On the Nature of Things | Forum

The troll formerly known as Farcus is a bit upset at being banned:

Who's in charge now?
Sent: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:51 am
From: Virus Loader [new account by Farcus - now deleted]
To: Typhoon

You're going to have to lock down this site!

And you'll do it because I said so.

He is now attempting social engineer forum access by tricking someone into
giving him password access to their account.

So if you receive e-mails such as the one below, similar,
or unusual in any respect, please inform the mods
as it is a hacking attempt:

Hello [Member Name]

You are receiving this notification because you have (or someone pretending
to be you has) requested a new password be sent for your account on "On the
Nature of Things | Forum". If you did not request this notification then
please ignore it, if you keep receiving it please contact the board
administrator.

To use the new password you need to activate it. To do this click the link
provided below.

ucp.php?mode=activate&u=89&k=*************

[Please do not click on links such as the one above as it will automatically reset your password.
Offending key changed to ************* ]

If successful you will be able to login using the following password:

Password: 6ACM3DIMDI2EK

You can of course change this password yourself via the profile page. If
you have any difficulties please contact the board administrator.
--
Thanks, The Management

Specifying the password, rather than letting the user choose one is a red flag.

The mods will never send such PMs.

Alright, brass tacks off now

Who is this Farcus? What former identity did he went under during Tinker's Diegetics days or the old Spengler forum?

The first wager I have is Brass Tacks

LeBron perhaps....

Any others?

Ammianus wrote:Alright, brass tacks off now

Who is this Farcus? What former identity did he went under during Tinker's Diegetics days or the old Spengler forum?

The first wager I have is Brass Tacks

LeBron perhaps....

Any others?

~

You have a good memory. I recall the the names of the posters that you noted, but not anything about them.

So these will be PMs or emails? He pulled our emails from the forum database?

Ibrahim wrote:So these will be PMs or emails? He pulled our emails from the forum database?

The poster who kindly brought this to my attention did not say. I assume a PM.

Only the admin can see e-mail address, unless the poster has chosen to makes it public

To get at the forum database, one would have had to successfully hacked the admin account.

With access to the admin account, one could shut down the forum with the press of a button or engage in other malevolent activity, no need to harvest e-mails.

I've hardened the admin account as a precaution.

So PM's, but one should be still wary of odd e-mails.

10-4

I don't use my main email account for website registration, but I like to know what to look for.

Yeah it was a bad idea, talking about harming someone is a bad idea.

Hoosiernorm wrote:Do you have his IP address? It may become necessary if we need to report him to the authorities or if someone needs to go to his home and shoot him in the face several times.

If it proves necessary.
This troll knows enough to use internet proxies to try and hide his real IP address [but not enough to be a poster of value] so tracking down him down is a bit more work.

At this point, he has done enough to press criminal charges and/or tell his mommy.

I'm just thinking about who has been banned. The banned poster was probably already banned before due to the hatred that Farcus showed up with from the very beginning. So just look at your short list of banned individuals and it's probably the same person.

Hoosiernorm wrote:I'm just thinking about who has been banned. The banned poster was probably already banned before due to the hatred that Farcus showed up with from the very beginning. So just look at your short list of banned individuals and it's probably the same person.

It's not a long list:

~
Milo

Given the nature of Farcus' posts the suspicion falls solely on ~.

He really felt connected to this group and a part of our discussions. When you put him out for a month he threatened you and now it looks like he spent his time away from here devising a way to get even.

I really did hate to see him go (been talking to him for more than 5 years) but doing this and threatening to shut all of us off from each other is really disturbing. I would have hoped he would have just created a new username and then simply blended back into the forum like everyone else seems to do when they get banned from a forum (It's almost expected). Hope that if he's reading this he would at least consider just letting go of his anger and simply coming back to join us again and not try to harm what we are trying to maintain here ( a community of individuals who enjoy a good discussion).

Typhoon wrote:

Hoosiernorm wrote:Do you have his IP address? It may become necessary if we need to report him to the authorities or if someone needs to go to his home and shoot him in the face several times.

If it proves necessary.
This troll knows enough to use internet proxies to try and hide his real IP address [but not enough to be a poster of value] so tracking down him down is a bit more work.

At this point, he has done enough to press criminal charges and/or tell his mommy.

Or a random IP generator. That's what the random shopbots are using now so they load up your board with knock-off designer shoes and purses and misc. crap........

He followed Marcus over here from some Alaska forum. If it's ~ he probably is from Alaska.

Enki wrote:He followed Marcus over here from some Alaska forum. If it's ~ he probably is from Alaska.

There's no doubt in my mind tilde was from Alaska . . he knew far too much about the area not to be.

Hoosiernorm wrote:He really felt connected to this group and a part of our discussions. When you put him out for a month he threatened you and now it looks like he spent his time away from here devising a way to get even.

I really did hate to see him go (been talking to him for more than 5 years) but doing this and threatening to shut all of us off from each other is really disturbing. I would have hoped he would have just created a new username and then simply blended back into the forum like everyone else seems to do when they get banned from a forum (It's almost expected). Hope that if he's reading this he would at least consider just letting go of his anger and simply coming back to join us again and not try to harm what we are trying to maintain here ( a community of individuals who enjoy a good discussion).

If he had re-registered under an new username and adhered to the Simple Forum Rules, then that would have been fine.

However, making threats and especially using malware and spoofing the admin e-mail address* to try and trick other forum members into gaining access to their accounts earns him a spot on the permanently banned persona non grata list.

*If you receive e-mail from butsurigakusha_1@yahoo.co.jp do not assume that it is from the admin/Typhoon. No valid e-mails will ever be sent asking a poster to click on a link to change their password.

Hopefully he would just let it go and reintegrate. Otherwise this is what the forum has become to him, a place to trick people and destroy the forum. He may not succeed but is that really what you want to spend your time doing? This will probably not end until he succeeds and it would be time better spend just arguing about things that we have no personal control over.

Hoosiernorm wrote:Hopefully he would just let it go and reintegrate. Otherwise this is what the forum has become to him, a place to trick people and destroy the forum.

Reintegration is no longer an option.

Hoosiernorm wrote:He may not succeed but is that really what you want to spend your time doing?

I'm a busy person, but this has not taken up much of my time.

Hoosiernorm wrote:This will probably not end until he succeeds

Declaring defeat after only the first skirmish?

If he persists, then he will be tracked down to his physical address and dealt with.

Hoosiernorm wrote:and it would be time better spend just arguing about things that we have no personal control over.

Not in my nature. I will sooner archive the forum that have my actions and choices dictated by a psycho.

Typhoon wrote:

Hoosiernorm wrote:Hopefully he would just let it go and reintegrate. Otherwise this is what the forum has become to him, a place to trick people and destroy the forum. He may not succeed but is that really what you want to spend your time doing? This will probably not end until he succeeds and it would be time better spend just arguing about things that we have no personal control over.

Not in my nature. I will sooner archive the forum that have my actions and choices dictated by a psycho.

It's too late your choices are being dictated by a psycho. Just hope it's enough to make him happy for now. He's not harming himself (he's anonymous) but he can frustrate the heck out of you and make maintaining this board difficult and stressful. There aren't winning solutions here just a lot of frustration. Let's hope that he stops here otherwise we would have to go to a private locked forum with no additional membership. The only way to gain access to it would be through association with current board members and the web address would just be a large blank screen for all others.

I want place a bet on a deranged Epictetus as the culprit behind this malice. ~ , or shall we shall, aferim the (left of center?) atheist as he outed himself in fall 2010, does not live in Alaska or have ever referenced it to anyway during c. 2008-2010 to my memory.

Typhoon wrote: . . .

However, making threats and especially using malware and spoofing the admin e-mail address* to try and trick other forum members into gaining access to their accounts earns him a spot on the permanently banned persona non grata list.

*If you receive e-mail from butsurigakusha_1@yahoo.co.jp do not assume that it is from the admin/Typhoon. No valid e-mails will ever be sent asking a poster to click on a link to change their password.

I don't know about Gmail and other services, but Yahoo Japan flags fake a.k.a spoofed e-mails: e-mails with a fake "From:" address

このメールは、なりすましメールの可能性があります。 | This e-mail, there is a possibility of e-mail spoofing.

Thanks to a friend who has forgotten more about internet hacking than Farcus will ever know,
I now have a physical address and phone number in Fairbanks, Alaska that will make it trivial to track ~ / Odin! / feck / Farcus down and press criminal charges, if necessary.

GHhx_-r6Kmg

The internet is a wonderful tool

Ammianus wrote:. . ~. . does not live in Alaska or have ever referenced it to anyway during c. 2008-2010 to my memory.

He lives in or lived in Alaska . . he knows far too much about the area not to. Trust me . . .

Typhoon wrote:So if you receive e-mails such as the one below, similar,
or unusual in any respect, please inform the mods
as it is a hacking attempt:

Hello [Member Name]

You are receiving this notification because you have (or someone pretending
to be you has) requested a new password be sent for your account on "On the
Nature of Things | Forum". If you did not request this notification then
please ignore it, if you keep receiving it please contact the board
administrator.

To use the new password you need to activate it. To do this click the link
provided below.

ucp.php?mode=activate&u=89&k=*************

[Please do not click on links such as the one above as it will automatically reset your password.
Offending key changed to ************* ]

If successful you will be able to login using the following password:

Password: 6ACM3DIMDI2EK

You can of course change this password yourself via the profile page. If
you have any difficulties please contact the board administrator.
--
Thanks, The Management

Specifying the password, rather than letting the user choose one is a red flag.

The mods will never send such PMs.

Got another message like the one above in this morning's email. Also, and I never thought of this till now and having the bold portion above finally "click," back on June 15th of 2012 I received an email like the one above specifying a new password, and, as far as I know that has been my password until now. Not computer savvy at all, so someone keep me posted as to what might be or is going on.

Well if the poster is from Alaska that would exclude Milo, he was Canadian

Marcus wrote:

Typhoon wrote:So if you receive e-mails such as the one below, similar,
or unusual in any respect, please inform the mods
as it is a hacking attempt:

Hello [Member Name]

You are receiving this notification because you have (or someone pretending
to be you has) requested a new password be sent for your account on "On the
Nature of Things | Forum". If you did not request this notification then
please ignore it, if you keep receiving it please contact the board
administrator.

To use the new password you need to activate it. To do this click the link
provided below.

ucp.php?mode=activate&u=89&k=*************

[Please do not click on links such as the one above as it will automatically reset your password.
Offending key changed to ************* ]

If successful you will be able to login using the following password:

Password: 6ACM3DIMDI2EK

You can of course change this password yourself via the profile page. If
you have any difficulties please contact the board administrator.
--
Thanks, The Management

Specifying the password, rather than letting the user choose one is a red flag.

The mods will never send such PMs.

Got another message like the one above in this morning's email. Also, and I never thought of this till now and having the bold portion above finally "click," back on June 15th of 2012 I received an email like the one above specifying a new password, and, as far as I know that has been my password until now. Not computer savvy at all, so someone keep me posted as to what might be or is going on.

1/ There is not much that anyone can do about e-mail spoofing, except to delete such e-mails and never click such a link
[a general rule to follow for e-mails from anyone as this is the easiest way for hackers to get info from people and access to their online accounts];

2/ Please change your password again to one known only to you [and send me a PM once you have done it].

Hoosiernorm wrote:Well if the poster is from Alaska that would exclude Milo, he was Canadian

The pattern and content of the posts do not match Milo's.

His obsessions were religion, ethnicity, and race.