Token of Appreciation
 

Is this e-mail for real? I don't know what this website is? I'm a little hesitant to go entering my name in there.


Dear FRC Team Mentors,

This letter is to both to congratulate you for having a successful FRC season, and also inform you of an opportunity for you and your team's principle team Mentors to receive a token of appreciation for your effort from the FIRST Senior Mentors.

Since we plan to have your name placed on each item, we wish to be assured of correct spelling of your names. Please go to the following web site to enter the names of the mentor/coaches who will be traveling with the team to Atlanta. We plan to have each mentor receive a personal presentation and only those in attendance at the Championship will be eligible.

Please visit this page and enter the full names of the principle mentors for your team (not chaperones, please) in spaces provided:

http://www.rackandroll.alakmalak.net...s/register.php


Thank you for your efforts!

Sincerely,

The FIRST Senior Mentors

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

http://www.rackandroll.alakmalak.net/

http://www.alakmalak.net/

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-03,GGLD:en&q=site:rackandroll%2ealakmalak%2enet

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...lakmalak%2enet

What weird results that last a quick and easy to do google search gives.
Illinois Institute of Technology??

Seems like a motherload of spoof sites on that one directory. Where are the intarweb police when you need them? LOL

Doubt it's real.. especially with the lame real close deadline.

I would call FIRST and find out if they know of anything about this.

Or wait for a FSM to reply here.. there are plenty available here on CD.

I wouldn't post my name or anything. Who knows where the heck that form is going.

:eek:

It is kinda strange though, typical "phishing, or spoof" sites like this if it is one, usually ask for an e-mail address and not just a list of names.. but maybe that's the trick.. it only asks for your phone number so they can sell it, and distracts you by making you provide a list of names.

Bottom line.. I would delete that e-mail or just forward it to FIRST.

Actually, Sanddrag.. PM me.. I have full headers turned on in my e-mail, so if you forward the original to me, we can see where it really originated from and if they masked their sent from e-mail addy to spoof FIRST.

PM Me and I'll send you my e-mail addy.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

Considering the lack of contact information available, I would not trust the site.

There is no WHOIS information available on the domain. The email is from a random person (?).

Bottom line: DO NOT TRUST. This site is not GP-approved.

EDIT: Also, get the word out on this. Email your mentors and link them here.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

I'm trying to roust someone who'll be able to tell for certain if this is legitimate or not, but in the meantime, I've pulled out some links that lead to personally identifiable information.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

I don't know if this is legit or not. But the e-mail that you cited is not a random person. *removed* is the e-mail of Steve Cremer the Boston area Senior Mentor. I will shoot him an e-mail or give him a call to see what I can find about this.
-wayne

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

This really does not sound right if you ask me since the deadline is less than 23 hours away.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

Whether it is legit or not (which it most certainly appears not to be), the fact that full names and phone numbers of FIRST team mentors are publically available is terrifying.

This needs to get shut down ASAP.

FIRST is in the big leagues now. Stuff like this should be on their own usfirst.org website. Either this isn't real or someone had a good idea that is not so good. Either way, I don't like it.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

Thanks, Wayne. Let us know what you find.

The e-mail was sent to Steve's @usfirst.org e-mail address in addition to a BCC to all of the main contacts, but it's so easy to create an @aol.com e-mail address that it seemed plausible that it wasn't legit.

If it is legit, it might be prudent for those involved to make it so that everyone's identifiable information is not so easily found.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

I don't think it's real. Because why not just e-mail, I know our senior mentor always e-mails and stays in contact with all the team coaches and team captains as much as possible, so unless Ms. Lutz e-mails me personally specifically from her e-mail address, I don't trust that site. It's a little too fishy, especially with the short notice due date and lack of info. If it's that important, then I'm pretty sure the senior mentors would e-mail the team contacts, coaches and captains from their FIRST e-mail addresses. Besides, our senior mentor already has the colorado teams list of mentors going to Atlanta because she already asked for them herself.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

See that's the thing I love about FIRST. Even if this does turn out to be legit, we are at least doing something right and moving the program in a nice direction by letting some people who may not be as web savy as some of us to keep things in a "safe place" such as the FIRST site, and not just on a random server in India. :ahh:

I'll admit sometime I see some things I am skeptical about when they pop us here on CD and not on the FIRST site.***



***(Divisions listings anyone? Yeah.. kinda.. Sorry to say I was skeptical, cause the page that has the spot assigned to be linked by FIRST... well, at 12 noon today, those links were not there but the Division list was already well on it's way to being fully analyzed here on CD.)

http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc...432&menu_id=80

The links are finally FIRST approved at this time.. lol
Let's just hope they have the same information as the Division list everyone has started pre-event scouting by here on CD. :-x

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

The mentor recognition project is a legitimate one. It was started and is being implemented by some of our FIRST Senior Mentors, the ones who deserve more recognition and thanks than we can possibly give them. It is a daunting task, trying to recognize all the mentors who will be in Atlanta next week.
This is a bit late getting out - the project has been in the works for some time now - but I'm sure it's just a case of there being only so many hours in a day... and as many of you know, the last three weeks found some of us working in Hartford for several days, then Boston for several days, then Rhode Island last weekend. So this week we're all playing catch up preparing for Championships (and catching up on our sleep).
I'm sure that Steve would still like to have the info about your team mentors, even if you choose not to use that website.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

The recognition project is legit.
Steve Cremer in Boston is heading this up.
But I was not aware they were going to implement this way. If you feel more comfortable, email Steve with the names.
They are trying to capture names of mentors attending the Championship from all the programs.

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

Getting a server error. We'll email Steve

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.rackandroll.alakmalak.net Port 80

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

I assume this includes NEM's?

Re: Token of Appreciation
 

Thanks Kathie and Jenny for the quick replies!!

I'm sure this puts some people at ease now. lol