#its terribly made but you get the point

[quietwingsinthesky]

oh, yeah, another thing i noticed that was odd about s5 in comparison to earlier seasons was how much they relied on like. not the history of the doctor, exactly, but the image of that history. whether from little easter eggs of the first doctor’s picture popping up everywhere to i think the two(?) times in the season we get a montage of past doctors. and i honestly can’t remember anything like that happening earlier (with the exception of the time crash short, which felt more substantial to me and was also like. 7 straight minutes of david tennant being allowed to fangirl.)

and i say ‘the image’ because hell knows the RTD era was pulling from doctor who past left, right, and center, but it rarely felt like a moment of ‘look at this old thing, you remember old thing? old thing was cool and so are we for continuing it.’ and more like ‘here’s a species/character/etc from classic who. and here’s how they’ve changed and fit into the new world we’ve built for the show.’

I guess, the difference here for me is that. i haven’t watched classic who. s5 shows me a slideshow of doctors and to me, those are the guys i once ranked by how sexy i think they are. and not much else. i don’t have an emotional connection to an image. but take, say, school reunion? an episode that was my favorite even back when i was a kid specifically because i adored sarah jane? i had no idea who she was then, i only just figured out a little bit ago which doctor she traveled with, and exclusively all i’ve watched of her is that episode in s2 and the sarah jane adventures. and yet, that episode, without the context there for me, managed to make sense to me. i’m sure it was probably even more impactful to fans of sarah jane from classic who, but it didn’t lose its impact without that knowledge.

so, that’s a shift. i don’t want to say it’s a negative one, exactly, because maybe people who have seen classic who like these references and i’m missing something. but, to me, it feels a little more shallow.

#sorry if i kept talking about sarah jane and school reunion we’d be here all day. her reintroduction to nuwho is phenomenal. #even without classic who. you get it. you get what the doctor did to her. you understand how much it hurt her. by giving her time with rose #we’re able to use what we know about rose to parallel her with sarah jane and infer that sarah jane was a lot like her once. it’s good! #and seeing pictures of the first doctor is like. very funny because he’s a silly little guy. but i don’t know that man. #but yeah. another example i’d put out there is Dalek. and yes everyone loves dalek we all know its good. but. without the context of classic #who. this was the choice of how to reintroduce the daleks to the audience. not as silly tin can killing machine. but as this. this wretched #and pitiable thing that dies to see the sunlight. this monster that is. in its last moments. capable of change. however small. #(a theme that i think links up well to evolution of the daleks in s3. i think its interesting how we’re invited to see the daleks first as #beings that have had a great and terrible injustice done to them. (in episode: the dalek being chained up and tortured. in a wider context: #how daleks are made at all.) before we’re introduced to them as a galaxy-wide threat intent on inflicting that same suffering on the rest of #the universe.) #MY POINT IS: nuwho and classic who mix well when the classic who elements are reintroduced in a way that makes sense both for people with #the back knowledge of classic who (and maybe they get even more out of it) while ALSO makign sense to people who’ve only seen nuwho. #anyway. this is a small thing its far from like. a show-ruining point. its literally fine lol. #doctor who #dw lb

[tarragonthedragon]

i keep seeing people criticising tv shows and movies by being like "i thought x character was bad but im NOT BLAMING the actor i think the actor is GREAT and WONDERFUL i blame the WRITERS and DIRECTORS"

usually this is directed at female characters and characters of colour and like while i understand the impulse to not dunk on actors and actresses who are more likely to be receiving really shitty hate comments just for existing i do think a) the attacks on writers and directors are also really mean and personal sometimes? and also b) this feels incredibly performative

#my peak moment of this is someone who commented on annabeth being black in the percy jackson series #and said it ruined the entire point of her character and made the show basically unwatchable from the get go #and then added “but no hate to leah! shes an amazing actress she's gonna be fantastic!” #and like. fantastic at what. what does that mean #thats an extreme example usually when i see this it's more like #idk like the comment i saw about ghosts cbs which said sam was too cheerful but that rose mciver portrayed her perfectly #and had a lengthy diatribe about how a character being perky and happy was irredeemably terrible writing #and like #how is the actress not a part of that? #what do you think her job is? #her job is not just having a face and saying words in any even halfway decent production the actors are *part* of the writing and direction #film media is a collaborative process #and you can hate the result but like youre rarely gonna be able to single out the one person who caused a thing you hate #and also also. its super obvious that people are just adapting to it being socially less acceptable to bully actors on social media #writers and directors however you can still get away with harassing

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

god help me i'm going insane about dickson xenoblade again

#this is what i get for thinking about lord of the rings too hard this week (specifically denethor / gríma / saruman and the like) #thinking about the way anthony may delivered “when will you learn you HAVE no future?” #he thinks shulk is fully DEAD at that point. he thinks HE killed him. which he very much meant to. but now that the kid is no longer there #now that the terrible future he's been preparing for and actively working to bring about has in fact come about #i don't know that dickson really cared anymore. he played his part he did the deed expected and he did it unquestioningly. So What Now? #well. now nothing. now the world that he spent so long biding his time in; so long getting enmeshed in (even for nefarious purposes) #is about to end; is about to be gone forever. #sure zanza will probably just create another world and maybe he (dickson) will have Even More Power in the new one #(though that's not a given! he doesn't know for SURE his lord and god will keep his promise!) #but like. what the hell does he care at this point #dickson SAYS he wants power but i suspect that long long ago what the giant dickson really wanted was SURVIVAL. #we never get to know just how he became a disciple or what the giant civilization looked like in its heyday or how it ended #but in MY headcanon dickson saw that some kind of destruction coming and he wanted Out #and maybe he hated his peers and figured any power and prestige that came from this bargain was just a bonus #i think he thought of himself as a saruman type: powerful; remote; far above the petty troubles of mortals (even the long-lived high entia) #but i have always headcanoned that by his later days (i.e. when he started engaging w/colony 9; machina village; etc. in earnest) #he committed too hard to the bit and started “going native” as it were; started to give a shit in ways that he would never dare admit #maybe not as much of a shit as; you know; a regular guy would. but more than an immortal disciple and horseman of the apocalypse should. #and all the time knowing that all the world he'd seen would soon be gone #maybe everyone else can get fucked. but shulk had to die too. and that's what their god MADE them to do. #he can't allow himself to care or to hope for another option bc in his mind it's already over; decided; that's it #what else can you do in the face of ultimate power but bow to it and take whatever scraps may fall to an obedient servant? #“you have no future” nor does he except that shulk came back. except that the peoples of bionis/mechonis just wouldn't accept Fate. #and in some final rebellious corner of his mind he starts putting eggs in shulk's basket. “if they can't even defeat telethia they won't #stand a chance against me (or zanza)” so let's see if they CAN. oh they did? how about a dragon? oh fuck they defeated the dragon too? #well fuck. maybe there WAS another option all along. but will/can they stand against me; the final disciple? oh they can?? #guess i'll die then bc i'm not looking THAT in the face. i am NOT unpacking my cowardice/failure/lack of vision after all these years. #good luck with that tho <3 you're welcome for the training btw. where i'm going i don't have to see your trauma assuming you live that long. #dickson #xenoblade

[stickyvoidpaper]

PIRATE INGO PIRATE INGO PIRATE INGO PIRATE INGO

#you cant judge a book by its cover! #hello good sirs can i get passage to Unova :) #I have made a terrible mistake #submas #ingo #idk if im gonna do an au outta this. i got enough aus at this point #pokemon legends arceus #i just think hed find some pirates and be like #ingo for sure gets into situations by just taking ppl at their word

[arolesbianism]

I've been playing the new cotl update and I generally like it but god do I fucking hate like all of the balance changes just let things be strong man

#rat rambles #like Im ok with the dice relics getting nerfed because they were pretty rediculous before #but making them fragile relics is absolutely terrible and unacceptable #I dont wanna be mean abt it but like time and time again theyve nerfed things way too fucking hard and only some of them get unfucked #like I am not even slightly exaggerating when I say this one change has made all of the dice the worst relics in the game #making them a one time use just completely fucked up the balance of them especially when theres other relics that are also deeply powerful #for getting health And are good damage dealers #it also showcases that they do not understand just how bad most of the fragile relics already are #like genuinely I am baffled by this decision its been making this update so much harder to enjoy #also apparently they massively lowered the level cap which? sucks so fucking bad? #like there's ways to let things be strong without being overpowered #like literally just make it harder to level up followers as they get to the stupid high levels thatd be a much better way to go about it #because lemme tell you its obnoxious to go out of your way to pour that much attention into a follower but rewarding #and for the dice and similarly broken relics just add an extra slow charge speed #you can throw kalamars ear into that pile too along with the bomb one since it's never worth picking up as a fragile relic #like I do genuinely like this new update and what it adds so far its just that the actual yknow gameplay got a smidge bit worse #and since I like the combat in this game any negative changes on it hit much harder than most quality of life stuff #also for the actual new content I do like it but I do hope this is the last big content update at least for a while #I worry abt the game becoming too crowded with mechanics to the point it stops feeling like a coherent game #and to be clear in my personal opinion this update is already bluring the lines of those fronts #again I do genuinely rly like this update it just makes me worry abt the future of this game #I hope if they do make another larger update they focus more on expanding upon already existing mechanics instead of making new ones #like I think sin could rly use more things to do with it #like with how many ways there are to generate it its strange that almost all of the things you do with it are cosmetic #although tbf I havent been dungeoning much today so maybe theres some hidden stuff to use sin for there lol #also one huge thing that Im confused by is the choice to put the sewing building on the first tier of the inspiration tree #cause it uses silk. aka the stuff from the last dungeon most players unlock #I feel like itd be more appropriate to put it as an ofbranch of the housing tree #so basically my review of this update is that its fun and I like the new mechanics but they do feel a bit half baked #and Im not a fan of the balance changes and Im also not a fan of the gun but thats more of a me problem

[liquidstar]

yurikuma arashi is probably ikuhara's weakest work imo but i HAVE to give it credit for slapping the word yuri onto fucking everything

#im not saying its terrible btw its just. well its no utena or sarazanmai. but it does have a framed photo that says Yuri Friends #i too am ''yuri friends'' #ik it means lily too ofc but something tells me they didnt mean it in the lily way idk #i think my biggest gripe w yurikuma though was the oversexualization. and ofc i KNOW that it was kind of the point #in some respects at least #but i think there can still be ways of portraying than in a more tactful way #like utena's approach was better i think. it didnt have to be like super in your face but still made it absolutely devastating #while in yurikuma's case its honestly hard to differentiate it from just actual fanservice. it doesnt seem distinct from it at all #so i feel like it couldve been more polished... less gauche? #i get what they were going for yeah but i also dont think you can brush of critique of it w just ''well its on purpose'' yknow? #maybe if they had more time to flesh it out it couldve worked. yurikuma felt a bit limited w its 12 episode run #unlike sarazanmai which absolutely nailed it w a short run #but i do think the payoff at the end was good. like the story of the forest girl and the sky girl (or something) breaking the barrier #that was pretty cool like it had some real stuff going for it too so its like. not unsalvageable lol

[kraviolis]

as i get older and continue to exist online i cant help but question why so many adults got into arguments with me over fandom bullshit when i was a teenager, and yet i also completely understand why they did.

#teenagers are so dumb godbless. and i dont mean intellectually. they can be pretty smart but all of them have -20 wisdom #i had to delete tiktok to prevent myself from continuing to argue with 14 year olds in the comments #bcus as an adult i really shouldnt but theyre so. GAH #here's the argument that was the final straw for me: #child: *the wildest and stupidest interpretation of a fictional media ive ever seen* #me: actually *explains the actual story and intention of the creator* #child: where does it say that #me: it doesnt say it explicitly but if you just look at the subtext and use media literacy its incredibly obvious #child: What Episode Does It Say That #it was that point i checked their profile and saw that theyre 14 and immediately deleted the app #how can i in good faith gonna argue about subtext with someone who probably hasnt even read of mice and men. or fucking romeo and juliet #im not gonna let myself stoop so low. im fucking 21 years old #but oh my god. the way that they talk down at you as if they arent currently in a developmental stage thats basically the sequel to toddler #infuriating. #and i was just as bad as a teenager i know for a fact i was because i was deep in the tumblr discourse trenches as a 14 y/o #i made the worst decisions as a 14 y/o #and i cant even just sit back and try to explain to a teen why i cant take them seriously bcus theyre just gonna get mad #and i cant even blame them bcus its not their fault!!! theyre literally just going through their terrible twos again!!! #oh my god. im so sorry to all the people who had to deal with me when i was a teenager #krav talks

[sexybabystevie]

how you know things are bad - i deeply miss dean winchester

#this is your warning these tags are personal and highly bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #em speaks #spn #no but like he GETS it. he's literally objectively the most fucked up guy ever and he GETS it #he has no self worth and does everything for everyone else and cares way too much about things to the point that he makes poor choices #and he's lonely and he would do anything for the ones he loves and all he wants is peace!! #he's angry and he's passively suicidal - like its the only and most obvious answer to anything - and he had to do terrible things just to #take care of sam when he was only a child!!!!! #god. just god #sorry to everyone here these are the unfortunate reasons why i relate to this man #just a big tbh i attached onto him so quickly because he made very concerning suicidal remarks in s4 and i nearly sobbed because i didnt #know it was capable for me to feel seen by someone who didnt even exist but at least it was someone??? #im pathetic i know #and im rambling i know #but i watched that scene and i got it. and i was in the most shitty mental place ever (which i am. again) and ofc thats why i wanna rewatch #so maybe i pathetically feel a little less alone #:") #anyway this was way too personal and if i can remember then im deleting this later. im sorry if you had to see this #tw mentally ill #tw suicide #tw vent

[lhrry]

x

#my second worry is more an emotional reaction but yeah as a European fan (so still privileged in comparison to eg asian and African fans) #I feel treated unfairly it is what it is ok #I don’t like how us-centric they’re making him as a uk artist even though I get the financial reasons for it #but from a very personal pov ok fine line is a HUGE part of me it got me through a terribly fucked up time #and I really waited for that tour and to hear the album live for so long (and there was no hs1 show here and I could not travel then #to go see him so this is my first time seeing him since my 1d show back in 2015) #and I simultaneously want to hear hs3 tour on its own #now I do feel we’re going to get a consolidating mix up here and I don’t like it selfishly ok #I’d ideally want him to take a break and then tour it in the us and elsewhere but it does not seem to be the case and it just leaves me not #feeling too well or important as a fan #NOW the thing is I love Harry with my entire heart and this worries me a bit because this is already making me feel disconnected from him #not him him as a person because I feel like I know him as a fan but this leaves many fans not feeling so great and it’s not a good feeling #to have resonating through your fan base #for years I’ve felt they’ve made him too detached and distant and dehumanised and i really thought they’d rework it now but this doesn’t #seem to be pointing that way #I really am seeing so many disappointed and disheartened people as well as people genuinely worried for him #and that’s not really what you want your fan base to feel right before you release your new album do you?? #and to be very clear i don’t agree with boycotting and i am happy for us fans #and I wouldn’t want him to add Europe shows to the detriment of his health which could easily be the case #but this is not handled well at all and I at this point don’t even want to see where they’re heading with all this

[trans-leek-cookie]

Hm I'm not putting this in yhe main tags bc. Yeah but I'm blocking ppl who call the step mother hot

#Like ok she kills people and is rebelling or whatever. She abused 2 children. One if whom we saw be abused physically and mentally in CANON #BEFORE NOW! YOU STUPID FUCKS. And I don't want to overstep bc I am not Black but both of her main victims are Black and I feel #Very very uncomfortable with people being able to. Ignore that? Like I don't know if she has a Canon/coded race so I can't speak to #In story dynamics and I can't say if it's intended as a pattern but it's genuinely something I think we should like. Acknowledge. #I dont CARE about you enjoying her killing people. That's like fine who gives a shit. I do care about the fact people seem to have assumed #That her being given nuance means it's like. Fine to gloss over the fact she is Canonically an abuser? Like look me in the fucking eyes. #She has abused Cinderella Pinocchio and her stepdaughters! I don't CARE if you want to say the first parts are because of the authors. #It. Happened. Oh wow she was written this way she didn't chose CINDERELLA DIDNT CHOSE TO BE ABUSED! AND OH HOW TERRIBLE THAT YOU WERE #ABUSIVE SO WE COULD LOVE THE PROTAG. HOW DO YOU THINK SHE'D FEEL IF SHE KNEW HER ABUSE WAS A CHOICE MADE TO MAKE HER ''BETTER'' AND #''MORE LIKEABLE''. LIKE SHE HAS TO HAVE THIS KIND OF PAIN JUST SO PEOPLE LIKE HER. DO YOU THINK THATS BETTER? THAT ITS LESS SOUL CRUSHING?? #AND THENP PINOCCHIO. She. CHOSE. That. Pinocchio chose to lie to save his father. She chose to hurt his father to control him. Also more #Lore based but it's implied she did her story again. She has Cinderella's father in an etching. So. It's likely after she got this power #She STILL chose to hurt Cinderella. She chose to be the villain. She CHOSE this. She chose to hurt her again. She chose to be abusive again #Again. Implied. But I don't know what else it would imply. She broke off Pinocchio's nose. She saw him Vulnerable literally told in #By his father (even untrue as it was) that he shouldn't have been made. And she used that. She lovebombed him with promises of a mother and #Reassurance and GIFTS TO FUCKING MANIPULATE HIM. And I believe in adventuring party it was said that Pinocchio literally could not #Recognize what she did to him as abuse/manipulation because of the fact he had been taught that if something hurt him he like. Deserved it. #Or that it was in some way Correct. And that getting what he WANTED was wrong. She took advantage of that to use him literally use him #To the point he was willing to use his strings (something he saw as a trap for him literally representing CONTROL OVER HIM just to escape #Her he was literally GIVING SIGNIFICANT PARTS OF HIS AUTONOMY UP TO ESCAPE HER I DONT THIMK THIS IS FUCKING SUBTEXT GUYS) #Ppl say they want evil women and then act like the women who aren't evil aren't that bad actually because that would COMPLICATE THINGS HUH? #I'm so FUCKING MAD. Like use your brain you stupid cunts

[truethes]

crying over the reality that in both living and immortal life, kuro was manipulated into being someone's martyr using his very own saviour complex.

#❛ ♡ › jupiter : 𝐨𝐨𝐜. #this is an original c.3 enemy acc i would fight flamingo lady in a heartbeat ngl #the original village practically raised him with the mentality of believing that he owed them because they took him in after his parents #passed. #and then c.3 teamed up with lil.y ( and perhaps j.eje and hu.gh ) #to manipulate ku.ro again. lil.y spent countless years coming to where he was. being so polite to him and ge.ar but repeating a constant #reminder to him just what exactly he had to do. without anyone noticing until it was too late #mah.ru and kur.o have the same complex and he's only now seeing the negative view for the people who love you and its beautiful but i think. #them going to do everything tg breaks my heart #i know the sv ending will be them going against tsub.aki tg but honestly praying we get a bit where mis.ono greed pair gluttony pair. #gea.r and youta.rou and maybe even tets.u ts.urugi and the rest of the good c.3 members came to help ... i think tht would be extremely #impactful to their own trauma in it's own way. #if sens.ei is legit coming back bc c.3 made ku.ro do the exact thing he saved him from doing i wouldnt be surprised at #this point but then i would be torn bc the reasoning good ... execution terrible #anyway sv spoiler week this week. WE'RE GONNA SEE THE WINNER OF THE FIGHT #( assuming its il.dio and lawl.ess so hoping we get some cute scenes afters but cant say anything--- )

[scoreplings]

almost four months out from ending a ten year long friendship / three year long relationship. seven years of saying we’d live together our whole lives and planning the house we’d move into together. where we’d build our life together. and that life isn’t going to exist now. and it sucks. and it hurts. but i am doing better now than i have in years. and its bittersweet because of that pain. but its still good. i have people in my life who love me. i have family, and friends, and a boyfriend i love so much it makes me feel crazy. and i’m about to move across the country and get a chance for as fresh of a start as i could ask for. anyone who’s hurting or hopeless or heartbroken i want you to know things do get better. you do get over it. you do keep on living. you find people and things that make you happy and you move on. you’ve got better things coming for you ❤️

#i am stupid in love and i was thinking today #like what if that guy was it for me yknow? what if he was my soul mate what if the fact we were together so long means we were meant to be #together forever and ive made a terrible mistake and i should have tried harder #but yknow what? #1) he never tried for me. it was always me reaching out to fix things no matter who’s ‘fault’ an issue was. and i dont want to do that for #the rest of my life. #and 2) so what! i was not happy with him. i was miserable to the point of sucidality while i was with him. if that’s my soulmate then i dont #want one! #and of course getting him out of my life hasn’t fixed everything. #i am still depressed sometimes. #but a year ago i was having daily anxiety attacks and physically self harming and making plans to kill myself #now the last time i had an anxiety attack was about a week ago. and i cant remember the one before that #ive been suicidal once that i can remember in the past two weeks and i had no plan and took no action toward it. #just last a few hours until i calmed down and ive been fine since. #its. really incredible. #how good for me cutting him out was. even if it made me miserable for awhile #i dont think i’ll be ‘over’ him for a long time. but i am at the very least able to say with certainty its a good thing hes out of my life #sorry for being cringe anyway. goodnight i love you

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How I got scammed

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

I wuz robbed.

More specifically, I was tricked by a phone-phisher pretending to be from my bank, and he convinced me to hand over my credit-card number, then did $8,000+ worth of fraud with it before I figured out what happened. And then he tried to do it again, a week later!

Here's what happened. Over the Christmas holiday, I traveled to New Orleans. The day we landed, I hit a Chase ATM in the French Quarter for some cash, but the machine declined the transaction. Later in the day, we passed a little credit-union's ATM and I used that one instead (I bank with a one-branch credit union and generally there's no fee to use another CU's ATM).

A couple days later, I got a call from my credit union. It was a weekend, during the holiday, and the guy who called was obviously working for my little CU's after-hours fraud contractor. I'd dealt with these folks before – they service a ton of little credit unions, and generally the call quality isn't great and the staff will often make mistakes like mispronouncing my credit union's name.

That's what happened here – the guy was on a terrible VOIP line and I had to ask him to readjust his mic before I could even understand him. He mispronounced my bank's name and then asked if I'd attempted to spend $1,000 at an Apple Store in NYC that day. No, I said, and groaned inwardly. What a pain in the ass. Obviously, I'd had my ATM card skimmed – either at the Chase ATM (maybe that was why the transaction failed), or at the other credit union's ATM (it had been a very cheap looking system).

I told the guy to block my card and we started going through the tedious business of running through recent transactions, verifying my identity, and so on. It dragged on and on. These were my last hours in New Orleans, and I'd left my family at home and gone out to see some of the pre-Mardi Gras krewe celebrations and get a muffalata, and I could tell that I was going to run out of time before I finished talking to this guy.

"Look," I said, "you've got all my details, you've frozen the card. I gotta go home and meet my family and head to the airport. I'll call you back on the after-hours number once I'm through security, all right?"

He was frustrated, but that was his problem. I hung up, got my sandwich, went to the airport, and we checked in. It was total chaos: an Alaska Air 737 Max had just lost its door-plug in mid-air and every Max in every airline's fleet had been grounded, so the check in was crammed with people trying to rebook. We got through to the gate and I sat down to call the CU's after-hours line. The person on the other end told me that she could only handle lost and stolen cards, not fraud, and given that I'd already frozen the card, I should just drop by the branch on Monday to get a new card.

We flew home, and later the next day, I logged into my account and made a list of all the fraudulent transactions and printed them out, and on Monday morning, I drove to the bank to deal with all the paperwork. The folks at the CU were even more pissed than I was. The fraud that run up to more than $8,000, and if Visa refused to take it out of the merchants where the card had been used, my little credit union would have to eat the loss.

I agreed and commiserated. I also pointed out that their outsource, after-hours fraud center bore some blame here: I'd canceled the card on Saturday but most of the fraud had taken place on Sunday. Something had gone wrong.

One cool thing about banking at a tiny credit-union is that you end up talking to people who have actual authority, responsibility and agency. It turned out the the woman who was processing my fraud paperwork was a VP, and she decided to look into it. A few minutes later she came back and told me that the fraud center had no record of having called me on Saturday.

"That was the fraudster," she said.

Oh, shit. I frantically rewound my conversation, trying to figure out if this could possibly be true. I hadn't given him anything apart from some very anodyne info, like what city I live in (which is in my Wikipedia entry), my date of birth (ditto), and the last four digits of my card.

Wait a sec.

He hadn't asked for the last four digits. He'd asked for the last seven digits. At the time, I'd found that very frustrating, but now – "The first nine digits are the same for every card you issue, right?" I asked the VP.

I'd given him my entire card number.

Goddammit.

The thing is, I know a lot about fraud. I'm writing an entire series of novels about this kind of scam:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

And most summers, I go to Defcon, and I always go to the "social engineering" competitions where an audience listens as a hacker in a soundproof booth cold-calls merchants (with the owner's permission) and tries to con whoever answers the phone into giving up important information.

But I'd been conned.

Now look, I knew I could be conned. I'd been conned before, 13 years ago, by a Twitter worm that successfully phished out of my password via DM:

https://locusmag.com/2010/05/cory-doctorow-persistence-pays-parasites/

That scam had required a miracle of timing. It started the day before, when I'd reset my phone to factory defaults and reinstalled all my apps. That same day, I'd published two big online features that a lot of people were talking about. The next morning, we were late getting out of the house, so by the time my wife and I dropped the kid at daycare and went to the coffee shop, it had a long line. Rather than wait in line with me, my wife sat down to read a newspaper, and so I pulled out my phone and found a Twitter DM from a friend asking "is this you?" with a URL.

Assuming this was something to do with those articles I'd published the day before, I clicked the link and got prompted for my Twitter login again. This had been happening all day because I'd done that mobile reinstall the day before and all my stored passwords had been wiped. I entered it but the page timed out. By that time, the coffees were ready. We sat and chatted for a bit, then went our own ways.

I was on my way to the office when I checked my phone again. I had a whole string of DMs from other friends. Each one read "is this you?" and had a URL.

Oh, shit, I'd been phished.

If I hadn't reinstalled my mobile OS the day before. If I hadn't published a pair of big articles the day before. If we hadn't been late getting out the door. If we had been a little more late getting out the door (so that I'd have seen the multiple DMs, which would have tipped me off).

There's a name for this in security circles: "Swiss-cheese security." Imagine multiple slices of Swiss cheese all stacked up, the holes in one slice blocked by the slice below it. All the slices move around and every now and again, a hole opens up that goes all the way through the stack. Zap!

The fraudster who tricked me out of my credit card number had Swiss cheese security on his side. Yes, he spoofed my bank's caller ID, but that wouldn't have been enough to fool me if I hadn't been on vacation, having just used a pair of dodgy ATMs, in a hurry and distracted. If the 737 Max disaster hadn't happened that day and I'd had more time at the gate, I'd have called my bank back. If my bank didn't use a slightly crappy outsource/out-of-hours fraud center that I'd already had sub-par experiences with. If, if, if.

The next Friday night, at 5:30PM, the fraudster called me back, pretending to be the bank's after-hours center. He told me my card had been compromised again. But: I hadn't removed my card from my wallet since I'd had it replaced. Also, it was half an hour after the bank closed for the long weekend, a very fraud-friendly time. And when I told him I'd call him back and asked for the after-hours fraud number, he got very threatening and warned me that because I'd now been notified about the fraud that any losses the bank suffered after I hung up the phone without completing the fraud protocol would be billed to me. I hung up on him. He called me back immediately. I hung up on him again and put my phone into do-not-disturb.

The following Tuesday, I called my bank and spoke to their head of risk-management. I went through everything I'd figured out about the fraudsters, and she told me that credit unions across America were being hit by this scam, by fraudsters who somehow knew CU customers' phone numbers and names, and which CU they banked at. This was key: my phone number is a reasonably well-kept secret. You can get it by spending money with Equifax or another nonconsensual doxing giant, but you can't just google it or get it at any of the free services. The fact that the fraudsters knew where I banked, knew my name, and had my phone number had really caused me to let down my guard.

The risk management person and I talked about how the credit union could mitigate this attack: for example, by better-training the after-hours card-loss staff to be on the alert for calls from people who had been contacted about supposed card fraud. We also went through the confusing phone-menu that had funneled me to the wrong department when I called in, and worked through alternate wording for the menu system that would be clearer (this is the best part about banking with a small CU – you can talk directly to the responsible person and have a productive discussion!). I even convinced her to buy a ticket to next summer's Defcon to attend the social engineering competitions.

There's a leak somewhere in the CU systems' supply chain. Maybe it's Zelle, or the small number of corresponding banks that CUs rely on for SWIFT transaction forwarding. Maybe it's even those after-hours fraud/card-loss centers. But all across the USA, CU customers are getting calls with spoofed caller IDs from fraudsters who know their registered phone numbers and where they bank.

I've been mulling this over for most of a month now, and one thing has really been eating at me: the way that AI is going to make this kind of problem much worse.

Not because AI is going to commit fraud, though.

One of the truest things I know about AI is: "we're nowhere near a place where bots can steal your job, we're certainly at the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week

I trusted this fraudster specifically because I knew that the outsource, out-of-hours contractors my bank uses have crummy headsets, don't know how to pronounce my bank's name, and have long-ass, tedious, and pointless standardized questionnaires they run through when taking fraud reports. All of this created cover for the fraudster, whose plausibility was enhanced by the rough edges in his pitch - they didn't raise red flags.

As this kind of fraud reporting and fraud contacting is increasingly outsourced to AI, bank customers will be conditioned to dealing with semi-automated systems that make stupid mistakes, force you to repeat yourself, ask you questions they should already know the answers to, and so on. In other words, AI will groom bank customers to be phishing victims.

This is a mistake the finance sector keeps making. 15 years ago, Ben Laurie excoriated the UK banks for their "Verified By Visa" system, which validated credit card transactions by taking users to a third party site and requiring them to re-enter parts of their password there:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090331094020/http://www.links.org/?p=591

This is exactly how a phishing attack works. As Laurie pointed out, this was the banks training their customers to be phished.

I came close to getting phished again today, as it happens. I got back from Berlin on Friday and my suitcase was damaged in transit. I've been dealing with the airline, which means I've really been dealing with their third-party, outsource luggage-damage service. They have a terrible website, their emails are incoherent, and they officiously demand the same information over and over again.

This morning, I got a scam email asking me for more information to complete my damaged luggage claim. It was a terrible email, from a noreply@ email address, and it was vague, officious, and dishearteningly bureaucratic. For just a moment, my finger hovered over the phishing link, and then I looked a little closer.

On any other day, it wouldn't have had a chance. Today – right after I had my luggage wrecked, while I'm still jetlagged, and after days of dealing with my airline's terrible outsource partner – it almost worked.

So much fraud is a Swiss-cheese attack, and while companies can't close all the holes, they can stop creating new ones.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to post about it whenever I get scammed. I find the inner workings of scams to be fascinating, and it's also important to remind people that everyone is vulnerable sometimes, and scammers are willing to try endless variations until an attack lands at just the right place, at just the right time, in just the right way. If you think you can't get scammed, that makes you especially vulnerable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #social engineering #phishing #ai #swiss cheese security #infosec #finance #fraud #carding

[arolesbianism]

Why must I only be capable of coming up with cool art ideas long past midnight

#rat rambles #Ive been thinking abt hypothetical olivia jackie very very loose roleswap au and its just more doomed toxic yuri #itd just be jackie rapidly spiraling and doing stupid shit behind olivias backas olivia becomes more and more emotionally distant #jackie has this fun habit called self sabotaging in such a way that savotages everyone around her as well but way worse #and olivia has this fun habit called not noticing growing jackie problems until its too late #so all in all we get a less terrible gravitas (key word less Im not going to give olivia That much credit) and a far more unstable jackie #and that's saying a lot lol #jackie on her way to become the worlds worst lebian incel unethical scientiwait no thats already canon jackie post cancelled #you see this is why canon jackie is doomed to be worse than any bullshit I could pull off in a swap au because canon jackie has power #but it still is interesting thinking abt how gravitas would differ if primarily ran by olivia instead of jackie #mainly the big thing is that I dont think olivia would do a great job at noticing any decline in employee health being more distant from it #not deliberately so like jackie like olivia would still Try to build a good work environment I just dont know if shed do that good a job #I also feel like shed be equally hard to talk down from a potentially problematic project as jackie if she believed in it enough #olivia is proud of the work that she does and while she has better morals than jackie they still arent exactly ironclad #she and jackie both being self righteous is smth they have in common it just happens that olivia is usually in the right #but that's with the two of them theres plenty of other situations where olivia could easily be on the other end of the argument #which is why director olivia facinates me as a concept because it begs the question of how well could she manage to maintain her morals #she obviously Wants to maintain good morals but when in a position of power where her word always goes through would that falter at all? #maybe without even realizing its happening #youve made hard decisions before. what makes this different from the rest? maybe at some point it wont even feel difficult anymore #and maybe this in turn makes it harder for her to see the blood jackie tries to hide #because if she let herself notice that itd be impossible to ignore the blood on her own hands #meanwhile jackie is just being like maybe shell text me back if I keep breaking her trust itll work this time trust me #and then she proceeds to explode her brain or smth and gets printing podded and explodes again because shes somehow manage it #I just would want all three aus to be olivia having serious identity crisies while jackie reenacts ashfur amvs in the background

[thekintsugikids]

eeeeevery time u say that mania is getting the folie treatment all anyone wants to talk about it how folie is so great and folie deserved better and people hating folie makes no sense and yes i agree but oh my god can you not see that you’re kind of proving my point here by ignoring mania

#like look i get it #folie is my favorite album of all time #ive been riding the Justice for Folie wave from day one #but that’s not the POINT #we made them (particularly patrick) feel so terrible about folie that they refused to play more than 1-2 songs off of it #(we as a collective. i didn’t do shit and im sure u didn’t either not the point) #FOR 15 YEARS #and now mania is being treated the same!!! #and this isn’t about them cutting tlotro last night or the fact that that’s the only song on the set for tourdust #no bc mania is for sure their most vocally taxing album and it’s much harder to play live—vocally and musically—than their other albums #that’s cool that’s chill #it makes me a little sad bc i love mania but i get it #no it’s the fact that you can hear pete downplay mania in the same way patrick did for YEARS #(with folie obvs) #and patrick is the only one who brings the album up and who defends it #and like……idk it’s sad to see #that they are essentially made to feel so ashamed of their art that they have to actively shun it so hard #but any time u say aaaaany of that everyone is like OMG HOW DO PEOPLE NOT LIKE FOLIE ITS SO AMAZING #bitch. idfk. but that’s not the point are u being deliberately obtuse orrrrr #whatever #fall out boy #patrick stump #pete wentz #joe trohman #andy hurley #fob #folie a deux

[cordeliawhohung]

you try and fake an orgasm with Simon (based off this post)

when you and Simon fuck, it's always passionate. he refuses to give you anything less than his all, sucking on your clit and pumping your cunt full with his fingers, curling them just like he knows you go crazy for. and it's divine. it brings you nirvana just to slam you right back into your body with its tingling nerves and fizzing skin. he always says the sweetest things, mumbling about how perfect you are, how he can't get enough of you, caressing your body like its a marble statue of a forgotten goddess he can't stop mumbling the name of.

nothing's changed about his love. not his lips on your skin or his cock shoved into your cunt, metal piercings stimulating that spongy spot inside of you. you should be clenching around him, crying out like a bitch in heat, but all the intense emotions that you know should be there are muted. all that pleasure is watered down by some other insidious emotion that's severed that delicious connection that should be there between you and Simon.

still, despite that pit in your stomach eating up that tasty stimulation, you perform. he pulls countless moans from your lips, has your fingers digging into the tense muscle of his shoulders, and yet you are nowhere close to finishing. it feels like you're so far from an orgasm that you've never once experienced it in your entire life. but Simon's been going for so long, pushing all the right buttons in all the right ways, getting you so close to your release and yet so far from it. perspiration sits heavily along his hairline, wetting his hair and making it stick to his forehead in small clumps.

you're taking too long. he's never cummed before you before, Simon's always prioritized your pleasure before his, and the poor man is basically edging himself and has been for what feels like eternity. hushed words always fall from his mouth like a saccharine waterfall when he's close, and he hasn't stopped muttering praise after praise into your ear.

"so fuckin' beautiful, takin' me so well, aren't 'cha?"

when his thumb begins its gentle massage on your clit, you almost cry. it feels so good, but it's tantalizing, promising you the release you desperately crave and yet can't seem to obtain. utter torture. and Simon's watching you through heavy lidded eyes, eager to watch you come undone, and it's all too much. so you arch your back with a desperate pornographic moan while your eyes screw shut in feigned ecstasy. and it's terribly pathetic, pitiful even, but it's all you have. one stupid, paltry faked orgasm.

Simon's movements cease. the pumping of his cock in your cunt, his swirling thumb on your clit; everything. your panting mixes with his in some dull harmony as he leans forward, hands resting on either side of your head while his body hovers over yours.

"sweetheart... what was that?"

all the moisture is sapped from your mouth the moment that question leaves Simon's lips. your current position is terribly vulnerable. stark naked with your boyfriend between your legs and his dick nestled deep inside of you; you couldn't get more exposed than that. however that question made things all the more daunting.

"w... what do you mean?" you ask, unsure if your voice is unsteady because of your exhaustion or anxiety.

"that just now," he explains. "are you tryin' to fake it?"

all you can do is lay there and stare up at him, eyes as wide as saucers and growing with moisture by the second. white hot shame burns through you, searing through your chest and stomach to the point where you feel like you'll be sick. you don't know what to say. lie further, or fess up and tell the truth? instead, you take the secret third option that is bursting into tears.

as soon as the tears fall from your face Simon has you wrapped up in his arms within the instant. no longer inside of you, he makes it so that both of you are lying on your sides, facing one another as you bury your face in his chest. he shushes you, tries to comfort you as he smooths a hand over your head but all you can do is apologize.

"talk to me, sweetheart," he urges, "what's goin' on?"

snot runs thick and heavy in your nose, forcing you to sniffle and nearly choke on the sensation, and still you keep your face hidden away.

"i'm sorry, i just- i just can't. it feels nice but i just can't finish and i was taking too long and, and i just- i don't know-"

"hey, s'alright," he coos, "these things happen sometimes. you just gotta let me know what's goin' on, yeah?"

"i know, i'm sorry," you sniffle.

"nothin' to be sorry about," he assures you. "there's nothin' in the world that you could say to me that would make me mad at you, love. if somethin' isn't workin' for you, i wanna know, yeah?"

all you can do is nod your head in response to him, and he places a firm kiss against the crown of your head. he holds you for a while longer before pulling away so he can sit up. you wipe any remaining tears off of your face as you watch him slip out of bed before holding his arms out towards you.

"c'mon, let's get you cleaned up," he says.

still sniffling, you sit up in bed and stare up at him, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "but... what about you?"

equally as confused, Simon leans forward and takes your hands into his as he helps you off the bed. "what about me?"

"you... didn't get to finish," you say meekly.

"yeah, neither did you."

his tone left no room for argument, and you're already halfway out of the bedroom by the time you fully comprehend just what he meant. but it doesn't take long before you forget all about it. you're in the bath and Simon's washing away all the shame and embarrassment from your body. his hands scrub your body clean, and he kisses away the thoughts that plague your mind until you're full of so much love you forget all about what had you upset in the first place.

#mafia!simon #mafia!ghost #mafia!141 #simon riley smut #ghost smut #simon riley x reader #ghost x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #ghost x reader smut #simon riley x reader smut #simon ghost riley x reader smut #f!reader