Hey everyone,

I just received an announcement from Topica .com that I had been accepted for a request for a new e-mail address. Well, the thing is, I never made any such request towards any such company.

Perhaps the impersonator is at it again! Now, trying to hyjack my e-mail address. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up!

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), July 20, 2003

Answers

Thanks, Gail.

The "hacking" item that troubles me most is the fact that someone has figured out how to send mail with me showing up as the sender. Then I get puzzlied replies (even from ex-forum people) wondering why I am bugging them.
JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), July 20, 2003.

Hi Gail and John.

It seems that I too have become a victim of their pranks. I can only guess as to who might be doing such a thing. We may have the same person in common.

Rodrigo.. .. ..

-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 20, 2003.

Gail-

John's post above mine looks fake. If it isn't fake, sorry John.

Rodrigo.. .. ..

-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 20, 2003.

Unfortunately, it's very easy to fake the sender's address in an email. However, it is probably illegal to do so, and it should be possible to trace the offender by tracking the headers.

One way to protect against imposters sending email from you is to use a digital signature. Here is some info.

-- never mind (__@__.__), July 20, 2003.

All the above posts are legitimate, as verified by IP addresses. Of course, you have no way of knowing if this is actually me writing this post, but it is. (If it isn't, this post will disappear quickly). :-)

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), July 20, 2003.

I received an e-mail from Topica after I alerted them to this particular sabotage, and they have an Abuse Department that is already investigating. They said they would notify me of their findings!

I am sure it is quite illegal and probably involves a heavy fine.

God Bless,

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), July 21, 2003.

This thing you're talking about... does it try to change your default homepage on your browser and other similiar stuff?

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), July 21, 2003.

I was sent a sensitive email from an old (2 year old) email address I once used. I tried to trace it back; I couldn't. I questioned all of my co-workers who could have pulled a prank such as this; they all denied it. I received that strange email around the same time that I had hooked up with this forum.

It would be nice to know who the prankster is and how the prank was executed. I have my suspects, but how they did it has me baffled.

Rodrigo..

-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 21, 2003.

A while back, an impersonator (same one? I don't know. The racist guy) set up a couple accounts for me at other forums. This could easily have led to some problems, but luckily the forums sent me a confirmation e-mail that gave me the password for my account (of all things, it was "12345"!) and allowed me to change it before I got flooded with mail.

Wish I could have seen his face when he tried to log on and got an error message!

-- Catherine Ann (catfishbird@yahoo.ca), July 21, 2003.

Katherine-

"12345"? It sounds like a one-handed, left-handed, and under-handed simpleton.

The sentence structure and iconic look of his fake message points to one person whom I've conversed with. He made the mistake of using the same style with that message. When I read it I assumed that I was corresonding with him and only him. We leave our "finger prints" everywhere.

Rodrigo..

-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 22, 2003.

Oops! Sorry. I meant "Catherine" instead of "Katherine".

I guess it is true what they say about age and short term memory; I just can't remember what that was.

Rodrigo.. .. .

-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 22, 2003.

Ha ha ha!

Looks like we hit a nerve.

I think St. Dominic said that Satan couldn't stand to be laughed at.

Last post of mine in this thread.

(In case anyone hasn't guessed, the above post was not mine, did not express any of my beliefs, and, in fact, was false in every respect.)

-- Catherine Ann (catfishbird@yahoo.ca), July 22, 2003.

Yes, Catherine Ann, anyone who has been around here for any length of time would know that wasn't you. In fact, the Imposter is getting rather careless. He cannot remain "invisible" forever. As soon as he posts something out-of-character in his victim's name, his cover is blown!

His posts are beginning to stick out like a sore thumb. He's not as smart as he thinks he is. Most of us regulars have been here long enough to know each other's mannerisms and writing style pretty well. I can tell whose post I'm reading before I get to the second paragraph (usually).

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), July 22, 2003.

Hee..e..ee

The impersonator got the dots after my name wrong. There is a significant sequence and the number of dots keep changing because of the......

It is only a matter of time and he/she will be caught.

rod.. .. .. .

-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 22, 2003.