From: Fiona Walker (Fionapunk@excite.co.uk) To: staff@attrition.org Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 01:37:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Help Hi, sorry to bother you but I have an urgent request for information. Hypertheticly speaking, If I had mentioned at work that I had got of with a girl at a party and mentioned her name and someone at work set up a false mail acount and pretended to be her.And if I was a big anough plonker to send her some compromising photo's what could I do about it. I have bought A complete Hacker's Handbook and found that it would take quite some time to take on a task like this as a complete novice and could do with some advice prety soon as the hyperthetical person will be back from holiday soon and I think that soon thay will find out I'm on to them.I believe that this person may use the pictures for melicious purposes. (p.s I am a male and this is a set up account with the same name as the other false account,except the other one is A.O.L. Stupid and desperate Stu
From: /dev/null (null@attrition.org) To: Fiona Walker (Fionapunk@excite.co.uk) Cc: staff@attrition.org Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 08:56:16 -0600 (MDT) Subject: Re: Help Hi, Stu. First off, this isn't a hypothetical situation, is it? So let's cut the pretense, shall we? Now that's done, let me understand what happened here. You made the mistake of sending explicit photos to an AOL account and then found out that it was a co-worker's account, set up as a joke. Now you're worried and the only thing you can think to do is what? Commit a crime. Not only commit a crime, but ask complete strangers to help you commit that crime. Not terribly clever, that, is it, Stu? Here's my advice. Put down the Hacker's Handbook. It isn't going to help you. Don't write to complete strangers. They can't help you either. Be mature about things and go to your co-worker when he comes back from holiday and politely ask him to please destroy the pictures. Tell him it was a clever joke and isn't he smart for making you fall for it, ha ha ha, but now you'd like the pictures destroyed. If that isn't an option, your next recourse is to go to your manager or human resources department. This is a situation of potential harassment, and you'll want them aware of the situation -before- anything embarassing happens. What you should -not- do, under any circumstances, is try to 'hack' AOL to get the pictures back. I do assure you it won't work and you'll very likely get busted and fired if not outright jailed (note that the UK has recently declared hacking a terrorist act)...do you really want to spend some time in a jail cell for mailing some naughty pictures? If you're truly desperate, why not try some sensible, -legal- (if embarassing) solutions first, before rushing off into something your government considers equivalent to bombing the BBC? Good luck (and next time don't send naughty pictures of yourself through email in the -first- place...don't you know email's like sending a post card, and anyone who wants to can read it while it's in transit?). /dev/null Attrition staff
