Hacking - 2/23/11

For the first time in my life I had an email account hijacked, raped, pillaged, and plundered. Fortunately it wasn't a critical account, but the way the hacker went about things was quite tricky, and well tailored to my lifestyle. The violator sent a message with the following text:

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Blanchard
Sent: Wed, Feb 23, 2011 6:50 pm
Subject: Please respond it's very urgent

It’s me, Danny , I really don't mean to inconvenience you right now, I made a little trip to UK and I misplaced my luggage that contains my passport and credit cards, I know this may sound odd, but it all happened very fast. I need to get a new passport and a ticket, but I'm short of funds to pay for my ticket and other miscellaneous expense. Please, can you lend me some funds to get a ticket? I'll be willing to pay back as soon as I get home.

Please respond as soon as you get this message, so I can forward you my details to send the funds to me, OR you can drop a message via the hotel's desk phone if you can. The numbers are, +447024035615.

I await your response
Dan Blanchard

----End of Message-----

I find this quite crafty, in that the story probably came off as a bit believable in my case, as I do more traveling (vacation or not) than the average Joe, and would likely contact friends and loved ones via email, as nobody these days really memorizes phone numbers. Anywho, I hope nobody was fooled into calling the hotel, or emailing the Violator with Western Union wire transfers (although if you did, thanks for being such a good, if not a bit gullible, friend! : )

In other news, I've been working on the Wilderness Discoverer for the past 3-weeks, and will be continuing to work there until the boats sail to Alaska in early May. I had originally planned on working on my boat during this time, but it's freaking cold, and I had to opportunity to make some good money on a heated boat - so yes, I make lemonade. When the boats are gone I'll switch over to Rafiki mode, and spend the summer working on her, and her alone! I don't plan on working for $$ over the summer, so my weekends will be spent adventuring, drinking, eating, and socializing to my heart's content, and the weekday will be a wonderful bliss of checking account depletion and sailboat completion.

Also: I'm leaving for Manzanillo on Sunday morning to visit my friend Christian in Mexico, and I'll be spending two weeks with him exploring that neck of the world while at the same time sailing to Acapolco, where I fly out of. I'm still back and forth about bringing an onslaught of camera gear down with me, but we'll just see how I feel when the time comes.

Until later,

Peace yo!