WHOA Newsletter - February 2, 2009

Happy Groundhog Day - even though it means six more weeks of winter for most of us

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .and his name was Sue
NY boy dressed as girl to cheat on exam
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090130/ap_on_fe_st/odd_gender_bending_cheat;_ylt=Agxueur_8b0jt1Myp.KwG37tiBIF
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Dressing as a girl to take a high school Regents exam in place of another student landed a 17-year-old upstate New York boy in some serious detention. Deandre Ellis, 17, of Schenectady was arrested on a felony charge after the incident Tuesday. City school officials said a monitor verifying that each student was taking the proper exam suspected something was amiss when the name on the test and the person taking it didn't match.

District spokeswoman Karen Corona said a closer look revealed the test-taker was a boy masquerading as a girl.

Police said Ellis, who was released to probation authorities, was charged with burglary for entering the school to commit a crime. His public defender didn't immediately return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.

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Visit WHOA on the web at http://www.haltabuse.org

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NEWS TO USE AND PASS ALONG!

(DISCLAIMER: The following news items were found on the web and were not written or endorsed by WHO@; they are for informational purposes only)

SWAT teams deployed in 911 fraud - 02/02/09
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090202/ap_on_hi_te/tec911_swatting
Doug Bates and his wife, Stacey, were in bed around 10 p.m., their 2-year-old daughters asleep in a nearby room. Suddenly they were shaken awake by the wail of police sirens and the rumble of a helicopter above their suburban Southern California home. A criminal must be on the loose, they thought. Doug Bates got up to lock the doors and grabbed a knife. A beam from a flashlight hit him. He peeked into the backyard. A swarm of police, assault rifles drawn, ordered him out of the house. Bates emerged, frightened and with the knife in his hand, as his wife frantically dialed 911. They were handcuffed and ordered to the ground while officers stormed the house.

Students urge awareness of cyber stalking - 02/02/09
http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=54529
Not only does this month feature Valentine’s Day, this is also National Stalking Awareness Month.
According to Working to Halt Abuse’s 2007 cyber-stalking statistics, cyber stalking and cyber bullying cases have been increasing each year with the highest percent of victims being between the ages of 18 and 30. According to the same study, 44 percent of victims had prior relationships with their harassers, and 34 percent of people reported it was their ex.

Networking site cashes in on friends - 02/02/09
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/4413483/Networking-site-cashes-in-on-friends.html
Facebook is planning to exploit the vast amount of personal information it holds on its 150m members by creating one of the world's largest market research databases. In an attempt to finally monetise the social networking site, once valued at $15bn (£10.4bn), it will soon allow multinational companies to selectively target its members in order to research the appeal of new products. Companies will be able to pose questions to specially selected members based on such intimate details as whether they are single or married and even whether they are gay or straight.

Santee woman catches on to Internet scam - 02/02/09
http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2009/02/02/news/13457180.txt
It started out with just the sale of a car.
But the end result could have been disastrous for a Santee woman if she hadn't caught on.
"I would of been out the whole $3,300," Nancy Keller said. "I'm very leery of that when I go on the Internet."
Leery enough to catch on to what police say is another scam.

Bronson Warns About AOL 'Phishing' Scam - 02/02/09
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/feb/02/la-bronson-warns-about-aol-phishing-scam/
Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson is warning the public not to fall for the latest "phishing" scam that is fraudulently using the name of Internet provider America Online.

When MySpace ends in tears - 02/01/09
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/when-myspace-ends-in-tears/2009/01/31/1233423024501.html
Australian teachers are failing to effectively intervene in school cyber bullying, with "significant progress" needed to help bring them up to speed with interactive internet tools.

Digital world can blur boundaries for teens - 01/31/09
http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/features/local_story_031115814.html
As I study teen culture each week, I often reflect on how our changing culture has affected the way today's teens approach the universal challenges of adolescence differently than teens in the past.

Southport man Juan Cumia is accused of uploading offensive videos of his next-door neighbours onto the internet - 01/30/09
http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/southport-news/southport-southport-news/2009/01/30/southport-man-juan-cumia-is-accused-of-uploading-offensive-videos-of-his-next-door-neighbours-onto-the-internet-101022-22811598/
A SOUTHPORT man allegedly uploaded offensive videos of his next-door neighbours onto the internet.
Juan Cumia, 50, of Lawson Street, High Park, who is originally from Spain, is accused of putting online the footage showing his neighbours outside their home with the words “Doherty the mongo family”.

“Cyber bully” arrest made in Garfield County, Colorado - 01/29/09
http://www.citizentelegram.com/article/20090129/NEWS/901289991/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=%93Cyber%20bully%94%20arrest%20made%20in%20Garfield%20County,%20Colorado
In what could be the first case of its kind in Garfield County, sheriff’s deputies issued a summons to a 19-year-old Parachute-area man for allegedly harassing a juvenile female on the Internet.

Oregon court limits stalking protection for couples - 01/28/09
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_012809_news_couple_stalking_law.11d7d965.html
Thousands of unwanted e-mails and harassing phone calls that followed a bitter divorce weren't enough to persuade an Oregon court to allow a protective order to keep two couples apart. The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday the campaign by one couple against another was not serious enough to raise concerns about personal safety, despite the volume of the e-mail and calls.

Blogger Infighting Played a Role, Says TechCrunch Founder - 01/28/09
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/01/28/blogger-infighting-played-a-role-says-techcrunch-founder/
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington blamed fellow technology bloggers for the recent attacks on him, saying that his competitors’ criticisms made him a target.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Michael Arrington at the DLD conference on January 26, 2009 in Munich, Germany.
Mr. Arrington announced Wednesday he was taking a break from his blog following acts from several hostile readers, including a death threat and someone spitting on his face.

Social Web sites encourage cyberstalking - 01/28/09
http://media.www.llamaledger.com/media/storage/paper1178/news/2009/01/28/News/Social.Web.Sites.Encourage.Cyberstalking-3600544.shtml
Many college students use Facebook.com daily without being aware of the cyberstalking threat.
When students put their phone numbers, addresses and other personal information on a social networking site like Facebook, they increase their chances of being a cyberstalking victim, said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance.

Facebook removes group seeking to hire Bolivian hitman - 01/28/09
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/facebook/4368582/Facebook-removes-group-seeking-to-hire-Bolivian-hitman.html
The group entitled 'Global collection to hire a sharpshooter to liquidate Evo Morales' was created in August and had recruited 8,069 members before it was shut down.

Post-McColo, Spam Is Back with a Vengeance - 01/27/09
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20090127/bs_nf/64326;_ylt=AtqoRltn86H2amIFIZlMHKWDzdAF
The e-mail-using world rejoiced in November when the McColo network was busted and spam levels dropped 70 percent. But spam levels are now back up 150 percent, according to Postini Message Security. What does that mean? Spammers are recovering, and it's likely that total spam volumes will return to pre-McColo levels within just a few months.

The 21st-century bank robber comes armed with a keyboard - 01/27/09
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5594673.ece
Gone are the days when hacking was the preserve of mischievous teenagers with nothing better to do. These days “cybercrime” is big business and the internet black market is booming.

Police tackle internet knife gangs - 01/27/09
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7852000/7852248.stm
Hundreds of weapons have been taken off the streets of Glasgow six months after police started using the web to crack down on gang violence.

Online Stalking Made Easy - 01/26/09
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/158347/online_stalking_made_easy.html
Don't look now, but you're being watched. And now that I've signed up for Spokeo.com, I could be the one watching you.
Spokeo is a search engine that uses email addresses to find people across the social Web. Give the site your log-on info for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or AOL -- or just upload your personal address book; Spokeo will scour 41 social networks and collect all information associated with each email address. Blog entries, Linked In profiles, Flickr photostreams, Twitter tweets, Digg comments, Amazon wish lists -- and a whole lot more -- all on one tidy little Web page. And every time they add new content, Spokeo lets you know.

Comments

reaearch paper said…
Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.

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