Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with spoof

In 2013, how does Facebook spoof friend requests?

infinitewindow — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:14:50 -0800

Is Facebook still spoofing friend requests? This question is from a long time ago, and Facebook doesn't appear to conform to the behavior described in the best answers any longer.

My specific circumstance is that Facebook is telling me of friend requests from people I barely know and, in one case, someone who I believe may not actually want to get in touch with me again. How (in January 2013) can I tell between someone who actually wants to get back in touch and someone who Facebook has decided I should get in touch with regardless of any past drama?

Please no "if you don't want to friend them, don't friend them" answers. I honestly believe people can change—including hopefully me—and the fact that I don't want to upset someone by erroneously contacting them on Facebook is proof.

______ Apparel

hamandcheese — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:57:23 -0800

I need a clever play on words to spoof American Apparel, and I need it today. Help! I am involved in a photo competition, and one of my categories is Parody. I shot an image in the somewhat sleazy vein of American Apparel's ads, and I'd like to add a satirical logo and possibly some text to the image before sending it to the printer later today.

What play on words can I use in place of "American Apparel?"

I'd like to keep the alliteration if possible, and I would love it if it could play up the whole sleazy thing. Like: Exploitation Apparel, or something, but better...

Ideas? Thanks!

I've never met you, this is crazy. What's your number? Don't call me, maybe?

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:05:39 -0800

What's up with 774-8283? This appears to be a spoofed phone number calling to harass people at random. How are they doing this, and what can be done about it? Question about American phone calls, probably won't apply internationally. I just got a call from 774-8283. No area code was displayed, which is unusual. I never answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, but I usually Google the number to see if I'm missing anything important. No voicemail was left.

I found a lot of people online reporting calls from this number (also without area codes displaying). These reports come from all over the country so it doesn't appear to be local to me. Somebody observed that the number 774-8283 maps to the word "PRIVATE" so this would seem to be spoofed somehow. I've seen calls show up as "blocked," "unknown," or "private" on my iPhone but this method of masking call origin is new to me. How are they doing this?

The disturbing thing about these calls, for which I'm relieved I didn't answer but also disappointed I didn't hear it for myself, is that they are consistently creepy and/or threatening. Other people online have described the caller...

...breathing heavily into the phone before hanging up.
...claiming to know them and their friends by name.
...detailing obscene (apparently sexual) acts he would like to do to them.
...making expletive-laden threats of harm or murder.
...calling in the middle of the night.
...abusively calling over and over again for days.

I have no idea if this activity is all coming from a single individual or if a number of people are using the same method to "prank" unsuspecting people. Considering that there are hundreds of reports online, made over several years, I assume it's more widespread than a single bored misanthrope. Can we do anything to root out what's going on and put a stop to it?

Spoof "how-to" videos

ac — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:10:47 -0800

What is the website full of fake home improvement / how to videos that seem reasonable at first but are actually all spoofs / parodies with bad advice? There was one that was something like "how to clean a spill on your carpet" where the guy in the video was telling people to just cut a square out of the carpet and flip it over...

How to view geo specific web content from anywhere in the country?

queue_strategy — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:32:55 -0800

How to view geo specific web content from anywhere in the country? My small business needs a way to check locally served content for anywhere in the US, but do it from a central location. For example, we literally need to see webpages as they appear in Peoria, Illinois with geo served content targeted by IP address. Peoria is just one example, we'd need the ability to view locally served content anywhere.
We have checked into what is available and haven't found anything that is versatile but also easy to use.
The Geolocater Firefox browser extension is elegant and simple but will not work for us because it requires the web page to call the location service and most pages outside the major portals don't do that.
Any ideas to easily emulate any location in the US? Thanks!

Zero zero zero, zero zero zero zero! (Jenny)

Geckwoistmeinauto — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:45:16 -0800

Within the past few weeks, I've been receiving phone calls on my cell phone every day at 9am and 5pm like clockwork from the number (000) 000-0000. How do I make these bastards go away and leave me alone? I do not answer numbers that I don't recognize -- if it's important, they'll leave a message. Recently, some entity has taken it upon themselves to begin harassing me twice a day on my cell phone. Obviously, the number is not a valid number and indeed spoofed Caller ID. Twice a day at the same exact time each day, I get a mysterious phone call from (000) 000-0000. I have never answered these calls. I do not intend to answer these calls, as I don't want the entity to think they have a 'lead', and to increase the volume or frequency of calls.

Interestingly enough, the calls do take off weekends and holidays, which makes me think they're some sort of debt collection entity. I have no debt, nor have I ever had any outstanding or uncollected debt. My number is on the do-not-call list.

Up until maybe this summer, I never received any unsolicited calls on my cell phone. Since then, it seems as though I get from two to five calls a week. Some times from spoofed numbers -- callbacks to the caller ID number reveals disconnected or otherwise out of service -- some times from established businesses.

I've contacted my wireless provider, and they are set on selling me a $5 service that I can use to block a limited number of numbers. This is not appealing to me, I do not want to spend money on this problem. I have filed FCC complaints. I also wrote a letter complaining to the CEO of AT&T, and I plan to copy this letter to my legislators. I also complained to my wireless provider's twitter account, and they are just as useless as the phone support reps.

What else can I do to make these calls go away? Are there any regulatory avenues that I'm missing? Caller ID spoofing is illegal, who is tasked with enforcing this law?

I have an iPhone 4S, but there seems to be no way to reject calls by number or contact on the iPhone 4S like I could on my android device. I do not plan to jailbreak my phone, so please do not offer solutions that require that.

What's on the the 91 minutes of spoofs on the new Star Wars Blu-rays?

Flying Saucer — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:07:16 -0800

What are the spoofs on the Star Wars Blu-rays? I don't own a Blu-Ray player (yet), so I have to turn to the Hive Mind for this answer.

The new Star Wars Blu-Rays include 91 minutes of spoofs, including comedy from Family Guy, the Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, and Weird Al Yankovic.

I'm curious what other works are on there. Did Robot Chicken make the cut? How about fan films like "Troops"?

I can't find a full listing online. Does the box itself list the works individually? Has anyone seen the Blu-Rays and can rattle off what's on them?

Any SMTP email providers which allow for a low volume of legitimate 'spoofed' email?

cowbellemoo — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:59:13 -0800

Are there any low-volume SMTP email relay services which allow the sending of 'spoofed' emails for valid site purposes (like a 'forward to a friend' feature)? The site I just inherited is now hosted on AWS' EC2, which is understandably strict about outgoing SMTP traffic. However, even their add-on email service requires verification of any "from" address used in an email. The site's "forward to a friend" feature sends spoofed emails through a website form, so when the recipient replies to the message, it goes to the address that the forwarder gave to the web form. I figure my options are:

1. Find a less-restrictive SMTP provider that allows for a low volume (a few dozen a day) of legitimate spoofed emails.

2. Re-implement the feature using a static site-specific address (friend-forwards@mysite.com).

Who are these two dancers?

Joe Beese — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:48:06 -0800

Who are the two dancers preceding Cyd Charisse in the title sequence of The Silencers (1966)? (mildly NSFW) The IMDb full cast listing credits several "Specialty Dancers". But it wasn't clear to me if either of them are the woman in blue or the woman in white.

I'm sorry some jerk is sending you emails from me

Guy Smiley — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:17:05 -0800

Some spammer is spoofing my gmail account out into the world. What consequences should I be concerned about?

Weird spoofed phone call

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:22:56 -0800

Just got a crazy phone call from a spoofed phone number, not sure what to do... Just got a call on my cell phone form what appeared to be a 718 number I did not know. When I picked up it was a male voice ranting about my calling his girlfriend in the middle of the night, and how he was going t f*cking kill me, and suchlike. BUT, and here's the crazy bit, it was actually just a recording having a one-sided conversation to try and sound like it was responding what it was saying. (i.e. crazy line, pause, crazy line that appears to be in reply to my most likely response, et al).

I shut up and just let it go, and it continued for 10-15 more seconds and then disconnected. I called the number back and got a there-is-no-such-number recording from AT&T. Looked the number up online (whocalledme and various reverse lookup sites) and got nothing, so I'm 99% sure it was just a random spoofed number.

S really, my question is, is there anything that I can or should be doing about this? It just weirded me out...

I'm looking for an old internet-video spoof that featured an alien hand-puppet with a baby-bottle nipple on it's head acting very silly

cosmic.osmo — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:16:54 -0800

I'm looking for an old internet-video spoof of the Jeff Peckman/Stan Romenek "alien" video, which featured an alien hand-puppet with a baby-bottle nipple on its head acting very silly. Basically, the video consists of the same setup as the video that it spoofs, except that the alien is a goofy hand-puppet that soon starts dancing around. It's not brilliant, but it made me laugh.

I can't find it on Youtube or Google Video. I vaguely remember watching it in the apartment I lived in in 2003-2004, so it might predate Youtube (or my mind is playing tricks on me).

Here's another spoof that may be contemporaneous to the one I'm looking for.

Chase.com is turning me over to Russian gangsters?

stupidsexyFlanders — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:08:44 -0800

I understand how phishing works via emails, but how am I being taken from a known trusted site to phishing page, after having entered my account signon on the first page? I go to www.chase.com in Firefox. The verisign thing in the URL bar tells me it's really chase. I enter my account signin as always, hit enter, and I'm taken to a page that's obviously a phishing attempt (asks me for checking account number, ATM PIN, card number/exp/security code, etc.)

How is this happening? Chase tells me I have a virus on my computer. (AVG says I don't) I thought firefox was supposed to be resistent to browser based exploits? Could this really be caused by a local virus? And how serious is this?

Can I make Chrome appear Firefoxy?

bluefly — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:16:20 -0800

I like to watch a lot of streaming video especially for sports games. I usually use the Google Chrome browser. But some sites' media players say they only work with Firefox or IE and won't even give me the chance of trying it out in Chrome. Is there a way to trick the sites into thinking Chrome is really one of the approved browsers? Or is there really some fundamental difference that makes the players break in Chrome? I am especially looking to watch sports on NBC. I recently uninstalled Firefox because I didn't like the new version. But I can reinstall it if that's the only solution. I am on a Windows Vista computer. Thanks.

Spam No More! How do I convince gmail of this?

darth_tedious — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:53:39 -0800

How Do I Get Hosts to Stop Labeling My Email As Spam? For the last five years or so, spammers have been systematically spoofing my domains, and sending out the usual Viagra and whatnot emails under my name. I finally asked my hosting service the right question, in the right way, and they finally uncovered the misconfiguration that apparently allowed this to happen. Since my domain name rep is now so shredded that even my actual emails to myself get automatically routed into my Spam Box, I'm curious: How do I go about reversing this, so that my actual emails get sent to my customers' inboxes, instead of their spam boxes?

A hip hop spoofish song that played on alternative stations...

petethered — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:41:03 -0800

It's killing me... there was a hip-hop SPOOF song ( or at leat I considered it a spoof ) that would play on DC101 that I can't seem to remember anything about. I'm pretty sure it's about three years old. I swear it had something to the extent of "Rollin with my homies , with a fourty by my side". in the lyrics. The M.I.A song "Paper Planes" always reminds me of the song I'm seeking...

Please hive mind... tell me what the song was.... It's killin' me.

Fraudulent Telemarketers on my Cell Phone!

fogster — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:05:01 -0800

Telemarketers calling my cell phone. With spoofed Caller ID. For fraud. How do I send them to PMITA prison? I'm one of those people that's very guarded about my phone number. Maybe 20 people on the planet have my home number, and about 5 people have my cell number. So when I got a call Monday night from (717) 432-5696, I was instantly suspicious. I didn't pick up, and they didn't leave a message. I Googled the number, intending to just let Google tell me whose number it was (a random couple in PA), but I noticed this page, indicating that hundreds of people left complaints about being called by this number and trying a callback, to find the number out of service. Those who did pick up said it was a robodialer (illegal!) calling their cell phone (illegal!) to sell them "extended warranties" for cars they didn't own (fraud!), and that the caller wouldn't tell them who they were (illegal!) and/or started swearing at them when they asked.

This morning my cell phone started ringing with a call from (323) 581-3046. I quickly Googled the number, but didn't get to pick up before I had an answer. But same deal: lots of complaints (starting today) of phishing-sounding requests for auto warranties.

I understand that it's easy to spoof Caller ID with a digital line / VoIP, which is what I suspect is going on. I also understand that, since I haven't picked up, I don't exactly have a strong case against these guys.

However, I refuse to sit back and let them keep at this. Next time they call, what can I do? (I've read of a *57 "Call Trace," but I don't know how it works, and I've read things suggesting that it's not all it's cracked up to be. More information on this welcome.)

I'm hearing rumors, BTW, of cell companies "releasing" the lists of their cell numbers. I suspect this is a chain-letter hoax, but can anyone point to something definitively debunking (or confirming...) it?

My cell number is not explicitly on the Do Not Call Registry, but my understanding is that, as a cell number, it's effectively there "by default."

I'm an unemployed recent-college-grad, so I don't really have the means to bring a lawsuit, but I do have a lot of disposable time. If it matters, I live in New Hampshire, and my cell phone is from Verizon Wireless.

Facebook a privacy problem? Never would have guessed.

Slam I Am — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:47:24 -0800

Someone has accessed a friend's Facebook account more than once, despite the fact that my friend changes passwords on a regular basis. How? My friend logs out of Facebook after each session, and surfs on an unsecured wireless connection. I'm told no one else has had access to the computer.

What are the possible ways this is happening? What should be done to prevent it?

Do you know any fake James Bond title songs?

lord_yo — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:55:27 -0800

Do you know any fake James Bond title songs? I'm looking for songs that sound like James Bond title songs, but aren't. They could be parodies (like "The Man Made of Guns" by Kris Straub), fake title themes (like on Arling & Cameron's "Music for Imaginary Films"), or just songs that seem inspired by James Bond themes (such as Robbie Williams's "Millennium"). Any recommendations?

This question brought to you by the letters AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF

jfuller — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:50:26 -0800

My son lives four hours away. I'm trying to do phone support for him on his PC (XP pro), which won't connect to the internet. In asking him to try various things and report what (if anything) happened we discovered that ipconfig /all is reporting his MAC address as 00-11-22-33-44-55. Nuh-huh! Fuller violently shakes head until pea brain rattles. I built this PC myself back around Christmas and documented it from soup to nuts. That is NOT NOT NOT it's true MAC address. Can anyone suggest where it might be coming from?

I know of two ways to spoof a MAC address in XP, one done using the NIC's properties (Advanced/Network Address/Value) and the other being a registry hack. The NIC's properties have not been diddled with; and I had him search in regedit for the string that's being reported as the spurious MAC address. Not found. Where else might a phony MAC address be imposed on the system?

Oh, google. It's no help because so many people use that string to describe the form of a MAC address ("Look for a number that looks like 00-11-22-33-44-55.")

Gibberish blog using our company name

Joleta — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:12:15 -0800

What is this gibberish blog using our company name? Our company librarian found this gibberish "blog" while searching for mention of our company name online. A Whois search says the registration was created today and is private. The Sponsoring Registrar is GoDaddy.com Inc., and the Registrant Organization is listed as Domains by Proxy Inc.

What is the purpose of someone doing this? Is it merely to collect money from Google Ads? How can we pursue getting this site shut down? Through GoDaddy or Domains by Proxy?

Driving Miss Daisy spoof?

bolognius maximus — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 21:00:41 -0800

Does anyone remember a spoof of Driving Miss Daisy? Hopefully someone knows what I'm referring to. It was a spoof of Driving Miss Daisy. I think it was on Saturday Night Live (but I could be remembering incorrectly). I don't think it was the episode with Toonces, the driving cat. What I do remember is that Miss Daisy is in the back seat nagging at Hoke, and at some point he says, "I know what you want, Miss Daisy, and I'm gonna come back there and give it to you!" (or something to that effect). Does anyone remember seeing this? Hope that someone has some info. Thanks!

No, I don't want to send a copy to Arnie, I just want to read it again

antifuse — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 03:26:05 -0800

Help me find this ANCIENT, early-internet Conan The Barbarian fanfic/spoof story! My google fu has failed me! When I was 15 or 16 years old (so, around 1993-1994 or so), I was working at my mom's company as a summer student. One of the other summer students was a year or two older than me, and I like to think of him as my first real geek mentor. He would get me copies of Doom add-ons, and various other things from this thing he called an "FTP". It was incredible, the amount of stuff he had access to. Any way, the only real gem (aside from the Aliens Doom game, which scared the bejesus out of me) that sticks out in my mind was a fairly long (could have been novella length) text file, which was in several parts, chronicling the adventures of Conak (I think?) the Barbarian. Obviously, Conak was based on Conan, but the story was humourous in nature. At the time, I was really into Douglas Adams style humour (well, still am, I guess, but I was just getting into it at the time) and I found this story to be somewhat similar to Adams' style. I really found it hilarious at the time, but I never got to finish it, because it was posted in parts, and the summer finished before the last part was posted (maybe it never was?). I'd really like to find it again, to a) see if it holds up to my memory if it being absolutely hilarious (it probably won't) and b) see how it ends!

My google(yahoo, askjeeves, msn, any search engine I could find)-fu has yielded no results! Certainly, *somebody* must have been in that scene at the time. I'm 99% positive that he wasn't accessing internet directly, as I don't recall ISPs being available then, but rather through a local BBS (using FidoNet? Is that even what FidoNet was for?) or something. This would have been in the Greater Toronto Area. I *would* try and track down the dude himself, but I can't remember his name.

Someone's stolen my email address!

serialcomma — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:33:32 -0800

Someone's signing up for internet accounts using my Yahoo email address. Help! Yesterday, I received an email from MySpace asking me to activate my account. The problem? I never signed up for a MySpace account using that address. And though I obviously didn't activate the account, there is now a MySpace Music page linked to my email address.

Then, today, I received an email from a particular actor's message board, asking me to click the link in the message to activate the account. And, you guessed it, I didn't sign up for an account there either.

The address being used is myfirstnamemylastname@yahoo.com. So is there a particularly inept person trying to impersonate me? (It doesn't make sense to fake being me when the confirmation emails come to my address, right?) Is someone screwing with me? Or is this a scam of some sort?

Also, in what may merely be a weird coincidence, my last name is the same as the actor whose message board I am now apparently a member of.

I've written to MySpace and have not yet gotten a response; I can't find a contact email for the message board. I've changed the password on my Yahoo account and directed all potentially sensitive emails to another address.

Anything else I can/should do? How worried should I be about this?

running firefox with outlook web access

yonation — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 12:51:53 -0800

is there a way to make firefox work with outlook web access, in "premium" mode? my company just switched to the incomparable outlook web access, which looks quite nice in internet explorer but gives you a shitty, feature-poor version in anything else. i want to use firefox, as IE obviously sucks (i had no idea you couldn't even right-click and save the page, for example), and it doesn't seem like there's anything inherently special about IE that would make it run better with outlook premium; just regular M$ stuff. anyone have any suggestions? familiarities with the program?