[Reader-list] cybercrimes et al

[Debjani Sengupta]

yesterday, i woke up to a scamster's world. i received calls from friends
all over that they have received mail from my email id asking for money as i
was stranded in the UK. some of them were alarmed and called me. others were
more net savvy and deleted the mail. when i asked them about it they said
they knew that i couldnt write a mail that was so poor in english and
second, the mail was too hysterical. one friend said he thought it was a
student of mine playing a prank! god forbid!
but yesterday, was  a new day for me. i was born again...
my old yahoo mail id was hacked into and i want to share this experience so
that people like me who are still grappling with so much new on cyberspace
may take heed. i had received a mail from Yahoo customer care asking me to
verify my pass word; without checking i answered the mail and of course, all
hell broke loose. the lesson that i learnt was never, ever give out your
password even if the President or God asked for it. The second lesson that i
learnt was never ever trust an email id, behind it may hide a Joker, a
Prankster, a Fraud, a Madman, a Hacker, a Psychopath,a Delinquent, a
Misnomer, a Gangbuster, a Mailman, a Sick Person, a Cyber Geek, a
Carpetbagger, a Republican, a Fundamentalist, and the list goes on and
on....
yesterday's experience was in many ways a lesson in good manners, something
that we are increasingly foregoing. i had calls from so many people, some
laughed outright at my predicament ( i could not access my yahoo mail id and
all my contacts were lost, years of hard work and building up trust), others
sniggered at my idiocy, and many others reiterated their love and friendship
for me. i was born anew. i had to create a new mail id and painfully try to
get my contact ids together. most imporatant of all,i had to call many whom
i only knew through work and assure them of my integrity. it is something i
will have to do for months to come but i will do it. whoever hacks into
personal mails like this is sick. but what they do not realize how much
suffering they cause with one little flick of their finger.