Monday, July 13, 2009
Do Not Puncture Film
It says. So, against my best judgment (having microwaved a gazillion meals, and knowing that you always leave room for the air to escape) I did not puncture the film. I microwaved for 6 minutes and 30 seconds, and sure enough, salisbury gravy all over the tray. The "meat" is dry and lacks flavor - it's got some spices on it, but not very salisbury-y. A gardenburger would have been a better substitute. The potatoes and corn are good, but not very plentiful. This would be a good thing if the steak were actually tasty. Definitely not worth the money or long cook time. - Mon Cuisine Salibury Steak
Friday, February 22, 2008
Gmail, the hacker's best friend.
First of all, go here to discover how Gmail accounts are easily phished/hacked/hijacked/stolen - whatever you want to call it. Mine was most definitely stolen, and the scumsuckers who have it now are nothing short of thieves.
February 20th, 2008 - Evil A-word Hacker ("EAH") hacks into my account and changes my password without me knowing.
February 21st, 2008 - I try to log on to my account, and my password does not work. I've had the same password for the last 2.5 of 4 years I've had the account, and additionally have it saved in my computer. Uh-oh. Something is definitely wrong. So, I follow the links about not being able to access my account. Let's show you the ludicrous process for that here. Go ahead. Click around that sucker. I'll be here when you get back. ...Did you catch all that? Knowing your email has been compromised has no priority whatsoever. Your account has to be idle for five days before they'll even let you try the security question. There has to be zero log-in activity for 24 hours before you can request a reset - if you even still have access to the secondary email address you provided when you signed up umpteen years ago. So, I send a message to Gmail that I think my account has been hijacked.
I decide to check my Amazon account, and find the password has been changed. I contact Amazon (after having to go all over the whole damn site just to find a phone number) and they end up closing my account because someone broke into it, and that's their security policy. Swift and inconvenient, but it certainly puts a stop to the thieves, doesn't it? Bye bye, years of wish lists for my family members and myself. So long, records of transactions for the past 7 years. Fine. Hackers are evil and this is a consequence. It sucks, but I'll get over it.
So, I send a message to Gmail that my account has definitely been hacked, and include as much detail as possible. I don't remember which of my 20 friends who have gmail sent me the invitation - I may have even sent it to myself from another gmail account. But, I included all the information I could, and asked Gmail to please lock my account to prevent the bad guys from continuing to log in. I then prepare to wait for five days, as I don't have access to the secondary email address from when I signed up. And you know what? My account will never be idle for five days, BECAUSE THERE ARE CRIMINALS LOGGING INTO IT DAILY. I discovered this when it occurred to me, after a full day of changing every user ID and password I could think of, that I hadn't checked my eBay account yet. Ta-da! The password had indeed been changed. Again, I send a message to Gmail, begging for help and using ALL CAPS when talking about what EAH has done, in the hopes it will get some attention. I search everywhere for a contact number to reach Gmail, but find nothing. I contact eBay, and via online chat and phone I am able to boot the bad guy out and change my password and security questions back to my own (new ones, of course). In just a day, EAH was able to place over 100 fraudulent bids on eBay. Then, they tried getting money and having the sellers ship the items to Nigeria. Almost everyone realized it was a scam (due to the endless mis-spellings and poorly translated English), but what they didn't realize was that my eBay ID was not the scammer. So, I got all sorts of swears and negative feedback. Again, I send a message to Gmail - more ALL CAPS sentences, more pleading, more details as to what is happening and why I need them to lock the account. I search for a Google customer service number, because at this point I am quite desperate. Aha! A number, finally! I call the number, and get a recording that basically says, "Sorry, Google doesn't have customer service." I may or may not have sent another message to Gmail, but what difference does it make, right? It's like, they've put a big ole *shrug* in their FAQs and that's what they consider helping.
At this point, I email myself, at the stolen address, with a subject line of "DEAR GMAIL THIEF OR THIEVES (YES, YOU)." I inform EAH that I have changed all my IDs and passwords, and that I would appreciate them returning my email to me so I don't have to contact any further authorities (hoping they don't know how worthless Gmail has been at this point). I continue changing IDs and passwords as I remember them, and by going through my 2007 files for web sites with which I have membership.
February 22, 2008 - I receive this incredibly creepy message from my stolen email address:
"Dear Mate,
February 20th, 2008 - Evil A-word Hacker ("EAH") hacks into my account and changes my password without me knowing.
February 21st, 2008 - I try to log on to my account, and my password does not work. I've had the same password for the last 2.5 of 4 years I've had the account, and additionally have it saved in my computer. Uh-oh. Something is definitely wrong. So, I follow the links about not being able to access my account. Let's show you the ludicrous process for that here. Go ahead. Click around that sucker. I'll be here when you get back. ...Did you catch all that? Knowing your email has been compromised has no priority whatsoever. Your account has to be idle for five days before they'll even let you try the security question. There has to be zero log-in activity for 24 hours before you can request a reset - if you even still have access to the secondary email address you provided when you signed up umpteen years ago. So, I send a message to Gmail that I think my account has been hijacked.
I decide to check my Amazon account, and find the password has been changed. I contact Amazon (after having to go all over the whole damn site just to find a phone number) and they end up closing my account because someone broke into it, and that's their security policy. Swift and inconvenient, but it certainly puts a stop to the thieves, doesn't it? Bye bye, years of wish lists for my family members and myself. So long, records of transactions for the past 7 years. Fine. Hackers are evil and this is a consequence. It sucks, but I'll get over it.
So, I send a message to Gmail that my account has definitely been hacked, and include as much detail as possible. I don't remember which of my 20 friends who have gmail sent me the invitation - I may have even sent it to myself from another gmail account. But, I included all the information I could, and asked Gmail to please lock my account to prevent the bad guys from continuing to log in. I then prepare to wait for five days, as I don't have access to the secondary email address from when I signed up. And you know what? My account will never be idle for five days, BECAUSE THERE ARE CRIMINALS LOGGING INTO IT DAILY. I discovered this when it occurred to me, after a full day of changing every user ID and password I could think of, that I hadn't checked my eBay account yet. Ta-da! The password had indeed been changed. Again, I send a message to Gmail, begging for help and using ALL CAPS when talking about what EAH has done, in the hopes it will get some attention. I search everywhere for a contact number to reach Gmail, but find nothing. I contact eBay, and via online chat and phone I am able to boot the bad guy out and change my password and security questions back to my own (new ones, of course). In just a day, EAH was able to place over 100 fraudulent bids on eBay. Then, they tried getting money and having the sellers ship the items to Nigeria. Almost everyone realized it was a scam (due to the endless mis-spellings and poorly translated English), but what they didn't realize was that my eBay ID was not the scammer. So, I got all sorts of swears and negative feedback. Again, I send a message to Gmail - more ALL CAPS sentences, more pleading, more details as to what is happening and why I need them to lock the account. I search for a Google customer service number, because at this point I am quite desperate. Aha! A number, finally! I call the number, and get a recording that basically says, "Sorry, Google doesn't have customer service." I may or may not have sent another message to Gmail, but what difference does it make, right? It's like, they've put a big ole *shrug* in their FAQs and that's what they consider helping.
At this point, I email myself, at the stolen address, with a subject line of "DEAR GMAIL THIEF OR THIEVES (YES, YOU)." I inform EAH that I have changed all my IDs and passwords, and that I would appreciate them returning my email to me so I don't have to contact any further authorities (hoping they don't know how worthless Gmail has been at this point). I continue changing IDs and passwords as I remember them, and by going through my 2007 files for web sites with which I have membership.
February 22, 2008 - I receive this incredibly creepy message from my stolen email address:
"Dear Mate,
I am not a thieve but just doing my legal duties if you do not know. I am only keeping watch on your box and to further inform you i could also arch into your account but i do not need that for now but when i am in need of it i will definately get it. It is very easy.
If you really want this box back to you. you need to learn how to talk people down but i do not think you would be able to do that. The box is really good and promising but if you are still in need of it you could simply send some money to me then i will release the box and leave you alone but anything short of that will not be welcomed.
Stay cool"
I send another frantic, terrified message to Gmail, informing them of the above. I check the status of my posted question in the discussion group (I asked if Gmail locks accounts they believe to be hijacked - got my answer to that with the message from EAH, didn't I?) and see someone has kindly posted a link to the forms I've been using and added that there are some more pieces of information I can provide to aid Gmail's "investigation." I send another message to Gmail, including the new pieces of information. I forward the message from EAH to the abuse email address and even to a notify of spam address. I find some other methods to contact "customer service" and send my notes to them, too. I swear, I can hear the crickets chirping.
I now realize that this is a criminal who intends to keep my account. Gmail is not going to help me one bit. I call the non-emergency police number and they tell me to print out what I have and bring it to the station. Unfortunately, I don't have a printer. I do have a UPS Store right around the corner, and when I explain to them what has happened, they are happy to have me forward the emails and they will print. I send messages to several of the eBay members who EAH tried to scam, and ask them to please forward any emails or messages to me so I can give them to the police. I hear back from two, but eBay limits the amount of non-item messages one can send in a day, so I have to wait until tomorrow to ask anyone else. I go back to the discussion forum and find several others have been hijacked and have not heard a peep from Gmail either. I mean, my god, why can't they at least lock these accounts when this happens? They're just giving the criminals all the time they need to forward the Gmail account information to themselves, so even if the account is returned, it doesn't stop them.
February 23, 2008 - I will print out what I have and take it to the police. Maybe they'll actually have time for me. I mean, all they've got going on is a couple hundred violent crimes, they couldn't possibly be as busy doing more important things, as Gmail obviously is.
I send another frantic, terrified message to Gmail, informing them of the above. I check the status of my posted question in the discussion group (I asked if Gmail locks accounts they believe to be hijacked - got my answer to that with the message from EAH, didn't I?) and see someone has kindly posted a link to the forms I've been using and added that there are some more pieces of information I can provide to aid Gmail's "investigation." I send another message to Gmail, including the new pieces of information. I forward the message from EAH to the abuse email address and even to a notify of spam address. I find some other methods to contact "customer service" and send my notes to them, too. I swear, I can hear the crickets chirping.
I now realize that this is a criminal who intends to keep my account. Gmail is not going to help me one bit. I call the non-emergency police number and they tell me to print out what I have and bring it to the station. Unfortunately, I don't have a printer. I do have a UPS Store right around the corner, and when I explain to them what has happened, they are happy to have me forward the emails and they will print. I send messages to several of the eBay members who EAH tried to scam, and ask them to please forward any emails or messages to me so I can give them to the police. I hear back from two, but eBay limits the amount of non-item messages one can send in a day, so I have to wait until tomorrow to ask anyone else. I go back to the discussion forum and find several others have been hijacked and have not heard a peep from Gmail either. I mean, my god, why can't they at least lock these accounts when this happens? They're just giving the criminals all the time they need to forward the Gmail account information to themselves, so even if the account is returned, it doesn't stop them.
February 23, 2008 - I will print out what I have and take it to the police. Maybe they'll actually have time for me. I mean, all they've got going on is a couple hundred violent crimes, they couldn't possibly be as busy doing more important things, as Gmail obviously is.
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