Re: Dealing with "Teach me how to hack" emails?

[Joel Esler <joel.esler () me com>]

I mark them as spam.

Or, respond and say "No."


On Feb 20, 2011, at 2:16 PM, Adrian Crenshaw wrote:

> Hi all,
>    Many on this list run a blog/podcast/etc and I imagine like me you get a lot of "Teach me how to hack" or "do this 
> for me" emails. How do you handle them?
>
> The categories I get can generally be broken down into:
>
> 1. Teach me how to hack (which is too broad to ever do).
> 2. I think my boyfriend/girlfriend is cheating on me, how can I spy on them (why would I want to get involved?).
> 3. Help me break into my neighbors/schools WiFi/Computer (Why would I help you do something illegal, and leave a 
> subpoenable record in email?).
> 4. Do a bunch of free work for me as a favor and under dubious expectations. I had a guy recently say he wanted be to 
> teach him how to track down spammers so he could sue them since he put a declaimer on his Craig's List posts that 
> said people owed him money ($50,000, and without going to court) if they sent him spam, and various other outrageous 
> demands. That one first got the response that I though he had unreasonable expectations, and when he email again I 
> told him I was not interested and if I got another email from him he owed me $100,000,000. Needless to say he was not 
> happy. I mailed the conversation to the list, but it got rejected, perhaps for being off topic or having too much 
> personal info in it. 
> 5. Questions about things I know nothing about, or that if I do know something about I've already put all I know in 
> an article/video. These questions I normally just point to the best resource I know.
>
> My responses are usually:
>
> 1. You question is to vague and sorry, I can't teach individuals over email.
> 2. Ignore them, especially it they used text speak in the email (ur = your, etc). 
> 3. Point them at some other materials and say I don't know much on the subject.
> 4. Sometimes, if it is especially whacked, I may have a snarky response. 
>
> I like to help people learn, but some people just want too much time, or for you to do all the work for them. What 
> are your normal responses? How do you deal with these things? I don't want to seem like an ass for not helping 
> people, but I'd rather speed my personal time doing other things.
>
> Thanks,
> Adrian
>
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--
Joel Esler
http://www.joelesler.net

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