2600 Magazine_ The Hacker Quarterly - Digital Edition - Summer 2011 - 2600 Magazine [43]
SanDogWeps
If only everyone in the military showed this kind of courage.
Dear 2600:
Ready for this? After terminating my Ma Bell land line account, I went to my favorite grocery store and used my card for a discount. I don't carry the card with me as I have always used a telephone number to validate the account (from the earlier paperwork to receive said discount(s)). Was unable to use my old number. Found the card and it did not work either. Looks like Big Bro is watching closer than we care. Good ole NSA through Homeland Security.
orPHan
We seriously doubt there are people (or even a single person) waiting to disable your grocery store loyalty card the instant you disconnect the phone number associated with it. Unless they were actually calling your phone every time you used the card to verify it somehow, this strikes us as a not very interesting coincidence. Usually, such numbers are only used as a reference point and, if you know those ten digits, you must be the person attached to the account. All that said, we’re certainly being watched now more than ever. But not because of stuff like this.
Dear 2600:
I recently received an email query on a Craigslist ad that I had deleted a week prior. In the email, I was provided with a link to follow to prove that I'm real. It must have come from one of the email addresses that I'd responded to when the item was still available since it was to my actual email address rather than the obfuscated one that CL provides. The URL was as follows: http://wewantit.org/548749/go.php?lid=xxxxxxxxxxxx with the x's representing what appears to be a unique string of numbers and upper/lower case characters. Attempts to access the site without the unique string resulted in a variety of errors including what appears to be a homemade "server not found" page. I didn't want to use the actual string they'd sent me, as I suspect it would have flagged my email address as valid (in that I must be a valid sucker to click their link). I tried several variations of the string and was each time met with "Link ID not provided or invalid." I may have to come up with a more expeditious means of creating and testing strings. It amuses me to no end that they've created a sort of authorized access validation system for their phishing website. I can see why they'd want to be careful though. There are all sorts of shady characters out there.
nrKist
This is indeed rather interesting. People who post ads get contacted from someone who appears to be interested in buying, but needs you to tell them a real email address via the provided links. These links only last for a short time and are designed to get you to reveal your actual email address, no doubt so you can receive all kinds of spam and nefarious content. It’s unusual that you received such a request to your actual email address as that is what they’re usually trying to get out of you.
Dear 2600:
I'm writing because I have not received my winter issue of the magazine. I do believe this is happening because the Brazilian post decided to be extra stupid. Here's what happened: they decided not to deliver any parcel with an ID starting with LN (that would be LNxxxxxxxxxUS, where x is a number). Apparently, they reckon they are not getting paid enough to deliver those parcels. Now, that would be okay if they actually told everyone else that this shipping method was no longer accepted (first class mail from the United States, in this case). But no, they did not tell anyone, as it seems. They just decided to send every parcel back to the sender. And here is where it gets better: I went to the post office to ask about it, and even called the central distribution office in Rio, and they've told me that