A Stalking Website?

I was just notified that I was listed on a website “spokeo.com”.
They have every single house I ever lived in, listed.
They have me listed at some crazy high amount of income. They show photos of my house from the street. and they show how many people live in my house and their age.
I thought these “find people” websites had a legal standard of what information they could show?
The person who told me this was a sister of mine. She had to move from the area she was living in because of something that happened to her daughter. Needless to say, they never caught the guys, but they occasionally get mail from one or two of them bragging about what they did. So my sister moved. Now she is getting mail from them again. The guy(s) even told her how they found her. and yes they list her daughter there also, and her daughter’s age.

My sister requested herself removed and my mother and everyone else she knew the address of. Spokeo sent a removal confirmation email, but they are all still listed on that site.
I had to locate every home I lived in with in the past 20 years.
I am still listed on their stalking website.
I am legally unlisted. So how they obtained my information clearly was illegal.
Possibly bought and sold a thousand times over.

To remove yourself from Spokeo go to spokeo.com/contact
go to the drop down menu select “privacy”. type in your name. Do not type in your phone number
Tell them to remove you from the list, and leave a link to the page(s) your are listed on.
There sometimes will be a second page with spot for you to post the link and type in a confirmation code.
I didn’t get that confirmation code, but my sister did. Could be because she removed a lot of people.

Everyone please report this website after you request yourself removed from their listing.
Report them to Google as intrusive, report them to bing as intrusive and posting your personal information.
Get them removed from search engines because what they provide should be illegal.
This site could lead to possible identity theft at the least.
Internet security needs to be a bit more secure than this.
This is how you report a bad website.
Here is another form to report a bad website.
Not sure if either of those will do the trick though. If you have a better link, please post it below.

Here is the confirmation email they sent me.

Dear Spokeo User,

Your directory listing(s) have been removed as requested. Please allow 24 hours to see this change.

Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Nancy
Customer Support Specialist

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 3:10 PM, wrote:

User: non-user
Email: xxxxxxxxxx
Name: xxxxxxxxxx
Topic: Privacy

Message:
You have me listed , I have registered through the Texas state to not be listed in any directories, paper or electronic, other than state officials only. You have every home I have lived in before and after I registered with the state. You might be in violation of federal law. I would like to know who you got my contact information from. They themselves are in violation also. please email me contact information of who gave you my information. as you know, I have to do my research before I bring in a third party. Just as you have to verify who you are listing before you just list. I prefer my privacy.
http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=xxxxxxxxxx/info
http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=xxxxxxxxxx/info
http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=xxxxxxxxxx/info
http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=xxxxxxxxxx/info

To the readers of this post, If you have a friend or family member listed on that site and you know they are not tech savvy, please request their information be removed from that site, for them. Please help stop this company from intrusion. Please re-post this on your Facebook account or Twitter account, or email this link to family members.

And yes you can request your information be made private from news, public listings and anything not you or the government. In Texas you have to talk to the Department of Public Safety. It’s a short form. I was in and out pretty quick. Did it back in 1996.

Facebook or Twitter

The question has been asked once or twice. Maybe a bit more than that.
But the answer is not available. Sure there are tons of rants and flames and trolls answering but they mean very little when it comes to wondering what to use and how it works. Facebook? or Twitter?
How does Facebook work? how does Twitter work?
To begin, you must have one friend on either network, or they both get very boring very fast.
Then again, you can always make new friends, but you have to be willing to go out of the normal operation of either network.
Facebook
Facebook is a quiet little place where you can see updates of your friend’s current events. If your friend posts them to their Facebook account. Many people have a program on their cell phone, called an “app”. This app allows them to post to their Facebook account while they are out and about in public. This allows them to say stuff like ” at Raging meatball concert and saw a man stage dive on to a crowd of women”. This let’s all of their friends know, that they are at a raging meatball concert and they saw someone stage dive (jump from stage high into and on top of a crowd) landing on women. With Facebook you can type very long messages for your friends to read and add videos directly to your page so your friends can watch them. In most cases that is true. Except with the Facebook application on your phone, you can only type 140 characters. Most people use the Facebook app. On Facebook you can search your old school, or your old job and find people who like that place, now you may or may not have similar interests beyond that , but hey you can always try by adding them as a friend. Beyond that, you kind of have to already know the person before they become your friend. You also get bombarded with requests to join people in a game they play online. And there are millions of games on Facebook. So the requests come constant. all you can do is ignore each game as it it sent. Eventually you will block every game that everyone of your friends play.

You can upload many photos and many videos to Facebook.

Twitter

With twitter, you have a very fast past messaging system if you have enough friends or as they are called on Twitter, “followers”. Really you can follow anyone and watch their activity stream. On twitter you have the chance to block someone specific from seeing your Twitter stream or Twitter posts at any time. not many people bother with that. Hard part is adding people to follow, and even harder is adding people to follow you. That is of course if you use the Twitter system for adding friends. There are however, a few websites that let you find people under specific interests Like WeFollow. This allows you to program the information you see on your twitter page, and have it defined by interests or locations.You can upload photos and videosĀ  to other systems that work with Twitter.

You can add news channels on Twitter and get news updates before anyone. you can add your favorite musician on twitter and find out what the heck she/he is thinking before they go on stage.

Downside is there are a bunch of spammer on twitter, so be ready to get nailed with crummy laptop deals. So choose the people you follow, carefully.

Gawker sends out Breach Notice

It seems during the period of time that all of the internet is flipping upside down from hackers, attackers and ddos assaults Gawkers has been compromised. Passwords have been stolen and account information has been stolen. Here is a letter I received from Gawker.

This weekend we discovered that Gawker Media’s servers were compromised,
resulting in a security breach at Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Gawker, Jezebel,
io9, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin, and Fleshbot. As a result, the user name
and password associated with your comment account were released on the
internet. If you’re a commenter on any of our sites, you probably have
several questions.

We understand how important trust is on the internet, and we’re deeply
sorry for and embarrassed about this breach of security. Right now we
are working around the clock to improve security moving forward. We’re
also committed to communicating openly and frequently with you to make
sure you understand what has happened, how it may or may not affect you,
and what we’re doing to fix things.

This is what you should do immediately: Try to change your password in
the Gawker Media Commenting System. If you used your Gawker Media
password on any other web site, you should change the password on those
sites as well, particularly if you used the same username or email with
that site. To be safe, however, you should change the password on those
accounts whether or not you were using the same username.

We’re continually updating an FAQ (http://lifehac.kr/eUBjVf) with more
information and will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks.

Gawker Media

==============================================
You are receiving this email because your email
address was associated with a Gawker Media user
account. We are using this list only for the
purpose of sending you this important notification.

WIKILEAKS Claims Unhackable

Found on ZDNET

Wikileaks group are claiming they have an unbreakable defense from attacks now.
Wikileaks is now spread out along 14 webhosts. A large amount of their site is no longer being hosted in the United States.
From what Zdnet says, they are hosting primarily through a Toronto server.
To stop bad guys and the legal system from taking their site down.
Read more on ZDNET

Visa Website Goes Down

Visa website goes down.
Rumor is that it was a denial of service attack.
Rumor also speculates relation to Wikileaks connection. Related Story
Many rumors.
Rumors of Ddos caused the visa site to dissapear
Rumors of Anon being connected in the Visa site going down
Just went to Visa, got redirect to usa.visa.com .
Earlier trip to visa.com gave me “error 500 server not found”.
But seems the issue has been resolved.

Visa site is back up. and looks updated.
Just wonder how many potential new visa credit card user registrations have been missed.

The Facebook Scam

Warning to all on Facebook who share their phone number to friends and friends of friends.
There is a current scam on Facebook where guys are adding hundreds of thousands of people a day and collecting their phone numbers and what ever personal information they can about them. Real names, date of birth, city they reside in. They then read their wall for who they interact with the most that lives with in the same general area. They then call one of the two or both and say the other got a loan and used them as a reference. They then force the person to pay them what ever total is owed, or a reduced amount. They next wipe out that person’s credit card with a series of $1 $10 $100 $1000 charges until the victim is busted.
Some people have so much as give up bank account information and or used a debit card for the transaction. One lady who’s daughter got her on Facebook was wiped clean, because she thought her daughter was in trouble. The scammer went on to try the scam with the rest of her family. By the end of the day, the scammer called everyone on her friends list. If you get the “payday loan” phone call or “Bureau of law enforcement” phone call to collect some money from you that your friend owes, do not confirm knowing anyone they talk about. In fact, claim that person is deceased if you have to. But avoid knowing them at all. Contact your local authorities and explain the situation. Next call all listed friends and family on your Facebook account and tell them all to not share their phone number to “friends of friends”. Also warn them the call should be coming to them next.
It’s not Facebooks responsibility to make you think about safety. Although it is their location that you are at risk, but you could never prove it was because of Facebook that you got scammed.
By all means, DO NOT LIST THE PLACE YOU WORK. If you have that only visible to the people you know……. Um…. they already know this.

FACEBOOK Privacy Issue yet again.

FACEBOOK Privacy Issue yet again.

Got this on my Facebook account today. From one of the less techy people on my friends list.
They talked about this coming for some time. Well it’s here.
Privacy issues.

FYI: ALERT* As of yesterday, NEW PRIVACY setting called “Instant
Personalization” that shares data with non-Facebook websites and it is
automatically set to “Enable.” Go to Account >Privacy Settings >
Applications and Websites >Instant Personalization > Edit or
customize Settings, and un-check “Enable”. BTW, if your friends don’t do
this, they will be sharing information about you. PLEASE
POST THIS TO FACEBOOK

One of the downsides is this can and probably will lead to many accounts getting stolen once this is exploited by the curious.
Another thing is, your friends might not fix their stuff because they aren’t worried about it.
Ever get that phone call from a fake debt collector who actually names people you know?
It’s easier than most people think.
There is a scam going on where some people are Calling people and saying that you have a friend who got a loan and used you as a reference and they even say your friend’s name. They tell you that you are responsible for their loan and debt. How do they get your friend’s information? how do they get your name ? How did they get your phone number ?
Look at your privacy settings on facebook. You most likely have your phone number visible to everyone, or friends of friends. All they have to do is get your friend to add them. Then they dig through their friends and see who’s phone number is showing. Another scarier one is they tell you that you got a loan and they mention your friends and family members if you have them categorized.

People, Facebook is not holy ground safe from the evil. Yes you had more safety on myspace. More spam on Myspace, but that is slowly changing now… Isn’t it ?

Look, it’s not just your safety and security and privacy, it is your friend’s safety and privacy. If you feel that it’s just paranoid blah blah, at least change your settings for your friends. but truth is, in the end, you will never know it’s your fault.

Banned Ip Addresses

This is a list of I.P. adresses that I have caught spamming up my site with off topic spam.
Some ip addresses may be repeated. This list is created from three website’s lists.
98.142.212.112
189.85.30.106
58.185.166.243
173.234.19.196
184.82.200.78
173.212.198.71
121.52.146.89
64.120.31.241
222.165.130.214
210.213.139.85
173.224.218.99
217.170.97.242
61.213.158.124
87.126.247.51
190.241.128.214
173.234.159.51
117.204.168.228
200.21.205.217
173.242.112.78
139.132.12.19
187.49.174.245
190.8.32.47
209.62.26.82
69.163.39.233
213.208.139.2
189.85.30.106
188.92.75.148
61.67.7.140
173.234.11.92
67.22.99.211
212.65.244.147
69.147.240.193
174.140.172.7
80.86.201.83
173.234.19.228
217.10.246.2
173.234.54.50
173.234.38.21
212.160.130.217
64.120.248.211
173.224.218.156
203.92.211.166
69.147.240.178
210.89.91.45
41.190.16.17
222.165.130.214
173.208.124.235
69.45.74.253
82.143.255.135
122.146.153.135
178.49.12.75
202.229.99.154
200.192.89.231
212.154.216.50
91.107.169.30
93.174.93.37
89.248.168.40
89.248.172.10
91.201.66.21
195.131.117.44
78.109.84.129
91.201.66.81
200.223.206.78
178.64.43.74
91.214.44.35
212.117.164.8
91.214.47.166
213.197.183.254
173.208.70.41
118.97.72.37
193.54.76.50
98.198.30.164
213.131.35.59
99.24.203.198
74.117.58.121
93.93.184.177
212.118.103.69
220.227.80.238
201.20.18.165
216.218.211.56
93.190.139.148
91.201.66.44
89.248.168.40
174.34.169.182
213.5.71.163
91.201.66.31
173.208.70.36
121.96.213.71
213.5.69.179
212.117.164.64
80.67.13.101
188.168.87.81
77.240.81.20
217.6.171.194
121.96.214.134
74.115.6.56
173.234.46.63
91.212.226.41
81.213.109.99
72.37.244.20
213.5.69.179
81.191.229.167
125.168.56.240
81.9.62.213
95.168.183.233
174.136.4.38
94.136.160.108
91.201.66.5
200.101.66.123
144.71.169.20
74.206.98.195
61.192.219.190
192.239.84.73
163.15.183.29
85.25.86.215
195.127.150.117
204.236.254.16
77.233.4.138
213.134.176.111
69.69.215.196
203.216.220.11
202.133.50.204
115.42.158.18
188.168.85.131

Maybe they are not all spam. maybe none are spam.
They will not be back at any of my sites either way.
They are forever banned from my websites.
Could be product of a bot net or what not, but they will not be back here.
NO MORE SPAM!
I can’t believe that people use these old freaking bots to use some old method of getting their site seen.
Sorry, if the post is about toasters, chances are, your spam about pool cleaner, will not work well here.

Wikipedia is Looking for Help

The people at Wikipedia are apparently in a crunch and in need of donations to help further enhance their project and to keep the site running.

Make donations To Wikipedia.
so if you are in a giving mood sand feel like being helpful click the link and make a donation.
if you are uncomfortable with clicking the link then just type the website’s address in, you will see the banner they put on the top of every single WIki on the site.