Most of the postings relate to Baffle 'em with Bullshit, making the equipment or the operator seem highly advanced or skilled in order to suit the plot or story line. These are movies and are meant to be an escape, not a reflection of reality (I agree those scenes can be hard to stomach). My favorite bad computer scene comes from many years ago. Two teanagers were reading instructions, attempting to use a PC for some sort of data access. They were supposed to press the F12 key but in a very drawn-out fashion pressed f, then 1, then 2. Ouch.

No, the county government can TRY to raise taxes and TRY to tell their constituents that they MUST pay to have a Fire Department looking out for them. The voters can say NO, either by referendum or voting out incumbents. Tell a Tea Party member that he MUST pay to bail out GM and duck quickly - same kind of response expected in this case. People can be very touchy about taxes, even when the benefits are clear and price is reasonable. Unfortunate preventable situation but ultimately the voters put themselves in this situation.

And so the conspiracy theories begin. If a person lives in a rural area on a piece of property larger than the typical suburban postage stamp you develop an attitude of freedom. Zoning is often nonexistent. People don't have to mow their lawns, hide their junk cars, chain their dogs, or paint their houses. People do as they please and anyone telling them what to do is likely to get a clear view of the business end of a shotgun. Open fires might technically require a permit but enforcement is unlikely to occur. Any interference by government is met with righteous indignation. Property and other taxes are railed against. The people who wind up in control are often those who join in simply to protect their own wealth (and incumbency) by keeping taxes to a minimum, which usually means the schools suffer. Wow, quite a few sweeping generalizations in here but bottom line is that I grew up in rural England, now live in the Mid West, and can visualize this exact unfortunate situation occurring in a rural community in either area. Lots of clichés come to mind too: You've made your bed, now lie in it; Poor planning on your part doesn't make for an emergency on mine. It will be interesting to see what happens in the courts. If there isn't a Good Samaritan law, like the one in New York that put the Seinfeld crew in jail in the series-ending episode, and the fire department wasn't contracted to protect that house, there may be no standing to sue the fire fighters, the town in which they are based, or any of the local governments. Insurance companies always inquire about the fire department when selling an insurance policy. If the owner received a rate that was based on that department responding to a fire and failed to pay the fee that obligated the department to respond, the insurance company will likely decline to pay the claim and it's due to the homeowner's negligence in paying the fee. As easy as it is to blame the firefighters, anyone who believes in personal responsibility can see that the home owner is responsible for his current unfortunate situation.

The dropbox is the bulk po box used by all private registrations with that registrar. Any communication to the po box must be tagged with a domain name, and presumably one that is handled by that registrar. The registrar will open the first class mail, scan it and email it to the contact email address on the account, also not mine. I've explained to my employer's legal & HR departments how the registration process works, how the fraud was accomplished, how easy it is, and how prevalent. This was all verified by IT management. They've presumably run a fresh and clean background and financial check on me and I'll be back at work tomorrow. All done with no lawyer, open & honest communication, and a cooperative attitude.

The OP here. After being suspended with no warning about the situation, filing a complaint with Registrar B was the first thing I did.

The OP here. Sorry if I was unclear. Not the current common use of Identity Theft, really just my name. However, they also used the PO dropbox & answering service phone number owned by my registrar (A) when registering with Registrar B. No inside job, just simple copy-and-paste by a fraudster. I have no idea what hidden information is held in the registration.

Indiana is an "at will" state. Mmmm - chowder. Lunch time.

It wasn't so much ID theft in the common current parlance. This was fraudulent misuse of my name. The mailing address isn't specifically mine - it is the postal dropbox for my Registrar, and the account with my name on it is only used for company business. The fraudster even included the answering service phone number for Registrar A in their registration with Registrar B.

The "matching registration information" is the dropbox at Registrar A, as well as Registrar A's phone number. Anything sent with my name to that mailbox won't get delivered to me unless a domain name associated with my NIC handle is included in the mailing address. Imagine my name is John Smith - too many try to select the right one. Registrar A opens the mail, scans and emails it - if there isn't a domain under their control in the mail, it gets dumped. The best bet may be getting information behind the email address (not related to me) but how likely is it that the registration info for the Yahoo address is legit?

That is exactly the case. The public whois info of the typo domain matches exactly that of the legit domain. In fact, the legit domain is in Network Solutions. The typo domain is in another registrar & the info includes NS's PO box address & NS's phone number. My IT department is all behind me, all the way up, but Legal doesn't understand the nuances of domain registration - they are used to working with above-board companies. I'm hopeful my internal allies can educate the lawyers post-haste and remove this veil of suspicion.