OFF: a troubling sort of spam

[Paul Mather]

On Fri, 20 Aug 1999 DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:

=> this is the second time i received this in the last few weeks. i considered
=> forwarding it the first time but decided against it.  but since hawkwind
=> music more than once over the decades has reflected a certain dread and/or
=> paranoia (to the xtent of a track on the 1st lp being called "paranoia") i
=> figured some of our european viewers, perhaps mr. brock himself, might have
=> an interest in the implications of the product offered. chris bruce tells me
=> the same information could be gathered with the help of, say, the mac
=> SHERLOCK, but i find  something unsettling about the breezy way this product
=> is being sold online. this isnt a vegematic or a set of ginsu knives...

=> ==========================================================================
=> Now you can learn EVERYTHING about your friends, neighbors, enemies,
=> employees, co-workers, your boss, even yourself!

Really?  Tell me more...

=> Locate:
=>
=>    CIA Information, legal databases, court documents, government databases
=>
=> Research:
=>
=>    Find People who have changed their name, phone number, or e-mail address
=>    Find birth parents and adoptees, access Military databases
=>    Do Social Security Checks, Find anyone using their phone number
[etc...]

Based upon what they hype, and then what they explicitly claim you can
do, this product would appear to be a waste of money.  It seems little
more than a packaging of links to various sources and sites containing
various publicly-available information.  I mean, the "CIA information"
is probably nothing more than the CIA World Fact Book.

=> See and record every word typed in e-mails, instant messages, chat rooms,
=> message boards. Find out who they are talking to and what they are saying.
=> See what type of chat rooms they are going in. Know the names of the private
=> rooms they go in. Record and check out the web sites they are visiting or
=> searching for.

This is an outrageous claim, and impossible to achieve in totality
without having access to the person's machine (or their subnet).
Easier said than done.

I notice they do not offer a money back guarantee, presumably because
once people find they've been conned, and can't actually find
"everything about anyone", they'd be asking for their money back in
droves.

File under "MAKE MONEY FAST" et al.

I'm still not sure why Dave Brock or European users would be
particularly interested in this, unless they have a particular penchant
for being ripped off. ;-)

Cheers,

Paul.

NP: Nebula, _Let It Burn_

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"I don't live today; maybe tomorrow..."
        --- James Marshall Hendrix