oh GP I am so sorry to hear this - have they charged you with anything?
Jesusbuiltmygro said:Invite only ! That would vastly increase form security or set aside certain forum features as invite only and don't talk about them in public forums.
It's really wouldn't be that hard.
That being said I would never even buy seeds from a user no less exchange clones or do anything that even remotely reveals my address or even my safe addy.
These places are so insecure. I wanted to bring this up in a non public forum for the mods to think about, but I've come to the conclusion there is little they will actually do about it.
Now it sounds bad, but we really need to seriously think about not allowing links to unapproved sites.
Just come with me on a theoretically journey where I'm a desperate con artist and you people are my targets.
Mods feel free to delete this thread if you fear people might actually do this.
I register a new handle anonymously using a place like mytrashmail.com for my email. I log in through anon proxy to the site. I post a link that has some unbeleivable OFFER. Some hot deal on lights or some awesome grow gadget for better yields. I take my time wording my post and making the link as beleivable as possible.
I could even setup a fake store with little effort. I could host it from the tons of free webspace provisder, buy my own space, or even host it from my own computer (however why risk giving out my ip).
Now everyone who clicks on my CMEMORY HPS link goes to my fake store or just to a picture of a HID with some low price or even links to nothing. For the sake of perpetuating the scam however I would keep it as real as possible. Even getting people to go ahead and make order to my fake site.
So now I have personal and credit card info on everyone who went through and bought an item in my fake store. Or the real kicker, I have the IP of everyone who even clicks on the link regardless of what security you have in place chances are I can setup a link that when you click on it, it will tell me your IP.
From there I just follow simple black mail procedure. I can probably extract money from you just by exaggerating the important of the info I have gathered. I can tell you the area you live in and the ISP you use. I bombard your IP with exploits until I find an open share, a username with no password,
a weak password, or use other techniques.
Now it might not work. Getting your IP really doesn't mean jack since I'm not the cops so getting the personal records attached to that IP would be much harder for me.
but nothing is stopping a rouge law enforcement agent from harvesting IP's. The beauty doing something like this to a form that appeals to criminal behavior of any kind is you know the vast majority of people who follow that link are guilty of something. Many forums have the these.. hot deal sections where you could just go drop one of these bombs on the site. You could get dozens of orders or shit just run a store with bad intent and only advertise on here. You know what your customers are really up to and these forums are the perfect place to advertise.
And then when you start contacting people, threatening them, asking for money or you'll turn over your info to the DEA. What do we all do then ?
Wouldn't it be more profitable to blackmail people on forms with illegal content than it would be to run a legit online store ? What are you gonna do, call the cops on the guy? Try to track him down based on his merchant account info ?
Sadly he could be anywhere and he has your intellectual property with him.
So yea think about that shit when following offsite links. They can go anywhere and interacting with people outside the normal bounds of posting is far FAR less secure. If you do these kinds of things you need yourself a digital mule. Someone willing to do all that shit from thier house, under their name and go to prison if they have to.
If you want give to charity. Then give to those fucking starving kids all over the world. You will literally save their lives not just help some slacker with his rent money this month.
The point is you can opportate your goodwill through a charity. Even if it's not an official tax deductable type of charity. People will always be looking to use chairity for their own means. If you want to really be involved in all that you definately shouldn't be risking your own ass. If you doubt them and they really need the money get someone to fax or post some type of good ID and cross reference it against their claims. In the end that shit is too much work for me.
You could just give money to an already existing charity to help people busted for MJ and let them work out the details. Or start your own !
Seems like a good service for people really. Wanna help your friend out, donate to his local non violent drug user defense fund. If only Norml had something like that where they just set you up with a lawyer and take donations. Just gotta wonder how much of that money that goes in will actually go back out.
You know most of the time the charges are trumped up to begin with and get knocked down so far that they are mild. If you dont like run from the cops or have guns in your house all they do is hit you with the weight charge.
If your too lazy to look up the local drug laws in your area and you get busted above a mandatory minimun law, well sorry but it's prolly too late for charity and you should have been more serious about the consequences fo your actions.
If you didn't get hit with the mandatory minimun then strop crying. A little prison time will build ya some character.
If your just an asshole who has everything to lose and grew 500 plants anyway.. Well... wtf did you expert to be on MTV cribs with your payoff.
Point is usually either your fucked or your not. If they aren't getting a 100 plant plus charge, or a mandatory min and they aren't a 2 time felon they probably don't really need your help that much. If they are facing cultivation or use ontop of violent crime charges.. fuck em. It'll be better for them to learn a lesson than get out quick IMO.
These people really need charity before the fact, not once they get in all that trouble. I give people charity all the time. Advice on how not to get their asses busted is the best charity we can really give them.
However just imagine how much of this BS we could filter out with invite only sections of the form. I uh.. invite myself !! We could have a quality community of pros on one side all learning from each other without the Do Halogen lights work' questions all the time. Plus when you feel like knocking out some newbie questions you cross the rail road tracks over to the public side. If you want.
I feel like we'd have more power like this, more security and probably higher quality info.
*check this link for how low a SCAMMER can go to possibly gain something and perhaps jeapordize the immediate security of our loved and valued members on this site...
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=43594
Sorry to hear that crap GP!!!!! keep strong man.guineapig said:Thankz for all your zupport!!!!! (one of my keyz iz currently malfunctioning.....)
No chargez yet......but i will keep you pozted and will alwayz be here!!!!
-yer pal gp
Gypsy Nirvana said:.....Excellent post......and exactly along the lines of my sentiments...
....There are DATA-MINERS out there looking to try and BLACKMAIL you over the fact that you might be growing or breeding this plant.......Myself and some of my friends have been exposed to such a person over the last years......but have managed to stand firm and not give in to various demands and threats that have been made....
The security of all on this site is paramount to me and I would not ever knowingly jeapordize that.........
As said above there are plenty of charities to give to if you so wish.....annonymously...
....Stay Safe.....Grow On........and have a Happy New Year Ya'll!