Jerry_Atrick

Disgusting perverse right wing propaganda shit, fella

Quote snipped. I am well aware of stolen mail scams and how they work. They are by far in the minority compared to standard email scams that are successful. They aren't even the head of the pimple of the back of pure email scams. As I mentioned it is a question of risk, and at the moment, the risk is far greater from email phishing scams alone than stolen email, whether or not they are followed up by targeted phishing. Yes, but they don't send the letters. Their prices will reflect the cost of sending the declining economies of scale., They can do the same as Danish Poste and stop sending letters, and leave the goivernment to send its letters through private contractors or couriers if required. My point ius yes, it is and will become more expensive to send letters. But governments (the senders of the letters) are not known for cost efficiency. Over here, the Royal Mail was privatised years ago. With the declining economies of scale and the introdution of competition, it is expensive. Apartt from 2 years, they have still turned a profit on letter delivery - it is true that parcel delivery (Parcel Force arm of the Royal mail)_ is more profitable. Sort of yes, and sort of no. Yes, people are fre to make a decision to send a letter or not. But the Danish government will only send emails except for specific exemptions (I forgot to put this in my previous post): You may not be happy to accept email because you anre not confident in its security. Too bad. My lazy comment is not aimed at yourself. And it is meant in terms of not always thinking things through when taking the new, more convenient option. Some people are more diligent than others, but how much fraud was before people started taking notice of this risks with eBanking, ecommerce, clicking on email links and the sort. A little forethought - not much - would have identified these riuks and have people take mitigating actions well beforehand rather than play catch up. And I am not saying don't do email.. I never have. It would be a ridiculous proposition for your sone to send a daily letter (well in advance of the time) to tell his employees the priorities of that day. Of course that is the case. In that case the risk is low. I imagine, someone in his company receiving a phishing email to sign onto home banking or they lose their life savings purportedly originating from your son would be treated with the disdain it should be. The examples you give are simply not applicable to what I was referring to.

I agree., which is why I don't buy Chinese (and from other oppressive regimes) where I can.. I can't always buy something not made in China. It is a sad indctment of humanity that we care more about saving a few bucks that how we direct our resources to make a better world (which is subjective - I know). China has obtained dominance on price, justlike Japan and Taiwan befoew. The difference is the former allowed their economies to develop naturally, whereas China oppressively keeps their costs artifically low against the rest of the world. Acknowledging China is the super-manufacturer as a result, my purchase decision tree is something like: If I can source it made from non-oppresive regimes (China is one), buy it from a non-oppressive regime. If I can only source from an oppressive regime (e.g. China), try and buy from a firm from a non-oppresive regime that set up in the oppresive regime and accept that it somewhat endorses something even worse. If I can only buy it from a firm owned and manufactured in an oppressive regime, then so be it. Also, try not top buy from a non-oppressive regime where the is owned by a Chinese or other oppresive regime firm.. And of course, consider if I really need it if I can't source it the first way. It's a personal choice.

I agree with your post of which I quoted an extract. In your case, it is perfectly fine. In other cases, such as my mother who lives in a country town outside of Melbourne, it is very high risk - not the valid emails - but the phishing. I reiterate, these are becoming increasingly sophisticated and even tech savvy people fall for them from time to time. In my mother's case, I have imposed on her a rule to contact me or my brother before clicking any link she thinks is valid. There are millions like her in different demographics. What about those who live independently, but are metnally challenged, etc. There was an article in The Age or the Guardian a few yers ago where an IT journo unwittingly got scammed and he or she admitted she should have known better. I get all of the economics and the decline in mail. However, a govenment isn't about efficiency first - to suggest it is, is a furphy. And let's be frank, neither are large corporations. My point is it is not right to force a method of delivery - allow people to opt in - no probs. But the system is not safe. It has been implemented by the organisations safely in the way you describe, but that does not stop the scammers using to to scam people with far more success than is reported in the media. When the technology is safe enough, then great - force everyone to use it. My term about laziness wasn't people are lazy. But we rush into new convenient methods without thinking through the consequences. Australia is trailblazin as is the UK with what I think are sensibly targeted controls - a balance of protecting the rights of communications through the internet but curtailing the worst of it. It has taken how many years, in the face of those vociferous voices promoiting no internet censorship in th epursuit of free speech. In 2000, I argued in a forum that the internet had morphed into another mass media distribution channel and that, like TV, radio, newspapers, and the like, where moral-based censorship applied that still allowed free speech, the internet should be subject to such controls - with an opt in based on people who could verify their age (I suggested credit card or optical recogniton of official government docs wold suffice). This would allow the ISP to unblock traffic to their client and their client assumes responsibility at that stage. The team promoting non-censorship[ raised the government oppression argument, which I agree with, but also put the responsibility on the parents of parental control, which I totally disagree with. Even today, there is evidence that a massive majority of people do not understand the technology sufficiently to adopt practices to protect children from harmful content, and neither have the knowledge, resources, or time to continually monitor. The UK parliament decided to not require an opt into adult content, however, required the telcos to strengthen the parental controls they could adopt at the ISP level. This omitted one big issue - VPNs - which allow circumvention of these controls. A friend of mine, who works in a similar space to me, was heartbroken when he leaned his sone was addicted to porn - and some not great aspects of it from an early age of around 14, despite deplying ISP based and local parental contol software. Kids are clever with tech and his son used all sorts of circumvention However, if the ISP had have blocked all of this sort of content and blocked VPN TCP/IP packets, his child may have grown up without the affliction. I am far from an expert on cybersecurity. We have dedicated teams and I would be paid a lot more than I am if I were an expert. But we received mandatory training and I try and keep myself well read in the area. I don't, as a habit, store documents on the cloud for a few reasons. Firstly, I think they are generally secure - but only as secure as anything else. Cybercrime is not the dark-hooded chap crackign passwords - it relies in the weakest links - software and human vulnerabilities. Therefore, Cloufd storage, IMHO, is as vulnerable as any other organisation - except they do our quite a bit of money into cybe protection. But recently, both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure werehacked causing outages.. so that speaks for itself. The other thing I don't like about it is that despite assurances, I don't trust these organisations to not snoopp on my stiff, use it to train artifical intelligence models (to their risk with my stuff), and, probably with the exception oif Apple, provide a back door to law enforcement. Not that I have anything to hide per se. I use all local storage except for some photos and I pay Drop Box a small subscription if I want to share files/data. I use NAS disk array for backups, firewalled so that only a certain set of machines machine on my network should be able to access it.

I am not saying that we shouldn't tranistion to email. Most things sich as the sharing of engineering plans, and even tax returns, etc, are fine because even if they are intercepted, big deal. I have never met my accountant and when the books are submitted, they become public record anyway. Maybe ASIC charges a fee, whereas UK Companies House doesn't, but for a small chunk of change I can find out most of what I want to for any company or sole proprietor (and anything in between). My argument is that email is still not secure enough to force people to use it, even when the actions are performed though secure online services for some things - such as official government business and financial transactions. You're quite right. I didn't say snail mail entirely protects. What you didn't mention is that email phishing fraud really, really dwarves stolen letter fraud - so the chances of it are happening are quite low. And while the "success" rate of snail mail fraud is higher, the overall lost to fraud this way is significantly lower as well. Also, I couodn't find any data, but I would imagine that the success rate of letter fraud is dropping two for two main reasons: Firstly, with direct debit/BPAY, secondly,. most people these days that pay a recurring bill probably have the payee details stored anyway, fourthly (not sure about Australia), when paying new payees, you have to enter the account name, whether it is business or personal and the bank BSB and account and if they do not match, you are warned to check the bill. Also, if they decide to say up the bill significantly to increase their return, the utility company or whoever is likely to receive a phone call. And it is a lot of faff for the perpetrator. They have to steal the mail, scan the document, make the change, stuff the envelope making it look not tampered and deliver it again as the stamp has been stamped. In terms of the advice to send the bill to you electronically - it is good advice. Except for two things. Firstly, there is Business Email Compromise, which takes two forms. First, the hacker gets control of the email servers of the business and adulterates the email, as per this poor couple falling victim to: https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/hope-and-tom-paid-250-000-to-secure-their-dream-home-then-nearly-lost-it-all-20251104-p5n7pr.html The other is where a sniffer reads the email and attachment, makes the changes and immediately sends out a revised email, apologising for the mistake of payment details in the original email. If you want your physical bill untampered, yes, get it sent electronically. I agree. But, now you are expecting emails from that company, and there will inevitablly be a phishing email calling people to urgent action because of an imminent account closure or to validate or cancel an unusual transaction. And most people should ignore any links and log into their accounts, but sadly, even savvy people whose circumstances led to a lapse of concentration or the scammers merely put together some situation that coincidentally is very similar to the victims own at the moment, and in a lapse of concentration, they have clicked the link, divulged their credentials and their account has been drained in the blink of an eye. So, you may be stiffed $100 or so for your monthly electricity bill - once - and if you don't use BPAY or you ignore the payee being dfifferent to the banks record. I know of one person who had over £10K drained from their account. They eventually got it back, but ultimately we collectively pay. And my point is, at the moment, to default to receive snail mail for financial transactions, but allow people to opt into pure email. They either recognise and mitigate the risks, or they ignore them, or they choose not to. Despite the risks of mail theft and fraud, the risks around email at this point in time are much higher. And therefore, I would suggest the advice given by Victoria Police Mail Delivery and Security, aboive, is narrowly framed and does not take into account all of the risks. Well. I dunno.. I am normally happy to have their tops disrobed, but untitting sounds gruesome to me.

I agree... you can't avoid Chinese made.. I would still prefer the marketplace profit go to a non-Chinese outfit, though. Where I can buy non-Chinese, I do.. And yes, I check first.

I have been an Amazon customer since 1999 or thereabouts. I recall my first purchase. It was for the UK version of MYOB - an Australian accounting software package, which today, seems the easiest and best to use. Aussies do lead the world in practical software design - or did. It was super cheap, but after not receiving it for a week, I logged onto Amazon and used their site to raise a query. They refunded me that same day. A week later, the software arrived (it must have been posted from Aus). I raised a query to say I received it and was happy to pay. The response was their terms have performance agreements, and for this product line, the performance was not met, so even though I eventaully got it, it was on the house. I am sure this costed MYOB whatever revenue they made from it, but it also would have costed amazon the payment transaction fees, etc, unless their terms required MYOB to pay it back. Regardless, this received an A+ for caring for the consumer from me. And I have used them for most of my shopping since. Not because of the concenience, but because I know if something goes wrong, they are usually going to fix it, which I cannot say the same for other bricks and mortar retailers and other e-tailers. That was their value add. They did go through a period where their customer service fell, but I guess revenue started to decline, because it has picked up since. Like Octave, I am mindful of not wanting to continute to billionaires fortunes, and these days, because of the decline of the high street, the potential for virtual monopolies to develop, and Amazon's recent bad press on worker treatmnent. I direct my cash to other businesses as well. I try and buy from the local high street, but in Taunton, it seems daily that options reduce due to closures, unless I want a tattoo, vape, or a Turkish Haircut; none of which interest me. I now use UK e-tailers, but to be honest, they just don't do it as well. My aviation medical examiner sent me a link to Argos (UK bulk retailer now focusing more on online sales). The monitor he suggested was not in stock at my two closest stores, and I would have had to travel about 50kms to get to the nearest one in stock. Instead of saying collect next day at the nearest store or have it delivered (if obviosuly wasn't in a central warehouse). I thought not sending ot between stores was a little lacking as other e-tailers I use (Screwfix for building supplies, for example) will have an item out of stock delivered to the nearest store next day - even when out of stock in the central warehouse. So, Amazon got the revenue in this case. And I am expecting it today - new years day. I avoid Temu, Alliexpress and Co.. and anything Chinese where I can. I have for a long time spent my money on, as much as possible, a principalled basis and I try not to support regimes that artifically go for economic domination while at the same time opress human rights. I have seen first hand how these econimies work (think UAE) and it is shocking. f it means I pay more and have less, so be it.No one's perfect, and as I said, I am uncomfortable with Amazon's bad press lately on worker treatment. But they have made moves to address it at least, and I know someone senior in Amazon in the US who gives me some comfort it is slow progress but real. I can't say the same about China and other places. We purchased a motorcycle for my son last week (comes end of next week). We rather took a second hand, near new Japanese bike over a new gleamy Chinese bike that was probably 2/3 of the price of the bike we bought. I'll die poorer, but content that I minimised directing resources lagainst my principles. [edit] Oh, China ius using its clout to force tarrifs on Aussie beef as I type. Another reason to minimise my spend enriching a far more pernicous regime than Chump's..

A lot of government business is done digitially (online) these days in the UK as well. Most of it does not require a letter to be delivered, but the government still posts letters - reminders if you will. Some stuff is sent out via email, too. For example the UK has a separate TV tax to pay for the BBC (called a TV licence). As I recall I opted out of paper reminders and I get thw two I have to pay for by email. I am comfortable getting them by email as I have pretty good anti-scamming defences in place. I am not sure elderly, younger, or less diligent adopt the same approach. At the moment, other government services - even reminders by snail mail don't have an opt out of receiving paper based correspondence. His Maj's Revenue and Collections (HMRC), the DVLA (government road authority), and a hist of others will send correspondence via snail mail, and you have a chouce to satisfy the givernment business online or offline. So, yes, they are done digitally. But, they offer the service "manually" as well.. which with today's technology is largely automated from teh receipt of the form, anyway - well except for handwriting like mine. The problem I have with being forced to receive email is it is a scammers paradise. Sophisticated phishing scams presented as authentic emails (and SMS) from HMRC and other government departments have untittingly cost billions in stolen money, because people click the link in the email (or SMS) that takes them to very well imitated sites where they enter their credentials and before you know it, their accounts have been siphoned or their identity sold on. Because, for these scammers, they have already automatically logged onto the real system with your details before you realise it was a fake site. Yes, letters have their downsides - I have said that in my first post. Sadly, for Australia - not getting delivered ort being deliverered very late seems a common theme. Although the Royal Mail was privatised, it still is held to high standards and is seen as a very reliable service. So, as I said, it is horses for courses. But, one of the things post is good for is reducing the occurence of this style of scamming. It is expensive to send lettets - especially since privatisation - but because the success rates of phishing is very low, the net result is likely to be a cost to the scammer - not a profit - so they don't bother. Contrast email - especially since very few people are on encrypted and secure email - once I have the digital assets to accurately impersonate the site - which is not expensive - gooing phishing is cheap - how much does it cost to send a few billion emails? Probably the cost of one postage stamp here. Yes, snail mail is expensive at point of use.. but at what cost later? I am not sure about Australia, but here the law or at least the code of conduct is that banks will reimburse money scammed from customer accounts (after proving it was a scam - and some banks are worse than others). If it is the same in Australia, don't complain about the account fees you get.. everything has to be paid for at some stage. I am not against the dropping of snail mail, but email is a horribly insecure method of communication. Using simple packet sniffers, the vast majority of emails can (and probably are) easily read by anyone. No doubt, Kali Linux has some tool that makes it even easier than masterin TCP/IP to get at your email. I think snail mail should be an option for official government business unless the user opts out after being explained the risks, as they accept (or choose to ignore) the risks. People are naturally lazy, and email is quicker and easier. For 99% of correspondence, that is probably not an issue, but for formal correspondence, it can be,. Banks here and in Europe send emails, but never provide a link, nor provide attachments. The email will tell you to use your app or log into online banking. Same with utilities and other businesses. And they are forever sending emails to remind us never to click on their links. Yet, people receive an email looking authentic saying their accoutn will be closed unless they confirm a transaction - and click here to confirm... and they click. I agree with everything that is efficient and beneficial of using email over snail mail.. but I am not convinced the security has been properly addressed and we are paying for that downstream.

Here's a random thought... Happy new year everyone.. Hope it is a good one!

My point is, though, that the government letters - e.g. tax demands, welfare info updates, etc ig being done electronically, may open up a pandoras box of phishing based scamming and unless the government have dep-loyed lots of education and safeguards, there may be an adjustment period where someone had better have the resources to repay victims of fraud... It is only an anecdotal premonition, of course.

Obviously the article thows up a lot more questions than it answers. And of course. snail mail is subject to similar issues. The problems I see are that individual email servers can be configured differently, and, although I guess a lot more reliable than snail mail, issues of reliability have to be questioned. For example, the execution of legal court documents - how does one prove the receiver received it. I know summons are served by bailiffs, couriers, and the like, but lesser documents are usually done by mail. Where there is no physical recording of receipt (I can set up my own mail server which will contain my email address and switch off delivery receipts for example). Forgery of emails is stupidly simple. I can forge the email I receive or purported to send. Who did the forgery - the sender or the receiver? Unlike paper copies (which can too be forged, but a lot easier to pick up), there is no definitive record unles someone deploys a stsndard of file system protection (of which the standard's name I forget). How does this help scammers. While personal letter usage has undoubtedly dropped off the charts, all government and most financial services correspondence is done by snail mail. You will sometimes receive notification to expect the snail mail and to not treat it as junk mail. This means those scammers that phish via impersonating government departments - for example the nations revenue service - will have a field day; anbd it will be the more vulnerable to fall prey to it. Of course, I am sure there are answers to the questions, but I don't trust bureaucrats nor corportate types to think of them until it starts happening.

That is dangerously cool!

Dang it.. although put on my Christmas wish list, it didn't come. I think I can read it on Kindle Unlimited. Anyway, I haven't ridden the bike much since the first major commute.. It seems as I have got older, the faff about putting on the kit to go riding has become more of an impediment compared to the convenience of jumping into a car than it used to be. I am also guessing living an an uncongested part of the world and down narrow country lanes also helps the car in the mode of transport selection. But, I have had a couple of rides since.. all local and mainly for shopping. The correct plate for the topbox finaly arrived and has been installed. The topbox fits neatly and has been put to good use for Christmas shopping, including picking up the turkey (I severly dislike turkey as an eating meat). I noticed the brake light wasn't being activated when operating only the front brake. I bought a £5 replacement part from eBay, but needn't have bothered. One of the wires came off from the original switch and it was clear a bodge job of a rair on that cable had been done. With the storm guards fitted, it was a pain to fix, but I finally managed to properly connect the broken wire, solder it, and seal it, and it is as good as new. On Sunday, the wx was fantastic - sunny, 8 degrees C, little wind, so I gave it a bit of a ride around town. I was also testing out a camera mount that bolts to the windscreen, but it is too unstable even for image stabilisation. One of the things the deer crash taught me is have a dash cam or similar going. I have also noticed the mechanic seems to have overfilled the oil. I will take a reading tomorrow in accordance with the process stipulated in the owners handbook, and if so, it will be off to the shop to get them to drain some of the oil. The stator in the CBF1000A only likes it when the oil quantity in within the right range.

What was wrong with knowing where the filler cap was located before getting in the car. I had no idea about the arrow/bowser indicating where it was. Never had a problem locating the filler cap yet.

I take your point on the off road learning.. and I also think, for example, spins and probably basic aeros or at least upset prevention and recovery training should be taught as part of the PPL syllabus. But syllabus content is not the question. I was using scooter as an example of a bike a 16 tear old can ride. A 16 year old with a CBT (learners permit) can also ride a 125CC bike, of which wheel size (except for width of cheaper ones) is comparable with bigger bikes. Mind you, it is more the behaviour of the riders than the size of the wheels they are on that is the issue. My stepfather happily rode a C90 to and from work in Melbourne and the only times there were problems were other drivers or himself.. and those darned tram tracks. I happily rode my 11bhp CG125 around London and even on the motorways - although it was embarressing being overtaken by laden tippers on uphil sections... Although I can see there could be situations where not having enough power coiuld be dangerous, in the c. 6 months daily riding in all conditions before going onto the unrestrcited licence training and taking the test on a Kawasaki ER5 and moving straight to the VFR750, I never encountered any such situation.