Re: A Registry Editor that's not stuck in the Stone Age?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:18:27 -0700, XS11E <xs11e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:29:49 -0700, XS11E <xs11e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Using a real E-mail address certainly presents such risk, but
using a real name doesn't.

Not correct, Ken, see my earlier reply.


I did, and I still think I'm correct.

You said "and exposes you to spam, identity theft, etc."

1. Spam.

What I said (quoted above) is clearly and certainly correct with
respect to spam. No spammer is going to go to the trouble of doing
online research for real names he finds on newsgroups. He wants
real E-mail addresses, not names, and those that he can easily
harvest with spambots.

Correct.... mostly.

2. Identity theft.

I'm almost certainly in the minority here, but I think that the
risk of identify theft is greatly overstated by the news media.

If the media is to be believed, it's the fastest growing crime in my
state...


That could be true. It's a relatively new crime, and new and
fast-growing go together. That's not the same as affecting large
numbers of people.

Let me also point out that if you eat in a restaurant, pay by giving
you credit card to the waiter, who takes it to another room where he
copies your number and subsequently uses it for his own purposes, the
media will call that "identity theft." I wouldn't be surprised if that
kind of fraud isn't the largest segment of what's called "identity
theft." I use credit cards every day, in restaurants, stores, on the
internet, etc. It has never happened to me. It has never happened to
anyone else I know either, except for one person *possibly* (he's not
sure how his number got used). And if it does happen, other than it
being an inconvenience, in most cases, it will be the credit card
company who is out the money, not the consumer, who at most is liable
for $50 (and that is usually waived).

Yes there's a risk, but in my view it's very slight, and I don't worry
about it.


Moreover, newsgroups don't necessarily provide any more of a
starting place for identity theft than anyplace else.

Correct, they provide as much a starting place as anyplace else and
using a nym and false email addy only eliminate that one place but...
why not? Like all problems, it's addressed one step at a time.

3. etc.

Since I don't know what you mean by "etc.," I have no response
here.

Let's hope you don't find out, there are some very malicious people on
usenet. Check out the Vista group to see some of them. :-(


Yes, I've seen some of them there, and I'm well aware that there are
malicious people on Usenet. There are malicious people everywhere.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
.

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