www.msncheck.net is it legit?
Someone sent me a link to MSNCheck.net. At this stage I'm not sure if it's a legit service or not. They claim to be able to scan your MSN Messenger account to find out who has deleted you from their friends list. Why you'd want to know this is beyond me but let's look at the page. First is asks for your username and password. The site itself doesn't explain why they need this or what they will do with this information. Even if they are performing the service they advertise, it's risky as hell to provide this information to an unknown third-party website. The only source of information is an email address. On the site they have this helpful text.
If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions etc. contact us at the following email address [samo at v-i-p.ca]They have obfuscated the email address to avoid spam. This is a fairly wise idea but the method used is rather crude. It's far more professional to use one of the following methods. 1) Use a contact form built-in to the site. 2) Disguise the email address using Java Script. This way, users still have 'click to email' functionality but spammers can't easily harvest the email address. 3) Use decent spam filtering. If you're posting an email address on site then you should have decent spam filtering. Once they have your details, how do you know that they don't store them? Would you really want to allow a complete stranger access to your MSN Messenger account? Since many people have the same sign-in details for their email, you could be handing them complete access to this also. They could harvest contact details from your address book and use these for whatever purpose they wanted to. As always, the best advice is to avoid providing important information to unknown people or sites. I could set-up a site tomorrow advertising a similar service and how would you know whether or not I am genuine. If these people are providing a genuine service then I think they need to improve their site to reassure their users of their intent. I'm wondering though, why would you want to find out if people have blocked you or removed you from their friends lists? I'd suspect that not hearing from them or being unable to send them messages would be a hint.
posted by The Preacher @ 5/10/2006 12:40:00 PM
4 Comments:
I'm considering it's a scam
One person on my msn started a new account, I never asked why but I noticed his old one say check out msncheck.net to see who blocked/deleted you
- why would he advertise that?
- why start a new account?
Now reading they want your password the puzzle comes together (never went directly to said site or asked my friend) - what are the odds it isn't bs? Your password isn't needed to do list checks anyway
Thanks for the info. It's interesting to know that the password isn't actually needed for a list check.
Sounds familiar.
A friend of mine has recently changed his Messenger name to "check out v-i-p.ca....see who blocked or deleted you". I found it odd as it is *very* unlike him to advertise something like that.
Out of curiosity, I went to the site and clicked on their privacy policy. It came as no surprise when I was directed to a blank page at www.v-i-p.ca/pp. I e-mailed the site at "admin at v-i-p dot ca" (which appeared sketchy in itself)to let them know that if they want to maintain any kind of credibility, they should probably ensure their privacy policy page is working. (If a privacy policy even exists!)
No doubt they prey on the naivity of web surfers who never bother to read the crucial small print. What are people thinking? Especially if a site is asking you for such personal information that shouldn't be shared with anyone! I can't believe people wouldn't bother to find out if it's legit or not. Scary...
i went in to tht site after seeing it as a screen name for one my friends and now thts my screen name!
please help me get rid of it!
Post a Comment
<< Home