Re: [HumJanenge] MoneyLife: OMG! Impersonation sparks off a war on the Net

Have you formally sent a copy of your rejoinder to Sucheta Dalal and
asked her to publish the relevant portions with equal prominence in
her e-rag?.

Raminder

On 11/26/10, PMK1504 <humjanenge.owner@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wow,
> Thanks for posting this Sarbajit.
>
> Let's rebut some of Suchetas's points. (will split it over 3 or 4
> posts to enable her to file an apology), if not we can send them a
> legal notice too.
>
> 1. Not a single message / email has originated (and we stress
> "originated") from this group (HJ-GG) which uses a name or email ID
> not that of the original sender.
>
> 2. Not a single email / message has either (a) originated or (b) been
> forwarded from this group using the name or email ID of a deceased
> person.
>
> 3 No malware / virus has been sent or forwarded from this group.. One
> of the reasons we use the google platform is for better malware
> protection (compared to Yahoo).
>
> 4 There has been absolutely no IMPERSONATION of people (ie. human
> beings) on this group.
>
> 5. It is a brazen lie to claim that HumJanenge@googlegroups has
> created a web of inter-connected groups. This is complete rubbish. The
> groups are not connected and won't be any time soon. The truth of the
> matter is that yahoo and google IDs collectively account for about 80%
> of members in any RTI group. By migrating to googlegroups we
> eventually intend to take advantage of OPENID, a system whereby both
> Yahoo or Google users can login / post to these RTI groups. In
> addition due to "collaboration" between moderators of these groups,
> troublesome members / spammers / scammers etc can be booted off all
> groups to protect our members.
>
> 6. Everyone who has asked to be unsubscribed has been. Almost always
> within 24 hours. Our software team have tracked down and eliminated
> almost all the spammers and the fake blogs they were using to repost /
> forward posts from this group. In addition about 2 DMCA takedown
> notices / complaints to Google for copyright infringement and 12 for
> spam generation takedown concerning posts made from this group
> illegally reposted by a blogger.com reposting service operated by
> "Urvashi Sharma" have been filed on behalf of this group.
>
> 7. "However, asking members of one group to subscribe mandatorily to
> other groups and making their e-mail IDs freely available to every
> member is not the way groups are operated on the Internet." This is
> 100% correct, but it does NOT apply to this group. Nobody here has
> made e-mail IDs of any other egroup available to "every member".
> Nobody here has asked (or required) members of another group to
> "mandatorily subscribe" to another group (such as HJ-GG).
>
> This should keep Ms Dalal busy for a day or 2 while we prepare the
> next salvo against such irresponsible reporting.
>
> PMK
> ("I am not Prakash Kardaley")
>
> On 11/25/10, sarbajit roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Here is an interesting article. Must save it as evidence for when the
>> cyber police come knocking here. Copy-posting the entire content since
>> the article has many (defamatory) things to say about this group and
>> its members and policies. Interestingly though, the moral of this
>> story is that people using groups should install Anti--virus software
>>
>> http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/11522.html
>>
>> "November 24, 2010 02:03 PM | Bookmark and Share
>> Moneylife Digital Team
>>
>> Impersonation on the Internet is creating dangerous distrust among
>> major groups operating on the worldwide web. Now RTI activists
>> bothered by this problem are taking the matter to the police
>>
>> Impersonation is not a new thing. For ages, impersonators have been
>> imitating or copying the behaviour or actions of others. However, when
>> someone impersonates someone on the Internet and starts sending e-
>> mails, by posting comments using the other person's name and e-mail
>> ID, it becomes a serious matter.
>>
>> Of late, many activists-especially those working on the right to
>> information (RTI) platform-are finding that their e-mails and names
>> are being used to send messages and post comments on the Internet.
>> This is not only leading to misunderstanding but also creating hatred
>> between the receiver and the sender whose name has been used.
>> Impersonators are not even sparing deceased members and are using
>> their names and e-mail IDs. Some RTI activists, including journalists,
>> plan to file complaints with the cyber crime cell of the police.
>>
>> One RTI activist alleged that a post on the RTI group contained an
>> attachment that was a malware (a short name for malicious software,
>> designed to secretly access a computer system without the owner's
>> informed consent) or spyware. According to some members who opened the
>> file, this may have been another attempt to keep track of the online
>> activities of the activists in this group.
>>
>> The use of spyware and the impersonation phenomena itself appears to
>> be a battle for supremacy between some non-governmental organisations
>> (NGOs). However, asking members of one group to subscribe mandatorily
>> to other groups and making their e-mail IDs freely available to every
>> member is not the way groups are operated on the Internet.
>>
>> There is a specific group, HumJanenge-on Google-which has created a
>> web of interconnected groups. Therefore, even if someone unsubscribes
>> from the particular group, he/she continues to receive e-mails through
>> the interlinked network of some real and some fake RTI groups.
>>
>> What is more shocking, originally HumJanenge was on the Yahoo domain.
>> Some time later, someone (he/she is still not ready to reveal the real
>> ID, yet) set up a group on Google using the same name. This person, or
>> group of persons acting in concert, decided to share member lists from
>> the Yahoo group with the Google group. The reason? They claimed this
>> was being done to create alternates or backups on Google just in case
>> Yahoo decided to close the groups. This appears false, as neither
>> Google nor Yahoo have said or hinted at closing any group or groups in
>> their domain.
>>
>> When some members tried to log out from the groups, they found, to
>> their shock, that they were being asked to subscribe to three or four
>> other groups.
>>
>> According to informed sources, the 'alleged' impersonation of some
>> members was a software glitch in early days of HumJanenge Google
>> group. The emails to the HumJanenge group on Yahoo domain were
>> forwarded to the Google group. The offending source IDs have been
>> removed and there is no likelihood of recurrence of this problem, the
>> sources added.
>>
>> "Adversaries have been successful in using the 'divide and rule'
>> policy. Those who want to curb the activities of RTI activists have
>> been making these insertions deep and cleaving us, very successfully.
>> In the past 15 days, I have received emails pertaining to accusations
>> and counter accusations. Deliberate explanations and counter
>> explanations. Where are we headed in this melee?" asked one member
>> from an RTI group.
>>
>> Some possible solutions
>>
>> The problem of impersonation on the Internet is somewhat difficult to
>> deal with. It is compounded by the fact that it is not easy to
>> identify people from the limited interaction on telephone and on the
>> Internet and verification is dependent on the computer. But there are
>> a few things those who are bothered by this problem can do, to deal
>> with the issue, or at least minimise the bother.
>>
>> For a start, people who have found instances of impersonation should
>> approach the police and file a case with the cyber crime cell.
>> Similarly, lodge a complaint against the owner or moderator of the
>> group with the domain owner-Google, Yahoo, or whichever. Google and
>> Yahoo have offices in India and the contact details are available on
>> their sites.
>>
>> In case one has no way of avoiding such messages or attachments coming
>> to the group, it is necessary to install a good anti-virus, malware/
>> spyware detector on your computer. Some effective anti-virus, malware/
>> spyware removers are available on the Internet free of cost, besides
>> the commonly used Norton and McAfee computer security systems.
>> CNET.com lists the following facilities: Top free anti-virus software
>> - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011, Avast Free Antivirus; Top free
>> malware/spyware remover: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Ad-Aware Free
>> Internet Security."
>