Phishing WTF



  • I have a computer illiterate friend that I've known since school. He's the type that knows how to burn his pirated music to CDs but doesn't really understand how the music ends up on the CD, or what a CD
    even is, other than a shiny disk. He is also more dense than lead and survives purely on the kindness of a fairly rich relative (who is also the only family he's got, as far as I know). As a result, although he is mostly a nice and harmless guy he often finds himself in the [s]middle[/s] bottom of quasi-(and sometimes outright il-)legal get rich quick schemes.

    A week ago he asked me to take a look why his laptop was running very slow. I came over and found nothing unexpected: An all you can eat buffet of malware and trojans. While cleaning up I introduce him to the concept of phishing and surprisingly he seems to get it, although he does admit that he's been carefully following all instructions to reset his account details from various emails he's been getting over the years, even to websites he doesn't remember registering on. Knowing that his uncle's unlimited credit card is probably by now long in the hands of some unpleasant individuals I give him a set of my own instructions on what to do now and give him a number of a lawyer I know that would be able to give him far better advice than I could.

    Knowing full well that he probably hasn't done any of things I wrote down for him I call him up yesterday, and he answers:
    "BigCableCompany speaking, how can I help you?"
    I didn't get it at first and hung up. I looked at my phone and yes, I did dial the correct number of my friend (it's saved on my phone).
    I dial again and he again answers "BigCableCompany speaking, how can I help you?"
    I ask him wtf is he doing. He replies: "I'm trying to fish up some suckers into giving me their credit cards".
    See, his brilliant idea was that people would call him and he'd pretend to be a tech from the cable company and try to get their credit card info. Afterall, "people call the wrong number all the time!"

    If I wasn't sure that he's so incompetent he doesn't know what "info" to ask for even if somebody did fall for his stupid bait I'd walk him down to the police station, except that he'd not learn any valuable lesson from it.
    Instead I am now debating whether to "advise" him to post his phone number online to "increase the amount of wrong number calls".

     

    mod: fixed linebreaks –dh



  • Sometimes I wonder how some people are capable of tying their shoes.

    Then I realize that perhaps that is the very pinnacle of their abilities.



  • @dhromed said:

    Sometimes I wonder how some people are capable of tying their shoes.

    Then I realize that perhaps that is the very pinnacle of their abilities.

     

    crocs, flip-flops, sandals, velcro, sliding them on and off without untying, ect...

     



  • “Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!”

    --George Carlin



  • George Carlin is the best. Sad he died.



  •  @gramie said:

    “Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!”

    --George Carlin

    He clearly meant a median person.



  • Give Mary B. his number. Hilarity will ensue.

     



  • Pirated music?  Is that music about sailing the high seas in search of plunder with a bit of rape and murder thrown in?  Nice friend you got there.


  • Considered Harmful

    @pauly said:

    Pirated music?  Is that music about sailing the high seas in search of plunder with a bit of rape and murder thrown in?

    Basically.



  • @pauly said:

    Pirated music?  Is that music about sailing the high seas in search of plunder with a bit of rape and murder thrown in?  Nice friend you got there.

    This is why I stick to legitimate, respectable maritime music genres, like whaling songs. Blow ye winds, heigh-ho!



  • @fennec said:

    whaling songs

    Like this one?



  • @dhromed said:

    Sometimes I wonder how some people are capable of tying their shoes.
    Ian's knot has changed my life (as far as how I tie my shoes).



  • Imagine all those milliseconds of your life you were wasting with your old shoelace knot!



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Imagine all those milliseconds of your life you were wasting with your old shoelace knot!
     

     I tied an Ian knot on a pair of shoes that did not come undone by itself or I untied until I threw that pair away.

     Its more like turning a cyclically ocurring problem into a permanently sovled one.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Imagine all those milliseconds of your life you were wasting with your old shoelace knot!
    Precious milliseconds I can use doing other stuff, like posting on The Daily WTForum.

    Interestingly, a side-effect of me having changed the type of knot I tie on my shoes is that it's now easier for me to take them off, because the bad knots I used before weren't so easy to undo.

    So the actual benefit is not so much at the beginning of the day when equipping my feet for the adversities of out-of-home life, but at the end of the day before resuming free-feet-to-the-floor mode.



  • @zipfruder said:

    I tied an Ian knot on a pair of shoes that did not come undone by itself or I untied until I threw that pair away.
     

    You mean you never take your shoes off?

    @zipfruder said:

     Its more like turning a cyclically ocurring problem into a permanently sovled one.

    What magical properties does it have that make it last longer, when it's the same knot as the usual one?

    @Zecc said:

    Interestingly, a side-effect of me having changed the type of knot I tie on my shoes is that it's now easier for me to take them off, because the bad knots I used before weren't so easy to undo.
     

    Bad knot? This one? It's the same knot! Just like this one. All the same knots!

    It's just a double knot with the ends folded back through the second knot so you can undo it.

     



  • Well, since you asked... I was tying the standard knot incorrectly, in a Granny knot. This is a knot that tends to slip, so I always followed with a simple overhand knot. (Well, I still do, to shorten the long laces my favorite brand of boots usually has).

    The reason my knots were harded to untie was two-fold: I tied them harder so they wouldn't slip, making it harder to open the knot to untie. And they also seemed to become tangled a lot more frequently as I untied them. for some reason. I think it was easier to mistakingly pull the ends through the loops, creating another knot.

    So my improvement was towards become average, yes. Better than nothing.


  • BINNED

    @fabianpavian said:

    He clearly meant a median person.
    Median and mean are the same for IQ, so probably for stupidity too.



  • @Zecc said:

    The reason my knots were harded to untie was two-fold: I tied them harder so they wouldn't slip, making it harder to open the knot to untie.
     




  • @dhromed said:

    I haven't really used shoelaces since I left the army. You have no idea how long it sometimes took me to lace those ugly bastards up.



  • @configurator said:

    You have no idea how long it sometimes took me to lace those ugly bastards up.

    Trick there is having laced them once, put a figure-eight knot in each end of the lace so they don't pull back out. As long as the lace is a decent length you can still easily loosen them enough to get your foot in and out.



  • @pauly said:

    Pirated music?  Is that music about sailing the high seas in search of plunder with a bit of rape and murder thrown in?  Nice friend you got there.
    Interestingly enough, at Solid State Logic, a manufacturer of hugely expensive mixing consoles (to produce professional music), they have talk like a pirate day, or even dress like a pirate day, if memory serves me well.



  • @joe.edwards said:

    @pauly said:
    Pirated music?  Is that music about sailing the high seas in search of plunder with a bit of rape and murder thrown in?
    Basically.
    Whilst girls of that age are supposed to be cute, the first thing that springs to mind is that she's so bloody annoying. That's some feat to pull off.



  • @dhromed said:

    Bad knot? This one? It's the same knot! Just like this one. All the same knots!

    It's just a double knot with the ends folded back through the second knot so you can undo it.

    On the other hand, this is a knot that really has saved me a lot of annoyance since I learned it, because I have some shoes that are equipped with laces which seem to be very prone to self-undoing when tied with only a standard knot. I hate that.

     



  • @pauly said:

    Pirated music?  Is that music about sailing the high seas in search of plunder with a bit of rape and murder thrown in?  Nice friend you got there.
    Yes just look at [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMxfbGxQz74]this[/url]



  • The entire Internet has "talk like a pirate day". Where have you been for the last 4 years? Another stasis chamber leaked open, and you just arrived from 1998?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    The entire Internet has "talk like a pirate day". Where have you been for the last 4 years? Another stasis chamber leaked open, and you just arrived from 1998?
    Must have been "dress like a pirate day" then.



  • @Severity One said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    The entire Internet has "talk like a pirate day". Where have you been for the last 4 years? Another stasis chamber leaked open, and you just arrived from 1998?
    Must have been "dress like a pirate day" then.

    "Get as drunk as a pirate day", maybe?

     



  •  No, I think that these people, who sell mixing consoles that cost easily as much as a house, regularly dress up as pirates. Having said that, a friend of mine once saw a program about Microsoft when in the background a group of drunk clowns passed, and that actually explains a thing or two.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    The entire Internet has "talk like a pirate day".

    News to me, on the other hand how do you talk like a pirate? As far as I can tell, pirates didn't have a specific vocabulary only for them.
    @blakeyrat said:
    . Where have you been for the last 4 years? Another stasis chamber leaked open, and you just arrived from 1998?

    2013-4!=1998. Also, are pirates that culturally relevant in this day and age? Never really understood the glamour around that profession.



  • @serguey123 said:

    on the other hand how do you talk like a pirate? As far as I can tell, pirates didn't have a specific vocabulary only for them.
     

    Arr, ye'd be mistaken, laddy!

    @serguey123 said:

    Also, are pirates that culturally relevant in this day and age?

    Culturally? No. Practically? Yes. They just swapped their big seaworthy vessels for stealthy dingies these days and point automatic weapons at you.

     



  • @serguey123 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    The entire Internet has "talk like a pirate day".

    News to me, on the other hand how do you talk like a pirate? As far as I can tell, pirates didn't have a specific vocabulary only for them.

    How is it possible to be this ignorant of pop culture, and yet post on DailyWTF?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    How is it possible to be this ignorant of pop culture, and yet post on DailyWTF?
     

    He visits none other than this site. We are his only remaining link to humanity.



  • @dhromed said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    How is it possible to be this ignorant of pop culture, and yet post on DailyWTF?
     

    He visits none other than this site. We are his only remaining link to humanity.


    That is actually accurate and also explains my psycopathic tendencies, you people suck at being humans or instilling humanity in others, it is probably the internet "fault".
    @dhromed said:
    Arr, ye'd be mistaken, laddy!

    Movies!=reality
    @dhromed said:
    They just swapped their big seaworthy vessels for stealthy dingies these days and point automatic weapons at you.

    It seems more of a scam to put more guns into boats and pay to security companies to provide "security" for your fishing boats
    @blakeyrat said:
    How is it possible to be this ignorant of pop culture, and yet post on DailyWTF?

    This site was suggested to me by Google or something like that, I mostly read the RSS feed or browse the emails. However I'm not sure how much mainstream pop culture this site is.



  • @serguey123 said:

    That is actually accurate
     

    Branch out a little. It's a big webs out there. Start here.



  • Jesus Christ, you link him to a Booru? Fuck man.



  • @dhromed said:

    @serguey123 said:

    That is actually accurate
     

    Branch out a little. It's a big webs out there. Start here.


    I should probably explain, I don't visit any site, I don't have time for it, if the site has an rss feed I might give a go, but I can hardly keep up with this one already so even then it might be wasted effort, anyways... what is that site about?



  • @dbomb123 said:

    @dhromed said:

    Sometimes I wonder how some people are capable of tying their shoes.

    Then I realize that perhaps that is the very pinnacle of their abilities.

     

    crocs, flip-flops, sandals, velcro, sliding them on and off without untying, ect...

     

     

    If the last item in your list were truly an indicator, then half the women I've known are total idiots.  No, DON'T GO THERE.

     



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Jesus Christ, you link him to a Booru? Fuck man.
    I don't know what a Booru is, but considering the link, it's probably for the best.



  • @serguey123 said:

    News to me, on the other hand how do you talk like a pirate? As far as I can tell, pirates didn't have a specific vocabulary only for them.
    Of course they did. Everybody knows that pirates say things like "shiver me thimbers", when they say "booty" they don't mean someone's posterior, and by law they are required to have a parrot on their shoulders. Don't you read any books?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Jesus Christ, you link him to a Booru? Fuck man.
     

    I'm just trollin'



  • @Zecc said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Jesus Christ, you link him to a Booru? Fuck man.
    I don't know what a Booru is, but considering the link, it's probably for the best.


    For what I can tell of the mainpage which consist of poorly drawn pictures, a pedophile hangout?



  •  It's a site for unimaginable heaps of homestuck fanart.

     A lot of it is substandard, but there's a lot of great stuff there as well.



  • @dhromed said:

    but there's a lot of great stuff there as well.
     

    Spot the shameless self-promotion... 



  • @dhromed said:

    homestuck fanart.

    What is that? Fan art that you draw when you can get out of the house or are agoraphobic?



  • @Cassidy said:

    Spot the shameless self-promotion... 
     

    ?



  • @serguey123 said:

    @dhromed said:
    homestuck fanart.
    What is that? Fan art that you draw when you can get out of the house or are agoraphobic?
     

    No, Homestuck is a webcomic.



  • @dhromed said:

    @serguey123 said:

    @dhromed said:
    homestuck fanart.

    What is that? Fan art that you draw when you can get out of the house or are agoraphobic?
     

    No, Homestuck is a webcomic.


    Oh, that explain the crappy pictures, however would I be able to enjoy this without actually reading Homestuck?



  • @serguey123 said:

    however would I be able to enjoy this without actually reading Homestuck?
     

    Same as with every other collection of fan art of anything else: Not really.

    And you'd probably not enjoy Homestuck either. But you can try, of course.



  • @dhromed said:

    Same as with every other collection of fan art of anything else: Not really.

    And you'd probably not enjoy Homestuck either. But you can try, of course.


    Then why link to it?
    @dhromed said:
    I'm just trollin'

    Oh, nevermind


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