Thread: Hackers, scammers exploiting bin Laden's death

May 02, 2011

Hackers, scammers exploiting bin Laden's death

05:24 PMPrint Share By Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Hackers and scammers quickly exploited the killing of Osama bin Laden, hoping to capture curious/unsuspecting/trusting/gullible Net users, a Web-security firm reports.

Hackers have compromised the website of a 33-year-old Pakistani IT consultant, Sohaib Athar, who unknowingly tweeted the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, according to Websense Security Labs. Athar linked to his site from his Twitter feed, and as curious clickers swarmed, hackers took control and redirected the website to the "BlackHole Exploit Kit," which is malware that launches a malicious Javascript attack.

Websense also reports that a scam involving bogus "video" of bin Laden being killed is making the rounds on Facebook. Don't click the link, don't copy the code; there is no such video.

As part of the hoax, unskeptical Pakistani TV and many news websites ran a photo purporting to show the bloodied face of bin Laden. It was phony, a composite of a bin Laden portrait and another dead man.
See it her: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... NTCMP=SRCH

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... ns-death/1

Osama’s Death, and the Tin-Foil Hat Brigade

by Bruce Feirstein
May 2, 2011, 4:15 PM

Tupac Shakur and Osama bin Laden, photoshopped by an anonymous prankster.

And so it begins.

With less than 24 hours on the clock since Osama bin Laden met his 72 virgins, the tin-foil-hat conspiracy brigade is out in full force on the Internet. I won't provide links, as it only encourages these people, but the idiot speculation is both sad and unsurprising:

• We faked the killing.

• We buried him at sea in order to cover it up.

• The DNA is inconclusive.

• Any picture the U.S. government releases is a fake.

• Obama did it because he needed a bump in the polls.


Consider this "news" article from Sky News, that will no-doubt fan the flames of all this:

Can US Offer Final Proof Of Osama's Death?

The circumstances surrounding Osama bin Laden's reported death raise urgent questions over how the US is so sure it got its man....

But photographs of Bin Laden after his reported death have not been released.

The fact his body was buried at sea has so far only added to the speculation, although as a Muslim, he had to be laid to rest as quickly as possible....

The release of a photograph purporting to show bin Laden's corpse—which was later confirmed to be a fake—added to the confusion....

The announcement is not the first time the world has heard of Bin Laden's death. Claims that the US and Britain kept up a pretence he was alive in order to continue their war on terror have been dismissed as conspiracy theories....

And as for his audio and video statements, their authenticity has continually been questioned.

One of his video statements, released just days before the October 2004 US presidential election, was said to have been crucial in helping George Bush secure a second term in office.

It would be easy here to reference Richard Hofstadter's seminal 1963 essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politicsâ€

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"Death By Water", Or The Start Of A Fresh Flood Of bin Laden Conspiracy Theories?

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-236728.html

Marketers jump into Osama bin Laden death biz

By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Updated 13m ago |

Looks like Osama bin Laden is worth more dead than alive.

T-Shirt Hell, Inc
A T-shirt from T-Shirt Hell.
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T-Shirt Hell, Inc
A T-shirt from T-Shirt Hell.

That is, at least, in the make-a-buck marketing world of souvenirs, collectibles and tchotchkes.

Within hours of bin Laden's announced death, a wide swath of marketers already had latched onto the leader's sudden demise at the hands of U.S. special forces. Most see it as a chance to cash in with T-shirts, pins, coffee mugs and even risqué thongs that — for $10 to $25 — memorialize or even celebrate the May 1 death of the man who was widely regarded as the world's most-wanted criminal.

Between midnight Sunday and 2 p.m. ET on Monday, thousands of consumer-created souvenirs already had popped up for sale on the websites Zazzle.com and CafePress.com, where royalty-seeking consumers go with original ideas for souvenir-like products that are ulitmately produced by the companies.

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"Outside of an election year, this is about as fast a pickup as we've seen in our history," says Joe Schmidt, senior vice president of retail at CafePress.

Executives at its competitor, Zazzle, agree. "We haven't had a moment like this in some time," says Michael Karns, director of marketing at Zazzle. "It wasn't this big when Saddam Hussein was captured."

Observers of popular culture are not the least bit surprised.

"People wear these things or buy these things in order to inflict the final indignity on bin Laden," says Grant McCracken, a cultural anthropologist and author of Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation. "And $25 isn't a lot to pay to gain entry in the national act of ridicule."

The tone of most items, Schmidt says, generally falls in one of four categories: patriotism, military support, celebration and a category that he calls "justice is served." But isn't the merchandising of bin Laden's death in poor taste? "We've always viewed ourselves as being a mirror to the culture," Schmidt responds. "What's more important than personal expression?"

Among the items for sale:

•T-shirts. Already, there are hundreds of designs. The website Tshirthell.com, has sold hundreds of $20 T-shirts that show a stick figure version of a victorious, flag-carrying American standing over the dead stick figure (complete with scraggly beard) of bin Laden. "We made a batch of them and already need to make a bunch more," says Mika Larson, executive director.

A $21.35 T-shirt on Zazzle.com simply says: "Obama killed Osama."

•Buttons. In making a marketable joke of bin Laden's burial at sea, a $5 button sold on CafePress.com shows a photo of bin Laden under the line "Fish Food."

•Coffee mugs. A coffee mug shows bin Laden in a gun sight under these words: Death by U.S. Navy Seals, May 1, 2011. It sells for $15 at CafePress.com.

•Caps. A $15 cap on CafePress.com treats the event like the collegiate basketball tournament that Obama likes to follow by listing the final two brackets as "Obama" and "Osama;" then showing the final bracket winner as "Obama."

•Bumper stickers. A $3.95 bumper sticker at Zazzle.com shows pictures of bin Laden and Saddam Hussein with the question: Who's Next?

•Neckties. It shows bin Laden in a gun sight under the line, "Justice: May 1, 2011" goes for $31.75 on Zazzle.com

•Phone case. At $51.40, an iPhone case shows a photo of bin Laden with these words stamped across his face: "Mission Accomplished." It's sold at Zazzle.com

•Dog T-shirts. For $18, even your dog can wear a T-shirt that commemorates the day. The shirt, which says "Osama's Dead," is Facebook friendly with the familiar thumbs-up "Like" logo.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industrie ... dise_n.htm

Obama Birth Certificate Doubters to Be Replaced by Bin Laden 'Deathers'?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110504/us_ ... n_deathers

Jay Leno #1
“Did you hear what they did to (bin Laden)?... He was shot in the head and then his body was dumped in the ocean. I mean, who did this hit? The Navy SEALs or the Sopranos?â€