Off Topic-Scam warning.

[jflessne]

Tis’ the Season ! BEWARE

Thought this may be a helpful tip to pass on:



Well the crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance.

If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards
you may become a victim of theft. Crooks are now jotting down the
card numbers in the store and then waiting for a few days before calling to see how much
of a balance THEY have on the card. Once they find the card is
"activated", they go online and start shopping.

You may want to purchase your card from a customer service person, where
they do not have the Gift Cards viewable to the public.

 

[MasonJar]

That's just nasty...! Big lumps of coal in their stockings!

Andrew

 

[brakie]

My Brother in law Chuck is a retired cop..He says todays rip off artist are smarter then those before them and its getting hard to catch these "ghosts" because they get plenty of help from "helpful" store employees,neighbors and you. One of the best protection you can buy is a shredder and shred all private papers instead of tearing then into pieces and tossing them into the trash.Never keep personal information on your computer because it can be hacked..Use a anti spyware every other day to clean off spybots and of course run a anti virus check weekly for embedded spy ware that you may have unknowingly down loaded.

 

[jflessne]

Recent issue in my line of work. Nieghbor asks me to look at his PC. He says it's been slow. "Familar right!." So I go over a discover that his wireless network had 8 other computers connected to his wireless router. I suspect they were using it for anon P2p traffic downloads. He sent this to me yesterday

Dear Customer,


We are writing on behalf of Cox Communications to advise you that we have received a notification that you are using your Cox High Speed Internet service to post or transmit material that infringes the copyrights of a complainant's members. We have included a copy of the complaint letter. Pursuant to the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), which is codified at 17 U.S.C. § 512, upon receiving such notification, Cox is required to "act expeditiously to remove, or disable access to" the infringing material in order to avoid liability for any alleged copyright infringement. Accordingly, Cox will suspend your account and disable your connection to the Internet within 24 hours of your receipt of this email if the offending material is not removed.


Please be aware that the DMCA also provides procedures by which a subscriber accused of copyright violation can respond to the allegations of infringement and, under certain circumstances, cause his or her account to be reinstated. To do so, however, the response must meet certain criteria. Pursuant to section (g) of the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512(g)), you have the right to submit to Cox a counter-notification which, to be effective, must include the following elements:


(a) a physical or electronic signature of the subscriber;
(b) identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
(c) a statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;
(d) the subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located.


In the event that you submit to Cox a counter-notification that includes these elements, Cox will forward your counter notification to the complainant and advise them that Cox will cease disabling access to the allegedly infringing material in ten (10) business days. Unless the complainant notifies us that it has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in the allegedly infringing activity prior to the expiration of those ten (10) business days, Cox will reactivate your account.


For answers to frequently asked questions, please follow the link below:


http://support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp/contentredirect.asp?sprt_cid=c2a30ae8-d706-4f6e-beb9-618ea54d1791


Sincerely,


Cox Customer Security

 

[FiatFan]

Recent issue in my line of work. Nieghbor asks me to look at his PC. He says it's been slow. "Familar right!." So I go over a discover that his wireless network had 8 other computers connected to his wireless router. I suspect they were using it for anon P2p traffic downloads. He sent this to me yesterday

Dear Customer,


We are writing on behalf of Cox Communications to advise you that we have received a notification that you are using your Cox High Speed Internet service to post or transmit material that infringes the copyrights of a complainant's members. We have included a copy of the complaint letter. Pursuant to the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), which is codified at 17 U.S.C. § 512, upon receiving such notification, Cox is required to "act expeditiously to remove, or disable access to" the infringing material in order to avoid liability for any alleged copyright infringement. Accordingly, Cox will suspend your account and disable your connection to the Internet within 24 hours of your receipt of this email if the offending material is not removed.


Please be aware that the DMCA also provides procedures by which a subscriber accused of copyright violation can respond to the allegations of infringement and, under certain circumstances, cause his or her account to be reinstated. To do so, however, the response must meet certain criteria. Pursuant to section (g) of the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512(g)), you have the right to submit to Cox a counter-notification which, to be effective, must include the following elements:


(a) a physical or electronic signature of the subscriber;
(b) identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
(c) a statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;
(d) the subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located.


In the event that you submit to Cox a counter-notification that includes these elements, Cox will forward your counter notification to the complainant and advise them that Cox will cease disabling access to the allegedly infringing material in ten (10) business days. Unless the complainant notifies us that it has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in the allegedly infringing activity prior to the expiration of those ten (10) business days, Cox will reactivate your account.


For answers to frequently asked questions, please follow the link below:


http://support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp/contentredirect.asp?sprt_cid=c2a30ae8-d706-4f6e-beb9-618ea54d1791


Sincerely,


Cox Customer Security

This is the reason I have wires strung all over my house. I know security can be enabled on wireless routers but this way, I don't have to worry. A good firewall, a NAT enabled router, anti-spyware, and antivirus are an absoulte must in today's conneceted world.

Tom

 

[N Gauger]

Are you sure the Cox letter isn't spam??? I receive one close to that from Comcast almost every other week... so do all the people I know that have Comcast.. we all have firewalls, routers and ad/spy ware installed and running... and our computers run great

Also, When you use gift cards in person or online you have to present the verification number (Usually under a scratchoff on the back of the card) these are invisible from the "Hanging" packaging in the stores...

Here's the whole story at Snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/sales/giftcard.asp

 

[ezdays]

Are you sure the Cox letter isn't spam??? I receive one close to that from Comcast almost every other week... so do all the people I know that have Comcast.. we all have firewalls, routers and ad/spy ware installed and running... and our computers run great

Also, When you use gift cards in person or online you have to present the verification number (Usually under a scratchoff on the back of the card) these are invisible from the "Hanging" packaging in the stores...

Here's the whole story at Snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/sales/giftcard.asp

I use a pre-paid cell phone and buy cards at Wal-Mart, just like those "gift" cards. And your right, I had to scratch off the back to give them that number as well before they'd activate it.

 

[b28_82]

A guy I used to work with got a similar warning from cox because of "Paramount" although he was of course downloading star trek episodes from Kazaa too but it isn't necessarily a scam. I think he temporarily got his internet account suspended because of it.

 

[COMBAT]

Tis’ the Season ! BEWARE

Thought this may be a helpful tip to pass on:



Well the crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance.

If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards
you may become a victim of theft. Crooks are now jotting down the
card numbers in the store and then waiting for a few days before calling to see how much
of a balance THEY have on the card. Once they find the card is
"activated", they go online and start shopping.

You may want to purchase your card from a customer service person, where
they do not have the Gift Cards viewable to the public.

I work in Asset Protection for one of the largest retailers. I can tell you from first hand experince as an investigator the gift card scam is true. I personaly investigated this crime in the city I live in. If you want to protect yourself it is simple to do. Prior to buying the gift card, insure the scratch off protection code on the back is still there. If it is you can safely purchase the gift card. If it is gone, damaged or visible please thow that gift card away and pick up another one.

With this little advice you can buy a gift card and do so knowing your money will stay your money.

As far as the Cox communication things goes it sounds like he had his account suspended due to a complaint that was received by COX from another party. After they investigated the complaint the determined that he violated the T.O.S. agreement COX has. If you found 8 other computers connected to his it sounds like someone else used his connection to post something they shouldn't have. Then again maybe he himself did it. I think he has some explaining to do to COX regardless if he posted the material or not.

Ho Ho Ho, the holidays my BUT! LOL

 

[N Gauger]

Thanks for clearing that up COMBAT You said it better than I could

Yup - I never thought of that - - it may have been from the spammer/hacker that his account was being watched It still stinks though

 

[jflessne]

There is a lot more to the letter. It's very specific information concerning IP etc. Dates and times and what was being downloaded. Cox also forwarded the letter from the company.

It was signed via PGP also.

The gift card deal. Not all cards "had" scratch offs last year. I'm not confident about it this year however.

 

[jeffrey-wimberl]

The gift card scam thing is definately true. It happened to me once. I bought a card, activated it, and before I could use it, somebody spent all but $17 of the $100 that was on it.