Geekish Rantings

Athene Censored by YouTube

2007-12-07T23:06:00.000-08:00

World of Warcraft players may be familiar with Athene (best paladin in all the world) - as he documents a video satire ( and I say satire, though he won't admit it ) of the life of a professional gamer.

His video is extremely clever and very funny for WoW addicts, such as this author. Unfortuneatly YouTube has censored his video for some mild sexual content.

I have already protested to the editor's of YouTube & if you like Athene videos - I encourage you to protest as well, please visit Athene's website for more info :

http://athene.movielol.org/

Paypal : Conducting surprise account suspensions? Beware.

2007-11-21T20:53:00.000-08:00

I have been a Paypal merchant for a very long time.. 8 years or more.

I do business daily via Paypal's Payflow payment gateway & all in all, have found the service mostly favorable.

Today however, for no reason and without any warning at-all, my account was suspended.

I was asked for a faxed copy of my drivers license, and proof of location, not a huge deal, except that during this "account review" period my account is unable to send or receive payments.

Actually I found out about this issue when a potential customer emailed me asking why he was unable to complete a purchase from my website.

So I phoned up Paypal, and maintained my calm despite a massive aggravation building inside my stomach. The woman was polite and friendly but unable to tell me why this suspension had taken place.

So I scanned a utility bill & my drivers license & sent it in, only to receive a second request for proof of inventory on some recent transactions.

Now I sell digital products, I have no inventory & so I called up Paypal again & was instructed to contact someone else at Paypal via email and explain the situation, which I did, only to receive a moronic reply asking me to log into my Paypal account and submit the information listed in my Paypal account resolution center ( the very information I had emailed them to explain that I could NOT submit due to the fact that I sell digital products and have NO inventory ).

I honestly don't think that this person even read my email or there should of been no way he/she could of possibly replied to it in that manor.

From my earlier phone conversation, I had gleaned the information that in-fact Paypal is systematically suspending all Paypal Premier & Business accounts while they conducted a review of the merchant and his/her products.

Anyhow... that brings me to this stage, angrily jotting down this post - waiting to see how this all pans out.

To sum up : in this writers opinion : this is a serious violation of the Paypal > Merchant trust relationship. Paypal is at this moment costing me money & they may do the very same to you.

UPDATE

It is now nearly 48 hours later & I have been on and off with Paypal phone support for nearly 3 of those hours (several times spending 15 minutes on hold, only to be dropped, to call back to be dropped again).

I have memorized the spiel the operator puts you through each time you call & I am sure that Paypal support thinks that I am some kind of mind reader as I provide them with my name, Paypal email address and last 4 digits of my bank account before they even ask for it.

Paypal continues to send me new requests for more information, including such things as:
- Average product purchase cost.
- Average month sales volume.
- Types of product that I am selling & from where I am selling them from.
- My suppliers contact information (assuming that I had one, which I do not)

Why didn't they ask for all of this information from the start? It might of saved some time that my business is unable to receive payments.

Anyhow,

Paypal also requested that all open disputes be resolved before they continue ( which was quite impossible to do, since sending and receiving money was disabled & I was unable to issue any refunds as a result. Some of the dispute issues, would of been a simple a matter of helping a technically challenged customer actually download his/her product - but due to the fact that I am out of business until my account limitation is removed, the poor customer will simply be refunded to save time ).

I have just finished what will hopefully be my last call to Paypal regarding this matter ( 45 minutes on hold this time ) to verify that all of these additional steps that I have had to take (since their system was not nearly setup to handle all the different types of products / business's they Paypal feels so included as to audit) had actually been received and I could finally relax and wait for my account to be released.

As a final insult, the support agent informed me that yet another 24-48 hours would be required, roughly the same amount of time required from when this whole thing started.

So all-in-all Paypal put me out of business for what will be nearly a working week, and this was without warning, or fault of my own.

I am making this post to (hopefully) publicly shame Paypal's decision to undergo this type of activity. Putting a business, such as my own, offline for this much time, with no warning, is simply unacceptable.

Google account security - In favor of the hacker? - It may shock you just how vulnerable you account is!

2007-07-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

While I wait for the Google team to get of their act together & get my account out of the hands of the thief/hacker who recently stole my password & locked me out of my Google account, I thought it might be a good time to share with those of you who don't know, just how vulnerable your Google account is.

I will get strait to the point:

If someone steals your password, they can:

1) Change your password, with no security questions.
2) Change your security question, again, with not security questions.
3) Remove your secondary email address (why this is important is coming up next).

Now, imagine the poor victim who just had his account stolen (lets call him Jim).

1) Jim tries to log into his account only to be informed by Google's authentication system : Sorry! Your account name and password do not match.

2) Jim suspects someone has stolen his account, a little worried now, he clicks "I cannot access my account" & follows the link's to the lost password recovery screen.

Jim enters in his username & is promptly informed that an email containing password reset instructions has been delivered to his secondary email address.

Do remember back to point number "3" (of what a hacker can do if he has access to your Google account)? I will remind you: "Remove your secondary email address". No security question is required, NO email verification is required, it can just be removed that easily.

Silly? You might be thinking, that Google bases it's account recovery/security feature on a system that makes it so easy for a hacker/thief to bypass..

But wait, IT GETS WORSE!

Google informs you next:

If you don't have a secondary email address, or if you no longer have access to that account, please try the 'Forgot your password?' link again after five days. At that point, you'll be able to reset your password by answering the security question you provided when you created your account.

Well that's just brilliant, so you are telling me that for 5 days, the hacker has free run of my whole Google account (include Gmail, Checkout, Adsense, Adwords.. etc).

But wait, after 5 days, and the damage is TOTALLY done, then finally I will have the opportunity to reset my password by answering the security question..

WAIT A BLOODY MINUTE, are we forgetting #2 of what a hacker can do if they learn your password? That's right! Change your security question!! (without even needing to enter the previous security question). I ask, how on earth is that considered secure?

So poor Jim, is holding on to a slim hope that the hacker was not smart enough to change his security question & in 5 days, he might have access to his account again.

But wait, yes that's right, IT GETS EVEN WORSE:

To prevent someone from trying to break into an account you're actively using, the security question is only used for account recovery after an account has been idle for five days. The Gmail team cannot waive the five day requirement or access your password under any circumstances.

Did you see the part that mentioned idle for 5 days? & by idle, they mean, that neither you, nor the hacker, can even attempt to log into your account for 5 full days. If so, one can only assume the timer resets.

What does this mean? Basically, your account now belongs to the hacker until Google does something about it. All the hacker has to do is log into your Google account once, every 5 days, and the account will remain his, forever.

This is the situation that I am facing right at this moment. Unfortunately, I am not the first person to have this problem, and Google's support/response time has been rumored to take even past a week of time. I am hoping the rumors aren't true.

Let me also mention, that I adore Google, otherwise. But this experience is making me literally sick to my stomach.

If, anyone can help (tho I don't know how you would).... I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Peace & take care of yourselves, and your Google accounts, use strong passwords & keep them safe. Myself, I might be renewing my relationship with that bastard child: Yahoo.