« Beheading & cowards | Main | Public school graduates, what a fine crop we have. »
June 23, 2004
92 million AOL users. Lord save us.
Some goofball sold the complete list of AOL screen names to spammers. 92 million of them.
Wow, 92 million AOL accounts, of course not all of them are active, but I wonder how many are active. Some of the people with whom I have discussed this feel that anyone who uses AOL deserves to get spammed. I really can't understand why people use AOL; I'll admit I used it for a month or 3 when it came free with something I bought - a scanner I think. This was quite some time ago, the early or mid 90's when I was still using dial up. I remember AOL downloading 'graphical updates' (there is no such word as graphical) over dial up. That's why I ditched it soon thereafter. I couldn't stand to be tied to a single browser.
So while traveling the state today listening to the radio there was a program called the troubleshooter with Tom Martino. I highly recommend it if you want bad advice. Someone called because their AOL screen name had been used to charge things to their debit card. (I can't make this stuff up.) Then someone was using their AOL screen name to instant message them and discuss personal things and even knew the names and addresses of their neighbors. Tom Martino the show host came up with the brilliant advice that AOL has five screen names per account and since the person had personal information about them it must be someone they know. He told them to file a police report for harassment.
Lets look at this again:
1) They have your AOL screen name
2) They have your AOL password to use AIM
3) They have your credit card number and have ordered stuff
4) They have looked up your neighbor’s names and addresses
5) They are giving you a hard time on AIM using your other screen names.
Can anyone say phishing? Tom Martino the troubleshooter and his staff never mentioned this.
Perhaps people who use AOL do deserve to get spam.
The troubleshooter's other advice was nonsense as well, he says Travelocity arbitrarily changes flight times and that is why he and his staff never use Travelocity. Of course the person who called in to complain that their flight times had 'changed' noted that they did not read the confirmation email but only glanced at it. He also considers collectible items kept in a safety deposit box liquid investments.
What a wonderful country it is in which we live. Anyone is free to dispense advice. Who needs professionals; doctors, lawyers, accountants, librarians? Just call a radio show, or watch TV.
Posted by Matthew at June 23, 2004 11:22 PM