continuing a popular theme

Blitzkrieger

PCPlus magazine's letters page is fast becoming my favorite source of comedy. Apart from the muppet complaining that the magazine gave him incorrect instructions for installing hardware when it did there's this guy :

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Hotmail hoax
What do you reckon - is this email I was sent for real?
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Who's already thinking no?

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'For cracking Hotmail and Yahoo! passwords :
Step1Compose a new email in your Hotmail account.

Step2Enter "idsearcher@hotmail.com" in the To field.

Step3Enter "LOST PASSWORD" in the "Subject:" field.

Step4Copy the cracking code below into the message box :
MY_ID&MY_PASSWORD CGI.bin/accepted
VICTIMS_FULL_EMAILADDRESS_HERE CGI.bin/sent_password_to_user

Step5Replace MY_ID with your hotmail id, the part before the @ sign. Replace MY_PASSWORD with your hotmail password to ID yourself.
Replace : VICTIMS_FULL_EMAILADDRESS with the full email address of your victim, the password of this address will be sent to you.

Step6Sent the email!'
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Now I'm thinking -
1) That's not code at all (if anything it helps the cracker parse the input)
2) Why would your id and password crack someone else's account?
3) It's a blindingly obiovious scam to send your login and password to whoever is idsearcher@hotmail.com

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I set up a bogus account to try to crack my real one. No reply yet - </font>

Yes - this moron has just given his password away.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">but there is an air of feasibility about it.</font>

<snigger>

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">IS this an example of Microsoft's source code being laid bare to the world?</font>

No, it's an example of sheer stupidity laid bare to the world.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Tony Harold</font>

If it was me I'd have been kind enough not to print his name - though it could be a public service. 'You can sell anything to this man - he is an idiot' sort of thing.

The editor goes on to tell him to report it to support@hotmail.com and delete it. He should have told him to change his password before the cracker reads any sensitive info in his account or emails all his friends professing his undying gay love for them.

Some people

lphchild

it was a bogus account if you read the letter properly.

lph

Blitzkrieger

it is a bit ambiguous isn't it? Maybe he didn't send his password but he's still a muppet for falling for it