You are sooooooooooooo right. What happened to the days when everyone was kind and honest to each other and crime was mostly petty. It really is a very very sad world we live in now. Nothing about you or you're home is safe. When you get scammed in real life or online you feel raped,
These online scammers should spend the rest of their lives in prison. After all they have ruined someones life forever so tit for tat. I think our laws for punishment should be a lot stricter maybe then criminals would think a bit harder about commiting a crime.

If you look again he has a stocking on his head!

even more stupid is not realizing the face in the pic has been altered to hide the identity...

I thought he had a panty hose on his head.

If you sign onto checkfree.com you will notice no email contact just LIVE CHAT. Here is an email link I would urge you all to use to send your opinion of the lack of contact checkfree had with it's customers concerning the security issue on Dec. 2nd.


here is the email link: checkfreebillpay@customercenter.net

Tony
Las Vegas, NV

Here's a tip from my bank which is US Bank. When paying online it is better to use a debit/credit/check card than to enter your bank's routing and acount number info. If your debit/credit/check card is compromised, the banking institution can shut it down immediately and send you a new card and pin number whilke still allowing you to physically go to the bank and access your funds. However, if your routing and account number are stolen or compromised, the bank must shut down your entire account while they investigate. Your funds are, in efffect, frozen. You have no access to them until their investigation is complete which could take weeks. This actually happened to my daughter twice on 2 different accounts. One swiped her card info from an online transaction and used it to purchase drug-related items from a Canadian mail order pharmacy. Her second account from a completely different institution was compromised al a retail shop when she physically swiped her card through the reader. In both instances, she was able to shut down the cards but still have access to her funds by making a physical withdrawal in person at each of the banking institutions. I used to make on-line payments using my bank info because some sites charge a fee (between $3 and $4.95) for using a debit/credit/check card and I absolutely think that is a rip-off. However, even though it really ticks me off to pay a fee, it's better than having the entire account "frozen".

That's rude. The Slavs are a great people, most of these hackers work with or for the mob. There are millions of people living in that area of the world, don't group them together with a small group of computer-hacking mobsters. These guys are not doing this out of boredom--as far as they are concerned, stealing your money is a perfectly productive way to spend their time.

Also, do your research. There are plenty of incidents originating form non-"depressing" countries, especially the US and Britain. You just choose not to remember them.

Well geez, you think I am going to worry about being rude to people who steal money from others? (btw good going supporting those thieves by saying 'stealing your money is a perfectly productive way to spend their time.' Any more comments like that and cyber-crimes will become acceptable in the eye of the public. We need to punish them for their crimes and not feel sorry for em.) These crimes are totally under-rated compared to some unarmed, uneducated little tribes running around in Afghanistan.

As for the comment on Slavs, it is a realistic observation. I know there have been many hackers from countries like the US, UK, France, Germany, etc. But, when you look at the overall picture (say years and years of hearing about computers being hacked on the news - and not just American news, but also news in Europe) you will notice that a majority are from Eastern Europe. I think it can be pin-pointed to Slavic countries because there are also non-Slavic countries in that region and they don't have these problems (e.g. Hungary or Romania). Furthermore, look at the ratio of productivity towards crimes. The US, for example, has produced so much technology and been a great benefit to the rest of the world (regardless of Bush's 8 years in office). What have Russians done for the world? They just stormed in with tanks across much of Europe, raped women, and kill men like the wild nomads they were 1000 years ago.

Oh, in case you didn't know, here's a surprising fact: Russia has more crimes than the US (even though the media chooses to ignore the everyday crimes going on in Russia because more eyes are on the US - with great power comes great responsibility). Then also compare how much other crimes are common in Eastern Europe - child porn, slave trade, drug trade (everyone will tell you to be careful in the streets of those countries because drugs and kidnappings are common there).

and on the contrary, I'd say that these guys have resulted to cyber crime exactly because they are bored!!! (poor is a better word though)! Its is poorer countries that result more easily to crime and desperate measures. Look at whats happening in the US, more and more people are being targeted by scams claiming to offer great jobs because there are so many people out there now desperate for jobs (in case you haven't noticed, search: job cuts) that they don't think twice that the strange email offering an easy and high-paying job is actually a rip-off that will steal money from their account once they cash the check or whatever the spam promises. In some of those countries (Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic) drug trade is an everyday activity to make some money so why not cyber crime. (For example, so many people in CR and Slovakia go to Ukraine (where drugs are cheaper), buy drugs, and sell them for a higher price in their home countries, whether it is CR or Slovakia).
It goes again with being poor. Without dealing drugs and stealing money, how can those people survive with paychecks that are just $500/month (and many things such as electronics, cars, food are more expensive there than in the USA, where btw people make $3500/month). just think about it.

In Europe people have many problems with these countries (Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belarus, Poland resp.). It is not just the West that dislikes these countries.

As for research, I have lived in Europe and been to Eastern Europe many times. How about you?