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Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

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Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#41
post #2

I don't think this comment will contribute much, so please forgive that, but calling a "Collaboration between Europol and the Shadowserver Foundation" for "Euro cops" is probably the most Australian thing I've ever seen on the entire internet. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cybe...

In my mind "euro cops" holds overtones of some a late-90s track-suit-and-nike shoes, bald shaven gabber rave robocop-from-amsterdam pastiche

I mean your version is much more entertaining, but there was a TV series (1988-1992) that was actually called Eurocops. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094456/

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#42

why are taxes being used to moderate Facebook?

If someone robs a costumer inside a McDonald's do you complain when the cops that arrive and capture the thieves are paid with taxes and not by McDonald's itself?

If you can't afford to buy a costume, just wear your nicest regular outfit. Fancy dress is not worth jail time.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#43
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has its advantages, but I'd never list "more pure" and "not corrupt" among them. The EU introduced lobbying (=legal corruption) into European politics when most countries historically didn't have much of it. It also has a massive amount of normal, God-fearing illegal corruption. Many of the biggest stories about the EU are about or have a sizable aspect of corruption. Chat Control amd Thorn, Ursula von der Ley…

On the contrary, EU is notoriously hard for the rich to lobby. It is also the primary motivation behind the super rich to be against EU since they too are having trouble to find someone in EU to solve their "problems". A famous anecdote is from Rupert Murdock who is able to influence UK poltics at whim but had no effect on EU: https://www.quora.com/When-I-go-into-Downing-Street-they-do-... He was also a huge backer o…

> A famous anecdote is from Rupert Murdock who is able to influence UK poltics at whim but had no effect on EU:

Is it though?

> There is much fake news published about me, but let me make clear that I have never uttered those words

https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/rupert-murdo...

I buy the rest of your comment that EU may be better than local govts.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#44
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, EU is notoriously hard for the rich to lobby. It is also the primary motivation behind the super rich to be against EU since they too are having trouble to find someone in EU to solve their "problems". A famous anecdote is from Rupert Murdock who is able to influence UK poltics at whim but had no effect on EU: https://www.quora.com/When-I-go-into-Downing-Street-they-do-... He was also a huge backer o…

> A famous anecdote is from Rupert Murdock who is able to influence UK poltics at whim but had no effect on EU: Is it though? > There is much fake news published about me, but let me make clear that I have never uttered those words https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/rupert-murdo... I buy the rest of your comment that EU may be better than local govts.

People deny things all the time. He used his media in favor of UK leaving EU, which is more consistent with him not being happy with his abilities to influence EU.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#45
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed the title more that I want to admit TBH :) In every country in Europe people are pissed with their government and hate the police but when its a "Euro" thing it feels much better. The online narrative may make you think that "Europe" is a dirty word(chat control, cookie banner, regulations, fines etc), but its actually much more pure than any local politics and much much less divisive. The "Euro cops" phras…

This reminded me of something Jean-Claude Juncker once said about democracy in the EU: > We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it. Being a step removed from local politics means they can do stuff without the immediate fear they're all kicked out, but the other downside of people not really caring who they elect is it's relatively easy to be elected on a "We hate the EU" lin…

> We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it.

Modern US variant: we will say whatever we must to amass donations to pay for the election campaign, but you'd be a fool to bet on our doing what we should once elected.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#46
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, how well does it go for for email ? I did that pretty seriously for a while, and in my case I feel it led to nothing specific. I'd get spam from weird places and shut the address, but that would actually amount to an extremely small amount of the total spam I was getting. Also my ISP or the phone company was selling away my email and there was no way I'd just block them, nor would they give a shit ab…

Yea, same feeling here. I did that for a while but in the end I maybe went ahead and blocked one address in over 10 years of doing that. It was more of a hassle than it was worth, especially if you want to do password resets and you have to dig up that email again vs. just typing your default one.

What hassle? With a bit of organization there's no real hassle. My addresses are all in /etc/aliases on the mail server and have a time stamped comment in front of them naming the company / website.

I can easily take this "db" with me on my smartphone. Or could make it available with a simple interface. As we use Joplin already to share data between family members, that's the place the list of addresses lives for lookups from family members.

The benefit isn't primarily for deletion, which is a nice side effect, but to easily recognize phishing to the "wrong" email addresses. Certain deletions are done automatically for addresses where I put a timestamp in, e.g. me.dhl24c@example.com will be from the third quarter of 2024 and can be removed at the end of 2024.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#47
post #12
post #2

I don't think this comment will contribute much, so please forgive that, but calling a "Collaboration between Europol and the Shadowserver Foundation" for "Euro cops" is probably the most Australian thing I've ever seen on the entire internet. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cybe...

I enjoyed the title more that I want to admit TBH :) In every country in Europe people are pissed with their government and hate the police but when its a "Euro" thing it feels much better. The online narrative may make you think that "Europe" is a dirty word(chat control, cookie banner, regulations, fines etc), but its actually much more pure than any local politics and much much less divisive. The "Euro cops" phras…

> when its a "Euro" thing it feels much better.

A sense of unity builds optimism, especially in very troubled times.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#48
post #46
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, same feeling here. I did that for a while but in the end I maybe went ahead and blocked one address in over 10 years of doing that. It was more of a hassle than it was worth, especially if you want to do password resets and you have to dig up that email again vs. just typing your default one.

What hassle? With a bit of organization there's no real hassle. My addresses are all in /etc/aliases on the mail server and have a time stamped comment in front of them naming the company / website. I can easily take this "db" with me on my smartphone. Or could make it available with a simple interface. As we use Joplin already to share data between family members, that's the place the list of addresses lives for loo…

> What hassle?

You made my point better than I could with the rest of your post.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#49
post #35
post #25

> In the raid, authorities seized 1200 SIM boxes, with the devices containing 40,000 active SIM cards Realistically, wouldn't that look suspicious to a cell tower if 40k sims log in from one location?

Can they know the SIM location precisely? I believe they can only triangulate multiple towers to determine a radius. If they could pinpoint a specific, narrow location, it'd be easier to spot unusual concentration.

they can know your inner monologue, thoughts precisely

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#50
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has its advantages, but I'd never list "more pure" and "not corrupt" among them. The EU introduced lobbying (=legal corruption) into European politics when most countries historically didn't have much of it. It also has a massive amount of normal, God-fearing illegal corruption. Many of the biggest stories about the EU are about or have a sizable aspect of corruption. Chat Control amd Thorn, Ursula von der Ley…

On the contrary, EU is notoriously hard for the rich to lobby. It is also the primary motivation behind the super rich to be against EU since they too are having trouble to find someone in EU to solve their "problems". A famous anecdote is from Rupert Murdock who is able to influence UK poltics at whim but had no effect on EU: https://www.quora.com/When-I-go-into-Downing-Street-they-do-... He was also a huge backer o…

We seem to be exposed to different information on the EU.

> notorious for rich people to lobby

I don't know about rich people, but companies seem to have a lot of success in doing so.

> Murdoch backer of Brexit

This is not evidence that the EU is hard to lobby. People across the political spectrum can be anti-EU: Corbyn, who's as left and as anti-corruption as they come, was a Leaver (and a UK with Corbyn as PM would have arguably been better off outside the EU, but I digress).

> Ursula, scandal only about transparency and not personal enrichment

I don't know how awarding billions of public funds in contracts and then deleting all messages, something she's done before while working for the German gov, is "not that bad" and not about personal enrichment, but about her great care for efficiency and the European pop...

> Those involved in the Qatar scandal went to prison, how many local politicians you have who go to prison for anything other than political reasons?

You're cherry-picking, powerful EU officials are as immune to justice as anywhere else, and plenty of examples exist in Member States of people going to prison for corruption. The former president of France just started his prison sentence, you might have heard. Those cases are the exceptions that prove the rule.

> Have you noticed what has been happening in US since February for example?

Few countries would look good on corruption if you compare them to "What has been happening in the US", FULL STOP. That the EU is not as far gone as the US has been for decades (thank fuck) is, again, no evidence of anything.

I invite you to peruse ftm.eu, as I'm on my phone: look at the criticism of OLAF's selective investigations, the watchdogs lacking any independence and finding that everything's just dandy with EU officials, the revolving doors across so many industries, the bribes and gifts, the insider trading, employment of family members, mismanagement of funds, etc. etc. etc.

One article that I enjoyed is this:

https://archive.is/YieBg

Edited to address more of your points.

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