How to Protect Yourself From Revenge
v3.1
by: DisordeR (jericho@dim.com)
Knowing both sides of the battle has always been the best way to prepare
yourself. To know one's enemy lets you prepare in advance for the war to
come. "When you know the lace and time of battle, then you can join the
fight from a thousand miles away" - Sun Tzu.
The basis for this file will be two sources: The Revenge Database I wrote,
as well as The Avenger's revenge file. Both of those files illustrate
the potential revenge that can be enacted with varying degrees of effort.
As always, I don't encourage revenge in any way. I do encourage having
all available knowledge of any given subject.
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The first thing to do is try to determine a few things about your
would-be attackers.
1. Who? Is it one person or a group?
2. Why? What is the motivation?
3. How far are they willing to take it?
1. Knowing who is after you is the most important thing. If you know who
it is, you can begin to determine the 'why' and 'how far'. The other
benefit of knowing who is acting against you, is the process of
stopping it.
2. Why do you care about their motivation? It tells you what to prepare
for. If they are trying to get revenge because you called them "lame"
on a news group, it qualifies what thy are probably willing to do
to get back at you. If you killed their dog, odds are they are willing
to go further to get back at you.
3. If you know who they are, and why they are after you, you can begin
to figure out how far they are willing to take the vendetta, and
more importantly what resources they have available to them.
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The most critical thing in getting revenge or protecting yourself is
your personal information. In today's society, it is near impossible
to fully protect your information because of the various companies
that network that information. The other problem is that most people
are already established. What does that mean 'established'? Your
information is already out there, so having it removed from the various
computers and companies is more difficult than keeping it out in the
first place.
From here on out, consider the information in two lights. First, if you
have recently moved, or about to move, you can use this to keep that
information from being spread. Second, if you are already established,
use this information to figure out how to remove yourself from these
sources, or stop the spread of that information.
The most critical piece of information to keep private is your physical
location. If they don't know where to find you, a LOT of forms of
revenge aren't applicable to you.
*) Who really needs your address? Services that must be installed at
your residence. All other bills, correspondance, and anythin gelse
should be directed to a PO Box. So who really needs your real
address?
. Telephone service.
. Cable TV
. Public Service
If you are gung ho about your privacy, even telephone service doesn't
need to lead to you. By use of pager and cellular phone, no physical
phone line will lead to your house. Why is that especially important?
The telephone company is the biggest offender for giving out personal
information. The lack of authentication and willingness to help a
customer is phenominal.
Cable service is one of those services that has to terminate at your
location. Short of splicing in on a neighbor's service, there is
basically little you can do. Like all services, telephone included,
you can have your bill and contact information chagned to a POBox
and alternate number. If someone is not thorough, they may only
check the basics and get information from a customer service
representative who reads billing information more often than not.
As for private shared databases, they are often difficult to change
completely. Even if you change it one or two times, past copies of
those databases have been circulated to other companies. Knowing
that, make your work count. When you contact companies to make
changes, shoot for the highest in the chain. Credit reporting agencies
are a good start. These agencies often share records with half the
known commercial world.
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Phone.
1) A little known feature that phone companies offer is the ability
to password protect your line. This consists of a word or phrase
that is required to make changes to your phone service.
When you choose this password, make sure it isn't a word easily
associated with you or any information pertaining to you.
If your name is 'John Doe', then "john" or "doe" is not a good
password. Once you have selected your password, make sure they
read it back to you so there is no confusion in the matter. If
you forget the password, you will have to go to the Telco office
with ID to reset it.
Customer Service Rep: "How can I help you?"
John Doe: "Yes, I would like to put a password on my phone line."
Rep: "Ok, please verify some information..."
Rep: "Thank you John, now what would you like your password to be?"
John: "I'd like the password to be 'secure!line'"
Rep: "Ok, that information has been added, anything else?"
John: "Yes, please read it back to me."
Rep: "Ok, your current password is "secure 'bang' line""
John: "Thank you. Please verify all of my features and service."
Rep: "Ok, you have Caller ID, Per Line Blocking, your long distance
provider is AT&T, and you have a password on your line."
At the time of installing the password, verify your service to ensure
your line service has not been tampered with. If everything is ok,
you are set. Remember, this is not full proof! Reps have been known
to make changes without verification!
Two other services should be added to your line. "Per line blocking"
which makes it so your Caller ID info is NOT passed to other people.
Every call you make will automatically block this information, and
the service is typically free. The second is a block on all 900 numbers.
Many targets of revenge will find themselves with enormous phone bills
because of hundreds of 900 number calls.
2) Now that you have added some protection on the Phone Company side,
add some to yours as well. First, find out where your line
physically terminates. Typically this will be a small gray box
on the side of your house, in your basement, or in a larger box if
you live in apartments. The box should have a bell logo on it, or
give some indication that it is for phones. If you are in an apartment,
you may have problems securing this point. If possible, put a small
lock on the box to prevent people from tapping in on your line
at that point. If you do this, make sure you are home if you have
a lineman come out to do any work on your line.
Do you have an answering machine or voice mail? If so, make sure that
the remote features are disabled or protected by a secure access
number. Make sure the access number is not your address, part of
your phone number, etc.
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1) Your car. One easy way to get revenge against someone is to hit
them financially. Aside from your house, your car is usually the
second most valuable possession you have. The ways to do damage
to a car are endless. What you can do to protect yourself are
limited. Parking in a garage or protected environment is obviously
the best thing you can do. If that option is not available to you,
parking in a well lit area, that is hard to access is a good option.
If you think the person seeking revenge hasn't done their homework,
park half a block down so they don't assume it is your car. Of course,
this may put undue pressure or damage on a neighbor.
If you do park where your can be accessed, make sure your hood is
secure, your gas tank locked, and there is not easy access to
underneath your car.
2) Mailbox. If possible, don't use your own mailbox. Use a POBOX
that is already protected by other people. If you begin to
receive a lot of mail that you weren't expecting, complain.
Put a note in your mailbox telling the postperson not to leave
junk mail. Start the filtering process there.
3) Cable Splicing. Just like your phone line, it is very easy to
splice in on your cable lead. There are two main reasons to
protect this service. First, so that no physical damage can be
done to your cable line. This causes you headaches as you call
repairmen out to the house, spend money for them to tell you
"you got a split line", etc. Second, it can be setup to look like
you are providing feeds for all your neighbors. Cable companies
frown upon theft of their service and will prosecute every chance
they get.
4) Your neighbors. So many aspects of revenge can involve your neighbors.
Knowing that, it is in your best interest to get to know them REALLY
well. Go out of your way to help them out, be friendly, etc. In the
long run, it could pay off in ways you can't begin to imagine.
If revenge is taken on your neighbors with the intent to get them mad
at you, hopefully they will understand the tactics and help you out.
That is where they come in to help. Having neighbors keep an eye out
for your house and property gives you a better chance at stopping
potential damage and catching the person doing it.
5) Leaving town. If you are leaving town on vacation or business and
no one is left behind, tell your employer and relatives. Them getting
a phone call stating you are dead, resigned, or whatever else will
be a bit more unbelievable.
6) A few things you can do around the house to foil a lot of revenge
tactics.
- Don't leave your hose out.
- Make sure your yards are well lit. Install motion sensitive
lights in key areas.
- Install a burglar alarm, even if it is fake.
- Don't keep loose bricks and rocks near your yard if you can.
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