On 8/7/20, Sam Hartman <[email protected]> wrote: > > TL;DR: I think without some link back to real world identity, we open > ourselves up to attacks where people build trust only to betray us.
Hi, Everyone.. I've tried to follow some of this conversation but keep getting distracted. I haven't known where to chime in with Real World experience, either. My interest in this is that I *have* been impersonated online. It matters because I'm trying to work my way through a package that was abandoned, apparently because so many things have been being upgraded and refined within Debian the last few years.. So, in my case, what had happened was.... Perps, a very local group that operates across the United States, created a Twitter account [0] using.. my full name.. my avatar.. my personal images including that large header image.. AND my complete textual bio such as it was at that moment in time. Twitter took that fake account down so fast when I contacted them that I didn't get a printscreen as some kind of proof. The original homepage for it is still out there gathering cyber dust. So, you know... Full blown, malicious impersonation is very real for some of us out here. Only reason I ever found out was because Google Alerts brought my own name back to my inbox one day. As another instance showing Debian does need to keep things in check, I just tripped over something from last year. It appears to potentially still be a possible active case so I'm not going to share that much of the details right now. The guy's no longer around.... but someone posted something cryptic on his social networking.. after he was gone. It's possible he used something like Hootsuite or something to leave a timed post set for the Future. Only time will tell on that.. He was a techie.. possibly building himself a notable reputation around the Internet. He followed very few people.. but he picked at least one *I* know from online interactions.. Am still in the process of trying to figure out who's who and doing what with the remnants of his presence left on the Internet. Meanwhile, I swear I've been back to Debian's Developers at least once.. or maybe more. I don't know if I'm reading something wrong... or if it's my system glitching at just the wrong time.. or what. The disconnect that repeatedly landed me at a Debian email address was happening somewhere between his old profile, his followers, and who he followed. I wasn't copying an email address when the Debian one kept appearing (at least 4 or 5 times). I haven't proven to myself quite how that happened, yet, but I do have one clue that needs followed up (in my brain, grin). Date of last activity for some bits of that other case goes back to just before that Twitter account was created in my full likeness. Only difference in my own case was the perps gave their physical location as West Virginia instead of Georgia. Oh, and my account was NOT hacked. It was instead replicated visually then placed under a completely new account name... that had my very real name attached. I'm signing off here for now. Too much going in too many directions. I will most certainly be trying to find the right way to bring it up with full details if that other case really, in fact, seems to have some kind of 100% reproducible identity weirdness leading to Debian's front door.... Hugging you all for all the hard work you do. I wouldn't be able to do any of what I do without this kind of project being available... Cindy.... :) [0] Suspended Twitter account placeholder for studebarke (I'm "Studebaker") https://twitter.com/studebarke -- Cindy-Sue Causey Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA * runs with birdseed *
