It's always good to have something to blog about first thing Monday morning.

TO:inquiries@boingboing.net

Hi, victim.

I write you because I buried a malware on the web page with porn which you have viewed. My virus captured all your private info and switched on your webcam which recorded the process of your masturbation. Just after that the malware saved your contact list. I will erase the compromising video and info if you pay me 350 EURO in bitcoin. This is address for payment : 16aFnAAFfeq4BhL98P8LAoaviUaYp7oTSr

I give you 30h after you open my message for making the transaction. As soon as you read the message I'll see it immediately. It is not necessary to tell me that you have sent money to me. This wallet address is connected to you, my system will delete everything automatically after transfer confirmation. If you need 48 hours just Open the calculator on your desktop and press +++ If you don't pay, I'll send dirt to all your contacts. Let me remind you-I see what you're doing! You can visit the police station but nothing can't help you. If you attempt to cheat me , I'll know it right away! I don't live in your country. So nobody can not track my location even for 9 months. bye. Don't forget about the disgrace and to ignore, Your life can be ruined.

It turns out that the ESL Shame Wizard is randomly-generated! Our customer service email helpline received one with a slightly different wording:

Hi, victim.

A Kentucky woman was banned from JCPenneys after directing a racist tirade against shoppers ahead of her in the checkout line.

Just go back wherever the fuck you came from. Hey, tell them to go back where they belong. You know, they come here to live and they act like they’re everybody else. Get in the back of the line like everybody else does.

It [the line] starts back there...And it don’t bother me if I say it and I don’t care if everybody hears me. I think everybody here probably feels the same damn way I do.

Just go back wherever the f*ck you came from,” she said before turning to the cashier. “Hey!” she said. “Tell ’em to go back where they belong. You know, they come here to live and they act like they’re everybody else. Get in the back of the line like everybody else does.

You’re a nobody. Just because you come from another country, it don’t make you nobody! Nobody, as far as I’m concerned. You’re probably on welfare, the taxpayers probably paid for all that stuff.

... Speak English, you're in America.

A friend of the shopper in front had added further items to her basket, thereby adding several seconds to the checkout time and earning the white woman's racial ire.

Only the store clerk challenged her racist tirade; the targets ignored it and at least one person egged it on. But Renee Buckner captured it on video and posted it online. Within hours, the footage had millions of views. Read the rest

The Washington Post takes a fond look back at 15 people who became briefly infamous for one reason or another. Some of these villains are new to me, like prankster Sam Pepper, who pretended to execute a man in front of the man's best friend. Others aren't villians at all, such as Ellen Pao, who was harassed out of her job as Reddit's CEO for helping shut down a number of hate speech subreddits, such as r/fatpeoplehate, r/transf*gs, and and r/shitni**erssay.

10. Belle Gibson

The villain: The 24-year-old Australian blogger and entrepreneur behind “The Whole Pantry” app.

The offense: Rose to fame, in large part, by claiming that a healthy diet and alternative medicine had cured her metastatic cancer — when, in fact, she’d never been ill. Gibson also repeatedly said that a portion of the sales from her app, The Whole Pantry, and its accompanying cookbook went to charity, though later investigations suggested that she’d pocketed those funds. Gibson’s fan base imploded almost overnight, and both her former fans and outside observers began demanding explanations.

Where she is now: Since March, Gibson has been under investigation by a regional Consumer Affairs department, which, per the Herald Sun, is looking into claims about her fraudulent fundraising practices. Gibson’s publisher has withdrawn her cookbook and Whole Pantry is gone from the app store. In a June interview, she told 60 Minutes she had “lost everything” — an admission for which she was reportedly paid $45,000 AUS.

This much is certain: Gary Friedrich created the Marvel comics character Ghost Rider. Freidrich sued Marvel (and its new owners, Disney) because he claims that he never signed away the rights to his character, and thus the feature film based on the comic was illegal. Freidrich also apparently launched his own, rival line of authorized Ghost Rider merchandise.

Disney/Marvel has countersued Freidrich, claiming that the boilerplate legalese on the back of his paychecks were all the assignment they needed to assert ownership of his character. What's more, Misney has broken with the industry-standard practice of turning a blind eye to creators doing sketches of their own characters for money at conventions, and singled out Freidrich for punitive, retaliatory legal claims for doing what every artist in the field does.

Finally, Misney has sought to prohibit Freidrich from publicly identifying or marketing himself as the creator of Ghost Rider, on the basis of the ancient legal principle of fuck you I said so and I can afford more lawyers than you so shut up.

As payback, not only can Friedrich no longer sell his own Ghost Rider merchandise, he can’t even represent himself as its co-creator, thereby robbing him of any potential financial gain he might accrue from convention appearances and the like. (He will, however, still be able to sign officially licensed Marvel merchandise, either with ink or bitter tear stains.) In addition, Marvel is also demanding $17,000 from the unemployed, financially destitute 68-year-old, which Comic Book Resources surmises will serve as a warning to all others who currently enjoy the privilege of selling their own unlicensed merchandise, and should maybe just keep their mouths shut then.