On a less serious, but bothersome note....

My youtubetv account was hacked 2 mornings ago. Yep...your big screen TV has an ip addr.

Turned on the TV Wed. morning to see a msg instructing me to go to:

youtube.com/activate; then login and provide 8 character upper case "code" displayed on the tv screen. Each time I entered, be it from android or laptop, I received an "incorrect" entry msg.

I then googled something like "youtubetv support" to get help. Selected a choice returned. Things appeared normal. Went into a chat session as you do on tv.youtube.com. Someone named Gabriel told me he would assist with my problem, but would require a "one-time" $39.99 charge to upgrade "firmware". I knew this was non-sense, ended the chat which I recorded and then contacted youtubetv. My bad for not also grabbing the URL.

YT TV support confirmed it was a hoax. No $$$ was lost, but it just goes to show that anything with an ip addr is vulnerable.

On a side note, I'd like to mention something you may not be aware of unless you have each and every purchase reported immediately to your cell phone or you scrutinize your purchases frequently by going online to your bank.

Some gas retailers have flawed pump software that does not clear out your transaction after you have finished filling up with gas. It appears to have completed and you receive a receipt, but the session you established with your CC remains alive. You drive away and the next person to use the pump rides on your nickel. Their purchase goes on your card. The person who made the purchase has no idea what has happened.

An acquaintance who manages the electronic fraud dept. in a local bank told me that many people do not monitor their CC purchases, by either frequent online review or instant reporting back to their cell. As a result, some are receiving bills at the end of the month with gas purchases they did not make, charged to their account.

__________________
Mike Murrell
1991 300-SEL - Model 126
M103 - SOHC
"Fräulein"