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Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

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Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#81

Post by noodlesUK »

ghaff wrote: post #72
noodlesUK wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but even notary seals are forged with alarming frequency. They are usually just a stamp after all.

But, at some point, what do you do to absolutely 100% guarantee your bonafides to a complete stranger located across the country? The answer is you probably can't so you put a system in place that protects against all but the most serious and determined attacker who is willing to spend significant effort and money to impersonate you. It's true that you can physically go to the institution in question and prove your b…

I mean, some kind of PKI would be a nice start. Preferably with a registry at national level.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#82

Post by xvilka »

ghaff wrote: post #57
shortcake27 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only physically though. Many years ago, possessing the values on a passport constituted verification. This data was stored and after a significant number of leaks, this data alone was useless as it became public knowledge. The next step was requiring a photo of the document. The photos were stored, and after a significant number of leaks, the same thing happened. The next step was ID selfies. Then the same thing happ…

And then private keys will leak. Nothing's perfect. Requiring physical presence is a pain but it's probably tolerable for sufficiently high value transactions. Only works within the US. There's a related process with more hurdles for international.

Unlike passport or face it's easy to revoke the old key and issue a new one.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#83

Post by ashley93 »

frankus wrote: post #67
DarkmSparks wrote: post #58

Putting aside any ethics questions. Sounds like the guys on their way to court did actually sign the contracts. Not sure there is much get out clause for them tbh, Im not aware of any court anywhere that will take "didnt read the contract" as a get out of jail free card. Always read the contract kids.

We need “anything sketchy about this 20-page contract” as a service (for something less than the cost of retaining a lawyer).

This seems a perfect use for LLMs.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#84

Post by indymike »

EGreg wrote: post #42
bdjeudug wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re intentionally returning unsigned contacts to employers hoping they don’t notice? Seeing how you’re first action in each of your new jobs is done in bad faith I think I see why you’ve had to fill out six of them…

How does a handwritten signature prove anything? They are so easy to forge. I always wondered WHY ARE PEOPLE IN THE US ASKED TO SIGN A RECEIPT WHEN THEY PAY BY CREDIT CARD? I can draw literally any scraggles and they’ll accept it. Are they supposed to compare to the signature I put on my card?

> I can draw literally any scraggles and they’ll accept it. Are they supposed to compare to the signature I put on my card?

This is because we have video recording, PIN input, card not present payments and lots of other ways to prove the cardholder approved the payment. That said, if you are a merchant and want lower fees by requiring signatures, make sure you compare signatures with the back of the card, and make damn sure the card is actually signed (no by looking at a driver's license). An unsigned card signature dispute almost always ends up costing the merchant.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#85

Post by derekja »

wincy wrote: post #76
baz00 wrote: post #2

Someone did this recently to me i.e. showed me something I'd signed which I didn't. Fortunately this lead to their demise as I am friends with their manager which was unknown by the party in question. Historically I tend to try something on with employment contracts too - I return an unsigned copy to the company. Only 1 out of 6 companies I worked for didn't just stick it in a filing cabinet and forget about it. Ulti…

I don’t think that’s an appropriate use of the word demise unless your manager friend killed the person in question. Which scummy move, for sure but I hope it didn’t actually lead to their demise.

Colloquially I think you may be right, but the dictionary definition makes it appropriate here: Demise Definition & Meaning noun ; a · death ; b · a cessation of existence or activity ; c · a loss of position or status.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#86

Post by ghaff »

noodlesUK wrote: post #68
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It must be the full document plaintext and date signed with your private key and should be verifiable with your public key by a court before a claim is even approachable. This is called a notary public. Its a routine requirement with immigration documents. .They can also certify copies as true. In UK for sone reason it costs over £100, and noone uses them, but in eastern europe its common and notarising documents i…

The UK is weird about this. Generally speaking you wouldn’t actually want to use a notary public, which is (in the UK) a very old profession regulated by the Church of England. Most of the time, you will have a solicitor certify documents. This is much cheaper, and is what is usually used by large organisations who already have engagements with law firms. In Scotland, solicitors are able to get a special smart card t…

In the US, it would probably be the case that someone in the lawyer's office is a notary and/or they're one themselves.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#87

Post by wincy »

jacquesm wrote: post #15
8organicbits wrote: post #10

> until recently the online tool who.is indicated that the [Polish arbitration court, Pan-Europejski-Sąd-Arbitrażowy] PESA website was set up by Villa Europa itself in September 2021 Quite alarming. Is it normal to charge speakers such high fees? I remember some conferences giving free admission to speakers as encouragement.

No, it's normal to pay speakers or to at least accommodate their expenses. This was just a scam.

It depends on the type of conference. My wife went to a politically focused conference recently and while there were some paid speakers there were a lot of speakers who got stage time by virtue of paying the $2000 or so for a booth on the floor of the conference.

She said these speakers were annoying as they’d try to keep talking when they’d run out of time and the sound guy would have to resort to cutting their audio or playing music loudly to get them to get off stage. Everything but the long pole with a hook basically.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#88

Post by ljm »

noodlesUK wrote: post #73
ljm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t speak for every country in Europe but once you get a national ID or residence permit in some of them then the card will contain a chip with a certificate that can be used for public key crypto. If you need to sign something then you sign it with your ID. Same ID can get you into your accounts online. No different to Estonia’s digital ID scheme a decade ago.

The UK and Ireland are uniquely countries in Europe that don’t have any form of national ID card. The UK was going to get (continental) EU style ID cards in 2008-2010 but this proved to be rather controversial at the time due to perceptions of government overreach and dragnet biometrics. Instead of just doing a simple ID card with just facial biometrics (like a passport), the whole project was scrapped. I don’t know…

Yep, from the UK and remember all the fearmongering about ID cards being like a step back towards Nazi Germany and being asked to show your papers on the streets and all that.

I think the real reason was that it sounded like it’d cost £60 (or close to that) per ID, which is pretty damn expensive when it’s mandatory. Most of that money would have been sunk into the black hole that is the IT consultancy industry in the UK, with literally no guarantee of a working solution being built.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#89

Post by tough »

ghaff wrote: post #86
noodlesUK wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is weird about this. Generally speaking you wouldn’t actually want to use a notary public, which is (in the UK) a very old profession regulated by the Church of England. Most of the time, you will have a solicitor certify documents. This is much cheaper, and is what is usually used by large organisations who already have engagements with law firms. In Scotland, solicitors are able to get a special smart card t…

In the US, it would probably be the case that someone in the lawyer's office is a notary and/or they're one themselves.

In Spain Notaries do their own opositions and it's mostly a protected by state position that earns a lot of cash for signining documents.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#90

Post by eesmith »

cynicalsecurity wrote: post #44

Ah, the notorious Polish judicial system. Why am I not surprised.

I don't see mention of the Polish judicial system in the article.

It mentions a "a Polish arbitration court whose very existence has been questioned by experts in the country" and "Agnieszka Durlik, director general of the Court of Arbitration of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, says she has never heard of it."

If it doesn't exist, then it can't be part of the Polish judicial system.

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