Ai bots threaten the digital canoeing world

[sailsman63]

@scoutergriz , you may also be the target of "Spearphishing" attacks. Unlike standard "phishing", which is bait messages spread across a wide swath of people, hoping for a bite, this variant has the attacker compiling as much data as they can about you and your contacts (friend lists on social media, etc.) and creating messages that are tailored to hit your specific expectations and triggers.

You don't need to answer me, but how much of your personal contact info is tied to things like forum/social media memberships, etc?

 

[scoutergriz]

It's possible you're the one that's been 'hacked'.

I don't know a lot about this but in my professional career (auto shop owner) I've seen a few shop owners very concerned that their customers have received text messages that appear to be from their shop requesting payment for recent services. The concern has been that the software many of us use has been hacked but it's turned out that the customer's themselves had been hacked. The hackers saw a text come in from from XYZ shop about the car being completed and then the hackers would send a bogus text asking for payment.

Alan

nope, because it's only from certain accounts and further discussion with them finds it happening to others from those same accounts, I'm not exactly computer illiterate after spending a couple of decades building, installing, and troubleshooting commercial and multi-unit residential security, ASC's, remote monitoring, and DSL, voip, broadband and POTS lines

 

[Woodpuppy]

Along these lines, I experienced a first the other day. At the end of a digital book on my kindle, there was a page with a “Human Authored” certificate symbol which led me to:

https://authorsguild.org/human-authored/

I’ve read 111 books in 2025 on Kindle, and it’s the first time I’ve seen that. I gotta say I was pleased and I hope more authors pursue that badge. A number of books I’ve read screamed AI content. Short uncomplex sentences, no contractions, repetitive use of the character’s name starting off sentences, etc. Apparently use of AI in writing is becoming rampant. I already knew half the internet was AI trash, but it has really wormed into a lot more than just trash websites (many of which seem to be Amazon associate feeders).

Thanks Alan & Glenn for keeping it real here.