18 November 2010

LDA email hilarity

| johnboy
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The usually reliable Androo has sent in this tale:

word comes from a colleague of mine about the LDA’s royal email stuffup this morning… emailing all subscribers for the land release with their emails in the To: field, so there for all to see!

then some wag emails them all from a made-up gmail account to say the release has been postponed.

then LDA email to say it’s not postponed.

and on it goes – no doubt you’ll get evidence soon enough from someone! 🙂

If you’ve got a copy you can share send it in to john@the-riotact.com

UPDATE: OK, here’s how it went, apparently the police have been involved:

    LDA lda @act.gov.au
    Sent by: “Benn, Justin” justin .Benn@act.gov.au
    17/11/2010 01:15 PM
    To: Very long list of recipients
    Subject: Bonner 3C Block Valuations [SEC=No Protective Marking]

    Dear Valued Client,

    Block prices for Bonner Stage 3C are now available for the November 2010 over-the-counter land sales event.

    The Land Development Agency strongly recommends that you review the block prices and sales documentation in preparation for the sales event.

    The block prices and sales documentation can be downloaded from the LDA website at http://www.lda.act.gov.au/?/bonner2/sales/land_available

    Kind regards
    The LDA Sales Team

Then the open list received this:

    LDA landdevagency @gmail.com
    17/11/2010 05:23 PM
    To: undisclosed-recipients:;
    Subject: BONNER STAGE 3C LAND RELEASE POSTPONED [SEC=No Protective Marking]

    Dear Valued Client,

    Given your previous interest in the Land Development Agency’s (LDA) land releases, we would like to inform you that your next chance to buy land in Bonner Stage 3C postponed. We apologies for inconvenience and inform you in coming month.

    Kind regards
    The LDA Sales Team

This prompted a direct response:

    LDA lda @act.gov.au
    Sent by: “Benn, Justin” justin .Benn@act.gov.au
    17/11/2010 07:46 PM
    To: undisclosed-recipients:;
    Subject: FW: Bonner Stage 3C land release has not been postponed [SEC=No Protective Marking]

    Dear Valued Client

    Earlier today you would have received two e-mails relating to the upcoming Bonner 3C release.

    Firstly, the LDA apologises for the LDA@act.gov.au message “Bonner 3C Block Valuations” having been sent as a group e-mail as this is not our normal procedure. This action may have breached your privacy and the LDA will seek to ensure that this situation does not occur again.

    Secondly, you may have received a separate e-mail from a g.mail account, with the sender using an account name of “landdevagency”. This e-mail address and sender has no connection to the LDA and has fraudulently purported to represent the LDA. The LDA will be contacting the Australian Federal Police in relation to this misrepresentation. This fraudulent e-mail also claimed that the release has been postponed. This is not correct.

    The Bonner 3C land release is still happening on the original time frame. Registrations are underway and appointments may be booked from 12 noon, Thursday 18 November 2010.

    Once again, the LDA apologises for any confusion or inconvenience that this matter may have caused.

    LDA Sales Team

And then came this:

    “Land Development Agency” lda @act.gov.au
    18/11/2010 10:57 AM

    Please respond to
    lda@act.gov.au

    Subject: Bonner 3C Sales event important update [SEC=No Protective Marking]

    Bonner 3C Sales Event Important Update

    Thursday 18 November 2010

    CHANGE TO APPOINTMENT BOOKING DATE
    The Online Booking System for the Bonner 3C Sales Event will now open at 12 noon on Monday 22 November 2010 for you to book a Block Selection Appointment (rather than 12 noon today, Thursday 18 November 2010).

    The Key Dates and Requirements have been amended as follows:

    12 noon Monday 15 November 2010 – Registrations opened

    12 noon Monday 22 November 2010 – Appointment booking opens
    (stays open until all 107 appointments are taken)

    From 9am on Saturday 27 November 2010 and from 9am Monday 29 November 2010 – Block Selection Appointments 30 minutes per appointment

    We recognise that you may have received a number of emails in the past 24 hours regarding the Bonner 3C Sales Event. The Land Development Agency (LDA) apologises for any confusion.

    The LDA has delayed the opening of the Online Booking System to reduce the effect of confusion that may have been caused to you.

    We confirm that:

    — your registration for the Bonner 3C Sales Event is still valid (i.e. you do not need to re-register for the Bonner 3C Sales Event);
    — at 12 noon on Monday 22 November 2010, 107 Block Selection Appointments will be available; and
    it is important to note that the Block Selection Appointment days will remain as Saturday 27 November 2010 and Monday 29 November 2010.
    — Any further information in relation to this Sales Event will only be sent from lda@act.gov.au. Please ignore emails purporting to be from the LDA from any email addresses other than lda@act.gov.au
    Should you have any concerns in relation to the Bonner 3C Sales Event, please contact us via email lda@act.gov.au or telephone 1800 777 952.

    All details relating to this Sales Event are on the LDA website www.lda.act.gov.au

    The LDA Sales Team

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The AFP will definitely have a sense of humour on this one and tell the LDA to suck it up.

What software are they using?

How &%#$ing hard is to know that 12pm = 1200hrs = Midday = 0100UTC = 0100GMT

So we’ve established these people who are PAID FROM OUR POCKETS:
– can’t use email
– can’t tell the time

That would be alright if they were ASO1s and 2s (equivalents), but what’s the bet they are all over-paid ASO6s and EL1s (equivalents), despite their lack of education and skills?

djk said :

To add to this – one of the main reasons the appointment booking has been pushed over to Monday is because the system was somehow set up to allow appointments to be booked from midnight on Thurs 18/11 rather than midday as advertised! Needless to say this led to a mad rush this morning as people found out, only to then have all of the appointments cancelled.

The LDA told us that someone just put the wrong time into the system, 12am & 12pm seem to mean the same thing to them… How could they get so much, so wrong in a 24hr period?

If they make mistakes like these, whats going on with the millions of $$$ they are making?? Someone should question that!!

TVStar said :

IT HAS THE FEEL OF KURT ALIM KENNEDY ABOUT IT.

do you have to yell that?

Is it just me – I don’t see why the police are involved in this?

Personally I’d rather see them visit a few road ragers.

djk said :

Also, the [SEC=No Protective Marking] tag is not on the email from the LDA, so is perhaps indicative that the perpetrator was a public servant? (or JB’s source is?)

From what I can see, the security tag was on the original email and the second email is a gmail account. What makes you think it is a public servant?

UrbanAdventure.org11:24 am 19 Nov 10

I think Mr Justin Benn there at the LDA needs some serious training into obligations under the Privacy Act. If anything, the police should be investigating him.

** No, I didn’t send the email either, but yes, I did think it was funny as.

Rawhide Kid Part38:48 am 19 Nov 10

amarooresident3 said :

All well and good, but what I want to know is, did they get the girl?

No. The butler did it…..

Holden Caulfield said :

Love the solid gold typos in the fraudulent message.

+1

And I love “sales event”. Hilarious. Great sense of humour there.

I should hope the police are involved – yet another example of Public Service mis-management of email, this time creating a breach of privacy.

amarooresident34:26 pm 18 Nov 10

All well and good, but what I want to know is, did they get the girl?

IT HAS THE FEEL OF KURT ALIM KENNEDY ABOUT IT.

ACT Government – they can’t even run a monopoly.

Epic Fail

“This fraudulent e-mail also claimed that the release has been postponed”

Mysteriously only one person showed up, and purchased half the suburb.. lmao

I wonder if this is related to the “we will pay you $1000 to use your identity and sign some forms on our behalf to get more land” scheme going around recently..

Something funny going on here, I wonder what they uncover? :O

Wait…so after the fake went around, they replied to clarify that the email was a fake and that no dates had changed – then, they went and changed the dates in an effort to avoid confusion? How exactly does that work?

Holden Caulfield3:36 pm 18 Nov 10

Love the solid gold typos in the fraudulent message.

Also, the [SEC=No Protective Marking] tag is not on the email from the LDA, so is perhaps indicative that the perpetrator was a public servant? (or JB’s source is?)

To add to this – one of the main reasons the appointment booking has been pushed over to Monday is because the system was somehow set up to allow appointments to be booked from midnight on Thurs 18/11 rather than midday as advertised! Needless to say this led to a mad rush this morning as people found out, only to then have all of the appointments cancelled.

When presented with the opportunity to mess with people, it is sometimes hard to resist.* Do you think that the poor wording of the fake email was a deliberate attempt to copy the style of ACT government communications?
While the initial release of the mailing list was a bit sloppy, looks to me like they responded about as well as could possibly be expected.

* I was not the sender.

colourful sydney racing identity2:42 pm 18 Nov 10

It’s no Steve Tucker but that’s pretty funny…

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