[00:00.000 --> 00:04.320]  These guys are not really Johnny-come-lately's to the Internet scene.
[00:05.440 --> 00:15.680]  Back in the old days, back in ancient history, back in, oh, say, the 1970s, phony invoice schemes were pretty common.
[00:17.740 --> 00:20.820]  They started off with telex directories.
[00:22.760 --> 00:29.840]  Now, I really can't say I have a claim to fame of being a telex hacker back in the days, because in those days, telex had no fame.
[00:30.700 --> 00:36.440]  Telex was just a business-to-business teletype network that nobody really played with.
[00:38.440 --> 00:48.640]  But I was offered computer time on an HP-2000C timesharing system out at the State University of New York at Brockport, 20 miles outside of Rochester, my hometown.
[00:49.280 --> 00:56.360]  I could either take the Greyhound bus out there or find a computer terminal with a dial-up modem and dial into the thing.
[00:57.000 --> 00:59.560]  But we're talking the 1970s here.
[01:01.000 --> 01:04.400]  Terminals with modems were not that common in those days.
[01:05.120 --> 01:09.700]  But I'm walking past this office one day, and there's a Model 33 teletype with a dial on it.
[01:10.140 --> 01:10.800]  TWX machine?
[01:10.980 --> 01:11.740]  Scratch, scratch, scratch.
[01:11.980 --> 01:13.080]  What's a TWX machine?
[01:13.660 --> 01:16.880]  Well, TWX stood for Teletype Writer Exchange.
[01:18.600 --> 01:34.940]  Now, Telex itself is a five-level Baudot system, while the TWX network, which was owned by AT&T, was a seven-level ASCII, actually 8-bit with parity, using Model 33 teletypes.
[01:35.880 --> 01:38.580]  Telex originally came from Europe.
[01:39.820 --> 01:45.760]  There was a cable that went from Lands Inn in England to Newfoundland in Canada.
[01:46.180 --> 01:46.960]  It was brought across.
[01:46.960 --> 01:52.560]  Western Union snaked a line down from Montreal, started things off in New York, and expanded across the country.
[01:54.660 --> 02:00.720]  AT&T saw this business-to-business communications market and said, hey, we want some of this action.
[02:03.980 --> 02:08.020]  The Teletype Corporation was formed to manufacture teletype equipment.
[02:08.020 --> 02:12.940]  It was 50% owned by Western Electric, and the other 50% owned by AT&T.
[02:13.200 --> 02:15.440]  So it was basically all owned by AT&T.
[02:18.520 --> 02:22.240]  In those days, Western Union would publish a telex directory.
[02:23.160 --> 02:28.400]  The big international firm was Jaeger Waldemann of Germany for the worldwide telex directory.
[02:28.520 --> 02:29.580]  That was a really good book.
[02:29.940 --> 02:36.840]  But the scam artists would get a hold of these directories and send out phony invoices for their own telex directory.
[02:38.360 --> 02:39.980]  And, you know, usually just...
[02:39.980 --> 02:43.380]  If it goes to a large enough company, it goes to the accounting department, oh, a directory.
[02:43.640 --> 02:46.020]  Well, I guess we need to just pay this bill.
[02:46.660 --> 02:49.400]  And the scammers would get away with it in many cases.
[02:49.540 --> 02:56.540]  You know, they'd send out hundreds of invoices, get maybe 10 replies, but because they were charging so much, it made the mailing worth it to them anyway.
[02:59.580 --> 03:15.980]  These days, when I go to look back for something like that, all I can find are links that refer to phony advertising solicitations, which start off with bogus yellow pages bills.
[03:16.160 --> 03:17.360]  That, I'm sure, still goes on.
[03:17.720 --> 03:34.980]  And under phony fax directory schemes, we find that they list telefax and telex directories as, you know, some of these fraudulent directories that are being billed for and to watch out for.
[03:35.920 --> 03:44.200]  By the way, I'm doing my links from my website at cheshirecatalyst.com slash domain dot html.
[03:45.060 --> 03:47.140]  It's just a thrown together web page.
[03:47.600 --> 03:52.060]  PowerPoint, I find, is the greatest thing to help sleep since Somonex.
[03:53.220 --> 03:55.340]  And besides, it's a Microsoft product.
[03:55.680 --> 04:05.260]  So I tend to simply write web pages, throw them up, blow them up on the screen to show as my notes.
[04:05.500 --> 04:07.620]  And then I just put the web page up on my website.
[04:07.620 --> 04:10.620]  If you want to get to these notes later and follow the links.
[04:13.860 --> 04:19.480]  Out in Australia, there is a telex warning on Scamwatch.
[04:20.200 --> 04:23.900]  Scamwatch.gov.au about directories and advertising.
[04:24.180 --> 04:24.760]  False billing.
[04:25.580 --> 04:28.760]  And, you know, where to report them if you're an Aussie and things like that.
[04:28.880 --> 04:32.560]  Warning signs or receive a call from a business director or the publication you've never heard of, blah, blah, blah.
[04:32.900 --> 04:36.040]  And this is how the telex schemes used to work.
[04:36.040 --> 04:41.400]  Well, the fax machines and email kind of killed off telex.
[04:43.600 --> 04:49.080]  AT&T sold the TWX network to Western Union back in the late 70s.
[04:49.280 --> 04:59.800]  And, in fact, the combined Telex director, the first one in 1973, I was looking through the directory, which, of course, it's public information, so I picked one up.
[05:00.960 --> 05:05.480]  But because it was AT&T, their directories were in their standard telephone kind of format.
[05:05.840 --> 05:06.540]  You'd have a state.
[05:06.660 --> 05:07.980]  Within each state, you'd have cities.
[05:08.380 --> 05:10.520]  And within those cities, you'd have the listing for that city.
[05:10.940 --> 05:12.620]  Western Union just lumped the whole state together.
[05:12.780 --> 05:13.940]  Because it was business to business.
[05:14.160 --> 05:16.900]  And, you know, people from all over the state would be doing business with each other.
[05:17.100 --> 05:20.840]  But AT&T still had their standards from the phone side of the house, so they did it that way.
[05:20.840 --> 05:25.720]  I'm looking through the telex directory for the state of Virginia one day.
[05:25.960 --> 05:27.820]  The TWX directory, rather, the AT&T side.
[05:28.660 --> 05:32.520]  And I noticed a little town with an unusual name.
[05:32.980 --> 05:35.380]  And there's only one listing in the name, and it's the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
[05:37.260 --> 05:47.060]  Now, I could just imagine the scene as the guys at this office are getting their TWX machine, and they're filling out the forms, and it says, what's your company?
[05:47.300 --> 05:49.540]  Oh, well, we're the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
[05:51.140 --> 05:51.700]  U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
[05:52.540 --> 05:53.020]  City.
[05:53.320 --> 05:55.060]  Oh, we can't tell you that.
[05:55.280 --> 05:56.300]  It's classified.
[05:57.440 --> 06:01.980]  And there, listed as classified Virginia, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
[06:04.660 --> 06:07.940]  So, you can just imagine who actually operated that TWX sellotape machine.
[06:08.240 --> 06:10.560]  It just says paranoia has always been here.
[06:12.900 --> 06:14.740]  So, paranoia strikes deep, yes.
[06:16.400 --> 06:19.540]  So, basically, these kinds of scams have been around a while.
[06:19.540 --> 06:20.940]  They just adapt themselves.
[06:21.180 --> 06:31.490]  And so, now they're adapting to the Internet age, where we have the domain name expiration notice that goes out.
[06:32.390 --> 06:33.370]  Oops, excuse me.
[06:33.830 --> 06:43.090]  And you can see from the billing cycle here, it's $30 for one year, $60 for two years, et cetera.
[06:43.930 --> 06:46.310]  They're really trying to scam you well, I'm sure.
[06:46.970 --> 06:50.010]  I know my registrar is a lot cheaper than that.
[06:53.230 --> 06:56.750]  And so, that's out there.
[06:57.810 --> 07:01.830]  Under domain names, you'll find people warning you against this outfit.
[07:02.970 --> 07:11.490]  The domain registry of America scam is listed here under UCAN, which is the Utility Consumers Action Network out of San Diego.
[07:13.090 --> 07:17.290]  They've got all sorts of information about it, warning people about this sort of thing.
[07:19.370 --> 07:20.270]  It's not new.
[07:20.390 --> 07:22.150]  Wikipedia itself has a listing.
[07:23.310 --> 07:27.450]  And it's interesting because it says, this article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality.
[07:28.090 --> 07:33.690]  I mean, if you're talking about a scammer, you may not be neutral in your discussion of the scammer.
[07:34.390 --> 07:38.430]  This article may be inaccurate in or unbalanced towards certain viewpoints.
[07:38.430 --> 07:40.490]  I mean, people don't like this guy.
[07:40.670 --> 07:46.250]  So, it may reflect that in the Wikipedia listing, so you should be warned about that.
[07:47.250 --> 07:51.510]  And it's got the usual external links, the Federal Trade Commission versus the Main Registry of America.
[07:52.750 --> 07:55.330]  You know, all sorts of things that you might want to look up.
[07:55.490 --> 07:59.050]  So, you can follow this link from my page and get there and see all that.
[07:59.670 --> 08:03.810]  The Perp, this is their website, Domain Registry of America.
[08:05.170 --> 08:11.830]  And an interesting touch, you'll notice that the favicon does show a pseudo-American flag.
[08:12.910 --> 08:26.890]  And yet, if we look back in the Wikipedia listing, just to be sure, we'll see that a web hosting service originally based in the Canadian province of Ontario, now reportedly based in Buffalo, New York.
[08:36.650 --> 08:43.790]  So, of course, they now show North America out of Buffalo, UK in London, and Australia, New Zealand out of Melbourne, Australia.
[08:46.390 --> 08:47.930]  Looks like an ordinary enough website.
[08:48.430 --> 08:51.810]  Oh, and look, they'll take MasterCard, Visa, or an American Express.
[08:53.090 --> 08:55.790]  So, the banks don't care how the money comes in, of course.
[08:56.490 --> 08:59.470]  You can register your domain, renew your name, all that stuff.
[08:59.690 --> 09:02.830]  But just, when this stuff comes in the mail, take a look at it.
[09:03.010 --> 09:09.650]  If it's not from your registrar, it's probably one of these guys trying to get you switched over to them as a registrar.
[09:09.870 --> 09:11.830]  And that's what these things are doing.
[09:13.770 --> 09:15.790]  They have misleading text.
[09:16.030 --> 09:21.410]  But if you read them closely, it says exactly that you don't have to pay this.
[09:21.410 --> 09:22.330]  Notice this is not an invoice.
[09:23.750 --> 09:27.370]  So many people do not read things closely.
[09:29.310 --> 09:34.510]  I mean, people here are a little more skeptical than others when things come in like this.
[09:34.670 --> 09:40.430]  But really, you really need to watch this sort of thing and be careful that you're not taken in.
[09:43.190 --> 09:53.850]  I had meant this to be an interactive discussion, because I figured there might be some interesting scams folks out in the audience know about, and had hoped to have a microphone out there.
[09:54.150 --> 09:58.190]  How about just how right to be theft, which has happened to me?
[09:58.630 --> 09:58.950]  Ah!
[09:59.310 --> 10:02.230]  Would you care to come up and discuss the domain theft that has happened to you?
[10:02.530 --> 10:03.650]  Well, I...
[10:03.650 --> 10:05.690]  We need to get in the microphone.
[10:06.950 --> 10:07.610]  I don't mind.
[10:07.610 --> 10:08.150]  Now it's a matter of record.
[10:08.310 --> 10:09.490]  Now it's a matter of record, yeah.
[10:09.490 --> 10:09.730]  Uh-huh.
[10:10.650 --> 10:11.870]  I've had a number of domains.
[10:12.830 --> 10:22.510]  Started off with some of the earlier registrars, but then all of a sudden I found myself having my domain is sucked out from under me to a new registrar and started paying me for money.
[10:22.910 --> 10:25.990]  This is before I ended up just transferring it from the GoDaddy some years ago.
[10:27.130 --> 10:30.310]  And, of course, they charged me a transfer fee.
[10:30.890 --> 10:35.330]  They charged me a renewal fee that was like three times what it should have been.
[10:35.570 --> 10:39.190]  And I had a hell of a time proving that I did not authorize the transfer.
[10:39.430 --> 10:41.110]  And because they kept denying it.
[10:41.610 --> 10:46.010]  It took me like six months to straighten this out, and I got upset.
[10:48.330 --> 10:48.770]  Yeah.
[10:49.090 --> 10:50.990]  I'm sure upset is not the word, but...
[10:52.130 --> 10:53.350]  This is open record.
[10:53.690 --> 10:54.090]  Oh, yeah.
[10:54.870 --> 11:05.470]  I know that ICANN who receives a bunch of complaints about certain registrars like that who had just out-and-out stolen registration on domains.
[11:06.530 --> 11:08.050]  And, yeah, in the back.
[11:08.670 --> 11:11.750]  And, please, do you care to come up and into the microphone?
[11:11.950 --> 11:11.990]  Sure.
[11:11.990 --> 11:12.130]  Thank you.
[11:12.510 --> 11:12.810]  Judge?
[11:17.880 --> 11:27.680]  I'd just like to point out to a lot of people looking to register domains that some domain checking if a domain is registered is actually a scam.
[11:28.040 --> 11:40.180]  So, if you type in www.thisismydomain.com into their checker, they actually register that domain while you check for it and then attempt to resell it to you at a higher price.
[11:40.360 --> 11:46.080]  So, be very wary of whom you're checking if a domain is registered with before you purchase it.
[11:46.080 --> 11:50.020]  Try and go through popular official channels just to make sure you're safe.
[11:51.500 --> 11:57.360]  I've noticed that sort of thing myself where I will just try a domain name to see if it's available and two days later it's no longer available.
[11:57.960 --> 12:03.760]  So, what I've gotten used to doing now is logging into my registrar and using their WHOIS.
[12:04.720 --> 12:05.660]  Is your registrar?
[12:06.000 --> 12:07.240]  Actually, I'm using GoDaddy.
[12:10.080 --> 12:16.160]  And I figure once I'm logged in, I'm on HTTPS for secure.
[12:17.300 --> 12:21.500]  You know, people can't watch over my shoulder to see what domain names I'm checking out.
[12:21.960 --> 12:26.080]  And I'll, you know, try two or three before I settle on ones I really like.
[12:27.840 --> 12:32.760]  For example, one of the things I'm doing these days...
[12:32.760 --> 12:36.780]  Oh, yeah, the radio stations are starting to come on now.
[12:37.460 --> 12:38.140]  Let's see.
[12:43.190 --> 12:45.970]  PhoneFriendly.com is one of my new domains.
[12:46.110 --> 12:49.370]  What I'm starting to do is writing web pages for mobile phone browsers.
[12:50.270 --> 13:01.130]  Those of my fans who may recall in past years I've spoken about web accessibility and making web pages accessible to all browsers, I've finally stopped beating my head against the wall with Flash.
[13:01.950 --> 13:07.350]  I've just given up and started simply writing pages for smaller web browsers that can't handle Flash.
[13:08.490 --> 13:20.610]  Right now, Apple is my hero for leaving Flash off of the iPhone and iPad because it really just sucks bandwidth for eye candy that mostly contains no content.
[13:20.610 --> 13:24.270]  Where you're using it for instructional purposes, that's good.
[13:24.610 --> 13:32.030]  But for just advertising websites, it's just ridiculous to waste people's time, particularly on low bandwidth devices.
[13:32.830 --> 13:35.310]  There are still some people out there with dial-up.
[13:35.590 --> 13:38.090]  Heck, there's still people out there with web TV.
[13:39.550 --> 13:41.070]  There's no reason that...
[13:41.070 --> 13:46.310]  If you want the business from these people, then your website has to be accessible to them.
[13:47.030 --> 13:51.750]  Interesting thing about my phone friendly website, you'll notice numbered links here.
[13:52.190 --> 14:06.650]  If you're going to phonefriendly.com or ph2.mobi, so it's a little easier on your thumbs, you can just press these numbers on your telephone dial and they will jump to these particular web pages.
[14:07.270 --> 14:12.970]  Now, you'll notice at the bottom I have the asterisk goes to about phone friendly and zero will call my number.
[14:13.870 --> 14:15.870]  The pound key doesn't seem to be in use.
[14:16.030 --> 14:17.450]  What happens if we press the pound key?
[14:18.050 --> 14:18.410]  What?
[14:18.490 --> 14:20.090]  You expect an Easter egg for finding the pound key?
[14:22.250 --> 14:24.070]  So, I do have my phone on occasion.
[14:25.150 --> 14:28.310]  And for your trouble, I will give you access to my humor directory.
[14:29.930 --> 14:34.650]  And a bunch of old text files and fun things out there for you to look at and have fun with.
[14:36.070 --> 14:42.810]  So, you know, I'm still one of those people who thinks the Internet is for fun and for sharing information with.
[14:44.090 --> 14:51.650]  You know, but it's scammers like these guys at the Main Registry of America and others that are just...yes?
[14:53.350 --> 14:55.510]  So, back in the 80s, there was a...
[14:55.510 --> 14:55.890]  Okay.
[14:57.970 --> 15:06.190]  Yeah, back in the old days, there was a similar phony invoice scam that was centered around business registries and listings.
[15:06.430 --> 15:08.990]  I don't know if anyone recalls a thing called the Thomas Register.
[15:09.350 --> 15:09.950]  Oh, yes.
[15:10.050 --> 15:11.810]  Used to be this encyclopedia of businesses.
[15:12.710 --> 15:17.010]  And to advertise or have your company in that register cost quite a bit of money, a few hundred dollars a year.
[15:17.010 --> 15:24.110]  So, of course, there were scammers like this that would say, oh, you know, list your company in our registry or something.
[15:24.310 --> 15:27.410]  And a lot of times, these invoices would come for six hundred dollars and they would just get paid out.
[15:28.890 --> 15:31.370]  And actually, that's a scam that still persists to this day.
[15:31.510 --> 15:32.870]  I still see these invoices coming.
[15:33.010 --> 15:34.930]  You know, it's more related to, like, search engines.
[15:35.090 --> 15:36.750]  Like, you know, be listed on our search engine.
[15:37.010 --> 15:39.310]  You know, here's an invoice for six hundred dollars.
[15:39.490 --> 15:41.210]  And the fine print says you don't have to pay it.
[15:41.350 --> 15:45.750]  But, you know, to your point about a lot of people still being on dial-up.
[15:45.750 --> 15:50.190]  A lot of people, you know, haven't caught on that these are scams.
[15:50.310 --> 15:51.810]  So, they just pay these.
[15:51.910 --> 15:54.070]  I sometimes get these invoices from the accounting department.
[15:54.110 --> 15:54.950]  Like, should I pay this?
[15:55.030 --> 15:56.090]  You know, what is this about?
[15:56.870 --> 15:59.270]  So, you know, this kind of scam still exists.
[16:00.030 --> 16:00.390]  Yes.
[16:02.450 --> 16:03.890]  And I've got the bright lights on my face.
[16:03.990 --> 16:05.210]  I cannot see hands over here.
[16:05.410 --> 16:06.110]  So, just come on.
[16:06.350 --> 16:08.490]  Here, I'll just do this so I can face the audience.
[16:08.970 --> 16:10.370]  He has a couple other things I've seen.
[16:10.490 --> 16:11.710]  And I've got a number of domains.
[16:11.710 --> 16:20.370]  And one of the things is an organization out of Hong Kong that will send you emails saying, I see that you have something dot net or dot org registered.
[16:20.550 --> 16:22.490]  And you need to protect your identity.
[16:22.750 --> 16:25.750]  And so, we can get you the dot com for only ninety-nine dollars.
[16:25.910 --> 16:26.990]  You ought to act right now.
[16:27.230 --> 16:28.530]  And they say, like, we own it.
[16:28.770 --> 16:31.170]  And, like, we would like to sell it to you for ninety-nine dollars.
[16:31.330 --> 16:36.210]  The reality is, as you said, if you go through your own registrar, HTTPS, they don't own anything.
[16:36.710 --> 16:41.110]  However, as soon as you express any interest with them, they're going to snag it.
[16:41.510 --> 16:48.210]  The other thing is that some of these registries have been snagging domains and kind of kiting them, kind of like EF Hutton did.
[16:48.470 --> 16:52.330]  And so, you've got something like seventy-two hours to get the money to ICANN.
[16:52.450 --> 16:53.850]  If it doesn't go, they drop it.
[16:53.930 --> 16:57.550]  But then they had a couple of these set up where they've been kiting millions of domain names.
[16:58.130 --> 17:05.450]  Basically, any type of search engine, or if you go into some of the things that will allow you to say, hey, what terms have been searched for?
[17:05.750 --> 17:07.590]  They say, hey, wow, someone's searching for this.
[17:07.710 --> 17:09.350]  We'll go ahead and start kiting it around.
[17:09.450 --> 17:12.530]  And if you say that you want it, the game stops.
[17:12.530 --> 17:13.330]  They lock it down.
[17:13.490 --> 17:14.150]  Ninety-nine bucks.
[17:14.250 --> 17:14.910]  Hundred ninety-nine.
[17:15.110 --> 17:16.310]  Whatever it is that you want to do.
[17:16.670 --> 17:22.810]  Probably one of the most audacious ones that I've seen involves a paper invoice, which is not an invoice.
[17:23.210 --> 17:24.650]  And it comes from the UK.
[17:24.650 --> 17:31.590]  And I get this about every six months, and it's a $2,995 invoice for 12 special reports.
[17:31.910 --> 17:38.250]  And it's sent to me at a special address that I only use for my domain registration, so I happen to know where I could trace it back.
[17:38.650 --> 17:48.030]  And I can see that if the company were a little bit bigger, as compared to some of the small entrepreneurs, it might just go right into the accounts payable, and the guy gets it.
[17:48.110 --> 17:51.810]  Now, he specifically says at the bottom that technically this is not an invoice.
[17:52.290 --> 17:56.870]  But if you're over 50 years old, you can't read it, it's in presbyopic font, you know, about four point.
[17:57.490 --> 17:59.030]  And so I can see how it...
[17:59.490 --> 18:02.590]  You figure, okay, what's the postage for mailing that stuff?
[18:02.730 --> 18:04.110]  Eh, it's not 41 cents.
[18:04.250 --> 18:07.390]  Actually, it comes from the U.S., but it's returned address from the U.K.
[18:07.530 --> 18:09.390]  So it costs you 44 cents, maybe 50 cents.
[18:09.590 --> 18:14.930]  Well, how many hits do you need at 3,000 bucks to make a 50 cent scam work?
[18:14.930 --> 18:18.850]  And so you find that very much like spam, this thing scales pretty well.
[18:19.230 --> 18:21.450]  And you just got to be careful about that.
[18:21.770 --> 18:26.250]  So anyway, I use the same registrar in general as you do, the GoDaddy.
[18:26.350 --> 18:27.230]  It's HTTPS.
[18:27.550 --> 18:30.390]  And, you know, once you lock things in there, it's pretty good.
[18:30.490 --> 18:35.970]  And you can protect your investment and protect your wallet from somebody else, basically trying to catch on a slow day.
[18:36.230 --> 18:38.530]  Can I do suggestions for that?
[18:38.650 --> 18:38.890]  Sure.
[18:39.590 --> 18:46.290]  First pay, stick other junk mail in and send it back to them so they get charged for it.
[18:46.350 --> 18:48.110]  Yeah, that was Abbie Hoffman, Steal This Book.
[18:48.110 --> 18:56.330]  We remember that from the 60s and 70s, which basically said, if you go to big corporations, take that business reply mail and glue it to a brick.
[18:56.770 --> 18:58.850]  And then let them pay the postage back.
[18:58.990 --> 19:04.090]  And the other one is if you're not interested in the domain names, go show interest in them.
[19:04.450 --> 19:05.690]  But again, they're going to kite...
[19:05.690 --> 19:06.390]  If they buy them up.
[19:06.410 --> 19:07.070]  If they buy them up.
[19:07.130 --> 19:10.390]  But again, they've been kiting them, which means they don't put any real money out.
[19:10.390 --> 19:13.230]  Because all you need to have is two domain registrars.
[19:13.730 --> 19:17.050]  And then as soon as this one's about ready to let go, the next one picks it up.
[19:17.130 --> 19:18.330]  And you pick it up and you pick it up.
[19:18.370 --> 19:19.950]  And this thing just flies around the Internet.
[19:20.870 --> 19:22.990]  And, you know, it's interesting to get a little bit more sophisticated.
[19:23.210 --> 19:30.190]  I remember back in the late 90s, I actually had a one-letter domain registered because it had client-side verification on the minimum of three characters.
[19:31.050 --> 19:35.430]  Well, not to say that client-side verification isn't a good idea, but you could get a one-character domain.
[19:35.430 --> 19:40.390]  The problem is, and the registrar upped their price because it was a foreign nation, to $199 a year.
[19:40.550 --> 19:47.450]  And it really wasn't worth $199 a year to have a, you know, one-character dot something-something domain.
[19:47.690 --> 19:53.230]  Although today now, with all the little text messages, that'd be a great URL shortener.
[19:53.230 --> 19:53.870]  Mm-hmm.
[19:54.550 --> 19:57.310]  But an idea too far ahead of its time is not worth the money.
[20:00.210 --> 20:01.050]  Okay, thank you.
[20:01.190 --> 20:01.430]  Thank you.
[20:01.830 --> 20:03.390]  Um, let's see.
[20:03.750 --> 20:05.290]  We've got the...
[20:06.590 --> 20:08.230]  Any other stories from the audience?
[20:08.550 --> 20:09.410]  I just had a question.
[20:09.550 --> 20:09.990]  Oh, yes.
[20:10.430 --> 20:19.730]  I was curious, like, my impression from hearing these stories is that it's pretty much a scam that you can, that these companies can rather face pretty much no legal consequences whatsoever.
[20:21.950 --> 20:24.650]  Yeah, because somewhere in the...
[20:24.650 --> 20:27.470]  Is that my, is that a correct perception, or am I...
[20:27.470 --> 20:35.630]  Well, somewhere in the letter you get, or the email you get, or the notice you get, there is something that says it is a solicitation only and not an invoice.
[20:35.930 --> 20:37.570]  And that protects them legally.
[20:38.550 --> 20:48.070]  So, yes, they are protected, as it were, from being brought down upon by the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, and other such agencies.
[20:48.590 --> 20:49.110]  Yes?
[20:49.830 --> 20:54.700]  Uh, this is kind of a related domain name scam.
[20:54.980 --> 20:56.740]  A friend of mine is actually still doing this.
[20:56.980 --> 21:05.340]  He will send a spam letter to an owner of a domain, offering to buy it for some large sum of money, but he wants to have it appraised first.
[21:05.540 --> 21:08.260]  And he'll trust a third-party domain appraiser.
[21:09.060 --> 21:09.900]  That's the scam.
[21:09.900 --> 21:14.440]  You pay the domain name appraiser $500 to figure out the value.
[21:14.640 --> 21:15.180]  And by that...
[21:15.180 --> 21:16.080]  By the point...
[21:16.080 --> 21:17.900]  By the time you've paid them, um...
[21:18.920 --> 21:20.960]  Well, the initial offer kind of goes away.
[21:22.780 --> 21:23.260]  Interesting.
[21:23.420 --> 21:23.700]  Thank you.
[21:24.820 --> 21:25.300]  Yes.
[21:29.520 --> 21:30.000]  Okay.
[21:30.580 --> 21:31.620]  Well, um...
[21:31.620 --> 21:33.820]  I wanted to, uh, let it be known.
[21:35.040 --> 21:35.520]  Um...
[21:35.520 --> 21:38.560]  Lots of people have asked me about back issues of, uh, TAP.
[21:38.560 --> 21:41.560]  And, uh, the old newsletter I used to help publish.
[21:42.580 --> 21:42.980]  Um...
[21:42.980 --> 21:46.820]  And a few years back, I had a little CD-ROM with my little book on it.
[21:47.140 --> 21:54.000]  And I've combined that into one disc right now for $30, which I will have, uh, available here, uh, at the conference.
[21:54.900 --> 21:57.000]  Uh, just see me after the talk.
[21:57.220 --> 21:58.440]  Is this a domain scam?
[21:58.640 --> 22:00.300]  This is not a domain scam, no.
[22:01.040 --> 22:05.980]  Uh, it's, uh, a CD of all the back issues of TAP imaged onto the CD.
[22:06.400 --> 22:07.540]  Uh, plus my little book.
[22:07.540 --> 22:10.360]  Uh, you'll find a directory in here marked eReader.
[22:10.640 --> 22:16.260]  So, um, if you want to put it on your mobile phone, if it's a smartphone that can handle eReader software.
[22:16.920 --> 22:22.080]  Uh, I've got eReader software for Windows and Mac on here, plus the PDB file that is the book.
[22:22.380 --> 22:30.540]  And a link out to eReader.com, where you can get the software for, uh, whatever mobile device you've got that they've got the software for.
[22:31.220 --> 22:35.800]  Um, so, please see me after the, uh, we talk about that.
[22:36.380 --> 22:43.320]  Uh, with that, I've pretty much run out of things to say on this, and, uh, won't waste your time on that.
[22:43.660 --> 22:50.260]  Uh, for those of you who don't know me, um, for those of you who do know me, I'm about to tell the 3-2-1 story again.
[22:50.700 --> 22:54.640]  Um, so, it's, it's a, if you want to look up, that's fine.
[22:54.840 --> 22:59.520]  But, uh, I, uh, I keep hearing people who don't know the story, who want to hear the story.
[23:00.260 --> 23:00.820]  Thank you.
[23:01.660 --> 23:11.300]  Uh, I'm, I'm going to, um, my, when I come to these conferences, of course, I'm resting on my laurels from, uh, the 70s and 80s with the TAP newsletter.
[23:11.300 --> 23:21.560]  And, uh, but, at the late 90s, uh, my new claim to fame is that they were splitting the 407 area code around Orlando, Florida.
[23:21.740 --> 23:22.840]  East Central Florida.
[23:23.560 --> 23:26.140]  That's an area that covered the Kennedy Space Center.
[23:26.720 --> 23:31.020]  Uh, an area known as the Space Coast of Florida, which is where I was living for 20 years.
[23:32.100 --> 23:39.600]  Um, well, being an old phone phreak, um, I decided to look into this, uh, public hearing that was coming up.
[23:40.180 --> 23:45.120]  And I went out to a website I knew about, NANPA, the North American Numbering Climate Administration.
[23:45.660 --> 23:47.180]  And I started going down the list.
[23:47.320 --> 23:49.900]  Now, you're phone phreaks here, you know the list.
[23:50.020 --> 23:52.980]  201 New Jersey, 202 DC, blah, blah, blah, et cetera.
[23:53.360 --> 23:56.940]  And gaps marked, available for geographic relief.
[23:58.000 --> 24:01.520]  Well, I'm going down the list, and I see this number, 321.
[24:02.280 --> 24:04.020]  Three, two, why does that ring a bell?
[24:04.260 --> 24:07.600]  Oh, yeah, um, my addition to the Tom Lehrer song.
[24:08.140 --> 24:09.940]  Little Johnny Jones, he was a U.S. pilot, and no shrinking violet was he.
[24:12.020 --> 24:12.780]  Three, two, one.
[24:12.940 --> 24:14.680]  He was mighty proud when World War III was the one.
[24:15.040 --> 24:16.680]  Well, you know, it's the countdown.
[24:17.020 --> 24:18.340]  The 321 countdown.
[24:18.720 --> 24:19.160]  Wait a minute.
[24:19.760 --> 24:21.960]  I'm living here in the countdown capital of the world.
[24:22.960 --> 24:28.780]  Hey, I think it would be cool if the countdown capital of the world had 321 as an area code.
[24:29.260 --> 24:37.620]  Well, it's time for me to bring down the web browser, bring up the word processor, and to begin preparing my, uh, my testimony for the Public Service Commission hearing.
[24:38.540 --> 24:57.620]  See, back in, uh, the 80s, when 718 was split from 212, I went to that Public Service Commission hearing and learned a few valuable lessons because, you know, all the little old ladies, you know, and the seniors, uh, setters, and everybody was there, deploring the extra digits they'd have to dial,
[24:57.780 --> 24:58.340]  and this, that, and the other.
[24:58.460 --> 25:05.300]  And I was the only person at that Public Service Commission hearing, when they split 718, who said yes, of course.
[25:05.480 --> 25:09.860]  It's a technical, uh, requirement that they're running out of, uh, numbers in the 212 area code.
[25:10.160 --> 25:11.160]  Give it to them by all means.
[25:11.280 --> 25:17.600]  However, in return, why not remove the $1 per month touchtone fee?
[25:18.900 --> 25:22.780]  So that people could get touchtone on their phones, and it would be easier to dial the extra digits.
[25:24.020 --> 25:26.360]  Oh, well, uh, blah, blah, blah.
[25:26.580 --> 25:27.780]  This is not a rate case.
[25:29.060 --> 25:30.980]  And, um, I started hanging around.
[25:31.060 --> 25:35.460]  I actually went to a rate case and, um, discussed the matter there.
[25:36.100 --> 25:37.840]  Uh, it was most interesting.
[25:38.100 --> 25:41.520]  Uh, the, uh, phone people just really hated to see me.
[25:41.520 --> 25:42.040]  It was wonderful.
[25:42.560 --> 25:53.540]  Uh, but getting back to Florida, uh, having this experience, I knew enough to print out copies of my testimony for each of the commissioners and one extra copy for the transcriptionist.
[25:54.420 --> 25:59.060]  If you really want to make friends with somebody who counts, make sure you've got that extra copy for the transcriptionist.
[25:59.400 --> 26:01.480]  Because nobody ever gives them a copy.
[26:03.740 --> 26:05.940]  So, um, I went in.
[26:06.580 --> 26:08.060]  I made my little presentation.
[26:08.500 --> 26:17.260]  You know, that not only should, uh, 321 be for the Space Coast of Florida, but here's a printout from the North American Numbering Plan Administration showing it's available.
[26:17.260 --> 26:26.220]  So, the way I like to look at it is, I asked for it, they approved it, so it must be my area code, but I share.
[26:27.680 --> 26:31.880]  However, I did save the best number for myself.
[26:32.980 --> 26:39.680]  And you can reach my cell phone by dialing, three, two, one, liftoff.
[26:44.040 --> 26:44.780]  Thank you.
[26:46.820 --> 26:48.660]  Now, now that took a little bit of doing.
[26:49.720 --> 27:02.920]  Um, uh, I ran down to the kiosk at the mall and went up to the lady from Bell Cell Mobility and said, hi, I've dialed the number, and, uh, I got the recording saying, the number you have reached at Bell Cell Mobility is not currently in service at this time.
[27:03.340 --> 27:03.660]  Cool.
[27:04.140 --> 27:07.080]  And, and, I'd like the number, five, four, three, eight, six, three, three, please.
[27:07.980 --> 27:11.040]  Well, she dials her boys in Melbourne, uh, Melbourne, Florida.
[27:11.040 --> 27:12.960]  Oh, I'm sorry, sir.
[27:13.740 --> 27:17.180]  Terribly sorry, but the boys in Melbourne tell me that that number is unavailable.
[27:17.440 --> 27:18.440]  Totally unavailable.
[27:18.640 --> 27:22.400]  It's in the middle of a, a hundred group that's on a corporate rate.
[27:23.280 --> 27:23.720]  Oh.
[27:24.780 --> 27:25.220]  Okay.
[27:25.820 --> 27:27.040]  So, dejected.
[27:27.320 --> 27:30.020]  I go home, and I power up the web browser.
[27:31.620 --> 27:32.860]  Bell Cell Mobility.com.
[27:33.560 --> 27:33.840]  Mm-hmm.
[27:34.240 --> 27:34.480]  Uh-huh.
[27:34.700 --> 27:35.640]  Oh, about the company.
[27:35.920 --> 27:36.280]  All right.
[27:36.480 --> 27:36.640]  Uh-huh.
[27:36.740 --> 27:37.180]  Very good.
[27:37.180 --> 27:38.320]  I could use some of that information.
[27:38.800 --> 27:38.940]  Ah.
[27:39.280 --> 27:39.400]  Okay.
[27:39.740 --> 27:41.640]  Mark Fiedler is the president of the company at this time.
[27:42.220 --> 27:43.040]  Good to know.
[27:43.220 --> 27:45.200]  But I don't have his email address.
[27:45.380 --> 27:46.260]  Boy, isn't that a shame.
[27:46.400 --> 27:46.680]  Oh, oh.
[27:47.100 --> 27:47.680]  Press room.
[27:48.260 --> 27:48.620]  Okay.
[27:49.000 --> 27:55.860]  Let's go look at the press room, and here's a J Random, uh, uh, press release, and I'll look that up, and, uh, oh.
[27:56.360 --> 27:58.760]  And there's an email address of a publicity flag.
[27:59.240 --> 28:00.940]  First name, underscore, last name, at.
[28:01.780 --> 28:02.100]  Uh-huh.
[28:03.440 --> 28:06.260]  It's time to bring down the web browser, and bring up the email.
[28:07.380 --> 28:09.280]  Mark underscore Fiedler, at Dear Mr. Fiedler.
[28:10.340 --> 28:13.940]  And I explain, you know, what's the Public Service Commission hearing, 3-2-1, blah, blah, blah.
[28:14.160 --> 28:15.420]  Uh, I asked for it.
[28:15.500 --> 28:16.000]  They approved it.
[28:16.080 --> 28:16.700]  It's my area code.
[28:17.100 --> 28:19.020]  Uh, may I please have, 5-4-3-8-6-3-3.
[28:19.120 --> 28:24.420]  So, as of November 1st, 1999, my phone number will be, 3-2-1, liftoff.
[28:25.740 --> 28:26.060]  Send.
[28:29.670 --> 28:33.670]  And as I hit the send button, and look at my watch, it's 6-30 p.m.
[28:34.390 --> 28:34.970]  on a Friday.
[28:36.510 --> 28:38.590]  I can't possibly hear from this guy till what?
[28:39.050 --> 28:40.890]  Probably Monday, maybe Tuesday.
[28:42.850 --> 28:43.330]  Sunday.
[28:44.490 --> 28:45.630]  You have new mail.
[28:47.010 --> 28:47.490]  Cool.
[28:48.030 --> 28:49.070]  And I bring it up.
[28:49.530 --> 28:50.010]  Sure.
[28:50.190 --> 28:51.030]  I'll get my people on it.
[28:51.750 --> 28:53.690]  And the rest, as they say, is history.
[28:55.770 --> 28:59.490]  So, a good hack if I do say so myself.
[29:00.410 --> 29:01.530]  And, and much fun.
[29:02.450 --> 29:04.710]  So, that's the kind of fun I have with this sort of thing.
[29:06.230 --> 29:08.450]  And, um, I thank you all for coming at this hour.
[29:15.420 --> 29:17.280]  Any other questions or anything else?
[29:17.840 --> 29:18.120]  Okay.
[29:18.280 --> 29:18.500]  Thanks.
[29:20.500 --> 29:23.100]  I just think you should have played with the telec stuff right here.
[29:23.560 --> 29:24.740]  Oh, well, the telec...
[29:24.740 --> 29:25.740]  There are some interesting things on there.
[29:26.840 --> 29:29.120]  Um, telec I had much fun with back in the day.
[29:29.780 --> 29:33.480]  Um, I wound up being able to reach any telec machine in the world.
[29:33.480 --> 29:35.880]  Uh, through the Western Union InfoMaster computer.
[29:36.020 --> 29:41.880]  Well, I could reach anyone outside because they all had New York City, uh, TWX numbers that would do the speed and code conversion.
[29:44.180 --> 29:48.520]  Um, I couldn't reach telec machines in the U.S.
[29:48.720 --> 29:48.940]  Okay.
[29:49.160 --> 29:52.360]  Until I found the TWX number for Western Union InfoMaster.
[29:53.220 --> 29:53.580]  Yeah.
[29:53.940 --> 29:54.460]  I'm trying to remember.
[29:54.600 --> 29:55.780]  I lived in, uh...
[29:55.780 --> 29:56.680]  Well, I lived in Switzerland.
[29:57.120 --> 30:01.980]  And, um, at the time, it was, say, 1981 or something like that.
[30:02.100 --> 30:05.100]  They had, like, a, kind of, like, system available for the world.
[30:05.380 --> 30:06.360]  Like, three on the block.
[30:06.640 --> 30:07.000]  Yeah.
[30:07.540 --> 30:09.240]  And, uh, I started to play around with it.
[30:09.400 --> 30:10.880]  And, you know, it turns out it was a phreak.
[30:11.440 --> 30:12.060]  Oh, wow.
[30:12.100 --> 30:14.360]  I didn't figure out how they ever charge for anything.
[30:14.620 --> 30:15.500]  And then, eventually...
[30:15.500 --> 30:16.620]  Based on the Minitel or something?
[30:16.620 --> 30:18.020]  No, it wasn't Minitel.
[30:18.180 --> 30:18.700]  In Switzerland...
[30:18.700 --> 30:19.800]  Minitel was France.
[30:20.020 --> 30:20.540]  They didn't have that.
[30:20.700 --> 30:21.640]  In Switzerland, they have something...
[30:21.640 --> 30:22.880]  They had something called Videopex.
[30:22.960 --> 30:23.700]  Oh, yes.
[30:24.100 --> 30:24.500]  Expensive.
[30:24.980 --> 30:25.800]  And I never...
[30:25.800 --> 30:27.560]  I mean, like, my parents couldn't afford it.
[30:27.580 --> 30:28.180]  So, I never...
[30:28.180 --> 30:29.820]  I never had a chance to play the video.
[30:29.840 --> 30:30.080]  Yeah.
[30:31.060 --> 30:31.860]  And, uh...