[NTLK] (no subject)

[Lord Groundhog]

~~~ On 2010/09/14 00:01, Grant Hutchinson at grant at splorp.com wrote ~~~

> I just spoke with Carlos via email and he's not sure what happened. It
> doesn't appear that his account was hacked. He's changed his Gmail
> password and will try resubscribing after a few days.

Hi Grant, 

To be serious for just a moment (make a note of it, it doesn't happen
often!) I recently suffered a similar fate on another group I'm in.  I've
been able to ascertain that it's very unlikely for anyone to have hacked my
account.  I'm pretty paranoid about my security; I change all my
random-character passwords every few months and I never use the same
password for more than one thing.  There's no sign that my account sent the
spam.  But I checked with a trusted friend who knows a lot about this stuff,
and the relevant part of his answer is:
"...If it was just a plain mailing list, then spammers can always fake
e-mails to appear to come from whoever they want...."

He demonstrated this by e-mailing me "from" my own address.  The only way to
know for sure is to rummage in the full header.  Of course if his account
really was compromised and not spoofed that won't help much.

So at the risk of excusing a genuine spammer, I'd say, look at Carlos'
posting history prior to these incidents (I've only seen two spam posts from
him out of about 11) and make a judgment call on his character and sincerity
on that.  

It also wouldn't hurt if he could contact his e-mail provider gmail and ask
them to check for signs that his account was hacked and used to send the
spam.  That would confirm if his address was simply spoofed or if it's
compromised.  

I'm inclined to believe he could be innocent, but of course I don't have to
carry the responsibility for deciding that you have.
</seriousness>

 
Shalom. 
Christian 

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942


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