PRists: If you see a message attached to any Popular Rationalism articles emails with a message similar to “Let’s discuss… I’ve got something to introduce you to Text(+) 17866323527”,
You can read the article (in the email) but ignore the hack.
Whoever did this has a number via Bandwidth.com. Please help by reporting it as spam to https://www.bandwidth.com/legal/report-a-phone-number/
When this number was texted by a reader, they claimed to be me. Their felony identity theft hack has been reported.
Perhaps my comment was a tad over the top. This stack was about some prying spammer. You comments would likely have been more appropriate on a different article.
I hear you....... but what NOBODY and I mean NOBODY has said what needs to be said and that is CHALLENGE, QUESTION, DISOBEY, REJECT, REBUKE and do ALL you can to topple ALL GOVERNMENTS at ALL Levels, if not this instituion will contnue to enFORCE the agenda of the few as it has for centuries.
Stop giving any support to this violent heavily armed instituion that seemingly can enFORCE that which degrades the lives of millions against their will.
Those that ask me do you have a better system "I reply that Freedom is not a system"
If you need a system to live then you will be ruled to your detriment as can clearly be seen in the present.
Nothing is more responsible for death of flesh and blood men, women and children than GOVERNMENT. Excluding Wars the last century Government has killed 100's of millions add the Wars and the number is unimaginable as the suffering, fear, and dispair of the victims.
I am not scared of covid, vaccinations, lockdowns, variants....etc....etc.... I am scared of ALL GOVERNMENTS because ALL GOVERNMENTS to some degree are pushing the covid narrative!
Also All these Doctors, Scientist and Experts and no one can understand the simple problem.....
PARASITES in your body that need rid of.....and the PARASITES who own the worlds Private Central Banks. (Federal Reserve, Bank of International Settlements, European Central Bank, World Bank, International Monetary Fund...etc...etc....)
Government is and always has been a tool of the PARASITIC, PSYCHOPATHIC Class.
All the world events are nothing more than Business Ventures for the PARASITIC PSYCHOPATHIC 1% of the 1% including this so called covid pandemic which is so fake I am shocked at the number of people who fell for it or become immersed within the Covid (tell a) VISION at all.
The number is 7866323527 in southern Dade-Miami County. Why should I trust the equally evasive (Who are "Band Width" and "Mark Monitor"?), and even more inquisitive (data-mining; wants real name and my email address; not just phone number) bandwidth.com?
I wanted to know how the reply went to my email and when I emailed him back it returned to me and then I msg him but I shouldn’t. I did the fraud report and they did violate the terms jf service and are being investigated.
I'm sure he(?) wants your and my tithing. (Sorry, cynical Mormon joke. The cracker must identify as Malachi, or at least as Lorenzo Snow, while impersonating Isaiah and Luke.)
Bandwidth is a nationwide telecommunication and VoIP provider serving primarily business customers. Many of our customers use our VoIP services in a wholesale manner, offering services of their own together with a Bandwidth telephone number to their end users. In these cases, Bandwidth does not have a relationship to the end-user or any information about the end user and how the number is being used by the end user. In fact, Bandwidth may not provide any of the features of the end-user's services (including such things as call forwarding/routing, outbound calling with CallerID, SMS messaging services, etc. ) even though they may include a Bandwidth telephone number. This is in fact the case with the number you referenced.
We have forwarded your complaint to our wholesale customer for investigation. We will let you know as soon as we hear back from our customer, typically within the next 48hrs.
Additionally, your concern may be a matter for law enforcement and we encourage you to work with your local law enforcement as may be appropriate.
--
Thank you,
Bandwidth Network Fraud Mitigation Team
So essentially a "not my problem" response. This is another reason why Substack desperately needs a Silence function. Don't know why they will not make one.
Thank you for the report. The following number(s) have been investigated for potential fraud and abuse, and we have confirmed that the accounts associated with these numbers have been engaging in behavior that violates our terms of service. As a result, we have taken action on the responsible accounts.
And Sari Botton (https://oldster.substack.com/). I also saw someone else being tweeted at by a reader because it was happening to their publication. But - seems fixed now? All comments gone, profile removed and (hat-tip to Dr. K) number reported and caught by the authorities.
Yes, happened on mine as well - same text, all allegedly from me, and all absolutely NOT from me. But those comments are now gone and that profile's been deleted, looks like?
Did you happen to notice whether the "imitation Mike" had the green "author" badge next to his/your name?
I ask because we need to know if these are new user IDs spoofing authors or actual intrusions into the Substack ID database.
In the final analysis, it's probably irrelevant if these are just spammers/script kiddies or something more sophisticated, but they're disruptive and have the potential to tarnish reputations.
Alas, I didn't get the chance to click through to the author profile of the account doing the impersonating - otherwise I'd have screenshotted it for later analysis. And yes, I'm presuming this was more harassment/vandalism than anything else? (Unless it's just a test of some kind of technique that they're refining...)
Were we discussing this just a few short years ago, I would not suspect anything more than spamming, but given recent events and FOIA disclosures of various lists, I'm compelled to share your surmise about the possibility of a "technique."
I'll add a speculation of my own, and that is that it's vaguely possible that some partisan hacker may be attempting a bit of next-level trolling to create anxiety that provokes paranoid-sounding forum responses. There are many ways to conduct campaigns against viewpoints considered "undesirable," and Substack is beginning to broaden its reach and readership.
Mark Crispin Miller's Substack ID has also been hacked or spoofed.
I was notified of four replies from Mark to comments I made, all of those notifications received in my e-mail inbox within two seconds of each other.
If you and mark had your ID hacked, that's one thing, and seems like a possible issue within Substack. If you two were spoofed, Mark's was very convincing, copyright info, avatar and all. The avatar doesn't track back; I encountered a "profile not found."
This isn’t a hack, per se. It’s spoofing. And quite amateurish.
Fake accounts using the substack interface. The phone number may be spoofed as well. Has been seen on many stacks, no doubt coordinated.
The intent may be to get people to mark such messages as junk/spam, which will have the effect of routing future comment dialogue to one’s junk/spam folder. Best strategy is ignore/delete.
To be clear, I did not see this particular post, but it is exactly like other observed elsewhere, using the same content and phone number. The profile that made the post are fakes (not real people), likely bots. The profiles sometimes mimic the author profile (with a small character change—look carefully), or are generic with no history or pages they subscribe to. This is very likely script-generated using dummy email addresses to create fake profiles.
Similar to the nigerian prince that wants to share $50M with you…I think most know the drill there.
Yesterday I received a similar message starting with “Good tidings…”from Jordan Schactel’s substack. Seemed odd to me. Glad I checked the number out! Will report it now.
More spam.
Chemist are not skeptical
Perhaps my comment was a tad over the top. This stack was about some prying spammer. You comments would likely have been more appropriate on a different article.
I hear you....... but what NOBODY and I mean NOBODY has said what needs to be said and that is CHALLENGE, QUESTION, DISOBEY, REJECT, REBUKE and do ALL you can to topple ALL GOVERNMENTS at ALL Levels, if not this instituion will contnue to enFORCE the agenda of the few as it has for centuries.
Stop giving any support to this violent heavily armed instituion that seemingly can enFORCE that which degrades the lives of millions against their will.
Those that ask me do you have a better system "I reply that Freedom is not a system"
If you need a system to live then you will be ruled to your detriment as can clearly be seen in the present.
Nothing is more responsible for death of flesh and blood men, women and children than GOVERNMENT. Excluding Wars the last century Government has killed 100's of millions add the Wars and the number is unimaginable as the suffering, fear, and dispair of the victims.
I am not scared of covid, vaccinations, lockdowns, variants....etc....etc.... I am scared of ALL GOVERNMENTS because ALL GOVERNMENTS to some degree are pushing the covid narrative!
Also All these Doctors, Scientist and Experts and no one can understand the simple problem.....
PARASITES in your body that need rid of.....and the PARASITES who own the worlds Private Central Banks. (Federal Reserve, Bank of International Settlements, European Central Bank, World Bank, International Monetary Fund...etc...etc....)
Government is and always has been a tool of the PARASITIC, PSYCHOPATHIC Class.
All the world events are nothing more than Business Ventures for the PARASITIC PSYCHOPATHIC 1% of the 1% including this so called covid pandemic which is so fake I am shocked at the number of people who fell for it or become immersed within the Covid (tell a) VISION at all.
I saw it on "bad catitude" as well.
This happened to me! I thought it was a scam. Thank you for letting me know.
Thank you for letting me know. I filled out the form.
The number is 7866323527 in southern Dade-Miami County. Why should I trust the equally evasive (Who are "Band Width" and "Mark Monitor"?), and even more inquisitive (data-mining; wants real name and my email address; not just phone number) bandwidth.com?
I got one too, different sub. It said I bring you good tidings, let's converse.
Good to know. How did they get to post a comment in your name?
I wanted to know how the reply went to my email and when I emailed him back it returned to me and then I msg him but I shouldn’t. I did the fraud report and they did violate the terms jf service and are being investigated.
Thanks for the alert - I fell for the “I bring you good tiding, let’s converse.”
I'm sure he(?) wants your and my tithing. (Sorry, cynical Mormon joke. The cracker must identify as Malachi, or at least as Lorenzo Snow, while impersonating Isaiah and Luke.)
Here is what you get when you report the number:
Jason Turner (SIP Support)
Feb 5, 2023, 12:03 PM EST
Thank you for making us aware of your concern.
Bandwidth is a nationwide telecommunication and VoIP provider serving primarily business customers. Many of our customers use our VoIP services in a wholesale manner, offering services of their own together with a Bandwidth telephone number to their end users. In these cases, Bandwidth does not have a relationship to the end-user or any information about the end user and how the number is being used by the end user. In fact, Bandwidth may not provide any of the features of the end-user's services (including such things as call forwarding/routing, outbound calling with CallerID, SMS messaging services, etc. ) even though they may include a Bandwidth telephone number. This is in fact the case with the number you referenced.
We have forwarded your complaint to our wholesale customer for investigation. We will let you know as soon as we hear back from our customer, typically within the next 48hrs.
Additionally, your concern may be a matter for law enforcement and we encourage you to work with your local law enforcement as may be appropriate.
--
Thank you,
Bandwidth Network Fraud Mitigation Team
So essentially a "not my problem" response. This is another reason why Substack desperately needs a Silence function. Don't know why they will not make one.
Well this was surprising. After my first post about the quasi-response I got, I just got this:
Will (SIP Support)
Feb 5, 2023, 12:16 PM EST
Greetings,
Please see below the response that we have received from our customer:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for the report. The following number(s) have been investigated for potential fraud and abuse, and we have confirmed that the accounts associated with these numbers have been engaging in behavior that violates our terms of service. As a result, we have taken action on the responsible accounts.
[+17866323527]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you
Bandwidth Network Fraud Mitigation Team
This looks like a company I could actually like.
If you had the option to report spam comments, I happily report every one I see. "Richard Hoard" is spamming everywhere.
Mike Sowden has been targeted, as well.
And Sari Botton (https://oldster.substack.com/). I also saw someone else being tweeted at by a reader because it was happening to their publication. But - seems fixed now? All comments gone, profile removed and (hat-tip to Dr. K) number reported and caught by the authorities.
Well, that was "fun". Whew.
I saw the message , I did ignore it thought it was weird but new to this format I figured if it was important or real you would iMessage me
But thanks for your warning it did answer what I was thinking 👍
Yes, happened on mine as well - same text, all allegedly from me, and all absolutely NOT from me. But those comments are now gone and that profile's been deleted, looks like?
Did you happen to notice whether the "imitation Mike" had the green "author" badge next to his/your name?
I ask because we need to know if these are new user IDs spoofing authors or actual intrusions into the Substack ID database.
In the final analysis, it's probably irrelevant if these are just spammers/script kiddies or something more sophisticated, but they're disruptive and have the potential to tarnish reputations.
Alas, I didn't get the chance to click through to the author profile of the account doing the impersonating - otherwise I'd have screenshotted it for later analysis. And yes, I'm presuming this was more harassment/vandalism than anything else? (Unless it's just a test of some kind of technique that they're refining...)
Were we discussing this just a few short years ago, I would not suspect anything more than spamming, but given recent events and FOIA disclosures of various lists, I'm compelled to share your surmise about the possibility of a "technique."
I'll add a speculation of my own, and that is that it's vaguely possible that some partisan hacker may be attempting a bit of next-level trolling to create anxiety that provokes paranoid-sounding forum responses. There are many ways to conduct campaigns against viewpoints considered "undesirable," and Substack is beginning to broaden its reach and readership.
Sigh.
You're not alone, Dr. Jack.
Mark Crispin Miller's Substack ID has also been hacked or spoofed.
I was notified of four replies from Mark to comments I made, all of those notifications received in my e-mail inbox within two seconds of each other.
If you and mark had your ID hacked, that's one thing, and seems like a possible issue within Substack. If you two were spoofed, Mark's was very convincing, copyright info, avatar and all. The avatar doesn't track back; I encountered a "profile not found."
This isn’t a hack, per se. It’s spoofing. And quite amateurish.
Fake accounts using the substack interface. The phone number may be spoofed as well. Has been seen on many stacks, no doubt coordinated.
The intent may be to get people to mark such messages as junk/spam, which will have the effect of routing future comment dialogue to one’s junk/spam folder. Best strategy is ignore/delete.
"This isn’t a hack, per se. It’s spoofing. And quite amateurish."
Good to know. Would you mind sharing the "tell" that illustrates how amateurish it was?
To be clear, I did not see this particular post, but it is exactly like other observed elsewhere, using the same content and phone number. The profile that made the post are fakes (not real people), likely bots. The profiles sometimes mimic the author profile (with a small character change—look carefully), or are generic with no history or pages they subscribe to. This is very likely script-generated using dummy email addresses to create fake profiles.
Similar to the nigerian prince that wants to share $50M with you…I think most know the drill there.
I got another reply stating it was James Lyons Weiler with a 909 area code California
Yesterday I received a similar message starting with “Good tidings…”from Jordan Schactel’s substack. Seemed odd to me. Glad I checked the number out! Will report it now.