Skeptical Cynic 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Scammers Actually Got Away With Millions Of Microtransactions Scam

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2010 @ 10:45pm

    Re: The 414's did that a long time ago.

    I know replying to my own comment is stupid, but I forgot to add one thought.

    Anyone in the banking industry back then can attest all the changes that took place in financial institutions and how they dealt with electronic transactions in late 83 and early 84.

  • On the post: Scammers Actually Got Away With Millions Of Microtransactions Scam

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2010 @ 10:35pm

    The 414's did that a long time ago.

    Although most of the details were never released to the press or general public. The 414's had been doing just that in banks all over the country during the years of 1982 and 1983. The operation that got them caught was when one of the members that was new to the group got greedy and tried to steal a larger amount of money.

    All the members were questioned by the FBI myself included (imagine being 13 years old and that happening) and in the end the FBI took all the money that was left and returned it to the banks and brokerages it had been taken from. We were all required to sign an agreement stating to avoid being prosecuted we were not to reveal the details of how we took the money or that we had even taken any money. The FBI and the Federal Reserve were worried that if the news got out people would lose confidence in our banking system. Plus in the grand scheme the amount of money the 414's had taken was nothing. (Statute of limitations has long run out so no I am not worried I am violating the agreement.)

    The 414's scam involved rounding. It doesn't work this way anymore but back then banks would calculate interest daily and only when a certain threshold was reached would the interest then be credited to the account. When that trigger was hit there was always a fraction of a penny left over. For example (this is way simplified) say you have $100 in the bank and the interest you earned is 1.234 cents per day. The bank would credit your account with the 1 cent of interest and keep the .234 of a cent back rounding down. At the end of a certain period the bank would say that over 5 days you should have earned 6.17 cents in interest but you could see that you would have only earned 5 cents based on rounding so they would then credit your account the extra cent still leaving .17 of a cent out. Well this leftover amount is always hanging around. The 414's exploited this and would go in to a bank for 28 days (less than the audit cycle) skimming the rounding off of every 5th interest transaction on an account. Doesn't sound like much but if you do the math you can see with 10s of thousands of accounts it will add up fast.

    I was never involved in the scam and only learned about it from the older members, but I do know it happened.

    So yes this type of scam is old and new again.

  • On the post: How The NY Times Hides Behind Copyright Law To Hoard Information And Weaken Its Journalism

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2010 @ 11:10am

    Let people figure out how much info they want.

    When you are writing for any audience you should give them all the information they want about the subject and then let them figure out how they need. I have read quite a few articles where I never bothered to give the embedded document because I really did not need that much info. But when I want to know more I am given the option of going on to read more about it.

  • On the post: Spammer's $11 Million Win Against Anti-Spammer Spamhaus, Reduced To $27,000

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2010 @ 04:50pm

    I hate spammers but...

    i also hate Spamhaus. Go ahead and see how much time is wasted to get a company removed that happens to run afoul of them. Because when you are called a spammer by them you are automatically added to 15 other lists.

  • On the post: Could AT&T's iPad Email Leak Really Be A Much, Much More Serious Security Breach?

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2010 @ 10:56pm

    Re: Wow people are really missing the risk

    Oh yeah forgot to say that I have gotten 6 phishing emails that are very specific in the info related to this, just this week to an email address that gets just 20 spam a week.

  • On the post: Could AT&T's iPad Email Leak Really Be A Much, Much More Serious Security Breach?

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2010 @ 10:43pm

    Wow people are really missing the risk

    Ok, so the fact that they have your email address not a big deal. But having 2 pieces of info can make phishing attack much more successful.

    So let's say the average phishing attack with 1 piece of info has just a .1% success rate. (Making this up so no not citing any studies) In this case that would mean 114 people fell for it and gave of info enough to clean them out. Well with 2 pieces of info let's say they can now get to a whopping 2% success rate. That means 2280 fell for it. And then lets say each victim lost $500 in each case. 57,000 versus $1,140,00.

    This can be illustrated by looking at spam. Why do you think you get so much spam? Because (last stat I saw) .001% of people buy the product in the spam. Well if you send out 500 million and your product offers $10 of profit of each sale, you make $50k not bad since it only cost $200 to send all that. Same with phishing attacks. All you want to do is increase your response rate. More info more success.

    And for those that are slow the two pieces of info are your email address and that you own an iPad 3G with cell data service.

  • On the post: More Studies Show That Violent Video Games Aren't A Problem For Kids

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2010 @ 02:31pm

    Re: Makes sense to me.

    Of course I could be a closet serial killer.

  • On the post: More Studies Show That Violent Video Games Aren't A Problem For Kids

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2010 @ 02:30pm

    Makes sense to me.

    I have been playing violent and non-violent video games for over 20 years. No problems yet.

  • On the post: Court Says Police In Ohio Can Just Guess How Fast You Were Going And Give You A Ticket

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2010 @ 10:48am

    Re: Idiot

    So this was not a new court decision? And you needed to use bs to make your point why? Sad but the fact that you had to resort to foul language to make your point actually shows who the true idiot is.

  • On the post: Court Says Police In Ohio Can Just Guess How Fast You Were Going And Give You A Ticket

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2010 @ 10:37am

    Welcome to the police state!!!

    Police are always right and you can never question them!!!

  • On the post: Techdirt Saves* Journalism (And Sells Some T-Shirts)

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 27 May, 2010 @ 10:37am

    Help those that can not attend.

    More people that read Techdirt than people that do, do not live anywhere near that they can come for a non-working event. So help those of us that are not able to attend participate. Give us the chance to chime in and offer our insights.

  • On the post: Towing Company Continues To Stand By Its Misplaced Lawsuit Against Angry Customer, Despite Losing Half Its Business

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 May, 2010 @ 11:45am

    A picture is worth a thousand complaints.

    To end all this they could just buy the tow drivers a cheap digital camera and have them take 4 pictures showing each side of the car to be towed. Then hook up the car and drive away with it. They would then have proof that they towed the car legally.

    Hook, line, sinker.

    Done.

  • On the post: Class Action Lawsuit Launched Against Google, Because Some Woman Didn't Secure Her Own WiFi

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 20 May, 2010 @ 09:58am

    Re:

    There are 2 shift keys on your keyboard. Use at least 1 of them now and then.

  • On the post: Class Action Lawsuit Launched Against Google, Because Some Woman Didn't Secure Her Own WiFi

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 20 May, 2010 @ 09:54am

    Personal Responsibility, it's personal now! Not.

    I am sorry after having been in IT for over 20 years I can say that people always want to blame others for their lack of simple basic security knowledge. Stop being lazy people, it take 5 minutes to figure out how and secure your WiFi.

    I think Google actually did a service for free for these people. Google isn't going to do anything with the information but there are plenty of people that will. So Google just highlighted how unsecured most personal WiFi networks are.

  • On the post: Avatar Blu-Ray Customers Not Enjoying Their DRM-Crippled Discs

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2010 @ 08:00am

    Well so much for buying it.

    Guess I will go download it via bit torrent.

  • On the post: Redbox Follows Netflix's Lead, Delays Fox and Universal DVD Releases by 28 Days

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2010 @ 01:22pm

    Make your profit where you can.

    Netflix already pays an access fee and so does Redbox. The people that use both (myself included) will not pay the inflated cost to own a DVD. So get the revenue you can and stop showing us why we do not want to buy your video when we can wait and get it for 10% of the cost.

  • On the post: Redbox Follows Netflix's Lead, Delays Fox and Universal DVD Releases by 28 Days

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2010 @ 01:18pm

    Re: Re: I could work

    The box can store maybe 200-400 or so videos. Based on size and delivery format.

  • On the post: iPhone Hits Just Keep On Coming For Apple: Sued Over Liquid Damage Sensors

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 02:03am

    Well yes and no

    They do work but they also don't. I have been through both situations. I have had a phone drop in a toilet and the sensor did not come up as having been wet and I have also had a WINMO phone show that it had even when it had not. (The phone was later shown to have a bad defect history and ATT did refund my replacement cost)

  • On the post: TSA Admits That Body Scan Machines Can Record Images

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2010 @ 06:01pm

    Wow! Where is this conversation going?

    Everything in the thread so far misses the point. The scanners can see through clothing!!! And now we learn they can record those images. Who should have the right to invade your privacy in that way when you are not guilty of any crime?

    Are you people losing it?

    I could careless about violence or sex in movies. But this is a situation where you are subjected to scans where you can almost be view naked.

    There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
    John Adams (1735-1826)

    I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences of too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
    Thomas Jefferson (1791)

    History teaches us that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.
    Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1989)

    Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
    Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

  • On the post: Is The iPad The Disneyland Of Computers?

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2010 @ 12:11pm

    Re: Apple fans and haters are both wrong

    http://www.popsci.com/announcements/article/2010-04/popular-science-ipad-here

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