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USPS text scammers duped his wife, so he hacked their operation

(blog.smithsecurity.biz)
460 points wglb | 3 comments | 08 Aug 24 23:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.429s | source
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0xEF ◴[09 Aug 24 08:27 UTC] No.41199904[source]▶
I hate that it kicks off with "DISCLAIMER: This is not my work. I would never and don't condone illegal hacking of scammers"

You know what? I do. We all should. These scammers are awful people and deserve to be attacked. I am tired of toothless authorities like CISA and the alphabet agencies in the US doing next to nothing about it unless some YouTube scam baiter does the work for them. Scammers destroy people, not just financially, but emotionally as well, even driving some victims to suicide. As far as I am concerned, any wannabe hacker out there should be using these scammers for target practice.

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chii ◴[09 Aug 24 09:19 UTC] No.41200161[source]▶
vigilantism can spiral out of control. While it makes sense in this scenario, it's because the scammer is obviously breaking some law and is criminal. What happens if it wasn't so obvious?
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themaninthedark ◴[09 Aug 24 10:25 UTC] No.41200477[source]▶
If society doesn't want vigilantes than it must take an active role in pursuing and punishing criminals.
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prepend ◴[09 Aug 24 11:27 UTC] No.41200789[source]▶
Society does take an active role through police, fbi, etc etc

Vigilantes are criminals too so society takes an active role in pursuing and punishing them as well.

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themaninthedark ◴[09 Aug 24 15:08 UTC] No.41202604[source]▶
We deem vigilantes criminals because we have no way to hold them accountable if they infringe on someone's rights.

Society is supposed to take an active role, but sometimes they have other priorities.

Big companies getting hacked or scammed make headlines and generate FBI action. People like me, not so much.

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_heimdall ◴[09 Aug 24 17:14 UTC] No.41203680[source]▶
Unless I'm mistaken, we vigilantes are deemed criminals because it is, ironically, against the law to enforce the law on someone else without being granted that authority by the state.

Its still not quite accurate to deem vigilantes as criminals though. Unless they've been charged and convicted they aren't technically a criminal.

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1. kelnos ◴[09 Aug 24 19:41 UTC] No.41204780[source]▶
> it is, ironically, against the law to enforce the law on someone else without being granted that authority by the state.

Not sure why that's "ironic". Seems reasonable. Only people trained and accountable should be doing things that would violate people's civil rights and take away their freedom or possessions.

Obviously the reality of our legal systems fall far short of ideal, but IMO vigilantism is not the answer to that.

> Its still not quite accurate to deem vigilantes as criminals though. Unless they've been charged and convicted they aren't technically a criminal.

You sound like the kind of kid who would put their hand an inch from their sibling's face and constantly utter "not touching! still not touching!" and think that you were "technically" not breaking the rules, so your behavior was ok.

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2. _heimdall ◴[09 Aug 24 20:49 UTC] No.41205304[source]▶
> Not sure why that's "ironic". Seems reasonable. Only people trained and accountable should be doing things that would violate people's civil rights and take away their freedom or possessions.

Maybe ironic wasn't a great fit there, I stand by the rest of the comment though. I blame Alanis Morissette for my inability to recognize irony accurately.

> You sound like the kind of kid who would put their hand an inch from their sibling's face and constantly utter "not touching! still not touching!" and think that you were "technically" not breaking the rules, so your behavior was ok.

There's a legal definition of "criminal". Is it being an annoying little brother to think definitions are important?

3. BoingBoomTschak ◴[16 Aug 24 10:44 UTC] No.41265126[source]▶
What do you do when law and justice become so disconnected that law enforcement actively ignores horrible things happening in your local community (e.g. the Pakistani rape/prostitution gangs in England, with Rotherham as central figure)? Do you just "vote better" and wait a few years for nothing to happen?

Vigilantism is always a symptom of far greater problems, people don't do it just for fun and to cosplay as Batman.