Security on the Net

[cutecoins]

I know this is a pain and I am getting fed up with all the potential rip offs. How many times have we heard that people can be followed all over the net. If that is a little true maybe ebay should start going after the rip off artists. How many people have gotten the notice that their account at ebay will be closed if they don't give up their account and password. What do new users think of this? Heaven help them if they fall into the trap of the rip offs. If people came into your home and lifted the security and safety we all normally feel people would call the police to intervene... Now with electronics and the net being established world wide we are allowing people into our homes telling us outright lies....Take out your credit card on your computer table and type in those numbers.....Years ago I helped establish a Crime Stoppers program that offered rewards for information leading to arrests. Most people at that time didn't want money they just wanted to deal with these guys and stop the criminals from destroying the quality of life for all people....
Maybe it is time EBay showed some leadership and start a Crime Stoppers program paying rewards for information leading to arrests of the guys ripping off the unexpected.....
Create an icon to appear on the top of ebay pages that leads to local police authorities that will accept information to stop those *&^%^@! guys who cost us all virous protect programs every year and those stupid crashes.......And those billion emails that you can't stop no matter what you do....Ok you can but for how long
Ok I will get off my soap box....
Now the reason I was going to post a message...I was going to ask if any one else is having trouble getting
in the 24/7 email support box at the bottom of the page....cookies and who knows what else are suppose to be ajusted which I did and still nothing
All the best from the snow storm in northern Ontario
JB

[amberwoodottawa]

Internet abuse and crime is so large that the authorities' hands are too full with addressing the major incidents, the size of which would shut down a Microsoft or hit the US govt systems.

Child pornography takes up probably the largest percentage of those that are involved in internet crime prevention and they are only going after the predators for the most part and ocassionally prosecuting a teacher or father who have been turned in by someone close to them.

Alot of the eBay and PayPal bogus emails that we receive asking for personal information or containing links to viruses originated from outside of North America and have been routed through many different servers, making it very difficult to find the source.

Essentially it becomes a very lengthy and expensive process and one that no one is prepared to finance, probably as the overall financial losses are not great enough to warrant it.

Also, we get into the fine line of how much policing does the public want of the internet. It is the freedom of speech and the freedom within the internet that allowed it to develop so quickly to what it is today.

The thought of the US government policing the world wide web is not unlike what they are doing in Iraq right now, or possibly Haiti.

You have opened up a topic which we touched on before and is been debated intensley in many other forums, a need to get rid of the dirt, and the corruption while preserving the good, the freedom of speech and the best of this communication tool that has become such a big part of so many people's daily lives and business' new way of producing income.

Malcolm
(Ok I'm passing my soap box over to the next person)

[cutecoins]

The idea of crime stoppers is to use a tool that costs almost nothing. It provides an opportunity to report criminal behavoiur and hand over important information to the police agencies.... Nope its not a new police force, nope its not yet another program to take on another criminal conduct. It's a system of giving victims the power to report without the intimidation. The child porn issue....as I understand it there is hardly any money spent on this problem even in the police forces in Vancouver and Toronto. Young kids are molested and because of fear or social preseasure the police have their hands tied....the families and the kids want to forget and want to forget for the rest of their lives....
Sure the signal bounces all over the world...the very nature of the net....but lets say EBay or some other grass roots organization....put up to $2,000 to turn in the guys that produce viruses or child p**&^ into their local police authorities.
Here goes...even a better idea...Ebay or a Internet company provides to local enforement police force up to $2,000 for the reporting and conviction of child porn or internet scam.....this way we collectively can support the current programs...
I can recall the first Crime Stoppers bust we had where ..... a guy over heard in a bar how this guy had done some terrible things to a woman at knife point. The fellow was so upset with what he heard that he called the annonomous phone number and the police were given a first name and a description of the guy...... he was eventually charged and found guilty of sexual assualt...Was there money paid out...no but something was done.
Right now we accept an invasion of our privacy every day with spam and unwanted lies from criminals.....do we accept it and continue to give in...
Are we asking for a police state ... no but how about and avenue to report rip offs ....child molesters and computer damage...
Ooops I slipped off the soap box...
JB

[amberwoodottawa]

JB
Your suggestions are very good and I wholeheartedly support all efforts at cracking down on the increasing dilema of internet abuse and criminal activities.

Herein lie some of the problems as I am familiar.

My son received death threats via email. We tracked the death threats to a school computer and to a friend's computer. My son's friend said his older/adopted brother did have a gin and had been in trouble before threatening teachers in a different Province (they move to avoid the problems the kid produces).

We tracked down which school computer was being used and verified that that kid had access during the periods it was being used (school library and he had spares).

We provide all the information to the police and are told they can do nothing as we would have to have a video of who was sending those death threats at the time they were sent as it could have been the mother or the grandmother and a friend in the house and having access at the school.

So the burden of proof is that the authorities may find the compute however they cant or wont establish who used it to send the viruses, threats or porography.

As far as most of the other stuff we are receiving (aside from pornography), many of the originating sources have been detected back to Russia and the Far East. There is little that can be done at this stage that I am aware of for going after these people in Russia.

Stopping the spamming of viruses or ads for penis enlargements or what-ever-else is like using a needle to stop the water passsing through a 50' hole in a dam. As I understand it, upwards of 80 million emails can be sent in as little as one second and they are often sent through a variety of servers where the spammers have gained access illegally.

Once again, we have at least 2 spammers per week trying to get into our computer to use it for that purpose.

I dont know the solution, it is certainly beyond my experience in forensic auditing and my now prehistoric computer skills (beginning with Fortran programming in the late 1960s).

Keep up the suggestions and maybe a joint task force of the larger companies can pool some money to come up with a solution without sacraficing the general freedom of the internet.

Malcolm

[amberwoodottawa]

Sorry I said the brother had a gin, I had a gin, his brother had a gun.

Malcolm

[shooger]

Every email address I have is filled with penis enlargment ads, dept consolidation offers, pornography, and attempts to gain access to my various accounts or infect my computer with a virus or program to monitor my actions. I pay for Norton Antivirus, I keep myself updated with Windows patches, and I'm aware of the various scams and methods to protect myself. Even so, I wonder what will happen when my 2 year old boy starts doing more than sitting in the computer chair and clicking the mouse randomly, saying "my toorn, my toorn". How will I explain it to him?

"The computer is an amazing tool. We can find almost any information we need, if we know what we're doing. We can also use it to make a profit, given enough time and effort put into it. Some people like to try and trick us, using our own computer. You'll have to learn how to stop them. Also, you might see horrible pictures sometimes. Please don't look at them. I'm sorry, I can't stop them from coming. Other people are doing it, and we can't prevent it. Sometimes they also break the computer, but daddy uses the money the computer makes, to get the computer fixed or buy a new one. Also, some people might try and talk to you on here, and they'll seem nice, but they might want to hurt you in various ways. I'll teach you how to prevent yourself from getting hurt. Um, basically, if you see anything other than Elmo, call daddy right away."

[cutecoins]

Had a strange phone call of recent. A company from Moncton N.B. called to confirm my business information. They first asked if I was blank blank the user name I use on Ebay. My best half made it clear that we don't give out personal information over the phone.....
Question.... Who gave them my phone number from Ebay? Is there a program to rip off phone numbers and ebay user names off of Ebay? Any word on this issue folks?
I only use my name on Ebay.
Any one else finding the same?
Jim B.

[zarzuella]

Jim

Did you ever apply for Canada Post's powerseller discount? CP passed over contact info to Dunn & Bradstreet to do credit verification. I've had a couple of calls but would not give out any info on the phone either.

Ann

[amberwoodottawa]

Canada Post sells its clients names. I have started to receive faxed solicitations to purchase ink toner etc.

My fax number has only been given to my supplier and CP and I know for certain that it wasnt my supplier.

Same thing with a couple of telephone calls trying to sell me something, and calling a private line but expecting to speak to someone from ShopLine. Again, only my supplier and CP had that number and my supplier didnt give it to anyone.

I dont feel that CP should sell its client's contact list without our permission.

Malcolm

[rd1000]

I have finally been hearing some rumblings about the only solution that wil stop the spam e-mails. ISP's need to lower the monthly subscription and start charging for sending e-mails. When something is free, it will always be abused. Just look at out health care system. But that is another topic.
As far as I am concerned, the earlier they start charging for e-mails the better. Actually, I would think they could just limit it. The difference between a legitimate user and spam companies is astronomical. They can send millions a minute.

Rob

[cutecoins]

Thanks Ann:
I did just that...
"Did you ever apply for Canada Post's powerseller discount? CP passed over contact info to Dunn & Bradstreet to do credit verification. I've had a couple of calls but would not give out any info on the phone either."
I did apply and have yet heard anything about them ...thinking they had forgotten about me....darn now I wish they did..
Jim

[cutecoins]

Rob:
I don't like the idea of limiting emails...but heck how about 10,000 per year limit per account....then those darn make my d$%#@ bigger emails might stop....
LOL
Jim B.

[rd1000]

Yes 10,000 per year would do it. Spammers would have to change their ISP every hour X-)

[muminlaw]

Hmmmmmmm.......... is that incoming or outgoing or both? If it includes incoming, we'd all be penalized for being spammed!!

Glenda