On 6-5-2009 12:02, Invisible wrote:
> scott wrote:
> 
>> It's funny, because just the other day one of my friends sent me an 
>> invite. So I made an account, and I seem to be automatically 
>> "connected" to my friend, but I have no idea how to find or add you...
> 
> Heh, well well, let me see now...
> 
> The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS 
> query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very 
> well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location - 
> Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)
> 
> Searching LinkedIn for a "Scott" located in Germany working for this 
> company gives me a single hit - somebody working in the Munich area as a 
> Senior Engineer, in the "automotice" field, educated at Cambridge. So it 
> seems fairly likely that's you then.
> 
> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)

No, I have never paid anything. Unless things changed recently. I think 
there is a suggestion that you do, but that may be just to fool those 
that not regularly work with computers. ;)

[Apparently this is an anti-spam feature. I like that; charging people
> money is a "feature".]
> 
> I'm not actually sure what information you'd need to be able to make 
> contact. Maybe just my real name? (Which, as Gilles points out, is 
> unfortunately trivially findable...)

It is easy to find for a Gilles, I would never had found it. Yet that 
also means that anyone with not so good intentions probably would have 
found it too. While you though you were still safe. You can trace it 
back to one simple mistake you made. Here in the newsgroup you have been 
careful not to give your family name. I decided not to bother to try and 
hide my RL identity. The effect is the same I guess.

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