*BSD News Article 79686


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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.primenet.com!ip050.phx.primenet.com!info
From: info@sundialservices.com (Sundial Services)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.canadian,comp.sys.mac.programmer.codewarrior,rec.sport.paintball,rec.arts.comics.misc,rec.motorcycles.harley,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.databases.paradox,rec.pets.dogs.misc,rec.arts.books.marketplace,rec.arts.movies.cur
Subject: Re: A Public service Announcement ...
Date: 1 Oct 1996 10:54:01 -0700
Organization: Primenet
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <info.4108.00F3874E@sundialservices.com>
References: <52elor$4ic@dns2.inter.net.il> <52o0th$59@hawk.pix.za> <32507CC9.75B7@ix.netcom.com> <tool29-0110961117390001@max04-016.starnetinc.com>
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As "tool" correctly points out in his/her post, Chain Mail schemes are 
mathematically impossible -- similar to the king whose advisor asked him to 
put one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, two on the second, 
four on the third and so forth.

When the King realized that all the rice in his kingdom could not fill the 
chessboard, he lopped off the advisor's head.  :-/

What is more to the point, however, is that chain-mail schemes are MAIL FRAUD, 
which is one of those things that you see underneath people's names in the 
Post Office.  Logically, it follows that doing the same thing on the Internet 
is WIRE FRAUD, yet another thing you see in the Post.

You can reasonably assume that, if not everything on the Internet is captured 
and at least filtered by, say, the NSA or the FBI, then it certainly could be 
and that a newsgroup posting (you doofus...) is effortless to capture -- and 
to pinpoint, even with "anon" servers, precisely to the computer in question.  

The fact that law-enforcement officers have not yet acted to curb this abuse, 
does not mean that they will not -- you take your time and you don't reveal 
your plans until the search-warrants are handed out at the door.  

I'll personally be glad to see the writeup in the paper.  Absolutely no new 
laws need to be written in order to prosecute these a******s under existing 
telecommunications laws and treaties.  And I wish they would get on with it.

Not to mention that it's ineffective and a royal pain in the ass to everyone 
in the world.

Go ahead, be a doofus to the world ... said the spider to the fly, as she 
sharpened up her pencil and winked the other eye.