From: Lindsay Haisley <fmouse@fmp.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 12:54:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com
Subject: plugin to sell digital files in cyberspace announced!! (fwd)
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19971106223930.00914ae0@linux.fmp.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>wow, I have been thinking that netscape/microsoft would put
>something like this in their browser and that this would
>kickstart the microcurrency market. however, it sounds like
>someone has preempted them for the moment and
>built a plugin. this is an extremely significant development
>imho. I don't know how credible they are (the notice was
>spam) but it's a step in the right direction, and the
>creation of a whole new market I predict.

I looked at their website and it looks rather fishy to me.  Several issues
and questions are obvious, not the least being the observation that this is
an absolutely fabulous way to collect a bunch of credit card numbers.
There is no information on the website to say where I-Vendor is located, or
any way to judge whether it's even a legit company.  The website is on AOL,
so it's real ownership is effectivley concealed, and the owners could be
over the border into Mexico with a hard drive full of stolen CC numbers and
no one would be the wiser until it was too late :-(  

A legit domain name and website to use it on are pretty cheap, and make
obvious business sense for a legit business - likewise for a phone number,
which is also absent from the web pages.  Both provide business points of
contact and both provide trackability.  Maybe I-Vendor doesn't want
trackability.  Hmmmm.

So I download an exe file from a nearly anonymous site on AOL and run it to
find out more about it?  No thanks!!!  It looks too much like a juicy worm
on a hook to this fish.

Lindsay Haisley                   (______)
FMP Computer Services               (oo)        "The bull 
fmouse@fmp.com                /------\/            stops here!"
Austin, Texas, USA           / |    ||  
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