I don’t know any of you personally, but I have made your acquaintance through the cyber-world; I’ve had my e-mail accounts hacked and spoofed and have received a plethora of messages from you from my friend’s accounts. And while I appreciate your concern, I’m not a guy, so I don’t need Viagra or my penis enlarged, thank you very much and I’m truthfully not in the market for a Russian bride.

I know there must be some financial reward or intrinsic value derived from hacking a personal Facebook, e-mail, or Twitter account, or you wouldn’t spend countless hours hacking and spoofing. You might like the power of messing with people’s minds by overflowing their in-boxes with Spam addressed from their friends. But couldn’t you be using your skills and talents elsewhere? Do you really have to spend your time hacking my e-mail account to get ahead in life?

Now that your skills have been honed by working for pharmaceutical companies to send spoofed e-mails and fake Facebook messages, wouldn’t you like to use those skills for the right side instead of tirelessly bothering the “little people” with Spam?  I’m not suggesting that you put yourself at risk with illegal activities. You could probably get a job for a litigator researching and investigating white-collar criminals—the guys like Mozilo who rip everybody off and never get punished for it. You could go legit and actually earn more cash and respect. Software engineers don’t typically earn small salaries and get more respect than the average spammer, as do many others with your particular set of technical skills. (The image above is an actual screen-shot from Craig’s List with the job description of “hacker”, so it’s clear that I’m not the only one thinking in this vein.)

And for the few of you hackers and the like who are into hacking high-profile celebrities and pseudo-celebrities’ Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail accounts for fun, cash, or glory, why don’t you change your focus a little and start hacking the real criminals? We all know that Justin Bieber is an exceedingly cute kid with muppet-like hair, but that’s not really a crime. I’m talking about the CEO’s of major corporations who wield influence that they really shouldn’t have and their attorneys.

**As a legal aside, it should be noted that I accept no personal responsibility for anyone who chooses to hack anyone else. Hackers are responsible for their own actions.