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Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2009

Of all the dopey things to turn up in my inbox this morning.









Note to spammers:




1. I don't speak... er - that language.

2. I know when strange banks send me strange messages in strange languages, they're really reaching.

3. Ain't gonna be singur clicken anything, thanks Mr Intelegere. Or should I call you Pentru?

4. And flubbidy flubbity to you to. Don't wanna se va face round here no more.



Special note: Congratulations to the winner of the Macy's competition, drawn using a clever random picker - I have contacted the winner by email. I will announce the winner on my site only if s/he wishes to be identified.


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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Recently I wrote about Freebies4Webmasters. I signed up, submitted 3 web pages for ad placement and gained approval. I was paid 10 pounds (around $20) after the first month and my blog post resulted in 10 referrals.

Then the problems started. My approved referrals should have earned me 100 pounds so far. Instead, my approved web pages mysteriously disappeared from the system around the time Freebies4Webmasters decided they were not accepting any new publishers.

I have been patient and tolerant up to this point but after 5 unanswered emails I am sensing a stone wall of scamminess.

I will keep the ads up for one more week, on the off chance I receive a reply. Kind of like Waiting for Godot. If I don't receive a response by then it will be bye bye Freebies4Webmasters. I feel quite cheated as I know many have received payments larger than the ones owed to me at this time. The exchange rate would have approximated to $233 plus around $10 per month as an automatic payment. Not happy. Needless to say I will not be recommending this site to fellow bloggers.

:-(



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Monday, November 10, 2008

I received a rather amusing email this morning - for a brief moment I thought it was for real. It is not unusual for me to get direct emails for various projects. However further reading exposed the extent of my wrongness:


I have a project I want you to run with us. It involves exportation of 100,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Kirkuk, Iraq.

If you are interested, email me.

Mr. Yan.


Hmm. Well thank you, Mr Yan, I appreciate your offer. As a humble blogger however, I do not happen to have room for 100,000 lazy barrels of crude oil in my garden shed. In fact, last time I checked I did not have room for a single barrel.

Why you would be still hoarding such a valuable resource is beyond me. You could have exported when oil prices were at their peak. I'm sorry, Mr Yan, you missed your chance. If you will just check the latest figures, the current price for oil is $61.04. What you should have done is tapped into your seemingly unlimited oil reserve in March 2008. $150 per barrel! Ah, the tragedy of hindsight.

Exporting from where? Iraq, you say. Gee, let me think...

Much as I would like to travel to a volatile region during wartime on the basis of a spam email, I think I'll pass. Thank you so much for your kind offer, not that I will respond because you are probably camping out in some evil hovel wherever on earth it is that spammers like to slither. But I can't help being a little disappointed. All my dreams of becoming an oil baroness. My backyard oil refinery will have to wait. *sigh*











Thus endeth my exploits at international business.



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Thursday, September 04, 2008

UPDATE: SCAM ALERT!

This turned out to be a nice idea right up until the time they stopped paying me. The website stopped receiving applications, stopped paying people and generally started acting scammy. At the time they closed up shop, they owed me around $250.00 
Avoid like typhoid...














Recently I trialled a passive income stream called freebies4webmasters that seems to have turned out to be profitable. I was skeptical at first - actually, I was skeptical right up until the time that the payment appeared in my account. Now that the money is there I can't argue with it.

The process is simple - you put a code on your blog displaying a rather unobtrusive ad on 3 different pages. If you have a blog with more than 3 posts or a website with more than 3 pages this is very simple. Then the fun begins.

Firstly, you are paid 10 pounds (Oh joy for the exchange rate!) for signing up.

Secondly, you are paid 5 pounds per month for leaving the ad code on your site. You don't have to do anything else.

You can put the code on multiple sites if they are approved, thus doubling your income or tripling it or more!

You have nothing to lose so why not give it a try? It's a good place to start if you have never earned money from your site.

SCAM ALERT!!!
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Despite initially making an initial amount money from this company, they have since shut down and hightailed it with around $200 still owed to me. Don't bother!!!




Buy Bitcoin at coinsmart.com

Wednesday, April 09, 2008




















This is the silliest Paypal spam I have ever received.

Nous avons rcemment dtermin que diffrents ordinateurs connect sur votre compte Paypal, Mot de passe et de multiples checs taient prsents avant la connexion. Nous avons maintenant besoin de vous confirmer nouveau Les informations de votre compte PayPal. Si ce n'est pas achev d'ici le 17 mars 2008, nous serons contraints de suspendre votre compte indefiniment, Car il peut avoir utilis d'une fins frauduleuses. Nous vous remercions de votre comprhention dans cette manire. Pour confirmer votre banque en ligne des dossiers, cliquez sur le lien suivant:


>>> Cliquez ici <<<
Merci pour votre patience. Paypal service la clientelle. S'il vous plait ne rpondez pas cet e-mail car c'est seulement une notification. Mail envoyer cette adresse ne peut pas tre rpondu. 1999-2008 PayPal. Tous droits rserves.


Firstly, why do they think I can understand French? I listened to two of the French Pod Classes and I can talk in a rudimentary way about the weather and what day it is. However no matter how little French I have actually learned, ain't no way I'm "Cliquezing icire" (sic).


A rough translation comes out like this:

We have dtermin rcemment that diffrents computers connect on your Paypal account, Password and multiples checs taient prsents before connection. We now need assure you new information of your PayPal account. If it is not achev from here March 17, 2008, we will be constrained to suspend your account indefiniment, Because it can have utilis of fraudulent ends. We thank you for your comprhention in this manire. To confirm your bank on line of the files, click on the following bond: Click here

It seems that French spammers spell just as badly as the English ones.

Also, I received this on the 9th of April 2008. Why give me a deadline of March 17? I mean, I'm not trying to help them here, I just thought a bit more work went into these messages.

Perhaps they need to work on their comprhention.



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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

It seriously took me 2 hours to get through my emails this morning. Over 100. That doesn't even include my other email account with Hotmail. Argh!! I got so many of those "FROM THE DESK OF..." or "READ VERY CAREFULL." Drives me mad. Why oh why would anyone fall for that sort of thing anymore? Although there is always the one person who ends up on A Current Affair saying "I thought they were legitimate...I just can't believe they did that to me!!" It is horrible. Those people should be put in jail. Also, people shouldn't be allowed to be that naive. There should be some kind of worldwide education campaign to stop people being foolish with their money and personal details. I don't quite know how it would work, perhaps it should be included in school curriculum. "Internet Privacy and Scam Issues 101". Perhaps people like me have to do it as a public service announcement.

Anyway, here's the latest one to look out for. It is very sneaky. I knew it was a fake immediately because it was sent to an email address that has nothing to do with my PayPal stuff. But...for some people they will send it to the address that IS registered with PayPal and you really don't want to absent-mindedly click this one...


























The really sneaky bit is this part:
"Note:
If you haven't authorized this charge ,click the link below to dispute transaction
and get full refund"
That is so low. They make you think you have been charged for a transaction you didn't make (which of course, you didn't!) then they give you a chance to "dispute" the transaction. Bad bad people I hope they go to hell and are forced to spend lots of time with a bunch of fascist dictators that want a new person to "play" with.

By the way, if you get one with "CONTACT UPS FOR YOUR PARCEL", note the part that mentions the "...cash payment to avoid losting this funds..."

I think I'll take my chances on losting this funds.



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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

I will now point out the wrongness of anyone even thinking about responding to the following email.

I received it today.

Twice.

That would probably be the first reason for becoming suspicious.

I will translate as we go...

FROM MR AMADI SALAM
ADB. OUAGADOUGOU,
AFRICA DEVELOPMENT BANK.
BURKINA FASO.
EMAIL: amadi_salam100@yahoo.fr

(A banker with a generic Yahoo France address?? Hmmm...prestigious...)


DEAR FRIEND, (isn't it nice to be called "friend" by a complete stranger who spams your inbox)

PLEASE THIS IS IMPORTANT AND VERY URGENT I HAVE AN URGENT TRANSACTION OF $8 MILLION USD TO TRANSFER
TO YOUR NOMINATED ACCOUNT,I AM MR AMADI SALAM

(In a search for Amadi Salam in Google, the first result found was "Email Scam, Fraud and Phishing Resource" Probably not a good start)

,I AM AN
AUDITOR,WITH ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT,ADB HERE IN
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO IN WEST AFRICA.
AFTER GOING THROUGH SOME OLD FILES IN THE RECORDS,I
DISCOVERED THAT IF I DO NOT REMIT THIS MONEY OUT
URGENTLY IT WILL BE FORFEITED FOR NOTHING THE OWNER
OF THIS ACCOUNT UNFORTUNATELY DIED IN THE PLANE
CRASH OF UNION TRANSPORT AFRICAINS FLIGHT BOEING 727
IN COTONOU,BENIN REPUBLIC ON THE DECEMBER FRIDAY
26TH,2003.YOU WILL READ MORE STORIES ABOUT THE CRASH
ON VISITING THIS WEBSITE BELOW:

www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/

(Hey wow! This is a real story. If this guy links to a CNN article, he MUST be legit!!)

NO OTHER PERSON KNOWS ABOUT THIS ACCOUNT OR ANYTHING
CONCERNING IT,THE ACCOUNT HAS NO OTHER BENEFICIARY
AND MY INVESTIGATION PROVED TO ME AS WELL THAT HIS
COMPANY DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS ACCOUNT
AND THE AMOUNT INVOLVED IS ($8 MILLION USD)
EIGHT MILLION UNITED STATES
DOLLARS.

(Well, that's not exactly true. Nobody knows about this account because you're not a real banker/auditor and you made up $8million fictional dollars. Conversely, EVERYBODY knows about it because you just did a mass email.)

I WANT TO TRANSFER THE ($8 MILLION) EIGHT
MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS
INTO A SAFE FOREIGNERS ACCOUNT ABROAD,BUT I DON'T
KNOW ANY FOREIGNER,I AM ONLY CONTACTING YOU AS A
FOREIGNER BECAUSE THIS MONEY CAN NOT BE APPROVEED TO
A LOCAL BANK HERE,BUT CAN ONLY APPROVED TO ANY
FOREIGN ACCOUNT BECAUSE THE MONEY IS IN US DOLLARS
AND THE FORMER OWNER OUR DECEASED CUSTOMER IS A
FOREIGNER TOO.

(Thank goodness the money can be APPROVEED here. I feel much more confident now.)

I KNOW THAT THIS MESSAGE WILL COME TO YOU AS A
SURPRISE AS WE DON'T KNOW OUR SELVES BEFORE,BUT THE
REST ASSURE THAT THIS IS LIFE TIME BUSINESS FOR BOTH
OF US EVEN FOR OUR GENERATION TO COME.

(Actually, I'm not surprised. I get these every day. What makes you so special? Oh, yes, that's right. "The rest assure that this is life time business for both of us even for our generation to come...")

WITH THE BELIEVE IN GOD THAT YOU WILL NEVER LET ME DOWN IN THIS BUSINESS.YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON THAT I
HAVE CONTACTED IN THIS BUSINESS,SO PLEASE REPLY
URGENTLY SO THAT I WILL INFORM YOU THE NEXT STEP TO
TAKE URGENTLY,SEND ALSO YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE AND
FAX NUMBER.
I WANT US TO MEET FACE TO FACE OR SIGN A BINDING
AGRREEMENT TO BIND US TOGETHER SO THAT YOU CAN
RECEIVE THIS MONEY INTO A FOREIGN ACCOUNT OR ANY
ACCOUNT OF YOUR CHOICE WHERE THE FUND WILL BE
SAFE.WHENT THE MONEY IS SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFER INTO
YOUR FOREIGN ACCOUNT,YOU WILL SEND ME AN INVITATION
LETTER SO THAT I WILL COME TO YOUR COUNTRY FOR
SHARING AND AFTER WITH MY OWN PERCENTAGE YOU WILL
HELP ME FOR INVESTMENTS IN YOUR COUNTRY.
I AM CONTACTING YOU BECAUSE OF THE NEED TO INVOLVE A
FOREIGNER WITH FOREIGN ACCOUNT AND TO STAND AS THE
BENEFICIARY OF THE FUND.

(Blah, blah blah. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. And bad grammer. And really dodgy spelling.)

I NEED YOUR FULL CO-OPERATION TO MAKE THIS WORK
RESORT TO GOOD FOR US BECAUSE THE MANAGEMENT IS
READY TO APPROVE THIS PAYMENT TO ANY FOREIGNER WHO HAS THE CORRECT INFORMATION ABOUT THE DECEASED
CUSTOMER'S ACCOUNT,WHICH I WILL FEED YOU WITH,IF YOU
ARE ABLE AND WITH THE CAPABILITY TO HANDLE
TRANSACTION IN STRICT CONFIDENCE AND TRUST ACCORDING
TO MY INSRUCTIONS AND ADVICE FOR OUR MUTUAL BENEFIT
BECAUSE THIS OPPORTUNITY WILL NEVER COME AGAIN IN MY
LIFE.
I NEED TRUTHFUL (gullible!) PERSON IN THIS BUSINESS BECAUSE I
DON'T WANT TO MAKE MISTAKE (get caught),I NEED YOUR STRONG
ASSURANCE AND TRUST (not to inform the police). WITH MY POSITION NOW IN THE
OFFICE I CAN TRANSFER THIS MONEY TO ANY FOREIGN
RELIABLE ACCOUNT,WHICH YOU CAN PROVIDE WITH
ASSURANCE THAT THIS MONEY WILL BE INTACT PENDING MY
PHYSICAL ARRIVAL IN YOUR COUNTRY FOR (kidnap, robbery, fraud) SHARING AND YOU
WILL DIRECT ME ON WHAT KIND OF INVESTMENT I WILL DO
WITH MY OWN PERCENTAGE IN YOUR COUNTRY.
AND I WANT YOU TO REMIND YOU THAT YOUR SHARE HAS
BEEN CALCULATED TO 35% OF THE TOTAL SUM (...get out your calculator. See the dollar signs....) I AM WATING
FOR YOUR URGENT REPLY SO THAT I WILL GIVE YOU MORE
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS DEAL. PLEASE REPLY BACK THROUGH MY MAIL ADDRESS.THANKS.
EXTEND MY GREETINGS TO YOUR FAMILY AND HAVE A NICE
DAY.
WITH BEST REGARDS,
AMADI SALAM.

(shit. I left the caps lock on)



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Thursday, August 23, 2007

This post was inspired by the Amazon Women On The Moon segment "Bullshit Or Not?"

Become Invisible

This has everything. Check it out. Importantly, it states this is intended to be used for MORAL PURPOSES ONLY. WTF?

Helping the poor invisibly? Sneaking into people's houses and doing their dishes? I could go on...

Plus as a bonus, you get "The secrets of sexual seduction". Wow. Sexual seduction. As opposed to sporting seduction.

Here are some of the claims (read very loud, red exclamation points everywhere)
  • The inexpensive aroma that makes women DESIRE you
  • Gorilla tactics - seduction for your home and car
Sounds classy yes? Gorilla. Okay...either that's a sneaky play on words or I don't want to know. I just don't. Okay I've got a mental picture now. Thanks.

Plus as an added bonus you get "The Wizard's Book of Animal Secrets"

The claims?
  • Bring dead creatures BACK TO LIFE!
Perhaps they are referring to the gorilla.

Plus invaluable tips on keeping a squirrel in your pocket. You never know when this might come in handy.

An invisible man... meets and seduces a woman... using the power of a pocket squirrel.

Everyone should buy this. Seriously. Only $24.95 (AUS $31.02)

Bullshit Or Not?

The answer is obvious, of course.

If not, would you like to buy my all new just-been-released invisibility / spy / make money online / be irresistible to women ebook? Only $59.95 - postage is free due to digital delivery. Contact me asap if you are interested. ;-)

P.S. The seller's feedback says it all. The first entry reads "I have blowed my money on dumber shit." I rest my case.

P.P.S. The most disturbing thing of all is that some of those who left feedback said it actually worked. ?!?!?!?!?!

Thursday, June 28, 2007




















Wow! Again. The power of email. In the past 5 weeks or so, I have won the Swedish lottery, the Euro lottery, and various other lotteries. Now this one! Geez, I'm going to have to retire. All I gotta do is give them my name/ address/ age/ bank account details/ tax file number and they will steal my identity verify my details and forward my winnings!

I'm a bit concerned about giving my "Marita Status", though.

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

*Yawn*

You'd think they'd get tired of doing this but I suppose as long as people keep responding, these scumbags will keep sending them.

This arrived in my inbox this morning and is the latest one to look out for:



Can you believe this one? "Please add our address-shown in the "From" line above-to your electronic address book to make sure that important account messages don't get blocked by a SPAM filter."

Er...it gets blocked by the spam filter because...it is SPAM!!!

Good grief.

Think about it in terms of vampires. You add them to your address book, you are inviting them
in and you will be needing a lot of iron tablets.

Here are the telltale signs:

The email address is support@paypal-25.com which is a tad suspicious.

The email came through on the email address that is NOT registered with PayPal. That's a dead
giveaway.

If you are ever unsure about the origin of an email, close it. Go into another window and login to www.paypal.com and check your account.

Whatever you do, please don't click on any links in the email. That is what they want you to do.

And you don't want to make a spammer happy.

I am so tired of spammers trying to unnerve people by saying "your account has received
unauthorised access....blah blah blah" they feed on fear, insecurity and ignorance.

As I said in a previous post, they are all going to hell. And I hope they get LOTS of spam,
telemarketers and junk mail when they get there.


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Wednesday, August 30, 2006



Some call them 'Postage Pirates' AAARRRGHGH!

They are the ones who hold 0.99c auctions and charge $40, $50 or $100 for postage!!

Here's a nifty way to beat those nasty pasties...

1. Sign in and go to "My eBay"

2. Scroll down to "Items I'm Watching"

3. Click on "Customise Display"

4. Move "Postage Cost" to the right hand column

5. Save!

The postage for items is now visible at all times.

If the postage reads "Not Specified", don't bid until you ask the seller about the cost of postage. That way you can avoid nasty surprises at the end of auction.

If in doubt, do a check with the following postage calculators:

USPS - http://www.usps.com/tools/calculatepostage/welcome.htm

Australia Post - http://www1.auspost.com.au/pac/

Royal Mail - http://www.royalmail.com (use the quickfind menu at top of page)

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Here it is. The dreaded negative feedback. This is what it looks like and I hope you never have to deal with one.



Always check the sellers feedback on ebay. If they have 100%, great! If they have 99.9%, check the one negative feedback comment.

I have encountered two kinds of negative feedback:

1. The buyer makes an outrageous/stupid comment like "THIS IS A FAKE!!! DON'T TRUST THIS EBAYER!!"

...when the item description clearly stated "REPLICA FOR SALE"

It's ridiculous to complain about anything that is listed correctly in the item description. It's not right to give negative feedback when you didn't read the listing carefully enough.

Most likely, the response from the seller will be "CLEARLY STATED IN ITEM DESCRIPTION. LEARN TO READ." or words to that effect.

In this case, I would still consider buying from this seller, as the negative feedback was clearly unfair.

However,

2. If the seller has more than one negative and a number of buyers are saying the same thing - Beware!!

Examples:
Item never arrived.
Very rude seller.
Item arrived broken. Will not answer emails.

In this case, I would not consider buying from this seller. Why create problems for yourself? Buy from someone with better feedback - you will save yourself time and worry.

Many sellers with feedback such as this will hide behind their sales numbers eg. "OVER 1000 CUSTOMERS SERVED" - this is no defence.

If a lot of these items disappeared, were faulty, sub-standard, or had excessive postage added, then stay away. You could be next!

It's not so much the number of negatives but a matter of detecting a pattern. The way to pick which sellers to buy from comes down to instinct.

Use the force, Luke.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I have received quite a few fake ebay emails in the past, but I was waiting for one to use as an example. Nothing would please me more than to ruin a spammer's day!! So here it is in all it's glory. (Click to enlarge)



Here are the ways to spot the newer, more sophisticated fake ebay emails:

These ones are clever - it looks like it was sent from an ebay member. In fact, the body of the email is almost duplicated exactly from a real ebay email.

Firstly, don't look at the body of the email - check who it came from.
1. Was it sent to your email address that you originally registered with ebay?
My answer to this question was NO. The email was sent to one of my other email addresses so it could not possibly have come from a real ebay member.

2. Do you recognise the name? Is it someone you are dealing with?
My answer to this question was NO. The person asking the question was from the UK, and claimed to have sent money to me.

3. Does their question make sense?
My answer again is NO. Why would someone send me money when I am not an ebay seller and I do not have a Dell Laptop to sell!!

4. Safety check
Whenever you answer emails from ebay members, log straight into ebay and check "My Messages". This is the best way to check if the message is authentic. If it's not in "My Messages" then chances are you got a fake. There are exceptions to this rule, but you will learn to know which are the real ones.

5. Real ebay messages don't ask you for logins or credit card details
The one predictable feature of spam is that they often ask for your login and password or say they have "lost" your credit card information and would you please update them? Use common sense. If a stranger called you up pretending to be from the bank and asked for all your account details, you would be suspicious. And you would probably call your bank or visit them to check the authenticity of the call. It is no different online. It's just easier to forget that even though it's the internet, it's still real.


It's a feeding frenzy for the sharks. Make sure you're not on the menu.

Friday, July 14, 2006

I saw a Current Affairs type program about a man who bought a car on ebay that never showed up. Now I get annoyed at things like that because it doesn't have to happen - there are two reasons it happened:

1. There are some unscrupulous people out there who will take what they can get.

And:

2. People get fooled.

I can't say it enough. Don't use Western Union to transfer money to people you don't know. It is not traceable!! Also, don't think you know someone because you have exchanged a number of emails. It is so easy to build up a false rapport and generate a sense of security very quickly. Remember, often these scammers do what they do because they are good at it. It's important that more people don't get fooled. If just 1 scammer gets put out of business from this information, I will be a very happy person.

Buying a car on an internet auction is like going to inspect a car in the dark with a blindfold on.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Hmmm. Spent a long time researching what to buy online and what not to buy. Thinking that buying large things like big screen tvs, computers and cars on ebay is not the best idea. Mostly because they can get scratched or dinged during delivery. Or in the case of cars, I have read of people buying cars that don't exist.

Here's a short rundown of what I have learned:

1. Don't buy anything from anyone who asks you to send a large amount of money via Western Union to countries such as Nigeria.

2. Don't buy things that can get completely bingled in transit. Eg. lenses on digital cameras, flat screen monitors (a lot of these have a dead pixel or two!!)

3. Don't answer any emails outside of ebay.

4. Try to pay for things using traceable means. Eg. Money orders from the post office, PayPal can be good for certain items as it can proven you paid for it. Basically don't use Western Union and for heaven's sake don't send cash in the mail. It's illegal in some areas!

Hmm. Still going. I have bought a number of things online with varying amounts of success. More about that later.



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