bThe rotherhood of G¡ds and ƒetardsb present "Paranoia can be a Good Thing" by Mr. Sandman 1/24/94 "Just cause you're not paranoid don't mean they're not after you." --Nirvana Feeling a little paranoid? You probably should be. Yes, the FEDs are at it again on their crusade to rid the world of those vicious criminals which we call software pirates, phreakers, and hackers. And they have recently made a lot of busts in many areas of which one was a Gƒ site. It seems that Six Feet Under, our old 708 site, was shut down by the FEDs in December. Apparently Six Feet Under was active in the Wares scene and the FEDs shut him down for software piracy along with anything else they could think up. Six Feet Under was supposedly turned in by an informant but I don't know how true this is. Either way it is irrelevant. My point is that the FEDs are still QUITE active and if you are going to play the wares game, though I stress that you don't, then you better get tighter. If you keep quiet and lose the K/RaD type attitude then it is likely you wont get busted because it seems like most of the time WaReZ d00dz are the ones who get busted and the pirates manage to stay free. The first step you must take is lowering your ego. If you are the kind of person who sticks advertisements WITHOUT your phone number in pirated software then you are a ripe target for the FEDs. All you manage to do is attract the attention of the SPA when your BBS starts to get good because they start noticing a whole bunch of files with your BBS add in them. Also, what is the point in putting a numberless advertisement in a file? Nobody will be able to call you if they see it! This is a classic WaReZ d00d thing to do. Nobody needs to see "(908)-TOO-k00l4U" in a stupid little ascii text. It makes you look lame and egotistical and will only get the FEDs onto you sooner. Also, if you DO advertise your number in files you should also stop doing this. Every Sysop likes to get calls but if you are going to play the wares game you simply cannot afford to advertise. Not only will this make you a target of the SPA and FEDs, it will make you even easier to bust because all they have to do is confirm that there is a BBS on that line and they can get a warrant to search your home and confiscate your computer equipment. The safest way for you to get callers is by word of mouth. Send E-Mail to people you thind would make good users inviting them to call your BBS. Have your users do the same so that you know that everybody knows each other on your system. It makes it a lot harder for someone from the SPA or FBI to get access that way. The second step you should take is losing your group affiliations. Though the wares will not come in as fast, you will not have to worry as much about getting busted. Who really cares if the wares are coming in as soon as they are released anyways? As long as they eventually come in that is all that matters. I know of two boards that have no group affils and don't advertise elite and they still manage to get wares just as fast as most of the group affiliated sites. The fourth step should be to lose your New User Voting option if you have one for your BBS. Granted it makes things a little easier for you and gives the users something to do, it makes your system vulnerable. I have found that you can get access to any elite board if you know most of the acronyms and claim to have some wares that are brand new. This is dangerous because the FEDs can do the same thing. It is their job to know the acronyms if they are in the computer crime section and they can surely make up some wares which they claim to have. You should simply have them tell you who they know on your system and that is it. Then you should take the time to verify that he knows those users. Though the safest thing to do would be to not allow new users at all and creating accounts for your users, the above will at least better your chances of not being busted. The fifth step is to voice validate all new users. If they leave you a voice number then call them up and talk with them for a little while. If they don't trust you enough to leave a real phone number then I see no reason for you to trust them with access to your system. Though this doesn't do much (A FED could be very convincing over the phone) it still makes it a little harder for you to get busted. Finally, if you are a sysop who runs a board that deals with Credit Card numbers then your days are numbered. Not only should you lose them because you will get caught but also because it is immoral. Most people never think about what happens after they card some new equipment. They figure they have just ripped off a company which makes a living by ripping off other people. This is true to an extent however you are making things very hard on the people who own the credit card which you stole. When Credit Card Fraud is committed, the first suspects are the owners of the credit card. The police normally obtain a search warrant and tear up the home of the owner searching for the equipment while the credit card company doesn't even care about this because they figure it is the owner's fault that the card number was stolen. (It couldn't be their fault! :] ) This is a shitty thing to do because the people do not deserve to have to put up with this. If you carry credit card numbers, do yourself and the innocent people who own them a favor and stop carrying them. And if you think you wont get caught, well we all know what happened to the Grim Reaper and the Notsohumble Babe a couple years back. Well that is about all you can do to try and keep yourself free. Though I stress that you stay away from the Wares scene, I know that a lot of people will not do this and hopefully this will help keep people out of jail. Afterall, it is sad to think that people are being locked up for copying video games. But even though the above information may help you prolong your freedom, the best thing to do would be drop out of the scene entirely. I hope this info helps. Mr. Sandman P.S. Check out the new Application Generator which Paco and Anaconda made for us. It's really nice! Thanks for the good work on the generator guys!