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How A Young Woman Followed Two Hackers' Lies to Her Death
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Wordball 8y agoTwin Geeks
- iamjochem 8y agoCallous
- danso 8y agoBesides this being an impressively reported and written story, to me it's also another example of how wrong I continue to have been, since watching "Catch Me If You Can" and thinking that there wasn't much chance for a Fred Abagnale to exist in the modern centralized digital world (the Fyre Festival is of course another recent example of high-flying fraud). Reading about how easy it was for the victim's boyfriend, recently associated (but not convicted) with a criminal hacking group, to make himself seem like a big social media/crypto influencer makes me think that the arms race between verification and obfuscation will go on for a long time. This story was also another reminder of how fast and overwhelming the news cycle seems to be these days. I remember reading Tomi Masters' death because of how unusual it was, but had completely forgotten about it until reading this story. If you asked me to remember when I first read about her case, I would've sworn it was at least half a year ago. But her death was reported in late December, so just about 1.5 months ago. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale
- Animats 8y agoarms race between verification and obfuscation will go on for a long time. It's worse at the top. Theranos. Madoff. MMM. Better Place. The entire binary option industry. Scams are getting bigger. Billion dollar scams were rare in history until recently.
- microcolonel 8y ago> Billion dollar scams were rare in history until recently. To be fair, a billion dollars was rare in history until recently.
- lstodd 8y agoThis. Big scams weren't rare though. Only no one studies history, but this is not new either.
- duxup 8y ago>Theranos That one still gets me as they solved none of the problems they claimed to have solved as far as blood testing goes, and there was zero legitimate indication they had....
- headcanon 8y agoLong story short, Elizabeth surrounded herself with politically powerful, but medically unqualified people like Kissinger and Gen. Mattis. The book Bad Blood does a very good job explaining the depths of the deception.
- sorokod 8y agoI think you make it too short. Isn't it interesting that people "like Kissinger and Gen. Mattis", hard and experienced men, allowed themselves to deceived by basically a pair of crooks?
- moftz 8y agoCarders and fake ID manufacturers would be right in line with Abagnale's life. Everyone gets caught in the long run, the key is getting out of one scam and into a new one before you get busted.
- qaq 8y ago"Everyone gets caught in the long run" are there any reliable numbers of this?
- pitt1980 8y agoopposite of survivorship bias If you've heard of them, its because they got caught
- qaq 8y agoExactly there is a reason most APTs stay as some designation without any real people identified
- reitzensteinm 8y agoSampling bias would probably fit.
- PSZD 8y agoSomething that may not be obvious is how victims (companies, at least) frequently want to bury the story just as much as the person who conned them. "We lost 8 digits of internet money last night and have no idea who did it" just doesn't sound good to other people who are supposed to trust you.
- blang 8y agoFrank Abagnale has talked recently about how it would be much easier to do his crimes today: http://money.com/money/4953472/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/ http://money.com/money/4953472/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-yo...
- dmcdm 8y agoHe did a talk at Google where he asserted basically the same thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMydMDi3rI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMydMDi3rI Great talk by the way, he's an incredibly charismatic and well spoken story teller, also a consultant for the FBI and a successful businessman - which makes you think about just how important likability and charisma are both to being a successful social engineer and being successful in-general. People will let you stray pretty far from reality if they like you - Holmes, Abagnale, and apparently Troy Woody (at least to this poor girl). Eventually reality catches up, one way or another.
- ataturk 8y agoTypical Buzzfeed though--it is basically a story designed to continue legitimizing the pot biz. Instead of portraying the girl as a dumb stoner, which is really what she was, she is held up as some kind of brilliant hero. I've never met a single pothead who was actually brilliant except in their own minds and amongst their circle of (also high) friends.
- baud147258 8y agoTypical Buzzfeed though--it is basically a story designed to continue legitimizing the pot biz. Instead of portraying the girl as a dumb stoner, which is really what she was, she is held up as some kind of brilliant hero. I've never met a single pothead who was actually brilliant except in their own minds and amongst their circle of (also high) friends.
- fivefive55 8y agoThat's all you got out of this? Wow. Way to be ridiculously narrow minded.
- jyriand 8y agoWhat's up with these titles nowadays? I don't know if it's because the title is (possibly) missing a semicolon before 'A Young Woman Followed Two Hackers', or Lies to Her Death -- but I can't make a sense out of it. Is somebody dead because they lied? (I know I should have read the article, but this title!!)
- gammateam 8y agoThe title is grammatically correct, it also makes sense, and it also conveys the message it was intended to convey. The lies belong to the hackers A young woman followed those lies until she was no longer alive This would be the worst place for a semicolon
- duskwuff 8y agoThere are multiple hackers and multiple lies, so the apostrophe goes after the "s". One hacker's lies; two hackers' lies.
- ColinWright 8y agoThe title makes perfect sense. A young woman died. She died because two hackers lied, and she followed those lies. This is the story of how it happened. So this is how a young woman followed the lies for two hackers, and died. This is: "How A Young Woman Followed Two Hackers' Lies To Her Death" The apostrophe after "hackers" shows that the lies belonged to the hackers. The phrase "Two Hackers' Lies" is a noun phrase, it's a thing, it's the collection of lies told by two hackers. Does that help?
- tedunangst 8y agoIs the fact that they're hackers or lied relevant to her death? Boyfriends kill their girlfriends with unfortunate regularity, no hacking or lying involved. I was expecting a story where two guys tricked a woman into making her own diet pills from castor beans or something. Which I imagine was the point of the title. I may not have clicked on "A boyfriend and his buddy killed his girlfriend."
- 8y ago
- everdev 8y agoDid I miss why he hid his mouth in all of his photos?
- 52-6F-62 8y agoI'm assuming it's a mix of: concealing his looks for any photos posted online and his insecurity, as mentioned in the article.
- munk-a 8y agoIt'd be nice if they were more explicit about their reason for mentioning it in passing - I'd assume it's to break (or at least make it harder for...) facial recognition software.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoI’d bet on insecurity since the guy was trying to overcompensate. I know his type well, gamer background, early teen dabble in illegal, uneducated, turned criminal with zero morals.
- 4ad 8y agoDoesn't GDPR forbid this shit? https://i.imgur.com/MG5jIrZ.png https://i.imgur.com/MG5jIrZ.png
- danso 8y agoForbid what exactly? The storage and use of user data? That would forbid virtually every web service.
- 4ad 8y agohttps://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2018/may/european-data-protection-board-cookie-walls-ban/ https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2018/may/european-data-p... https://pagefair.com/blog/2017/tracking-walls/ https://pagefair.com/blog/2017/tracking-walls/ https://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/download/EDPL_2017_03.pdf https://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/download/EDPL_2017_03.pdf https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17031425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17031425 For comparison, this is a compliant site: https://i.imgur.com/Xp0sHe6.png https://i.imgur.com/Xp0sHe6.png
- danso 8y agoAgain, can you provide specifics. I clicked through the HN link to see a debate over what GDPR contains and whether that applies to FB’s implementation. I’m not from the EU so I’m not able to see the interaction flow based on a screenshot. What happens when you select “Reject All”, for instance?
- pluma 8y agoYou can't disable the "required" ones, even though they're obviously not all technically required to serve the content.
- Nursie 8y agoYeah it surprised me too that "Ad selection" was listed as a required thing. Seems wrong.
- 8y ago
- parliament32 8y agoSurprisingly good reporting for Buzzfeed, I much prefer this sort of long-form article to their usual "junk food" stories.
- maccam94 8y agoThis is from Buzzfeed News, their serious journalism division.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dr_orpheus 8y agoBuzzfeed News is a far cry from normal Buzzfeed. They are more of a traditional news organization. They have actually gotten quite a few awards for their investigative journalism including being finalists for two Pulitzers: https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/chris-hamby-buzzfeed-news https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/chris-hamby-buzzfeed-news
- nitemice 8y agoIsn't this also the part of the company that has recently suffered mass lay-offs? Seems like they're axing the wrong part.
- pulisse 8y agoThe cuts were distributed roughly equally across all divisions.
- pathseeker 8y agoThey should change their name. I wonder how many people ignore the articles when they see "Buzzfeed". It would be like the National Enquirer trying to start a serious arm under "National Enquirer News".
- 8y ago
- TomMckenny 8y ago>"I need a gun that can’t have serial numbers on it" Unfortunately, that's not how it works. There is no database connecting owners to guns[0] let alone ballistics tests to serial numbers. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act
- wl 8y agoJust because there's no database doesn't mean a gun can't be connected to an owner. Manufacturers keep records of which serial numbers go to which distributors. Those distributors keep track of which dealers get which guns. Those dealers are required by law to keep a record of who bought what guns. It's not a database query, but it is a few phone calls. And in California (where this happened), all private sales must go through the DROS system. Getting a gun not connected to you requires breaking the law these days. NIBIN is a database of shell casing toolmarks that can potentially link shell casings found at different shootings together.
- nabnob 8y agoThis varies state by state, and California is notorious as one of the states with stricter gun laws. In many parts of the country, person-to-person gun sales (without a firearms license) are common and police rarely investigate them.
- unityByFreedom 8y agonotorious?
- LanceH 8y agoNotorious because a lot of the laws passed (or attempted) are designed not to regulate gun ownership, but to prohibit it in practice.
- solidsnack9000 8y agoMany of the laws of California, and of certain localities in California, reflect hostility to guns and gun owners more than they reflect any concern with public safety. For example, in San Francisco it was illegal for many years to own an airsoft gun (replica firearm that fires little 0.2g plastic pellets). This was struck down only when Arnold Schwarzenegger passed a law to the effect that replica firearms were to be regulated at the state level. It is hard to see what a ban on airsoft guns was intended to accomplish, since they are not viable as weapons at all. More seriously, California laws concerning handgun sales prevent Californians from benefitting from safety improvements in newer firearms (as well as preventing them from benefitting from the coolness of new firearms). Only handguns on a select list are permitted to be sold in California, and Kamala Harris closed the list some years ago. Ostensibly this is because the state of California would (a) like to see newer handguns implement "micro-stamping", where the gun imprints its serial number on each shell and bullet as it is fired and (b) believes this technology to be generally available. It's not that (a) is a bad thing but (b) is completely false; there are virtually no firearms that implement micro-stamping. Most absurdly, the ban on "assault weapons" is in practice a ban on rifles with a pistol grip, as opposed to those with a classic stock. Rifles are used in a small minority -- 5% -- of shootings, in any event. They are (a) inconvenient to transport and (b) harder to use for a robbery, where the robber would like to have one hand free to grab stuff. The ban on rifles with pistol grips is something that is more a matter of showing the flag than affecting a real positive public benefit. Travel restrictions on firearms are also more onerous than useful. In California, we can travel with firearms to any place where we may legitimately use firearms or transship them, but woe betide us if we should stop for a coffee on the way there. Thus we may travel to and from a shooting range, but not stop for lunch at any point. Given that we are to lock our unloaded firearms up when we travel with them, it's hard to see what is gained by preventing us from stopping along the way.
- headcanon 8y agoA very sad story, but commendable reporting. The whole story feels straight out of a Gibson novel.
- mknze 8y agoToo bad the title uses the moniker "Hackers" to describe the two men involved... The article title should read "...Followed Two Psychopaths..."
- ip26 8y agoSometimes I wonder what the demographics are, really. Are 98% of hackers well-educated guys from MIT working for NASA or RedHat? Or is it the case that I've occasionally found myself in, romanticizing a culture & defending its ethos & values, until one day my eyes are opened and I realize 98% of are really just misfits, thugs, or crooks. Fast & Furious comes to mind unbidden- lots of young men love cars, speed, driving. Here's a movie celebrating their earnest passion. Oh, by the way, in case you weren't paying attention the cast is a crime ring and fast cars are how they evade the law. Same question goes for bitcoin- and lo, it seems these men were involved in that too.
- syshum 8y agoThat largely depends on what your definition of "hacker" is. It has changed over the years to a completely different meaning, hacking was never meant to be a direct reference to criminal activity but that seems to be where it has evolved The hacking culture was more about using technology, systems, or anything really in ways not originally intended by the manufacturer, or administrator of said system, technology or object That can be either legal or illegal but the act of hacking itself was not legal or illegal it depended on the system or object you where hacking Today however people almost exclusively use the term hacker to refer to criminal activity
- pure-awesome 8y agoThis site's name, of course, more slanted towards the original meaning rather than the criminal one.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoI was going to use “idiots” but psychos will do.
- fetbaffe 8y agoThis story is really weird, Masters somewhat knew it was all fake, but still beleived in it. Tragic.
- enneff 8y agoSounds like a classic abusive relationship. Really tragic.
- blattimwind 8y agoYes. 'According to Weber, another of Masters’ siblings “noticed bruising around Tomi's neck,” but said that Masters begged them not to tell her parents about it. Masters told the sibling the relationship was “not as bad as it seemed.”'
- blattimwind 8y agoHonestly these two psychos sound exactly like the type of person that someday scams someone who calls people with piano wire. The life of the girl is of course really quite tragic, and that the two murderers can conceivably get away with it only deepens that tragedy, but on the other hand the whole gang didn't even try to appear trustworthy... lies are poisenous fruit, especially between persons. Liars cannot be trusted, and liars don't change.
- walrus01 8y agoSemantics and terminology question, how the hell are these two psychos "hackers"? By that standard , every 14 year old on Xbox live who claims to have had carnal relations with my mother is a hacker.
- danso 8y agoThe woman first met her bf/ex-killer because he successfully impersonated/hijacked a verified Instagram account. Both the BF and the other accused killer were part of UGNazi, accused of mass phishing and successful site attacks. Hell, there’s even an anecdote involving getting yelled at by parents for not logging off of IRC.
- walrus01 8y agoSocial engineering your way into an Instagram account, or hiring DDoS services are not "hacking". By the standards of late 1990s Phrack magazine, or modern PoC|GTFO, these clowns couldn't hack their way out of a wet paper bag.
- danso 8y agoI don't think that "hacker" is a term that hasn't nor mustn't change/evolve from how it was referred to in a 1990s e-zine. But if you want to argue from the prescriptivist stance, then how are you justified in choosing the 90s definition over its usage in 1963 at MIT, referring to intrusion and unauthorized usage of phone (or, today, the computer) systems, which the UGNazis have definitely been capable of? [0] Here's what Wikipedia has for the "general definition" [1]: 1. an adherent of the technology and programming subculture; see hacker culture. 2. someone who is able to subvert computer security. If doing so for malicious purposes, the person can also be called a cracker And while UGNazi sounds like it ended up being a bunch of assholes acting like assholes, its origin story shares a lot of themes with other widely-recognized hackers: > Around this time, Islam started UGNazi with the intention, he said, of protesting aggressive proposed anti-piracy and cybersecurity legislation Ignoring the argument over whether social engineering is "hacking", the attacks linked to UGNazi have included SQL injections/0-day exploits. Eric Taylor, the UGNazi founder not implicated in the woman's murder, is apparently now a cybersecurity researcher at Path [2] (not the social network, but a network systems startup). There's no indication that he was the only one of the 3 UGNazis to have technical chops. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20071025200829/http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0306B&L=ads-l&P=R5831&m=24290 https://web.archive.org/web/20071025200829/http://listserv.l... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker#Definitions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker#Definitions [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/27/eric-taylor-aka-cosmo-the-god-on-cyber.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/27/eric-taylor-aka-cosmo-the-go...
- jaimex2 8y agoWhats the tldr?
- labster 8y agoSex, lies, and hacked BTC wallets. You should read the article, it's really good.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoIf I had to bet on it they put up a fake service and scammed the btc by running away with it instead of hacking anything. Manipulation was the name of the game, not so much hacking.
- labster 8y agoSocial hacking is still hacking, friend.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoSetting up a fraudulent product or service just to collect crypto and run away with the funds is not social hacking. I believe the government calls that online fraud.
- brave_heart 8y agoWhat a great loss to her family. These kids have no idea what is like to lose a grown-up girl. I wish they live to be a father and somebody do the same to them and they know what it feels like.
- onemoresoop 8y agoOne take of mine is that Master's relationship with woody was codependent/narcissistic. It's very sad that she ended this way. It seems to me like the dark side of the internet is a breeding ground for narcissists and abusers of all sorts. Sad story..