WHO@ Newsletter - April 20, 2009
I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Wow!
Unemployed woman gets lotto winnings after 4 years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090417/ap_
NEWPORT, Maine – An unemployed woman who won $1 million in a Maine State Lottery game has collected her winnings four years after she bought the scratch ticket in a store that's since burned down. Brenda Ripton told the Central Maine Morning Sentinel that she had received her $700,000 check from the lottery on Thursday.
Ripton had just learned two days earlier that she won the million-dollar prize in the Texas Hold 'em game. The government took the rest of her winnings for taxes.
Ripton said both she and her husband are out of work. Her winnings came in a second-chance lottery in which non-winners fill out the back of the ticket.
It took this long to declare winners because the state had to sell all of its Texas Hold 'em tickets first.
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Visit WHOA on the web at http://www.haltabuse.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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)
Ice-T on hunt for Twitter impostor - 04/20/09
http://www.3news.co.nz/News/Ice-T-on-hu
Rapper-turned-actor Ice-T is hunting for an internet user posing as him on social networking website Twitter.com - insisting he'd never write the "corny" messages posted on his fake page.
College Police Target Linux User; Bloggers Up in Arms - 04/20/09
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Colle
We've all heard arguments about whether the command line is a powerful and elegant tool or an unnecessary pain, but does using a no-pretty-colors interface constitute suspicious behavior? That's the way it looked in the case of a Boston College student whose computer was confiscated during an online harassment investigation. Some say a deeper reading of the police's warrant yields a different conclusion.
Twitter and Celebrities Hit by More Mikeyy Worms - 04/20/09
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Twitt
Mikey Mooney, author of the Twitter worm, released another one Saturday night, according to security software firm F-Secure.
After the first round of Twitter worms he created a week ago Mikeyy, as he was known on Twitter, said he did it out of boredom, but that he wouldn't be upset to get a job out of the whole episode. Before very long he actually did get hired by exqSoft Solutions, a custom Web applications development company. He also got hacked, revealing many of his usernames and passwords among other details.
Facebook case helps fight cybercrime - 04/19/09
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/04/fac
School resource officers from across Alabama and the nation fielded complaints about an Internet extortionist badgering girls for nude pictures. Victims even created a Facebook page warning females not to talk to the person with the username Metascape.
Stripper fears attacker is stalking women via Craigslist - 04/18/09
http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/arti
An exotic dancer who was bound and held at gunpoint at a suburban Providence hotel by a man who answered her Craigslist ad has suggested that her ordeal could be linked to an earlier Boston hotel slaying, police said Friday.
Cyberstalker who threatened ITV newsreader and weathergirl with rape is jailed - 04/18/09
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/arti
A 'cyberstalker' who terrorised a newsreader and TV weathergirl with sick emails including threats to rape them was today jailed for four years.
Alexander Reeve bombarded Alexis Bowater and Kate Reeves with threatening and sexually-aggressive messages at their studio, a court heard.
Pirate Bay prosecution could spawn flurry of lawsuits - 04/18/09
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news
The entertainment industry yesterday hailed the successful prosecution of the four founders of the illegal file-sharing website Pirate Bay, as a major victory in its battle to recoup billions of pounds in lost revenue.
Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Software - 04/17/09
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/2009
A Virginia man has pleaded guilty to charges related to selling counterfeit software with a retail value of about US$1 million on eBay, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The Whisper Campaign Against an Overstock.com Whistleblower - 04/17/09
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/th
If you're getting a divorce, have a date in traffic court or some other legal entanglement, absolutely do not criticize a wretched little internet retailer called Overstock.com, its loony, conspiracymongering CEO, Patrick Byrne, or any of the crew of cyberstalkers on his personal payroll.
Should We Be Friends with Our Kids on Facebook? - 04/17/09
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/wor
Are you friends with your kids or kids you know on Facebook?
Lately there has been a heated discussion about grownups “friending” children on the AskLizRyan group, which has almost 25,000 members. (Ryan is a BusinessWeek columnist, and her listserv is a terrific resource for career advice and leads, by the way.)
Facecrook - 04/17/09
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne
A DRUGS baron on the run from US justice is facing up to 105 years in jail after being traced in Britain through Facebook.
Emmanuel Ganpot, 36, was convicted in 2003 of hiring two “mules” to carry cocaine and 3,500 ecstasy tablets worth £22,000.
Protecting Yourself from Cyber Stalkers - 04/16/09
http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.a
Police arrested a 42-year-old man from Bear for stalking women using the web. The Attorney General's Office says Richard McCullough contacted his victims using multiple fake names on the internet.
Island Lake man denies posting phony messages from accuser - 04/16/09
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=28
A former college police officer already facing charges he molested a teenage girl pleaded not guilty Thursday to new allegations he tried to trick authorities into believing his accuser still had romantic thoughts about him.
Real or Perceived: Dealing with Internet Threats - 04/16/09
http://sip-trunking.tmcnet.com/topics/s
From a publicity standpoint there is no doubt that Conficker has exceeded the expectations of its developers. They probably weren’t expecting a feature on Sixty Minutes but they got one, and it had the intended effect. A multitude of Internet users are now acutely aware that there is a new threat in town and people are worried. My mother called me, as she often does when she hears about such things, and asked what she should do. She understood that the desktop protections she has can be subverted and mentioned friends were considering just unplugging their computers and staying offline for awhile.
West Warwick woman denies cyberstalking former client - 04/15/09
http://www.projo.com/news/courts/conten
A woman charged with cyberstalking a former client and coworker pleaded not guilty Tuesday in District Court.
Ann Bruno, 59, of West Warwick, is accused of making more than 6,000 phone calls to Tracy Sisson, of Cranston, and filling out Internet inquiries from companies that later called Sisson to follow up. Rhode Island law defines cyberstalking as using a computer for the “sole purpose of harassing” another person or his or her family. The offense is a misdemeanor.
Ballot photograph has voter on thin ice - 04/15/09
http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1
An unidentified individual is facing up to a year in prison for posting a photo of his ballot for mayor of O'Fallon, Mo., online, officials say.
State and country officials said the punishment for willfully sharing a completed ballot represents a class-four election offense that also comes with a $2,500 fine, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Wednesday.
Faceboot - 04/14/09
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne
A LANDLADY evicted her tenants after they posted pictures of wild parties at her flat on Facebook. The snaps showed Carolyn Lorimer’s two-bed pad being trashed.
Texting may allow church donations - 04/14/09
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090414/od_
Text messages may allow worshippers in Finland to donate money to their church without having to attend services.
Under current laws, the church cannot raise funds by texts in Finland, the home of mobile phone giant Nokia. Dean Matti Pikkarainen of Oulu Cat
Unemployed woman gets lotto winnings after 4 years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090417/ap_
NEWPORT, Maine – An unemployed woman who won $1 million in a Maine State Lottery game has collected her winnings four years after she bought the scratch ticket in a store that's since burned down. Brenda Ripton told the Central Maine Morning Sentinel that she had received her $700,000 check from the lottery on Thursday.
Ripton had just learned two days earlier that she won the million-dollar prize in the Texas Hold 'em game. The government took the rest of her winnings for taxes.
Ripton said both she and her husband are out of work. Her winnings came in a second-chance lottery in which non-winners fill out the back of the ticket.
It took this long to declare winners because the state had to sell all of its Texas Hold 'em tickets first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit WHOA on the web at http://www.haltabuse.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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)
Ice-T on hunt for Twitter impostor - 04/20/09
http://www.3news.co.nz/News/Ice-T-on-hu
Rapper-turned-actor Ice-T is hunting for an internet user posing as him on social networking website Twitter.com - insisting he'd never write the "corny" messages posted on his fake page.
College Police Target Linux User; Bloggers Up in Arms - 04/20/09
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Colle
We've all heard arguments about whether the command line is a powerful and elegant tool or an unnecessary pain, but does using a no-pretty-colors interface constitute suspicious behavior? That's the way it looked in the case of a Boston College student whose computer was confiscated during an online harassment investigation. Some say a deeper reading of the police's warrant yields a different conclusion.
Twitter and Celebrities Hit by More Mikeyy Worms - 04/20/09
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Twitt
Mikey Mooney, author of the Twitter worm, released another one Saturday night, according to security software firm F-Secure.
After the first round of Twitter worms he created a week ago Mikeyy, as he was known on Twitter, said he did it out of boredom, but that he wouldn't be upset to get a job out of the whole episode. Before very long he actually did get hired by exqSoft Solutions, a custom Web applications development company. He also got hacked, revealing many of his usernames and passwords among other details.
Facebook case helps fight cybercrime - 04/19/09
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/04/fac
School resource officers from across Alabama and the nation fielded complaints about an Internet extortionist badgering girls for nude pictures. Victims even created a Facebook page warning females not to talk to the person with the username Metascape.
Stripper fears attacker is stalking women via Craigslist - 04/18/09
http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/arti
An exotic dancer who was bound and held at gunpoint at a suburban Providence hotel by a man who answered her Craigslist ad has suggested that her ordeal could be linked to an earlier Boston hotel slaying, police said Friday.
Cyberstalker who threatened ITV newsreader and weathergirl with rape is jailed - 04/18/09
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/arti
A 'cyberstalker' who terrorised a newsreader and TV weathergirl with sick emails including threats to rape them was today jailed for four years.
Alexander Reeve bombarded Alexis Bowater and Kate Reeves with threatening and sexually-aggressive messages at their studio, a court heard.
Pirate Bay prosecution could spawn flurry of lawsuits - 04/18/09
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news
The entertainment industry yesterday hailed the successful prosecution of the four founders of the illegal file-sharing website Pirate Bay, as a major victory in its battle to recoup billions of pounds in lost revenue.
Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Software - 04/17/09
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/2009
A Virginia man has pleaded guilty to charges related to selling counterfeit software with a retail value of about US$1 million on eBay, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The Whisper Campaign Against an Overstock.com Whistleblower - 04/17/09
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/th
If you're getting a divorce, have a date in traffic court or some other legal entanglement, absolutely do not criticize a wretched little internet retailer called Overstock.com, its loony, conspiracymongering CEO, Patrick Byrne, or any of the crew of cyberstalkers on his personal payroll.
Should We Be Friends with Our Kids on Facebook? - 04/17/09
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/wor
Are you friends with your kids or kids you know on Facebook?
Lately there has been a heated discussion about grownups “friending” children on the AskLizRyan group, which has almost 25,000 members. (Ryan is a BusinessWeek columnist, and her listserv is a terrific resource for career advice and leads, by the way.)
Facecrook - 04/17/09
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne
A DRUGS baron on the run from US justice is facing up to 105 years in jail after being traced in Britain through Facebook.
Emmanuel Ganpot, 36, was convicted in 2003 of hiring two “mules” to carry cocaine and 3,500 ecstasy tablets worth £22,000.
Protecting Yourself from Cyber Stalkers - 04/16/09
http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.a
Police arrested a 42-year-old man from Bear for stalking women using the web. The Attorney General's Office says Richard McCullough contacted his victims using multiple fake names on the internet.
Island Lake man denies posting phony messages from accuser - 04/16/09
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=28
A former college police officer already facing charges he molested a teenage girl pleaded not guilty Thursday to new allegations he tried to trick authorities into believing his accuser still had romantic thoughts about him.
Real or Perceived: Dealing with Internet Threats - 04/16/09
http://sip-trunking.tmcnet.com/topics/s
From a publicity standpoint there is no doubt that Conficker has exceeded the expectations of its developers. They probably weren’t expecting a feature on Sixty Minutes but they got one, and it had the intended effect. A multitude of Internet users are now acutely aware that there is a new threat in town and people are worried. My mother called me, as she often does when she hears about such things, and asked what she should do. She understood that the desktop protections she has can be subverted and mentioned friends were considering just unplugging their computers and staying offline for awhile.
West Warwick woman denies cyberstalking former client - 04/15/09
http://www.projo.com/news/courts/conten
A woman charged with cyberstalking a former client and coworker pleaded not guilty Tuesday in District Court.
Ann Bruno, 59, of West Warwick, is accused of making more than 6,000 phone calls to Tracy Sisson, of Cranston, and filling out Internet inquiries from companies that later called Sisson to follow up. Rhode Island law defines cyberstalking as using a computer for the “sole purpose of harassing” another person or his or her family. The offense is a misdemeanor.
Ballot photograph has voter on thin ice - 04/15/09
http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1
An unidentified individual is facing up to a year in prison for posting a photo of his ballot for mayor of O'Fallon, Mo., online, officials say.
State and country officials said the punishment for willfully sharing a completed ballot represents a class-four election offense that also comes with a $2,500 fine, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Wednesday.
Faceboot - 04/14/09
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne
A LANDLADY evicted her tenants after they posted pictures of wild parties at her flat on Facebook. The snaps showed Carolyn Lorimer’s two-bed pad being trashed.
Texting may allow church donations - 04/14/09
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090414/od_
Text messages may allow worshippers in Finland to donate money to their church without having to attend services.
Under current laws, the church cannot raise funds by texts in Finland, the home of mobile phone giant Nokia. Dean Matti Pikkarainen of Oulu Cat
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