BleepingComputer.com: I'm being gagged online

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I'm being gagged online Text fields for comments are image overlays

#1 User is offline   faster 

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Posted 07 February 2012 - 09:03 AM

I need some expert help. Somebody is trying to gag me online. I don't know if the attack is in my PC, my browser (Firefox), or if it resides at a site where I have been unable to comment.

The problem is simple to define. On certain sites, there are comment text fields where I can post a comment or reply to one. Except that I can't, any more. This has been going on over a year, and I want to know what I might do to stop it.

It LOOKS like the text field, but is really an image overlay. It won't take text, even using cut/paste. The right-click menu is the same as for the whole page, rather than with options like "select all," etc. There is no question that this was an attack, with hostile intent.

This has happened to me on a series of sites. They all use disqus to manage their comment sections. CNN, Time, Mashable and several others, but the common thread is disqus. There's no way to know if the sites themselves are complicit, too. For disqus, I can't see how they could NOT be culpable.

A while ago, I wrote to disqus and received a courteous reply, but it still said that nobody at their office would consider doing something like that.

I have used NoScript to block disqus, and certain other difficulties vanished, too - but they were minor. Why bother loading the comment section when you can't use it?

Text fields NOT managed by disqus work fine. ALL comment fields managed by disqus have this same problem. There is no separating disqus from the problem, whether it's being done with their knowledge or not.

I'd like to upload the properties for the text field frame (I think it's called "Page Source") for some expert to check out, because I don't understand it. There may be a clue that an expert would recognize.

If it's in my browser, I'd have to reinstall Firefox. If it's somewhere else in my PC, I don't think I can find it, because both S&D and Clamwin show my system as clean. The only solution - maybe - to that is to format C. But last time I did that, the problem returned.

It might be in the scripts or cookies that disqus puts on my machine when I let NoScript permit it. If so, neither formatting C or reinstalling Firefox will help. And then again, it might not be anywhere on my system, but aimed at me from their server whenever I allow disqus.

It's possible that my IP address clues them in that I'm someone to be gagged this way, but I can't find an app (a free one) online that could obscure my IP address.

I'm no techie. Can someone help me resolve this? It's been harassing me for well over a year. It's almost certainly criminal behavior, since it is interfering with someone's use of an interstate communication medium, and that would involve the FCC, making it a federal crime.

I'd like to track down who is doing this to me. And WHY.

For now, though, I just want to get RID of it, if possible.

Can someone help?

This post has been edited by faster: 07 February 2012 - 09:06 AM


#2 User is offline   4dude 

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Posted 08 February 2012 - 04:06 PM

Is it possible to post a screenshot of what it looks like?

I have experienced some TEXT FIELDS that wont work if scripts are disabled for example....

#3 User is offline   millipede 

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Posted 02 May 2012 - 11:18 AM

I don't know if this topic is still being watched but...
While anything is possible, I can't see someone or a group of people conspiring to prevent you from posting on multiple(but not ALL) sites. Again, anything is possible but that doesn't seem very likely.
My first thought is like 4dude's... There are MANY websites that I go to where I have to manually allow scripts(I use NoScript as well) in order for functions to work... quite often, I have to allow scripts from sites that I'm not on for that site to work. The scripts they use might not be hosted at their domain. On facebook, if I'm playing a game ON facebook, I have to allow scripts from the developers of those games and sometimes even others.
So my first recommendation would be to TEMPORARILY allow "ALL THIS PAGE" for a page you're on. Sometimes I even have to temporarily allow cookies in order for something to work. I recently found out why I could not play a certain facebook game and it was cookies. I had to temporarily allow even third party cookies until I found which cookies I needed to allow.

Anyway... I'd try allowing, temporarily, all the scripts for that page alone(not "globally). If you still have trouble, I'd try another browser to see how it's effected there. See what happens and then go from there.

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