I spoke to my mother last night and she told me her EBAY screen name.

So today I get an email with a name that is extremely similar to a good friend of my mother who I have received forwards from many times over the years and with a link that has the same numbers and a few changed letters on it of my mother's EBAY screen name.

So this jackass who is too curious for her own good clicks on the link and it looks like it probably is a sex site but the pictures, (at least on the front page) are of beautiful woman who are not doing anything overtly sexual. I did not click further.

So maybe it is a coincidence that the link in the email looked just like my mother's screen name that I only found out about last night from my mother on the telephone, and that email looked like it was from my mother friend who's emails have been forwarded to me many times. (My mother's friend's name is Mabel and this woman's name was Mildred....in my mind very easy to assume it is the same person.

The problem is this.....I have had these things happen in the past. The fact that the information for this one came from MY TELEPHONE CONVERSATION scares the shite out of me.

...for security reasons - I don't think it's a coincidence.

Now when you bid on something they use the first and last letters of your screen name with astericks in between.

Ebay screen names are just that. They don't contain your email address in the name. Unless you use a very unique name what are the chances of someone having a similar name. I've gotten emails that at first glance looked like someone I know, but a closer look at the return address shows a difference. And if someone was rapping your phone, there would be better reasons than to send porn spam.

overlapses connect.. Everyone has a file on them.. Starts now at birth cetificate/ social and continues on through school and jobs and life.. Part of it is selling stuff and monitoring people for their behavior patterns.. They want to know when and where there might actually be an uprising.. They've infiltrated my activist group a few times now..

agent Mike.. I suspect something fishy with one of my neighbors.. So, I started giving a description and said.. if your bothering to listen here's the details.. phone starts clicking.. it was kinda funny. Anyway, we know they are collecting our e-mails, phone calls, and monitor our purchases from credit activity. I'm not extreme and I really don't care, other than that its illegal to spy on us in USA without a warrant. I'm not paranoid; just know it happens... It started after assoc. and working with CodePink. Lately, I've been so busy with the job and kid in school that I haven't participated as much as I'd like to.. I do stay in contact with my Repug house rep.. Apparantly, I'm the only one who sent him a Christmas card.. I do believe its time he's replaced.. but you never know.

In the hodge podge of fake names that show up in my trash mail, some very odd, unusual, and highly personal ones...maybe just a coincidence...they couldn't possibly have culled them from the body of my correspondence....

me. Not that I am anything but a trouble maker who writes anything she wants to anyone she wants.

2 friends of mine have had the secret service show up at their houses. Neither of them were involved directly in politics but both were advocates of other things.

Maybe the job title of these people is "professional scarer in the hopes the person will shut the fuck up"

when she was alive.. It was funny.. we used to mess with it and she'd get a kick out of it.. My digital phone is really bad.. you can hear clicks, pops, and people talking everyonce in a while.. AND I'm not sure if my mom's suitcase was inspected on the way down and on the way back from my house, unless they were monitoring the activity.. We made the plans over the phone and I had her confirmation stuff on my e-mail.. It was just odd that they picked her luggage twice to rummage through.. It'll be interesting to see what they do with ours when we go up for my sisters wedding..

seem to be on my computer, the mouse will be moving around on its own and I'll take it to drag it.. and it'll move somewhere else.. It's rather amusing at times.. other's very frustrating..

Do you have anitvirus there is a very good free German one if you do not. (at www.download.com);

Definately use Spyware Blaster and Spybot search and destroy weekly if not daily, both free or by donation but the free version requires you to do the update and scan.

You should be using a supported software operating system such as XP or Vista and or an up to date browser. and it should not allow sharing.

the techie geeks at central or could be someone who gains access through central. Not much I can do with that.. Now, with my home computer, my husband has it well secured and monitored. He's a geek and does side computer repair.. I haven't noticed it there.. not to say they couldn't..

computer.

How: Right click MyComputer. Left click properties. Then look for/click on the remote tab and uncheck the remote assistance box.

MS will tell you this a wonderful tool for call centers to help solve customer problems, it is. But... it also tell the internet world your computer is wide open for inspection. If you call a help center they may/will tell you to set on, in order to help but turn it off when not being used.

I am FIRMLY convinced. Have closely watched that words are in SENDER and SUBJECT fields of junk mail match or almost match what we have been looking at, talking about at home. For four years now, we have noticed a definite correlation between those words in junk mail headers and any online searches, browsing, and, yes, PHONE conversations over the land line (cell phone only used for emergencies while traveling) we have engaged in recently. Try it. Google a few subjects, visit sites then notice the shit in your inbox.

If you are (or someday could be) in any position where you could be a threat or asset to cheney, I have no doubt your phone calls and web history is kept handy for blackmailing purposes (it would explain a LOT about Congress ;) ) For the rest of us, we are just cogs in the great consumer machine. They wanna be able to give the corporate masters lots of data on how to better muddle and manipulate us.

Yes, I AM that cynical. And observation has shown me it has nada to do with paranoia.

You can hear quick sound drop-outs on our phone line damn near every call, and have heard both explanations for it: its either a monitored line, or it's a glitch in the system. Makes me recall a line from John Sinclair, in that recent John Lennon doc, The U.S. Versus Lennon. He said that what the govt was actually up to always exceeded their worst "paranoid" suspicions.

I see no similarities other than both starting with M.

fer sure

I'd receive emails from people claiming that I owed them
money for things I 'purchased' and they were getting
'authorities' after me... etc etc.

I notified e-bay, and closed my account.

Oddly, my screen name was my maiden name, which is
a very odd european name... (if the name pops up here
in the states, I know its a relative)..

So there's no way that there were 'little similiarities.'

I'm getting rather paranoid, and totally understand the
OP's anxiety.

and took out part of my email addy.