hyperlexian wrote:
sliqua-jcooter wrote:
STOP USING ALL CAPS IN THREAD SUBJECTS!! !! !! !!1!! !!11!! !! !!one!!!1!!!oneone! !eleventy
These people are *NOT* hackers. Not in any way, shape, or form. They sign up for a forum account and start sending out messages to people. Again, not. in any way. even remotely. hacking.
That is all.
OH LOOK AT YOU SWOOPING IN WITH YOUR TRUTHY "FACTS"

People misusing the phrase hacker is something that particularly sets me off, because I am a hacker - and rather proud of that fact.
Just because someone uses a computer to commit a crime, doesn't make them a hacker - at best it makes them a technologically literate criminal. The scammers that are posting on this forum have been doing this for decades, using fax blasts, snail mail with fake letterhead, etc.
The only thing that's changed is the Internet lets them send out vastly higher quantities of junk for the same cost. They're not "hacking" in the same way debt collection agencies aren't "hacking" when they use facebook to track down debtors.