* Mike wrote, On 25/09/2008 23:05:
On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:20:18 +0100, Adam
wrote:

There are more snitches and snoops watching Usenet than you might
think. I once asked a simple tax question and got an email from Inland
Revenue the next day telling me I had overpaid my tax so could I
please fill out my personal details and email them back. I'm PAYE and
have no other income stream so I'm certain it was a fishing
expedition...

I'm sure it was a fishing expedition but perhaps not from the Inland
Revenue. Are you sure about the sender of the email? I ask because
there's an extremely common scam whereby fraudsters impersonate the
Revenue (usually the American one as it happens), offer a tax rebate
to your credit card and ask for the details of your credit card,
including the CVV number, your Mother's maiden name and an assortment
of other interesting data. What happens next is predictable.

By coincidence, I've just received a warning about these scams.
There's more information on the IR website, at
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-attempts.htm.


--
Cheers, Serena

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. (Frank Capra)

Big Les Wade wrote:

Excellent - thanks for that. I expect, though, there'll be the usual
replies from people accusing you of being a "conspiracy theorist" for
suggesting that the police do this.

A Chief Police Officer has already been reprimanded for placing unfair
pressure on volunteers to give "informed" consent for their DNA profile
to be retained. IIRC he used the "if you're innocent you have nothing to
fear" argument.

If ICBA I'd go looking for the press report.

lid wrote:

As for people being framed, the first one out of Google:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/258367.stm

'The judge said the Flying Squad officer who "alone had taken the saliva
samples from the masks" was arrested and charged last summer with
offences involving dishonesty'

Thanks for finding that. I had seen the item earlier this year, but
could not find the link again.

On 2008-09-25, Adam wrote:

There are more snitches and snoops watching Usenet than you might
think. I once asked a simple tax question and got an email from Inland
Revenue the next day telling me I had overpaid my tax so could I
please fill out my personal details and email them back. I'm PAYE and
have no other income stream so I'm certain it was a fishing
expedition...

I hope you didn't e-mail all the information back without checking
with the IR by phone first. It sounds like a phishing scam to me.

IMO a DNA profile isn't much of a worry. It is, after all, simply a
string of numbers much like telephone number.

If I understand the science correctly, a DNA match doesn't involve
comparing whole DNA molecules. First the DNA is broken down into smaller
molecules and then the frequency of those molecules is counted.

To fake a DNA match from a crime scene you don't need to fake or acquire
DNA. You just need to fake the molecules that the DNA profile looks at
in the appropriate quantities.

This means you can frame someone by seeing only a copy of their profile.
You don't need to take any of the (low) risks involved in obtaining a
real sample in the wild, no risk someone will miss the sample you've
stolen, you don't even need to be in the same country as the person
being framed and you don't risk being connected with them.

lid wrote:
IMO a DNA profile isn't much of a worry. It is, after all, simply a
string of numbers much like telephone number.

If I understand the science correctly, a DNA match doesn't involve
comparing whole DNA molecules. First the DNA is broken down into smaller
molecules and then the frequency of those molecules is counted.

To fake a DNA match from a crime scene you don't need to fake or acquire
DNA. You just need to fake the molecules that the DNA profile looks at
in the appropriate quantities.

This means you can frame someone by seeing only a copy of their profile.
You don't need to take any of the (low) risks involved in obtaining a
real sample in the wild, no risk someone will miss the sample you've
stolen, you don't even need to be in the same country as the person
being framed and you don't risk being connected with them.


I seem to recall a case where a nutcase woman went down a guys dustbin
and took used condoms which she then rubbed on herself. 100% DNA match.

I seem to recall a case where a nutcase woman went down a guys dustbin
and took used condoms which she then rubbed on herself. 100% DNA match.

Are you thinking of this one?
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2666890/detail.html

It must be pretty thick rapists who don't have a rummage around the
local verges, dustbins or sewer diving beforehand.

wrote in message
...
I seem to recall a case where a nutcase woman went down a guys dustbin
and took used condoms which she then rubbed on herself. 100% DNA match.

Are you thinking of this one?
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2666890/detail.html


No, it was a UK case, search for "Maria Marchese".

Marcus

"The Todal" wrote in message
...

So I can imagine that if my
deceased father was once suspected of murder and I supplied DNA and the
police decided that the DNA proved his guilt, I would feel some resentment
about it. For me, it wouldn't be about *my* civil liberties and my right
to
commit a future crime and be undetected. It would be about the reputation
of
my father, condemning a dead man without giving him lawyers to argue his
case and blemishing his reputation forever.

Well that is another reason for objecting but not the primary one. There
are far too many people in this country who will attribute my reluctance to
giving a sample as either (i) a desire to cover up the guilt of my father or
(ii) a fear of implicating myself in a despicable crime. Well bullies who
say such things are unlikely to be stopped by my acquiescing. They are
likely to be inspired to even greater extremes. They will be stopped by
people standing up to them.

"Mike" wrote in message
ton.net...
On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:20:18 +0100, Adam
wrote:

There are more snitches and snoops watching Usenet than you might
think. I once asked a simple tax question and got an email from Inland
Revenue the next day telling me I had overpaid my tax so could I
please fill out my personal details and email them back. I'm PAYE and
have no other income stream so I'm certain it was a fishing
expedition...

I'm sure it was a fishing expedition but perhaps not from the Inland
Revenue. Are you sure about the sender of the email? I ask because
there's an extremely common scam whereby fraudsters impersonate the
Revenue (usually the American one as it happens), offer a tax rebate
to your credit card and ask for the details of your credit card,
including the CVV number, your Mother's maiden name and an assortment
of other interesting data. What happens next is predictable.

Yes absolutely. About three weeks ago I received an email purportedly from
the "Home Office"!
It was quite funny really as, provided I supplied the usual confidential
Bank Account details, they would recompense me with c. 2,000 Euros(!) as
compensation for all the scam emails I had received

10/10 for ingenuity.
0/10 for plausibility.

--
Joe Lee