As the post was rather vague, and quickly grew into an argument over 'third world' and "US' and other things that had no bearing on the discussion of security issues with microstock sites, maybe you should post more info on this.

I caught StockXpert and StockXChange being named.  I think a finger was even pointed at Dreamstime as one of the culprits.

What's the deal?

OH man.. here we go again   

I agree, it's not, but we can save that for another thread.  Not sure about everyone else, but it's certainly more important to me what kind of fraud I may be letting my guard down to than someone else's opinion of my country or what to call it.

So much confusion on this matter.  Hopefully I can give more information to explain the origin of the whole debate.  Apparently some photographers (why not everybody I don�t know) received a request from Stockxpert to provide certain personal information for accounting/legal reasons.  Very strange.  Here is the full message.  What to you think?

"Happy New Year!

We are contacting you because we need a little help. We are a Hungary based company and like all the other countries we have some very strange laws, especially when it comes to accounting.

In short, we need to have your birth location, birth date and mother's maiden name for accounting purposes. Don't worry about it, it's just a technical issue, nothing more. We know it sounds stupid, but unfortunately we cannot do anything about it.

We hate to waste your time and understand that things like this can be very annoying, so in return for your help we will credit you $20 on your account after we received all the data. Since this issue only affects some of our users, you may even consider yourself lucky to get a $20 bonus! :

To provide the data, please log in and use the form on the My account / Profile page titled 'Important!'.

Thank you very much for your help, and if you have any questions about this matter, please contact our customer service.

Best regards,
Peter Hamza / Stockxpert Crew"

An admin answered about this issue on StockXpert forum :
http://www.stockxpert.com/forum.phtml?f=showtopic&n=1934

It seems it affects only contributors who are paid from their hungarian paypal account for some strange hungarian law reasons.

Though I personally didn't receive the email, I sure wouldn't feel confortable giving such personal (and somewhat sensitive) informations.

Erick

From what they posted in their forum, I'd suggest giving them a fake information. They say than no one will be verifying the information.

From what they posted in their forum, I'd suggest giving them a fake information. They say than no one will be verifying the information.

*. It's always the simple answer. Good one YY. I didn't get the email either but would not have provide the info, even though I stopped using mother's maiden name years ago. What good is a damned security question when everyone has the same answer. That's as dumb as using the same password on every site you belong to.

No email here... but I can tell you right now... there's no way I'd go for it... I hate to be paranoid, but there's been too many  'funny'  things going on in this business.   Rather than give that data out,  I'd pull my account too.
I don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from  ....
 
 "   this is Johnny from admin, it's okay, don't worry about it......  "   

Yeah, okay,  here's my amex, mc and visa and while I'm on line,  here are the pin codes to my bank accounts too.

Just too many scams out there and no sooner than one is uncovered, another pops up to take it's place.  I'll pass on this one.

Well, YY, thanks for giving your phone #.  Sorry I didn't phone you, but went through that link instead:

http://www.reversephonedirectory.com/

Honesty relative ?   mmmhhh....  you must be a lawyer then 

Well if this compromising info is useless as SX admin says, then why do they ask for it?  Anyway, I would prefer to erase my 'relatively' small portfolio rather than giving them some fake info.  But that's just me.

Quote from: yingyang0 on January 08, 2007, 17:37

Honesty is relative.

Honesty is only relative for people that don't believe in an absolute truth.

And that absolute truth is?

Quote from: GeoPappas on January 08, 2007, 19:19

Quote from: yingyang0 on January 08, 2007, 17:37

Honesty is relative.

Honesty is only relative for people that don't believe in an absolute truth.

And that absolute truth is?

I am not trying to get into a philosophical or religious debate, but since you asked...

For those that believe, God is THE absolute truth.

For those that don't believe, there is usually no such thing as an absolute truth.  "To each his own" is a common motto (or something similar).  Some people believe that there are many paths to God.  That is, everything leads to the same place.  For them, truth is relative.

My belief (as a Christian) in absolute truth is as follows:

- God exists.
- God is perfect and sinless.
- A lasting relationship with God requires us to become perfect and sinless.
- Humans are imperfect and sinful creatures, thus cannot have a lasting relationship with God (on their own merits).
- Jesus the * was crucified to "bridge the gap" between humans and God.  His blood "covered" our sins.  His blood didn't MAKE us perfect, but it TREATS US as if we are perfect (the term used in the Bible is that humans are "justified" which you might appreciate as a lawyer).
- Humans can therefore have a lasting relationship with God if they accept the sacrifice that Jesus the * made.

There is more of course, but those are the most important points.

I hope that I was able to convey them in an easy to understand manner.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...