There are some real idiots out there

[kjander]

It is an old post, but I ran across it while googling and thought I should set the record straight.

I am the son of the Ken Andersen you called to harass, who is in no way, shape or form a phisher. He does not know a lot about computers outside of the apps he normally uses.

He was the unfortunate victim of someone deciding to use his Name/Address/Phone details for their phishing scam. They also tried to breach his ebay account, but at least he had a password secure enough they did not crack it before ebay caught on.

He is a kind, soft-spoken man, and it is a shame what happened to him. How would you feel if out of the blue people started calling you, harassing you, and swearing at you over the phone?

There is a right way and a wrong way to deal with a situation like this. When you even admit it is probably not the real address/phone anyways, is it really right to call and harass the person listed?!? Receiving repeated harassing calls was definitely distressing for him, one more thing to add to worry of whether his identity had been stolen! (Fortunately, it was just the name/address/phone, and nothing else that we have seen.)

It is even more sad that wood work is one of his loves. He is the sort of person most people here would get along with quite famously.

Anyway, I just needed to get that out. It is a shame so many people decide to play "vigilante" without checking on their facts. All that happens is you hurt an innocent person while the real phisher sits back and laughs.

[MathewA]

I deleted my original response for now, I'm going to do a bit of digging. For now though it seems if your father is Kenneth Andersen of Erie PA (YOU say he is) then he's made quite a name for himself. His name appears on a few phishing websites. His name is registered to the site that was used to steel identities. So his identity theft attempt must have been fairly extensive to catch the eye of these anti-phishing sites. You obviously didn't read my original post otherwise you would know I phoned and talked to Kenneth Andersen personally and he admitted to the scam. So the question I have, who at Kenneth Andersen's home identified themselves as Kenneth Andersen and admitted to the scam when I phoned? If you say your father is innocent then someone else in your family is guilty. What did you say your name was?

[MathewA]

He was the unfortunate victim of someone deciding to use his Name/Address/Phone details for their phishing scam. They also tried to breach his ebay account, but at least he had a password secure enough they did not crack it before ebay caught on.

I informed ebay of what he was doing. No one breached any ebay account of mine. The reason he failed with me was because he sent the email to an address I never use for ebay. The person I phoned who was listed in the phone book as Kenneth Andersen of Erie PA and identified himself as Kenneth Andersen and admitted to the scam. The link is on the first page of this thread and the original information for that website will still be stored with the ISP and it should be obvious to you that the phone number used can be traced to the offender then. So if your fathers identity was stolen then why doesn't he phone and open a file with the FBI, the scam crossed international boundaries and is therefore a very serious federal crime.Personally though if you are the son of Kenneth Andersen of Erie PA who I called personally I don't believe a single thing you have said. You need to get your story straight before you go posting it around the internet.

[Gumby]

It is an old post, but I ran across it while googling
.

That's pretty sus in itself if you ask me. :confused: Googling what ? You happen to come across an old post by somebody who happened to call you or your father. What's the chance of that being a random thing. Not much. Very strange indeed.

[Ivan in Oz]

Gumby,
Sounds like someone running interference.

Dunno?

[savage]

Yeah!..or caught out and just trying to run!

[kjander]

Yes, I am running interference for a 6 month old scam

I guess I will clarify some more things - I realize it is the big wide internet and you really have no reason to believe me, but what else can I do?

To answer some questions:
The "googling" skepticism. You never google your names or your family names or friends to see if anything is written about them? It was late Saturday night and I was bored. *shrug*

Regarding "admitting" the scam. Whatever the exact words - my guess is he was trying to say he was trying to get the website down as well. Remember, not computer savvy, baraged dozens of angry phone calls, how do you know what to say when you are getting these calls? It sounds like his choice of words were poor, and if you call already expecting him to be the phisher you are tracking, you are more likely going to misinterpret whatever he says.

He did call the FBI and open a file over concerns of identity theft.

Also, he contacted ebay over the site (and this is when he found that someone was trying a brute force attack on his account - may or may not have been related). He contacted his banks and credit card companies. He even tried to get his name removed from the registrar information (not sure what route he followed there) - though it was still listed even a week after the incident. What is even the correct route to get false information removed? You didn't register the site, so you can't edit it.

You know, I am sure the better choice for me would be to let sleeping dogs lie; it finally blew over in a couple weeks and none of his accounts were stolen. If his name is posted on many sites as you say (this was the only one I saw, but then I was googling for this, and had pretty much forgotten this incident), then I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to get the name/phone/addy removed. I mean, isn't listing such information and inciting people to harassment also a crime? But, it is the internet, so as your skepticism shows, I wouldn't even know how to begin getting people to believe this. My conscience, though, would not let me not post. While no good may come of it, at least I tried, right?

I really don't know what else to say. I don't believe there is anything I can say to convince any of you; I guess all I ask is you take a step back, try to look at things objectively, and then decide. If you still believe it was the "right" family getting harassing phone calls at all hours of the day and night, the so be it.

[kjander]

Oh, and for what it is worth, I guess I should add the one of the people that called did the right thing:

They didn't engage him in a hostile manner, but rather determined he really had no clue what was going on. The caller then explained the site and the phishing scam, and that his name/addy/phone were attached to it. So, a big thanks to whoever that anonymous caller was (who will never see this), as I think it would have taken my father much longer to figure out what was happening and what he needed to start to do.

If nothing else, I would just like people to take away that if you want to engage in this "vigilante" justice, please, please, please realize that there is a good chance you are going to be hurting an innnocent person.

[bitingmidge]

Looking at this thing from the outside, but from the eyes of one whose eyes absolutely mist over red when this sort of thing arrives, I can be a little sympathetic if one's webite has been hijacked.

HOWEVER if I was driving down a street minding my own business and was run over by an unlicensed person driving a car without a clue as to how to operate it, I'd get a bit cross as well.

If one is to have a web presence, one owes it to the world to take responsibility for that presence. If one doesn't know enough about web security to prevent this sort of hijack (and that's a big call) then one should have experts who do, and who can be sued after events like this, OR AT LEAST BE PREPARED TO TAKE THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE'S OWN ACTIONS.

Being abused is not a pleasant experience, but then, neither is losing one's valuables.

In this case, obviously there were some unresolved security issues.

Why don't you save all of us some grief, and buy your dad some professional IT help, and a Mac?

Cheers,

P

[Barry_White]

Why don't you save all of us some grief, and buy your dad some professional IT help, and a Mac?

Cheers,

P

Couldn't help yourself Peter to get a plug in for a Mac.

[bitingmidge]

It won't help the situation, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy!!


P (Never trust anyone in IT)

[Iain]

I ran the name through google, went through 8 pages with no result.

[Daddles]

It won't help the situation, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy!!


P (Never trust anyone in IT)

Bit like a Mac really - all warm with a fuzzy screen and no use to anyone

Richard
(they're even too big to throw at the cat)

[DanP]

Strangely enuf, I can't get google to bring up this page under the following searches:

Ken Anderson
Kenneth Anderson
Kenneth Anderson Erie
Kenneth Anderson Erie PA

I thought that KJANDER "came up" with this site by chance on a google search. I went to page ten on the first search and two or three pages on the rest. Enough to satisfy myself that it wasn't going to just "come up by accident".

Dan

[DanP]

Beat me by that much Iain...