SPAM: a 4 lettered word.

[Kerry]

20th century French philosopher Michel Foucalt once wrote along the lines that in the modern age - 'surveillance is the new form of torture'.

Obviously this was back in the day before Specially Processed Army Meat had metamorphosed into Stupid, Pointless Annoying Messages which are sent to test, trip, and ultimately torment us.

Today, thanks to revelations by judas_jules@the_embassy, we now know that not only is Big Brother watching us from his black-tinted SUV windows parked across the road, or the explosion of face-detecting surveillance cameras hidden behind the black tinted ceiling domes in just about every public space, but now, the CIA can peer down these very internet lines and straight into your bedroom/office/garage via your very own device/PC cameras and microphones whenever they like! 1984 much?!?!

But hey, if you've done nothing wrong, what have you got to hide? Well, forget your totalitarian siblings, and even your distance cousins who just want to give you your US$12,000,000 inheritance from Nigeria... today, beyond our untrustworthy meta-family, there is a vast, marching army whose singular goal, is your gold, and/or to control your personal information... a point in case:

I temporarily lost my phone. I used the "Find My Phone" app to find it. It required me to login to my AppleID via another device. All good, job done. I get a message telling me that me account has been accessed by another device, which it had. Next I get an email from AppleID which says...

 

...which it was, however, I noticed that the my email address attributed here to my AppleID (which is indeed one of my valid email addresses), but was not the one that is registered to the actual account... My son Orlando had recently told me to always check the sending email address if anything seems even slightly dodgy, and low and behold...

You know, I'm generally not too stupid, but as this followed directly after a genuine interaction with Apple, I came very close to simply proceeding with the regular follow-up procedure. Thanks (again) @Orlando.

 

But the moral of the story is folks:          you just never know....

 

On the PFA we've had to deal with a whole bunch of dodgy baskets trying to take advantage of us (why on earth would a Wedding Frock shop in Hong Kong go phishing for our membership?!?! It still flummoxes me!). And, if any of you have tried to login to the PFA from Russia, you will have found it impossible, because I have banned Russia - not because of anything that @KGB quipped - but because a certain individual tried to take us down via bots sent from a series of IP addresses out of Russia, and at the time, as we didn't have any Russian members (real ones Mark!), - Прощай! (GOODBYE!)

And so, to the PFA membership...

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING ON THE PFA THAT YOU THINK MIGHT BE DODGY - Report it, don't call it out in the public domain of the forum!

It might be real, it might be malicious, but it might also just be the result of some other third party getting their jollies!

Here at PFAHQ we have a crack team of moderators (known internally as the NON-VAS-ILATORS - yes @Vas, after you!) who sit primed in full SWAT gear, ready to deal with possible SPAM attacks, as well as the more trivial matters such as "he said, she said", so,  when in doubt, use the report button.

 

[RANT OVER]

[LeeM]

Cheers for all that you moderators do behind these walls

[Kerry]

Cheers for all that you moderators do behind these walls

I just reported that. 

[Pauly]

@KGB isn't Russian, He's an Amerikanski Spy. 

[Kerry]

ssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....  

[KGB]

20th century French philosopher Michel Foucalt once wrote along the lines that in the modern age - 'surveillance is the new form of torture'.

 

On the PFA we've had to deal with a whole bunch of dodgy baskets trying to take advantage of us (why on earth would a Wedding Frock shop in Hong Kong go phishing for our membership?!?! It still flummoxes me!). And, if any of you have tried to login to the PFA from Russia, you will have found it impossible, because I have banned Russia - not because of anything that @KGB quipped - but because a certain individual tried to take us down via bots sent from a series of IP addresses out of Russia, and at the time, as we didn't have any Russian members (real ones Mark!), - Прощай! (GOODBYE!)

Yeah, look, really sorry, but it was a quiet day and I was a bit bored.

[Timm]

Yeah, look, really sorry, but it was a quiet day and I was a bit bored.

So you played Fallout 4?

[Coastr]

I explained to the kids why unwanted Internet messages is called spam the other day.  They thought I was tracking them again, but it was really true.  Explanation finished with a monty Python video.

[Cars And Coffee Byron Bay]

And I would be thoroughly checking the machine you used to login via the web browser - most likely has been compromised by some trojan etc.

[grantmr]

yeah KL I hope you've also changed passwords all your connected devices.

some tips for everyone:

1. don't use the same password everywhere. have about four different ones (one for banking, one for email, one for social media, one for the computer) and change them every few months.
2. use a password manager, that way you don't have to remember them all. I use and recommend KeyPass, but the other popular one is LastPass. LastPass integrates into your browser and things so you don't even have to open it usually. KeyPass is a bit more secure but a bit less versatile.
3. always check the sender like Kerry did above. It's the weak link in phishing.
4. never lever your devices unattended and unlocked.
5. if going to countries like china or korea, either don't take your devices (get a temporary device) or remove all sensitive info from before you leave. these days lots of business and gov travelers will not take sensitive info with them.
6. trust no one. the most common vector for intrusion is through social engineering. no one legit will ask you for your password, ever. put them off and have a quick google. never take anything at face value, always get a second opinion.

kerry was lucky - i was reading about a guy last night that had his gmail hijacked, which led them to his paypal, and they'd spent $3.5k in an hour and contacted all his relatives with a sob story asking for cash. it can get ugly real quick.

[Kerry]

yeah KL I hope you've also changed passwords all your connected devices.

some tips for everyone:

Top advice G, thanks.

Now I'm going to out you!

Grant was the first or second member of the PFA (me being the other), he who helped attach the electrodes to the forehead bolt, and flick the switch!

Congrats on getting to 21 posts bro, its been a long time coming! Love ya work!

he he he he he .....

[ANF]

yeah KL I hope you've also changed passwords all your connected devices.

some tips for everyone:

1. don't use the same password everywhere. have about four different ones (one for banking, one for email, one for social media, one for the computer) and change them every few months.
2. use a password manager, that way you don't have to remember them all. I use and recommend KeyPass, but the other popular one is LastPass. LastPass integrates into your browser and things so you don't even have to open it usually. KeyPass is a bit more secure but a bit less versatile.
3. always check the sender like Kerry did above. It's the weak link in phishing.
4. never lever your devices unattended and unlocked.
5. if going to countries like china or korea, either don't take your devices (get a temporary device) or remove all sensitive info from before you leave. these days lots of business and gov travelers will not take sensitive info with them.
6. trust no one. the most common vector for intrusion is through social engineering. no one legit will ask you for your password, ever. put them off and have a quick google. never take anything at face value, always get a second opinion.

kerry was lucky - i was reading about a guy last night that had his gmail hijacked, which led them to his paypal, and they'd spent $3.5k in an hour and contacted all his relatives with a sob story asking for cash. it can get ugly real quick.

I have another, don't use the "free" email accounts - google, Hotmail, etc..... they will on sell your info at the drop of a hat and also seem to be able to be hacked quite easily and often. I pay $30 odd a year to have my own domain with email as well, never get spam......

[grantmr]

Top advice G, thanks.

Now I'm going to out you!

Grant was the first or second member of the PFA (me being the other), he who helped attach the electrodes to the forehead bolt, and flick the switch!

Congrats on getting to 21 posts bro, its been a long time coming! Love ya work!

he he he he he .....

I'll also take credit for steering you away from Ferraris and onto Porsches, many many years ago ;P

[Kerry]

I'll also take credit for steering you away from Ferraris and onto Porsches, many many years ago ;P

I'll pay that.

But if you known that I'd turn into a RWB loving Pcar degenerate, would you still have shown me the error of my ways?? 

[grantmr]

I'll pay that.

But if you known that I'd turn into a RWB loving Pcar degenerate, would you still have shown me the error of my ways?? 

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Edited 20March, 2017 by grantmr

[tazzieman]

Yeah, look, really sorry, but it was a quiet day and I was a bit bored.

password not stroganoff.

Try again.

[Kelly]

On the subject of SPAM, I recently became an unwitting spammer on PFA. I used to link to my Porsche images from my old website (oz951.com). After 10years of maintaining that site I let it lapse late last year. It seems that a spam company subsequently took up the domain and replaced all of my images with spam 'Xwinner' images. Consequently my old PFA posts also showed those 'Xwinner' pics wherever I had posted an image from my web page. Now I have been through every PFA post I ever made with an image in it and deleted the link/image where it was to my old web. If I've missed something and someone sees a what looks like a spam pic in an old post of mine after today please message me so I can kill the link. Thanks & apologies.

[Kerry]

Jeez Kelly, what a mammoth job, and what a pain in the ar$e!

Thank you for your effort especially when through no fault of your own you were targeted - over and above... 

 

[Kelly]

Jeez Kelly, what a mammoth job, and what a pain in the ar$e!

Thank you for your effort especially when through no fault of your own you were targeted - over and above... 

 

Thanks Kerry, it was a pain in the bum  but yeah it was the right thing to do.

 

[LeeM]

 Cheers Kelly  

[T-Man]

Thanks Kerry, it was a pain in the bum  but yeah it was the right thing to do.

 

Damn. Hell of a job! 

I actually saw the spam link on your signature and edited it out which seemed ok on the couple of posts that were in question. I thought I had sorted it. Damn! 

 

[Philbee]

Thanks Kerry, great email ! I almost got sprung myself in re-confirming my ID in a Paypal scam email... give your son a chocolate too!