The Iranian government somehow has been able to gain access to a bunch of Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail email accounts, and they’re using the information for what I can only describe as evil. One Iranian woman, for example, received a phone call warning her to stop sending out emails about what’s happening in Iran. The woman was informed by the caller (who of course had a private number) that if she did not stop, she and her entire family would be arrested. What made the threat obviously real was that the man on the other side of the phone then proceeded to name the woman’s family.
I first heard about this on Buzz Out Loud (a great podcast, if you don’t know it), and person who wrote in voiced concerns that Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft may be giving out people’s passwords. I’m pretty sure that this is not the case. As much as we kid about Microsoft and Google’s Borg-like control of the world, I can’t imagine that any American company would risk linking itself to the current Iranian regime.
Still, Iran’s government is somehow gaining access to these accounts, and that’s both scary and dangerous. If you have any information on this, please send us a tip at info@techgeist.net.
