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Don’t buy Elgato products, they hate deaf people

Written by on January 4, 2012
Filed Under Exposes

I’ve been busy setting up the Mac Mini I bought for my parents, which included finding a TV solution so they can watch shows on Verizon FIOS.  That meant finding a tuner that could control the cable box, and the only one with the ability to do that tailored for the Mac is the EyeTV HD by Elgato.

Which of course, is utterly incapable of transmitting closed captioning.  For that to work I needed to use the set top box instead, and enable closed captioning from there.

Except that the set top box my parents use is really a digital adapter, just a basic component that provides access to all the subscribed channels they have without the extra features (such as the FIOS guide.)  So I now have a digital adapter AND a EyeTV device that BOTH cannot display closed captioning.

99 percent of the TV devices in the world have closed captioning ability and somehow I manage to run into the one combination where it won’t work at ALL.

Fortunately my parents don’t really need it, but it would have been nice to have if  say, one wanted to watch TV silently while the other was sleeping.

There really is no excuse for this crap either.  Elgato must have figured, “Hey, let’s save a few dollars by omitting the chip used to display captioning, I mean this is gonna be used with set top boxes anyway, and since they all have closed captioning options, everybody wins!”

Didn’t really take digital adapters into account there did you Elgato?

Because it stands to reason not all us schmucks might want the footprint of a humongous set top box next to our computer, nor would we even deem it necessary if we opt for a PVR solution outside of what the cable company might offer.

But hey, as long as the hard of hearing represents a mere microcosm of the buying market, who gives a flying leap’s worth of elephant crap what they think, amirite, Elgato?

Doucheholes.

Comments { 2 }

Justice Prevails: Scammers Finally Get Their Comeuppance

Written by on March 22, 2010
Filed Under Exposes

About 2 and a half years ago, I wrote a post exposing a series of e-book scams that were plaguing the Internet. These scams all had the same claim, that a few mere grocery items would help cure various diseases. That led to a series of followup posts and email from people expressing their thanks for exposing the scam and offering info to help nail down who was behind it. Because the scam was using an address in Washington State, I also reported what I knew to the Attorney General office there. Since then I’ve noticed visitors from that office had come to my blog several times, probably to read what I had written about the scams.

And now, lo and behold: “Washington Attorney General reels in refunds for consumers hooked by Aussies’ quack medicine Web sites.”

I like to think I had a small hand in this, but I’ll let the AG office take all the credit here. As Bugs Bunny would say, no use changing the history books just for little old me.

I have to admit news like this was very encouraging to me. Usually when I write exposes to expose criminal behavior I always feel like I’m just a failed loser spitting in the wind, and there’s simply no way a rant on a blog nobody reads was ever going to make a difference.

Maybe I should stop thinking like that now.

Comments { 4 }

Dear Hagopian Hotels: You’re Morons

Written by on February 8, 2010
Filed Under Exposes

You know, it’s one thing to have a website crucial to your business hacked into, but it’s quite another to let it stay hacked ALL FLIPPING DAY LONG without apparently any of you noticing. Good job! I really feel comfortable now submitting sensitive information to your site when I want to make a reservation. Oh wait… no I don’t.

This is the second time this has happened to me too. I settle on a hotel to stay at, I go to their site to make a reservation, only to find what looks like a parked domain page, except that it isn’t. Instead, some depraved disease spreading spankypants (from Romania I suspect) figures out a way to hack into the site and places code that redirects visitors to a completely unrelated site with a stonking mad truckload of affiliate based links, or worse yet, malicious code that attempts to install a trojan on your computer.

What are these affiliate links you ask? Well it’s simple, every time you click on a link on one of these hacked pages, a cookie gets saved in your browser. The cookie contains certain information that will credit the hacker with a commission if you buy the right product or service, even if it’s months down the road. That’s how they make their money, and the reason why affiliate marketing needs to either be reigned in or die some kind of violent, radioactive death.

I can’t even bring up a cached version of the hotel’s site to compare the difference to the hacked version, but suffice it to say, it was a nice and simple site that had information about the hotel, its history, contact info, parking garage info, and a link to make a reservation. That has now all been replaced, with this:

hacked site containing malware and affiliate links

Things are not what they appear...

I checked the McAfee site rating for the link in that address (don’t go there by the way!) and sure enough, it’s one of the malicious domain names being used to propagate spam and malware.

I sent an email to the real hotel people about this with no response. Beautiful. Fire everyone in your IT department now, because they must be weapons grade numbnuts not to have noticed that the WEBSITE IS GONE. As long as it stays up more visitors will be hoodwinked and might get infected with malware. That’s what cheeses me off too.

Ok, I’m done ranting now. On the upside, the trouble here eventually led me to start an account with Hotels.com instead and use their WelcomeRewards program. I saved $12 in doing so, and now I only need seven more nights to get the next one free. Who’s awesome, baby.

Comments { 0 }

Express Scripts + Identity Theft = EPIC FAIL

Written by on September 23, 2009
Filed Under Exposes

So I get a letter in the mail last Monday, real bland looking envelope, looks like it might have come from my credit card company.

I open it up and it reads:

As we publicly reported last fall, Express Scripts, the company that administers (or previously administered) your prescription-drug benefit, received a letter in October 2008 from an unknown person or persons trying to extort money by threatening to expose millions of our member records. We immediately notified the FBI, and an investigation is ongoing.

I am contacting you because the FBI recently received additional information and as a result we learned that the unauthorized access to information included your name, social security number and date of birth and may also include prescription information. Although details regarding the situation are limited and we are unaware at this time of any actual misuse of your information, we believe it is important to notify you. We continue to investigate this matter and will further advise you if we become aware that your information has been misused.

My first thought was, “What in the flipping flip is Express Scripts???”, because prior to today, I had never heard of them. I did some googling and only found barebones info that indicated they were the third largest prescription benefit manager (PBM) in the US. Apparently my health insurance uses them (or used to at least), which would explain why I had gotten such a letter.

So I’m only now being told that crucially personal information about me had been STOLEN, 11 months later after the fact? Seriously?

I thought it had to be a scam, yet it turns out such a thing did apparently happen, since it had been reported by the NY Times (which explains why no one seems to know about it.) The letter also indicated that they set up a support site with more info and what I could do if I became a victim of identity theft, and that through them I would be able to use the services of a fraud prevention company called Knoll should I end up becoming a victim of identity fraud.

So basically I have to twiddle my thumbs and wait around to see if I eventually get butt boinked by the perpetrators who stole my ID. Great plan guys! First you scare me to death with this letter, and then tell me to adopt the wait and see approach, meanwhile somewhere out there some dude named Ivan Uvgunstoffgard is at this very moment placing a $50,000 order for a Mercedes using a newly minted gold card with my name on it. That’s just great.

Oh but wait, it gets better.

Because apparently, when the initial breach first occurred, only 75 names had been confirmed stolen, but recently it seems the number was much, much larger than that. A letter was also sent to New Hampshire AG indicating that almost 2000 people in that state alone have had their info stolen as well. I seriously doubt “millions” of records had been stolen, but this data breach was definitely bigger than earlier reported. They must have had some idea of the scope and who was at risk, so it would have been nice to have been apprised of this LAST YEAR when it happened, instead of waiting until it was actually confirmed that my info was included in the theft before notifying me.

Even though they did publicly report it, it seems they’re still trying to be low key about it all, so please allow me to help them out on this by SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS TO ALL WHO CAN HEAR:

siren

WARNING, WARNING, IF YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE/EMPLOYER USES EXPRESS SCRIPTS, YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY HAVE BEEN STOLEN

siren

Sigh. On the upside, I had gotten my credit reports and scores from the three major credit agencies last July, months after the data breach, so if my info bad been misused during that time it would have showed up then. Still, I signed up for LifeLock as a precuationary measure (maybe I’ll send the bill Express Scripts too). After taking a harder look at what LifeLock had to offer, I’m surprised I didn’t sign up for it sooner, especially since I got a 20% discount and will only pay $8 a month for the year. 8 bucks a month for some peace of mind is a no-brainer, especially after getting a letter like this.

But just in case, I’m working on establishing a new alternative identity under the name Vincent Spankypants, a venture capitalist who owns various multi-million dollar properties around the US, including a favorite in Aspen, Colorado, where he can sometimes be found snuggling with a Ukranian blonde and roasting marshmellows by the fireplace. Totally believable identity if you ask me.

Comments { 7 }

Foreign Scum Sucking Piggish Piglike Hairy Pigbags Infected My PC With Virus And Hacked My Blog – FAIL

Written by on April 3, 2009
Filed Under Exposes

Apologies again about the light blogging. It might have something to do with the fact that my computer got infected by a nasty evil demon virus from HELL yesterday, which took me over 6 hours to get rid of completely. This evil monster blocked me from accessing antivirus related sites, hijacked my Google searches, crippled my AV software so I couldn’t download updates, blocked my attempts to use Regedit (so I could go into the registry), and constantly crashed Firefox. It also corrupted any antivirus software I tried to download too. Only by renaming Regedit and figuring out where the virus was getting its cues from in the registry was I finally able to disable it and download the needed software to remove it from the system altogether. Gads.

And that might have been the end of it, except that I’m minding my own business watching a Netflix movie and trying to unwind from all the stress before, when I get an IM from a friend letting me know my blog was down.

Uhhhhhh?

So I surf in and sure enough the only thing left of my blog was a weird PHP error. After doing some quick googling, the error usually occurs when the site has been hacked.

Oh no, oh no no no no no….

I logged in, checked some of my files and noticed right away many of them had been changed only minutes before. Upon opening the PHP files I saw malicious javascript code had been injected at the top, explaining why my blog was no longer functioning. Left to itself, once the code was operational it would have spread and potentially infected any subsequent visitor to the site who didn’t have their browsers appropriately shielded (you know, like dumbass me.) The irony of it is that the unique setup of my blog prevented the code from working properly, the one saving grace from having so much junk on my blog to begin with.

I contacted support in a panic, and they responded almost immediately, and restored my entire site within a few short minutes. I asked them to investigate and they found FTP logins that were out of the ordinary and didn’t match the IP addresses I normally used. After some investigating of my own, I confirmed it was the same group that infected my PC with a virus before. Evidently the trojan I was infected with had sent them my FTP passwords, and the hackers’ server later used that info to log in and inject my blog with all kinds of malicious crap. Fun times.

My host sent me the FTP logs and from there I was able to determine exactly who the culprit was, a server in Norway that appears to be a clearinghouse for Russian criminal activity. I’m pretty sure what happened to me was all automated, and that I was just one of many victims of what’s become a well organized setup designed to do what else, make money. The Google searches I tried when I was infected hijacked my searches and redirected me to spam sites instead. I also discovered 419 type scams as well coming from the same server (including my personal favorite, one from a Russian “single mother” pleading for money so she could feed her starving family, and oh by the way, she’s 30 and a hottie too.)

Glad the nightmare’s finally over though (I think). Can I go back to watching my movie now?

Comments { 5 }
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