North American Network Operators Group

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Re: On-going Internet Emergency and Domain Names (kill this thread)

  • From: Donald Stahl
  • Date: Sun Apr 01 13:10:25 2007


You do realize this post is not about Microsoft or IE 0days, right?

I would prefer not to turn this into an OS flamefest, my only point is that *this list* is not the proper venue to discuss this issue; nor the methods that you suggest as a remedy, regardless of merit.


Again if the rest of the list wants to continue, then so be it.
In the end, phishing and scams work because people are stupid (or possibly ignorant- but then again with all the warnings they've received you'd have to be stupid to still be ignorant at this point). Period. End of discussion.

Every time we come up with another "solution" - the universe comes up with a bigger idiot.

Honestly- I, as well as everyone I know, receives a million warning messages from banks, web sites, etc. warning people not to trust email claming to be from said institution. And yet, every single day, thousands upon thousands of people keep falling for it. Where do you draw the line?

Since we seem to love analogies:

Imagine you have a high voltage outlet and people keep sticking their fingers in it and getting electrocuted. So you put up a sign that says "Danger- high voltage," and people continue sticking their fingers in it. Then you warn them about it personally, and you have segments on the tv news and articles in the papers and people STILL do it.

At what point do you just have to walk away and let nature take it's course?

Everybody in the world has been _repeatedly_ warned about phishing and other scams, and yet just like 419 scams, they KEEP falling for it.

Nobody stops to think. Enough is enough already.

Do I think certain policies should be changed? Sure. Domain tasting is an idea that I can not believe benefits anyone but a scammer (or a domain advertiser- which is no better). There are plenty of other examples but in the end, no matter what we do, users are going to continue to do mind-bogglingly stupid things.

-Don

*Please don't think for a second I want to see the scammers given carte blanche to do what they want- or that we shouldn't try to stop them- but pretending we can solve the problem of user stupidity through technology is disingenuous and laughable.