# ((( Warning: Do Not Trust Yahoo )))



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

About 4 months ago, i received a fraduent email
asking me for my ATM number for a citibank
account. Instead of just deleting the email,i de-
cided to take the effort to inform citibank and
yahoo.

I first send an email to citibank about the email.

Then i prepared an email to yahoo. Of course Yahoo
would not only want the full headers of the email,ect, 
Yahoo would probably like to see the message in the 
Yahoo email too.

When i went to copy the message of the frauduent
email, the message WOULD NOT COPY, i tried about
5 times, the message would just NOT copy! I assumed 
the people who sent the email must have done some
thing to make it tough to copy the message of thier
email.

I thought i had a great idea, i had a geocities web account
and somehow i fiqured out a way to copy the message
of the frauduent email and turn it into a geocitie page.

(maybe there are other ways i could have copied the email
message but the above is the only one i could think of)

So i send yahoo an email with the complete header,the
date,the time,etc.and the geocity web page that had
the message body of the email (asking me for my ATM
number.etc) After 3 days,i deleted the geocity webpage.

What did Yahoo do? Did they send a thank you letter or
something? NOPE. They sent a letter saying they have
CLOSED my yahoo email/geocity account saying i broke
the terms of the contract! An account i had since 1997!
An account that had all kinds of important emails, the
first email sent to me by a girl that i married! ALL GONE!

I contacted YAHOO! 2 times, never received a response.

SO take this as a warning about YAHOO. They have post-
ers in message boards swearing,threatening,racial name
calling, but they close the account of someone doing a
good deed.

CLOSURE: On the YAHOO account i have still have? i received
this letter today,...the same letter i reported to YAHOO 4 months
ago. This time the email message had no trouble copying and
pasting. the people sending the fraudulent emails to yahoo
members must know *yahoo does nothing about them*

PS: after i posted this post, i notice the letter had alot of ***,
something that does not appear in the letter before you copy
it.

Dฺear *Citib*a*nk Mem*be*r,

This* emai่*l ฺw*as ฺsen*t by* t*h*e Citi่b*aฺnk *ser*ver* to* ve*r*i่*f*y* you*r *e*-*mai่l address. Yo*u* *mus*t ฺcomplete *tฺh*isฺ proce*ss* ฺbฺy* *c*lickiฺ่n*g
onฺ *th*e li่*nk* be*lowฺ *an*d en*t*eri่nฺg* i่*n* *t*h*e* small wi่ndow yoฺur Citi่*bank *AT*M/Debit Card num*bฺer* *an*d PIN t*h*at you* usฺe ฺonฺ *ATM.
This is doฺne for yourฺ *pro*tecti่oฺn - *be*cฺa*use somฺe* *o*f oฺur member*s no longer havฺe access *to thei*r emai่l *addฺresse*s a*n*d
we mustฺ verฺi*fyฺ i่t.

To* v*eri่*fy yo*ur* *e*-mail* a*ddre*ss and ac*ceฺs*s y*ourฺ ba*n*k a*ccount, *c*lick on t*he linฺk* belo*w:

www.citibank.com/?BZ5clmGhlbaWCzyl8Cc5484nxzt72l6ZX(****)


----------



## js73 (Jun 10, 2002)

I received a similar letter from "Citibank", and reported it to them. Have not opened the link (and have no intention of doing so). Could not copy and paste; the letter appeared to be in gif format.


----------



## Guest (Oct 10, 2004)

It's not Yahoo!s fault or responisbility to stop phishing. As for closing your account, there's probably more to it. Did you read the entire user agreement for your Yahoo! account? Most people don't.


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

Lightning said:


> It's not Yahoo!s fault or responisbility to stop phishing. As for closing your account, there's probably more to it. Did you read the entire user agreement for your Yahoo! account? Most people don't.


NOPE, i never read the user agreement. I am almost sure 
all email companies like Yahoo,MSN,AOl,etc would like frad-
ulent letters reported to them and that is exactly what
i did.

Yahoo seems to respond by only by auto reply and if they
have a telephone to call,i would probably have called them.

The point is i did a good deed and like the clique goes 'no
good deed goes unpunished'.

(Like i said Dont trust yahoo. Perhaps someone from Yahoo
reads this forum and would like to have a chat in the forum's
chat room)


----------



## Guest (Oct 11, 2004)

I don't understand why you reported it to Yahoo!. They have nothing to do with it. You can report it to Citibank, but they already know about all the phishing scams out there.


----------



## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

Did it ever cross your mind that someone could have found your Geocities page and sent their ATM numbers to the scammer?


----------



## cheese (Jun 22, 2003)

^ Yeah Thats true, bout i doubt that would happen..just a security measure.


----------



## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Sharky - sorry to hear about the loss of your emails, that does bite...  However, I'm at a loss to figure out why yahoo would have closed your account??? Just by copying this fraudulent Citibank ATM email onto your geocities website? Something there doesn't sound right... 
Curious, when a provider such as Yahoo! deletes a person's entire email account, is it really deleted, or does it go into a temp folder, for a brief period before trashed?


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

perhaps they (Yahoo)are outsourcing thier help and they
could not understand or did not read my entire email
to them. 

now that i think of it, when i decided to take the time
and effort to report the obvious fraud/email, to Yahoo,
i decided to call them first. After a loong time searching
for a Yahoo number to call on thier web site, i could not
find one. 

like i said i attempted to do a good deed,and got punished.


MSM: i thought i read somewhere,Yahoo waits 3 months
before completely deleting the account. i have sent 2 emails
to them explaining what i have said in the column(except
the harsh words) including my home phone number to contact
me and no one has responded just the auto reply.

But i have decided to use my other Yahoo mail address for
junk and "moved" to a better neighborhood,a msn email address.


----------



## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

What I did when I got one of those was let the bank know I had a copy of the screen shot but didn't bother yahoo with it. Yahoo was just the delivery agent. I haven't heard back from bank about wanting a copy of the screen shots since those were gif's but I have them and if they want them, I'll send them. But I suspect they won't want them cause they probably have seen them already. A half a zillion times. Liz


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

sharky,

Sorry to hear you losted the email.

Try emailing them again and be very nice to them. Ask if they could open it again just for a day or two so you could get your email.

But like you said they have backup so can get to your email but it does you no good if they will not help you out. So never trust any web base email with anything that you don't want to lose. 
I don't use Outlook but did use it to only download some hotmail email. I then used netscape to import it into netscape. I also have copies of the emails. 

If the yahoo email was on the web because you don't want it on your PC because others may see it then download it and copy the files to a zip and password protect it. but still make backups.


----------



## websurfer (Jun 24, 2002)

Maybe they looked in your inbox and found something you weren't supposed to have?


----------



## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

If you want a gmail account I got four left...*winks*


----------



## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Every time I get spam on yahoo I just delete it and say thats that. If it's fake its obvious and I delete it(since I only have a KSBank account, savings, and a Commerce Bank account, checking, neither of which use my email).


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

this is the letter Yahoo sent,note there is no
name after "Regards". Also there is no other 
hidden reason why it was closed as they 
would not welcome me to open another
account.


It is as simple as the clique says: "no good deed
goes unpunishment".


________________________________________________________

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Your Yahoo! account was disabled pursuant to the Yahoo! GeoCities Terms 
of Service (TOS). You agreed to abide by the TOS when you created your 
Yahoo! GeoCities account. 

---truncated----

You are welcome to establish a new account with Yahoo! and Yahoo! 
GeoCities at any time, provided that your use complies with our Terms 
of Service

Regards,


Yahoo! Customer Care
_______________________________________


----------



## Guest (Oct 12, 2004)

Your good deed wasn't punished. You violated the terms of a contract. You make it sound like you're a martyr.


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Well I would say it sound like you're a martyr if they will not even say what you did wrong. 
I mean they could of made a mistake and if they will not look into it to see just why the account was closed and say what, why it happen then that is not right because it is very easy to break the same rule again if you never knew what you did the first time. 
Plus if you read the rule and you know you did not break any of them then they may of just goofed up and closed the account.

Note that they do not like hot linking so if you had ever hot link to there site they will close you down fast.


----------



## Guest (Oct 12, 2004)

It's a free service with millions of accounts. If you want personal contact and immediate excellent customer service, you'll probably have to actually pay something.


----------



## cheese (Jun 22, 2003)

^ Yeah


----------



## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

How would that be hotlinking? Placing a link to a page isnt hotlinking, that would be linking directly to a file on a host other than web files.


----------



## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Lightning said:


> Your good deed wasn't punished. You violated the terms of a contract. You make it sound like you're a martyr.


Just curious, not saying you or Sharky are right or wrong, but seems like your statement is kinda harsh w/o really having a clear understanding of WHY Yahoo booted him... well, maybe its just me, but I still see no good reason why such would happen. Free site/service serving millions or a paid service for a few, doesn't matter to me - suppose I'm too niave in the belief in that the customer is always right, unless they are really doing something boneheaded, in which for example, here, I don't see it... What specific terms of the contract did he violate?


----------



## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

He posted a graphic of a scam on his web site which is against policy. Liz


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Bandwidth theft or "hotlinking" is direct linking to a website's files (images, video, etc.)

So if you just post a link then you was ok.

More on hotlinking here and a hotlinking test.

http://altlab.com/hotlinking.html


----------



## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

southernlady said:


> He posted a graphic of a scam on his web site which is against policy. Liz


Again, I'm not defending nor attacking him or his actions, just trying to understand...  So, with that said, and to play devil's advocate, WHY is the mere posting of an image upon his [geocitie's] website such a no-no? Especially, if it was [as played by Sharky] not done in an evil manner, but as a niave, but suppossedly helpful means?

Sharky wrote: "I thought i had a great idea, i had a geocities web account
and somehow i fiqured out a way to copy the message of the frauduent email and turn it into a geocitie page. (maybe there are other ways i could have copied the email message but the above is the only one i could think of) So i send yahoo an email with the complete header,the date,the time,etc.and the geocity web page that had the message body of the email (asking me for my ATM number.etc) After 3 days,i deleted the geocity webpage."

Now, myself, I'm a tad suspicious/confused of what is meant by "and somehow I figured out a way to copy the message...". What do you mean "somehow"? Just how did you do such? Was it indeed by "hotlinking"? Which I don't see how it was hotlinking, if the image was embedded into his geocities website? Why am I asking these questions? Why do I care? I'm too tired...


----------



## K-Man (Sep 11, 2004)

Okay, I may regret getting in on this thread, as it seems to have become argumentative, but here's my two cents:

I do not like Yahoo. I removed Yahoo from my favorites list long ago, when I got messages about "unsafe active x controls" right on their home search page! Seeing this thread has only served to reinforce my opinion that yahoo is a corporate collosus, unable to keep up with the demands of the zillions of users it has created.

In my opinion, for whatever it is worth; Yahoo should never have offered e-mail services, unless it was willing to make them safer than this. I realize this is a free service, but knowing this, and knowing that their inferior security measures were certain to result in situations like this one... Yahoo should not be so harsh on those who fall victim to the vagaries of its own system.

I have web-based e-mail myself, though it is part of my paid service through my ISP. Here's the thing though: *I have never had a single piece of spam or unsolicited e-mail... ever!* To explain why this is pertinent, consider this: My ISP is a very small outfit, with probably less than 2,000 customers.

If such a small company can provide such outstanding e-mail protection, why can't a giant like Yahoo?

I understand that no company can make a 100% guarantee on such things, but that is not the point. The point is that any company knows they can't make such a guarantee... and yet they expect nothing less from their users?

The only advice I can offer is this: As hewee said... try to be as super-nice as possible... swallow your pride... even apologize if it gets you your e-mails back...

Then I'd dump Yahoo like a bad habit, and NEVER go back! Find yourself a new home. Preferably one where you know ahead of time that they will respond to your inquiries, and one which offers filtering and virus scanning of your mail prior to its delivery. It may cost you, but it sounds like Yahoo cost you some things you consider priceless!

Good luck!


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I also had yahoo web base email and dump them after a short time because of all the flash and other troubles.
I also say they are spamers too. Why because I did have pacbell who became sbc and then sbc/yahoo. I was getting spam from pacbell and then also sbc. After the change to sbc/yahoo they later changed the email server to go tru yahoo. All the spam I had been getting and the very same spam over and over that Mailwasher was not doing it job on keeping out because the same spam would come from new address. But after the new yshoo email server all that spam stop and I now had even more spam but all new types of spam from all new places. 
I emailed and called sbc about the spam. They asked if I had sbc/yahoo and I said I only had a account and never installed any of there software on my PC or was I ever going to. They said it has software for spam. I said I am calling about all the new spam that you are spamming me with and mailwasher is better. He tried to make me think all the trouble would go away if I install there software. I then called again and told them I am closing my account. Been happy with the cable. Not as happy as I could be if I got the cable speeds comcast says I have but that is another story.

Yea my email address was the very same so if the spammer had my address I would of still gotten the same spam I had been getting when they used the sbc email servers. 
So it was the ISP's that were spamming me.

Now I have comcast cable and after all this time I have never gotten any spam from them.


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

when i posted that fradulent email on a geocity page ,i did NOT post
the link from the letter. for the third time, the people behind 
the email letter likely make it difficult to send a copy when one at-
tempts to report them,and i was trying to make it easier for Yahoo
to understand.


And Lightening,when one takes time,energy and effort to help others from 
following victim to a scam,that is called a good deed. If the letter copied
normally,this post would not exist and my good deed would have gone
unnoticed, which i would have preferred.


If the people/organization who send out those fraud letters happen to 
come across this thread, they are probably having a good laugh (and
will continue to keep sending them).


----------



## Guest (Oct 13, 2004)

I don't see how what you did could have helped prevent someone from falling for this scam. What exactly did you expect Yahoo to do? Banks already notify their customers of these scams and warn them to be careful.


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

Lightning said:


> I don't see how what you did could have helped prevent someone from falling for this scam. What exactly did you expect Yahoo to do? Banks already notify their customers of these scams and warn them to be careful.


When one has a Yahoo email account,one can report spam to Yahoo
and when you report a spam email,Yahoo responds by ' thank you,
every time you report spam,helps us control spam better'(not ex-
act words)

Seems logical when one reports fraud emails,it would help Yahoo control
fraud emails.


----------



## Guest (Oct 14, 2004)

When I log into my Yahoo account, I have the option of marking a message as spam. Simple. No violation of terms of agreement.


----------



## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Just because you have a paid ISP doesnt mean your not going to get spam. There are spammers who target specific ISP @'s. There's one who sends loads of it to cox high speed.


----------



## K-Man (Sep 11, 2004)

Big-K said:


> Just because you have a paid ISP doesnt mean your not going to get spam. There are spammers who target specific ISP @'s. There's one who sends loads of it to cox high speed.


This is very true, and a good point Big-K! :up:

I do think that companies tend to exhibit more responsibility toward a *paying* customer though. It seems to be human nature. Take my firewall software for instance: because it was a free download, the company will not provide support for it. If I spent 20 bucks for an 'upgrade', they would give me support. Sounds kinda like I'm just paying for support? 

There is another oddity of the net which could get you spammed too: I was just reading about it.

Seems that some spammers use 'spoofing' to make it look like someone else sent the spam. Well; some webmasters 'bounce' spam back to the address from which it originated. Only problem is, of course, it bounces to someone else's address! So... If a spammer uses *your* address in this way, you culd get spammed by an 'anti-spammer'! 

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world my friends!


----------



## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Well K-Man is on a small local ISP so it is more easy for the ISP to take control of spam. 
Also the spammer don't know every ISP out there and they like going after the big guys for the bulk spamming because more people will get the spam.


----------



## Holly3278 (Jan 29, 2003)

brendandonhu said:


> Did it ever cross your mind that someone could have found your Geocities page and sent their ATM numbers to the scammer?


Exactly! That's probably why Yahoo shut down the account. Obviously, a breach of Terms of Service occurred somewhere along the lines. Just goes to show you that reading the Terms of Service _is_ a good idea.


----------



## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Holly3278 said:


> Exactly! That's probably why Yahoo shut down the account. Obviously, a breach of Terms of Service occurred somewhere along the lines. Just goes to show you that reading the Terms of Service _is_ a good idea.


Just to play the devil's advocate here with the following. So, what he did [posting such upon his Geocities page] was bad because unknowing to him some goofy person out there decided to do something even more foolish he gets punished for? Yea, I can see that happening, but heck, when do people start taking responsibility for their own actions and/or stupidity, instead of trying to blame someone else all the time? 

As to reading those Terms and Contracts, sheeeeeeesh... how many people really read those long, boring, confusing things?

Ok, now read both paragraphs of mine above here together...  

Now, colour me a fool too, cause I have NEVER read any of these things; yet, if and when hades freezes over because of something I did, well, I'll be the first to take ownership and/or blame for my inept actions. Not casting any stones, just general statements.


----------



## HitAnyKey (Sep 1, 2002)

The best usage of a Yahoo account is for receiving spam in place of one of your other accounts. That's the sole reason I have a yahoo account.

Whenever I go to a website that requires me to enter in an email address, I put in my Yahoo account. This way any possible spam from doing such goes to the yahoo account and leaves my regular accounts alone. I actually have two such accounts for these purposes. I have my iwon account for when I buy something online and my yahoo accounts for most everything else.

And my regular personal (paid) email accounts stay relatively spam-free.


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

well,today i received another one of those fraud emails
asking for a bank account password,.....i just deleted it. 

Total time: 3 seconds

(again,the criminals behind those citibank fraud emails
probably are having a good laugh reading this post's
thread and feel a little bit safer sending them out.
And Yahoo? tough on account holders who inadvertent-
ly break thier policies,WEAK on serious fraudulant email
letters to thier servers.)


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

I just did some research on those citibank fraudulent emails that appear
to be widespread on the internet and i did some research on Yahoo.


Those fradulent citibank emails asking for atm account passwords
appear to be coming from 3rd world countries. Yahoo started to
"outsource" its personel over a year ago, ie when you contact "Yahoo"
by email or phone,it might be answered by someone in another country,
many times a 3rd world country.

Fraud citibank letters are from a 3rd world country,Yahoo outsources its
help to a 3rd world country. These fraud emails are not stopping. Perhaps there is a connection?

Of course,i am not being serious but then again,could it not be possible?


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

Hmmmmmmmm. Yahoo returned my email address/account to me,
just after i emailed them from a non-yahoo email account telling
them i was going to report THEM about taking action on ME for
reporting a fradulent email.


----------



## dvk01 (Dec 14, 2002)

It's always adviseable to FORWARD the scam email to the bank or creditcard company

most have a special email address listed on their site to FORWARD such emails to

on the citibank home page is a link at the bottom about email fraud which uses a Javascript pop up & give clear instructions to FORWARD the email to [email protected]

then they can investigate and get action taken to close down the scammers sites and they do succeed very quickly in getting the sites closed. The power of the almighty $ or £ or evebn the  works well with the site hosting companies


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

deleted by sharky


----------



## sharky (Jul 9, 2001)

I do not know how to take the following email i received. Where
you the mad smiley  ...is where i took out some information
for this post and so no one goes to the site. i am guessing its
not from yahoo,but another scam.

if you have been following this thread, i am NOT going to report this
to yahoo. it arrived in my spam mailbox

______________________________________________________________

We m&#8238;tsu&#8236; c&#8238;kceh&#8236; t&#8238;tah&#8236; y&#8238;uo&#8236;r Y&#8238;oha&#8236;o! ID was regis&#8238;ret&#8236;ed by r&#8238;ae&#8236;l peo&#8238;lp&#8236;e. So, to h&#8238;ple&#8236; Ya&#8238;oh&#8236;o! pr&#8238;eve&#8236;nt auto&#8238;tam&#8236;ed
regi&#8238;itarts&#8236;ons, pl&#8238;sae&#8236;e c&#8238;kcil&#8236; on th&#8238;si&#8236; l&#8238;ni&#8236;k and compl&#8238;te&#8236;e c&#8238;do&#8236;e veri&#8238;oitacif&#8236;n p&#8238;cor&#8236;ess:

ww&#8206;w&#1978;.&#1975;y&#8236;a&#1976;h&#8237;o&#1978;o&#3046;.&#1970;c&#8236;om/?Z41G7N3sRnB0r7Bb    nbao25CRR9CsGe7nfYkTe135q7 

T&#8238;knah&#8236; you.

______________________________________________________________


----------



## cfputer (Oct 26, 2004)

i bought a mcafee 7.0 and was supposed to get a rebate from staples. guess what?? the bar code on the bottom was not correct and the rest of the box bragged about a rebate. im sorry about theperson losing their email account and i know how important pictures are. But as far as the web site is concerned you havent lost much. please find a different place for your pictures.


----------



## cfputer (Oct 26, 2004)

cfputer said:


> i bought a mcafee 7.0 and was supposed to get a rebate from staples. guess what?? the bar code on the bottom was not correct and the rest of the box bragged about a rebate. im sorry about theperson losing their email account and i know how important pictures are. But as far as the web site is concerned you havent lost much. please find a different place for your pictures.


ps anybody got any free upgrades for 7,0????


----------



## cfputer (Oct 26, 2004)

this is a warning grisoft works fine but only heals. if you bring up your file and happen to click on it to delete it starts all over again. Its the reason i tried to download mcafee again. its been 733 days since i used it so there are no upgrades. so its back to grisoft


----------



## Mr. Peabody (Apr 13, 2003)

Having reviewed the many letters in this thread, I feel compelled to make a few comments. There are many themes at play in the content of the various letters, which depend on certain attitudes and beliefs embraced by each writer about the subject at hand.

We have a large company (Yahoo) offering a free product (e-mail) the use of which is limited by stated terms of agreement.

We have a user who fell victim to an alleged criminal activity (malicious spam), who then made a good faith and responsible choice to report the infraction to relevant parties. His correspondence and several actions resulted in the termination of his mail account, and loss of access to his personal property contained in data files on that server.

The user's alleged infraction, which may or may not be the relevant violation of the service agreement, occurred when he unwittingly published the spam letter on the web.

The company eventually acquiesced to repeated requests by the user to reinstate the account.

*The criminals are still at large.*

And this is the point I want to focus on here. The criminals are still at large. Ladies and gentlemen, we are being forced to accept our status as victims of criminal behavior! Why?

Malicious delivery of spam, viruses, or any other device which can potentially cause harm to your personal property is a criminal offense, IMO. It is trespassing/breaking and entering with intent to do harm, IMO.

I must qualify my remarks as "IMO" because it is not yet common knowledge, nor does the corporate/legal community yet acknowledge through their statements, efforts or financial commitments, that such activities are indeed criminal in nature, in general.

If a spammer could send anthrax through an e-mail, John Ashcroft and his army of do-gooders would be on it in a second. But if the infraction is limited to a tiny virus that only wipes out your files, or causes you hours of downtime, you become hard pressed to find anyone who has the authority or interest to pursue the perpetrator and *arrest* those guilty parties. Why?

At the heart of this discussion, and your many responses, is the question of how we can advance in security measures to the point where our law enforcement agencies are charged to pursue and convict criminals who prey upon ordinary citizens. In the absence of the complement of enforcement, there is no law.

And that is where it remains. In the absence of any meaningful (enforceable) law, we are each fueling the corporate world by buying defensive products to keep the criminals out. We nail our windows shut, bolt our doors, and leave a tiny crack open so we can talk to our neighbors. But we are doing very little to minimize the number of criminals that are preying on us.

Ok, I should remand that last statement to acknowledge the activities of internet servers who are taking actions, researching the origins of offenders, terminating accounts when flagrant violations occur. But I believe these actions are directed to major infractions, most often when the integrity of a large network is threatened. You would not likely receive the same attention for a violation on your personal property (your PC). There is the rub: enforcement must serve the interests of the corporations.

Sharkey received the attention of Yahoo when he caused his complaint to *escalate.* He communicated not in terms of how Yahoo's decision affected him, instead, he wisely rewrote his complaint in terms of how the proceedings might effect Yahoo. When he did that, he got their immediate attention. Why?

Most likely because the area of computer crime litigation, legislation and enforcement responsibilities are still evolving as part of the advent of the internet. The next time you receive a virus in an attachment, report it to your local police department as trespassing, or breaking and entering. Bring a camera so you can capture the expression on their faces, because they simply do not know how to respond to such a complaint. No one has writtent that legislation yet.

Like it or not, we are the early pioneers of the internet. We are braving the new frontier, replete with all its inherent dangers. We are settlers in a new land, and the prevailing law favors the cowboy with the biggest gun, or the best firewall.

*Tech Support Forum*, and other similar services, are on the front-lines in the fight for a better internet. Their contribution is through education. For those of us who use this service, we become advocates for change, guardians of new principles, armed with intelligence, and field support agents for our friends, associates and family. We are fighting the good fight.

I applaud Sharkey's sense of purpose, his temerity and his principled convictions. He is setting the example for the rest of us. We must continue to partner with corporations so they can gain first-hand information about how best to design consumer products. In time, we will have effective law enforcement on the web. Until then, _caveat emptor,_ let the buyer beware.

IMHO,
Mr. Peabody


----------



## Infidel_Kastro (Nov 21, 2003)

Sorry you went through all of this, it sucks.
Some info on Citibank. They have seena ll the phising scams. Everytime I get a piece, I don't bother sending it to them, BTW, they actually have a department, or at least an e-mail addy to report this stuff. instead, I forward all of them to my friend, who happens to be the Citibank webmistress. I forward them, then call her and make fun of her and asking why Citi needs all my personal information, just really breaking her, well, you know.
For the most part, just delete them and go on with your day.


----------

