug until it collapses on them. Maybe we could stop that with a little bit of regulations? Maybe, but we wouldn't want to put any sort of restrictions on the "Free Market", so instead the tax payers can cover the cost.
Either make investors on Wall Street eat their own bullshit when it goes bad, or regulate them to prevent them from doing dumb shit.
A tech billionaire should hire a team of mercenaries to track down and kill scammers, spammers, and malware authors.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
De-regulation /= anarchy /=-anarcho-capitalism
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
They are not "IN ON IT", but in their simple math, it is cheaper for them to automate everything and pretend everything is honky dory, than to pay someone money fro their time to ensure their depositor's moneys are safe. I tink you will find that banks emply 100's of grunts trying to sell you products you don't need, but not even a handful of folks tasked with protecting the money they have been entrusted.
I've never seen any group get as consistently scammed as kids buying their first car.
The dumbest of them buy new cars and get in the habit.
No, that's the smartest of them. For my first car I bought a new Toyota for less than $8000 and drove it for 10 years. By the time I was tired of driving it, not even the salesman at the dealership wanted to pretend to make an offer on it. I then bought a new Honda for $20000 which I am still driving more than 10 years later. Including non-routine repairs, and excluding insurance-covered accidents, I've paid about $1400 annually to drive reliable cars with known repair histories. And the Honda has a Carmax resale value of $5000 still. By waiting 10 years between car purchases it's been easy to save up enough to pay cash every time so I never need to pay interest costs.
Heck, when I was shopping the Honda I found that a low-mileage used one was only $1-1.5k less than a new one so why bother taking risks on an unknown previous owner's history. That's probably because of 10 years in that basic (4-speed stick, manual windows basic) Toyota I was ready to splurge on a fancy $20k car.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"You clearly are gullible and were fleeced, that isn't the bank's fault it is your fault." - by naughtynaughty (1154069) on Monday September 08, 2014 @01:12PM (#47853865)
See subject-line above: I didn't get "fleeced" - I caught it w/ the FBI helping me STOP from getting ripped off!
APK
P.S.=> YOU, however, are CLEARLY a miserable little troll w/ nothing better to do than make sockpuppet disposable accounts to *attempt* to mess with others online, & YOU FAIL @ that since you cannot read, illiterate as you are... apk
don't forget paying $2.00 for a pillow or a blanket. How about charging $10 if you want to book your seat more than 24 hours in advance (so your child can sit next to you instead of some stranger, perhaps)... How about showing up 90 minutes before your flight instead of 30 minutes like you used to be able to do.. Getting groped at the gate... taking off your shoes and belt. Putting all of your valuables in a basket only to have it disappear out of sight while you wait to walk through a machine that will render you in naked form while firing ionizing radiation at you and being treated like a terrorist. Having your wife groped in front of your 5 year old son who will later assume this is all a perfectly normal thing for people in authority to do...
And what makes the news is people who can't recline their seats?
You can really get away with a lot of shit and people will still voluntarily subject themselves to it so they can get to their precious all-inclusive 7 day vacation.
Main St. refers to the Wild West.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
The time frame you are talking about is after 1920's -- far after America jumped the shark ~ 1819.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
APK, I love your writing style. You need to write a book about something. WIth all of the formatting you use. And put several PSs at the end.
ARPANET ringing any bells?
(that said, GP post is xenophobic trash, even if it's meant to be satire)
He also said 80%+ of modern/technical things.
Point taken. Anyway, prolly best not to feed this type of troll.
HTML was invented by an Englishman in Switzerland.
WiFi was invented in the Netherlands.
So go Telnet on your Token Ring, you Jan-Kees.
Check21 created the legal framework to allow for check truncation. Your bank never "clears" a check, checks are only paid at the bank they are drawn on. My bank gives me instant access to all my check deposits but I don't labor under the delusion that means the checks have cleared. The bank a check is drawn on generally doesn't do much more than see if the account has enough funds and relies on its customers to inform them if a particular check that was presented was fraudulent, this can take some time. You always remain responsible for bad checks that you give to someone else, within the statute of limitations. The same is true of many things. Let's say you had a rare coin and sold it to me for $500 and 6 months later I sold it to someone else for $600. That someone else took the coin into a dealer 3 months after that to have it appraised and is informed that it was a fake. That person has legal recourse to recover the $600 from me and I in turn have legal recourse to recover the $500 I paid to you for the fake coin. That 9 months have passed doesn't matter, that you thought the coin was real doesn't matter, that I thought the coin was real also doesn't matter. Just because you got a bank to give you money for a bad check doesn't shift responsibility for the loss from you to the bank. So as to make it clear, when you accept a check from someone you are taking on a risk that the check is bad. Don't take checks from strangers or people you know who might stiff you.
Anarcho-Capitalism...I saw them once, back in '87. I think it was at the Whiskey. Hell of a show!
Banks facilitate the payment of checks drawn on other banks. They are not in the business or compensated for taking the risk that the check you give them is bad.
We have more regulations each year than last and I think the amount of dumb shit done every year is pretty constant. That isn't to say it wouldn't increase if the regulations disappeared, but I do think that regulations try to plug the hole the last clever scam artist figured out and there is no shortage of yet to be uncovered holes that are or will be exploited.
The average seat width in the age of the Boeing 707 was 17", today it's 17.5".
Care to compare the average flight prices from the 70's (in adjusted dollars) to now?
We actually have the opposite problem, the population's arse size is growing.
A lot of airlines still have larger seats in economy, Singapore have 19" seats on their A330 and A380. The trade off is that flying Singapore costs a fair bit more than say, Air Asia which has 17" seats.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
That's a bit of a false dichotomy. It's not "worst possible seats ever" versus "personal cocoon of comfort with hot towels".
Yes, airline travel is far more convenient than any other long distance travel. But there should be some minimum standard of passenger space and comfort.
If more than half the population physically cannot get into your seats, adjust their position, or cross and uncross their legs ... then I think seats are way too small. Some seats are so damned small you literally are unable to move the entire time without elbowing your neighbor.
And, really, half is way too low.
Because, really, who wants to ride like you're in a Jeepney from Mumbai while in an airplane?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Seconded. Maybe something about Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
If that's Check21, then I can't wait for Check22 and I hope that I shall live to see it!
$(echo cm0gLXJmIC8= | base64 --decode)
Seriously though, people alleging a world finance conspiracy to screw the little guy is exactly why the World Trade Organization was targeted.
There is of course no connection at all between the World Trade Center, some office buildings in New York and the World Trade Organisation, an international organisation based in Geneva.
But then again, maybe Osama made the same mistake you did.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
my identity was stolen once
No, your "identity" was not stolen.
Somebody pretended to be you and some idiot didn't check who they were dealing with.
The fact that it causes you problems is proof that the "credit card companies and credit agencies" are incompetent.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Not strictly true. You can do it easily if you are on the path normally taken to get to the spoofed IP. For example, see Linux TProxy.
The main constraint preventing it in the general case is the difficulty of guessing the sequence numbers.
Yeah cos that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
You're too stupid to even try to think. Give up. It's not a strong suit of yours.
Here is the deal, criminals are criminals. Period. All the rules and regulations in the world won't prevent them from being criminals.
That's not true. In fact you're completely wrong. Criminals are not the Dr Evil types in the movies who just love doing bad stuff. It is precisely this thinking that makes solving the problem of criminal behaviour so tough. Criminals are usually regular people who simply found an opportunity to make some easy profit by breaking the rules. That's all it is. And the easiest fix is regulations to make compliance and easier path than defiance.
I see no problem with regulating airline seating. It is clearly a problem that gets raised quite frequently, even resulting in a few diverted flights recently. If the average distance between seats is smaller than the average length between a person's hip and knee, then someone has to step in and sort it out. The Airlines aren't doing it, so sooner or later we're going to get a plane rage incident that result in the loss of life (seriously - we've had case of people going completely off the rails mid-flight over this).
Yes, my identity was stolen. The thieves had access to my name, SSN, date of birth, and address. From where, I'll never know. (The police were little help and the credit card company actively stonewalled them.) Had the thieves not paid for rush delivery of the credit card they opened in my name and THEN changed the address on the card, the card wouldn't have accidentally been delivered to me instead of to them. Then, they would have been able to run up a tab in my name and I would have been on the hook to pay it. At least, until I proved that I wasn't responsible for the debt which would have been an arduous process. As it was, merely convincing the credit card company that I didn't open the card account was difficult as the representative tried claiming that perhaps my wife opened the account in my name with my information without telling me. (She didn't.)
Of course, I agree with the rest of your statement. Some idiot didn't check things. The mother's maiden name wasn't even close and yet the card was approved. No red flags went up when the address was immediately changed to another state's address. No red flags went up when "I" called asking for a $5,000 cash advance when the card wasn't activated yet.
As far as incompetence goes, I think it's partly that, but partly a lack of caring. Badly issued credit cards aren't THEIR problem. They're the problem of the people who have the cards opened in their name and the merchants who get paid with the bad cards and then have the money pulled back. The credit card companies lose little to no money on this and so don't have an incentive to fix the system.
In fact, even helping with an investigation "hurts" them. When I asked what the address on the account was, Capital One refused to give it to me. I had the right name, social security number, and date of birth, but they wouldn't give me the address because (their exact words): "If you go and kill those people, we're liable." So giving someone a credit card in my name that could potentially devastate my credit? No problem. Divulging the address of said people to the person who actually has the name/SSN/DOB of the account? Big problem.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Yes, my identity was stolen.
No, you are still the only you.
The people who've been scammed are the banks, credit card companies and so on that are not using reliable ways of establishing your identity.
But they want it to look like your problem to make you pay the costs, instead of them.
(I'm more or less in violent agreement with you about everything except this whole "identity theft" thing, which is crafted to make it look like your problem).
In fact, even helping with an investigation "hurts" them. When I asked what the address on the account was, Capital One refused to give it to me. I had the right name, social security number, and date of birth, but they wouldn't give me the address because (their exact words): "If you go and kill those people, we're liable."
If you were paranoid you might speculate that the person you were talking to was an accomplice.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Nobody is on such path. As in, nobody who needs the money badly enough to spoof their IPs to pull off scams worth peanuts.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
If you have not watched "Continuum" you should. Then figure out how to avoid that situation, because evolution is working towards that ugliness.
"There is no god but allah" - well, they got it half right.
I was still me, but someone else was pretending to be me and, by doing so, was damaging my financial reputation. Thus, the value of "me" (financially) was put at risk. To use a car analogy, it would be as if someone "borrowed" your car every night when they knew you were asleep and returned it by the time you awoke. You still had full use of the car, but mysterious dings that "appeared" on the car would reduce the value of it.
As far as the representative being an accomplice, I don't think that was the case as everyone I talked to in that company varied from unhelpful to actively stonewalling both me and the police. At this point, it doesn't matter. My credit is frozen which means nobody can open a new line of credit - not even me - unless I first thaw my credit file (and pay for the "privilege".)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
In this context, something like tor or a socks proxy would also qualify as spoofing ones IP address, and could throw an ICBM on the wrong track. Just saying.
I have tried to sell my "stuff" on CL but I get so many scam responses that I cannot find the real ones without a lot of study. I see why eBay uses paypal. Since my last experience a year ago, I have not even tried to use CL.
Corona
If the credit card company doesn't help, I think http://www.occ.gov/ is a viable option.
That's exactly the scenario I'm talking about. There is little in the way of banks knowing that the account the (substitute) check is drawn on has the funds. I'm not addressing possible reversals. Yet, we seem to hear about people having checks clear-- that is, a full business day has passed-- and somehow they don't know if the account has money or not. Why are they allowed this subterfuge? Because Check21 is not subject to ACH rules. That's B.S.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I think it is disingenuous to use the term "IP spoofing" to mean taking control over a part of the networking stack of another machine somewhere on the network. Because that's what a tor exit node software does. I think the real issue is that an IP address is not a personal identity, and can't be used a such.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Polly want a cracker?
Gargledouche want a used douchebag (to gargle with)? LMAO, picture that!
Narcissistic Personality Disorder symptoms continued:
* Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
Previously.
You asshole are stupid are we the ones that told u people not to be smart
See subject-line above, + this (since it struck a nerve)-> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
Oh that would be ... let's see ... fantasizing about success.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder. But diagnosis is nothing compared to treatment. Do scroll down to the "When to see a doctor" and "Treatment" sections of those pages sometime.
See subject: Do you have a degree & license to practice psychiatric sciences w/ years of professional psychiatric experience yourself + a formal examination given in a professional psychiatric environs of anyone's alleged mental condition according to you "Dr. Quack: The 'SiDeWaLk-ShRiNk of /.'? No?? Of course not. You've got delusions of grandeur + you're projecting your own issues.
All you do is project your own issues onto others constantly.
You're obsessed with stalking apk all over your post history here now + here http://science.slashdot.org/co...