DEF CON 17 - Jason Scott - That Awesome Time I Was Sued for Two Billion Dollars

That Awesome Time I Was Sued For Two Billion Dollars
Jason Scott Textfiles.com
In a world where scams are now considered as commonplace as functioning websites and cell phones, it's sometimes too easy to forget the insidiousness and complicated preparation that can go into a well-honed misleading attempt to gain financially from unknowing people. It also helps if you're this side of crazy. For over a decade, Jason Scott (and a group of others) were plagued by one such artist of misdirection, and he will present an dismaying, tragic, but hilarious recounting of what he learned along the way and what you yourself might find yourself confronted with as you go about your business. The story is true, the two billion dollars was demanded but not awarded, and the case got to court. Come hear a legal yarn with a side order of fried conspiracy theory, and walk away a little wiser.
Jason Scott is a computer historian and speaker celebrating ten years at DEFCON. He runs TEXTFILES.COM, has filmed documentaries on the BBS and Text Adventures, and is the owner of the (as of this writing) most popular cat on Twitter, Sockington.
For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 17 Archive here: defcon.org/html/links/dc-arch...

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

This has ALWAYS been my favorite Defcon Talk. i re-watch it every year or so just because of how funny it is. i finally got my brother to watch it today, he loved it too lol

[@williamli55]

This is by far the best defcon talk I've ever watched.

[@nibnob9]

amazing talk

[@davidmiller9485]

That embossment is a notary mark. It validates it as being real or verified.

[@jasonscott526]

Yes, but he's added a fake one, from himself.

[@davidmiller9485]

@@jasonscott526 figures, BTW thanks for what you do. I think educators don't get the thanks they deserve. I've been online a long time (pre web actually) and it's nice to see someone trying to save a part of our culture that, unfortunately most seem to have deemed disposable. So kudo's to you Sir!

[@Epinardscaramel]

Ooooh I get it know, that guy was one of those “sovereign citizens”! 😮

[@jasonscott526]

Sadly, a lot of this 2009 talk can be summarized as "I was harassed by a Sovereign Citizen."

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

what's that "CISSP Bullshit" he referred to at the beginning lol

[@jasonscott526]

CISSP stands for Certified Information Systems Security Professional and is a certification that is very easy to get, related to how (some) people announce it. Imagine getting your swimming certificate down at the local community pool and then calling yourself a seasoned lifeguard. You are closer to a lifeguard than someone without the certification but you're not all that just based on the paper. Same with this, at the time - people who claimed they were top security folks because they had a CISSP certification. This was a rather in-joke at a security conference disguised as a hacker conference.

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

@@jasonscott526 That's funny, didn't know that it had this Aura around it lol (or at least if it did at the time this video was recorded)

[@base64d]

How the hell can this guy claim that federal law doesn’t apply and yet say he violated federal law?!