Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On 12/1/24 11:27 AM, Rich wrote:

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 01/12/2024 09:19, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
>

    Anyway ... I don't see the Server-Lords keen on
    any server-side 'web-PY'. They want YOUR box to
    do all the hard work. In time they're gonna take
    away even PHP. Just watch .....

>
I am my own server lord.
>
That solves everything
...
..or the entity purporting to be Larry Ellison on a random board who
said my ideas were 'interesting' and wanted me to contact him...
>
Sure Larry. I came floating down the Danube yesterday on a water biscuit...
>
Who do these people think they are? Who do these people think I am?

 Who do they think they are? Con-men (although /they/ might not think
so).
 Who do they think you are?  A potential mark.  The con-man game is all
about the law of averages.  Try enough marks, and some will take the
bait and you'll (the con-man) get a payoff.  To secure enough payoffs
they have to try a lot of potential marks to find the few that bite.
 But they don't 'know' you, anymore than they know the other 1,000
potential marks they tested yesterday.

   Exactly right.
   Cons don't expect every, even most, to fall for
   their BS - but ENOUGH will. They'll con yer granny,
   they'll con yer sister, they'll con any and anyone.
   Doesn't matter if they're rich or important - it's
   all a matter of numbers. If even one in a hundred,
   or a thousand, pay off ....
   There was an absolutely tragic instance in the US
   news about six months ago. Someone at a store noticed
   a rather elderly woman on the phone, and busy transferring
   large lots of money into a bitcoin-purchase machine. They
   called a cop. The cop took the phone and went full tilt
   against the (Indian/Pak ?) person on the other end - who
   was adamant to put the victim back on the line so the
   scam could continue. She'd been CONVINCED her bank
   accounts were at risk somehow and her Only Salvation
   was to transfer all she could into the BitCoin acct.
   She REALLY believed it, they'd hooked her GOOD.
   The cop ended the scam, but the woman had already
   sent maybe half or more of her savings into
   cyberspace, never to be seen again. MOST times
   nobody notices these things in progress.
   The last few years I was working there was a huge
   increase in fake invoices/bills - and they LOOKED
   legit, sometimes bore familiar names, sometimes
   carried the name of actual companies. BUT - fake.
   The HOPE was that the faux bills would just fly
   under the radar, get paid without thinking. The
   "familiar names" were clearly ripped-off by probing
   e-mails. The easy ones to spot had VERY vague
   reference to WHAT was allegedly purchased, but
   with others it was stuff the org MIGHT have been
   buying.
   Tracked one down to an Australian mining-supply corp
   claiming we'd bought some of their stuff - but our
   org was USA. The company was legit, had a web page
   and everything, but the BILL wasn't real, not even
   from them at all. We did NOT buy 250 bags of concrete
   mix from Oz.
   Sometimes you have to dig into the e-mail source,
   look at the links, even the JS, and research to
   discover the evil. I'd kinda trained the staff
   to detect a bad smell from e-mails. Alas the newer
   guys don't even know what a JS is, much less how
   to tell what it might DO. They expect commercial
   malware detectors to catch it all. Nope ! Ain't !
   But - the theory is "Not MY Fault - M$/Norton/Etc
   should have caught it !" and the paychecks continue.
   Oh, if an "invoice" comes as an Excel file - open it
   with LibreOffice instead and do NOT enable scripts.
   Found a bunch that sent stuff to eastern europe ...