Other names who have previously faced the wrath of Facebook's name police include US political blogger Jon Swift, Japanese author Hiroko Yoda, British member of Parliament Steve Webb, Australian graphic designer Beta Yee, New Zealander Rowena Gay and countless others with names including "podcast", "beaver", "jelly", "beer" and "duck."

"You also agree to pay for all charges for services provided under this agreement even if such calls were not authorized by you."

Regulators say this line makes it nearly impossible for customers to get out of paying for fraud or errors charged to their bill — even if they're added by AT&T.

"If you do not agree with the provisions of this agreement, your sole option is to cancel your services ... within 30 days after receipt of this agreement," it says.

I should've made it my lead: Quit now!

NEW YORK (CBS) ― A former Verizon technician racked up $220,000 in phone-sex calls by tapping into the land lines of nearly 950 customers, authorities charged on Tuesday.

Joseph Vaccarelli, 45, of Nutley, NJ, made approximately 5,000 calls, resulting in 45,000 minutes of call time, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in a news release.

Vaccarelli placed the calls in about 30 municipalities in Bergen County, according to the release.

Verizon estimated that out of a 40-week period, Vaccarelli spent 15 weeks talking on 900 chat lines, authorities alleged.

Here's how it works:

Get up one morning, check your email on your iPhone. There's a message from PayPal confirming your 100 Euro purchase of services from Skype.

Whoa. I didn't order 100 Euros of anything. And in Euros?

You go to your computer, wake it out of its sleep, and an alert window from Skype is waiting for you.

"Your Skype password has been recently changed. You need to sign in again with your new password in order to use Skype. This is a security measure taken in order to prevent your Skype Account from being abused."

Hmm. I didn't change my password.

You try to login to Skype. You can't. You visit your PayPal account. 100 Euros has been taken out of it to purchase Skype services. You think fast, cancel the agreement you had between PayPal and Skype
to pay a $3 monthly fee for SkypeOut. You send a fraud report to PayPal. You send a fraud report to Skype.

In both reports you summarize the issue: someone hijacked your Skype account and stole 100 Euros (about $142) worth of Skype services from you. Nothing authorized by you at any point. It's called theft. All will be good, right?

PayPal takes four days to make a determination.

Quote: "A PayPal claims specialist has reviewed the case and determined that the claim does not meet the criteria for unauthorized use, so the case is now closed."

Are you kidding? According the the "specialists", theft is not unauthorized use. Skype gets to keep its 100 Euros that was stolen from you.

You think, "I'll just appeal this..where's the 'appeal' link?" You find there is none. You have to write PayPal a letter. Yes, a letter. To Omaha, Nebraska. A letter asking for the documentation they used to make the determination. An Internet company insists you write them a letter.

OK, surely Skype will help out. That is, if they ever write back. They take nearly two weeks to get around to assigning a human to the case.

Skype writes back in 10 days. "Patrick P. is on the case. Patrick says: "In your case it appears that someone has succeeded in fraudulently obtaining your PayPal account and purchasing credit."

You think, "great, somebody understands."

Patrick goes on:

"First, you are not liable for this transaction in any way. "

Sweet. You'll just appeal to Skype and... Wait. You read further.

"We suggest that you submit a Transaction Dispute via Paypal.com."

Great. Back to square one.

Patrick sends another email a couple of days later. It's about that money that was stolen from you to buy services from them that you didn't authorize.

"Skype can not refund the money you might have lost due to this incident. Every user has to take care of his/her security systems on private computers."

"Money you might have lost?" You did lose money...and by the way, it's your fault, loser.

(Photo by Joi)

AT&T is already huge provider of telco and IT services to small business. Its track record is one of notoriously complex business processes that get in the way. If you schedule a "turn-up" to activate a new T1 line, you'll learn more than you want about AT&T internal politics. If your onsite technician doesn't show, your attempt to track him down gets ping-ponged around AT&T's org chart. Could be he has the wrong phone number or address. Could be he checked you off as done and took a vaca, as happened to Valleywag editor Paul Boutin's home-office installation. To AT&T, it's your problem. "Sorry, we have no available slots to reschedule until next week."

Want to get a reverse DNS record created, so you can send mail to EarthLink and Comcast without being spam-filtered? AT&T's answer: We can't do that unless we take over your DNS hosting entirely.

I don't expect the company's attempt to expand into home service to change its corporate culture. Instead, I pity ConnecTech's frontline support people. God help them when they try to explain AT&T bureaucracy to people who've been spoiled by FedEx.

From a would-be iPhone 3G buyer in San Francisco:

Date: Jul 18, 2008 9:00 PM
Subject: apple store can kiss my ass

so i go to the chestnut street apple store at 10am this morning and they tell me they are sold out of 3g iphones after i checked their website last night. i'm like, how did you sell out at 10:01 am? and they said, we've been open for an hour! eh? their phone and website clearly details they open at 10am. wtf is going on? i felt like slaughtering them.

(Photo by Alex Choi)

Maybe you are new to this so I will < explain_the_game > 06/24 16:11:07

You will post an ad under Erotic Services that really does not belong because you are offering a Happy Ending, which is illegal.

You will try to be clever in your ad so that it is not too flagerant but still communicates your willingess to use your 38 inch chest for the gratification of your client's sexual desire.

The readers will read your ad. Some will call you and give you money for porviding the illegal service you are offering and that they desire. Others will flag your ad and it may be removed. Then you post another ad.

This is how the game is really played in Erotic Services. It is not according to the tou, but that is how it works.

Complaining here will not help because 99 44/100 percent of Erotic Services doesn't follow the tou

With the post being gone now, it's impossible to say that this came from an actual Craigslist moderator. That said, the community rising up to lay down the law like this, on what's allowed in Erotic Services, is maybe the only apropos way to trot out all those "Wild West" metaphors the cops adore when talking whores on the internet. It was all those Gold Rush Working Girls who were the first women to do business in San Francisco — and plus ça change, the more escorts will buck the rules of any advertising system.

our son notified us from college that someone posted a slanderous facebook using his name and does not know who did it and would like to get it removed. what does he need to do?

Goob's response:

What does he need to do? Stop being a pussy? The boy's in college now! Tell him to stop whining, go chase some hot tail, and quite moaning to mommy and daddy all the time.

Ever wondered what it's like to work Facebook customer service? Ever wondered what it's like to work in Facebook customer service and have a death wish? Find out with highlights from four more of Goob's email conversations:

In an open letter, Hesse even quotes a schadenfreude-laced passage from Proverbs:

I will mock you when calamity overtakes you - when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.