Judy writes in to warn us about Skype cruising by members of the military (overseas).
Once the Reval occurs, there may be security features we may want to put in place, mostly to ward off scams and phishers and other sources of inconvenience.
Someone sent me today what looked to me like a PayPal lookalike site which, if he’d have signed onto it, would have given away his PayPal username and password. We’re not so far out of the woods yet, it seems, that we can become careless and the cost of carelessness may soon go up. So here’s Judy’s write-up of her Skype invasion.
Two weeks ago and twice within the past few days I have been receiving SKYPE requests to allow men to be on my contact list!! Maybe I don`t know all the ramifications of this technology set up. I understood only people I offered my address to on SKYPE could actually even contact me in the first place! Seeing one unfamiliar name, accompanied by a picture of a middle-aged man in army uniform, I blocked his access. By the way, names are clearly shown too….
When I received a second request, last week, I accepted because I decided to do a bit of investigating. He proceeded to tell me he was in Afghanistan – at a desk with time to spare and wanted to form a friendship with me. Beside his picture were two words – truth and honesty. When I persisted five times that he tell me the truth – how did you get my SKYPE address – he simply ignored my question and yet rapidly kept wanting to know more about me. Like where I was from and so on. I quickly cut that one off my contacts and blocked it – feeling a bit more mystified than ever.
This morning, there was yet another request – different middle-aged guy, again pictured in US army camouflage uniform. I denied contact and then got thinking something that seems to be an obvious answer. As part of the ability to spy on any means of communication on the planet, wouldn`t it be interesting (to say the least) that these guys in their spare time are using the technology at their finger-tips – all under US military and espionage control – to pick up a woman like on-line dating sources!!!
That`s not the important part as far as I`m concerned. It was the greatest tip off ever though! What is supposed to be secure information sure isn`t!!! So I`m blowing my whistle here!! TOOT! TOOT! Hope you guys can look into this further with your sources – and spread the news around – and see what`s up!!
Hello again, Steve:
Since I sent that note to you my mind has been busy – trying to figure out if by chance I had posted my SKYPE address to one of my public areas: my website or Facebook so I checked them and nothing there! I still have a wee bit of a concern that at some point I might have unknowingly made my personal space too public when I first set up SKYPE to contact my family and friends back in Ontario. I rarely connected with anyone that way as the reception is less than desirable in my experience.
So, just now I checked all my possible options and I can find nothing that shows it. I would never want to accuse anyone of merely being `bored on the job` and in surfing the net somehow discovering my existence in that way. Did my information get unknowingly posted to a dating sight!! I don`t know – although that`s also an infringement of my rights too of course!
So given that slight hesitation – I am very pleased to give you permission to publish it. I suspect the real concern that prompted me to write it in the first place is sadly true! Toot! Toot!