Category: Website Review

SafeFromScams was created in 2010 to offer information on how to protect yourself against scams.

The sales pitch for the site is:-

“It’s a very dangerous world out there. You might lock your doors.. The scammers are everywhere. They want to part you from your hard-earned money, to steal your identity, or simply take advantage of your honesty to make a profit from others. You might be law-abiding, but they’re not. There are thousands of them, in person, in business, on the phone and online – and they’re growing more ingenious all the time”.

Safe From Scams say that the site is a resource to learn about scams of all types, from the classics that are still being run regularly, like bill-padding, builders, and chain letters – to the new ones that keep appearing, things like phishing, mobile phone scams, or those fake lotteries.

Safe From Scams say that the features and articles are written by experts – who have experience, or a particular interest in this area.

The guy who started Safe From Scams is John Rowlinson – the owner of PtS which has software and property companies and he uses those to fund the Safe From Scams website and a number of similar sites.

The site covers a wide range of scams, including Credit Card Scams, Travel Scams, Fake Goods, Medical Scams and is a great resource for more detailed information on the various kinds of scams.,

There is also an ‘Ask the Expert’ feature.

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September 23, 2020

Phishing Tackle Website

Phishing Tackle at https://www.phishingtackle.com/ offer a range of online courses to help keep businesses safe from Phishing scams. These scams are where scammers send out messages (usually by email but can also be by text and phone call) claiming to be a trusted organisation e.g. HMRC, local council, Marks and Spencers, Nat West Bank, The Police and so on. They are after your personal information and especially login and password information and financial details.

Over 90% of data breaches are caused by an end-user clicking on a phishing email and Phishing Tackle say they reduce the risk of people clicking on phishing emails.

Phishing Tackle’s automated online security awareness training, simulated phishing and policy management platform reduces the risk of end-users clicking on phishing emails by over 90% – that’s the claim.

Website resources include:-

A click-prone test
Domain spoof test
Phishing quiz

And lots of information on various types of online scams.

Free Phishing Awareness & Training is available to not-for-profits in some cases.

They also offer a manged service to protect businesses.

The website is a good resource for those looking to protect their business from Phishing scams

If you have any experiences with phishing scams do let me know, by email.

May 8, 2020

Simple Cyber Life

The website at www.simplecyberlife.com is about helping families to be safe online.

They say their mission is to empower parents with the ‘know-how’ to protect their families from online threats through video tutorials, step-by-step instructions, a discussion forum and personal coaching calls.

Jonny Pelter, the founder says “Today’s advice for how parents can protect themselves and their kids online is far too complicated, resulting in poor security for almost all families”. He says he got fed up and created SimpleCyberLife.com to fix that.

This site does charge for the personal assistance. Premium membership is £45 per year and VIP membership is £180 per year. There is a free membership available for people who are more technically savvy and the paid memberships are very much targeted at parents.

The paid memberships offer video help, phone support, access to private forums, coaching etc. even paid home visits are possible.

No way to tell if this is a successful business model yet but they are giving it a good shot.

It’s an interesting site and you may find it useful if you need direct assistance on keeping safe online and in particular keeping your kids safe online.

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April 29, 2020

The Disrespect Nobody Campaign

DISRESPECT NOBODY

“There’s a person attached to every body, respect both”.

You may have seen some strange adverts on the TV and on posters in city centres. This is part of a campaign called Disrespect Nobody and it’s aimed at teenagers.

The Disrespect NoBody campaign helps young people to understand about healthy relationships, re-think their views of controlling behaviour, violence, abuse, abuse and what consent means within their relationships.

It aims to challenge attitudes and behaviours amongst young people that abuse in relationships is acceptable.

The campaign is targeted at 12 to 18 year old boys and girls and aims to prevent them from becoming perpetrators and victims of abusive relationships.

There are four TV adverts

A talking bra
Talking underpants
Talking eyes
A talking hand

Some Key Lines from the Campaign

“Healthy relationships are all about respecting each other. You should feel loved, safe and free to be yourself”.
“Relationships can be confusing and it can be difficult to understand what is and isn’t normal behaviour”.
“Disrespectful and unacceptable behaviour can come in many forms. It isn’t limited to just physical behaviour; it can also go way beyond that”.

The UK Government backed and funded the “Disrespect NoBody” campaign.

The campaign has been criticised as it video doesn’t acknowledge that men can be the ones experiencing abuse in a relationship and uses key phrases like “Do you turn to violence when your GIRLFRIEND disagrees with you”

There are documents on the website for teachers and group leader to use in discussions with teenagers

https://www.disrespectnobody.co.uk/

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April 8, 2020

Scam Hunter Website Review

http:// scamhunter.org

Exposing Internet Scams and Frauds Worldwide

Scamhunter.org was setup some years ago and its purpose is to help people recognize and avoid many of the common advance fee frauds, lottery scams, and scams on the Internet. Educate yourself on ScamHunter.org so you won’t get caught in the con artists’ traps. Their philosophy is “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”.

Scamhunter focus on Advance Fee scams, Penny Stock scams, Lottery scams and Phishing scams but they do also publish about other types of scams.

The site has been very successful in helping people and was in the past targeted by scammers who managed to bring down the site through a DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack. The site was rebuilt with its new name scamhunter.org.

There is a search facility that lets you try a company name or a scammers names to see if there is anything published about them on Scamhunter.

This is a very useful site with a considerable breadth of information about scammers and their methods. It covers the most common scams and has information going back to before 2009.

The site includes random advertising and that can be annoying when accessing with a mobile phone.

Recent Alerts Section on the Home page

This is the recent items that have come to the notice of the Scamhunter.

e.g. Mrs. Jovann Mafra (scam warning), YOUR PAYMENT IS IN SERIOUS DANGER (Scam Alert), Re-profiling Funds (Scam Warning), Lt. General Susan J. Helms (scam alert), Harley Wang Mystery Scam, German Scam Messages, Sr. Diego De Martinez of Portugal (scam alert) Cancelled: Contact MoneyGram director, Ebrahim Talib, Bahrain Petroleum , company (scam warning), Qatar Foundation (scam alert), Mr. Frank Moses, JFK Airport (scam warning), Mr. Deneys James, Attorney (scam warning), Abandoned Bank Account Scam, Susanne Klatten Charity Foundation (scam alert)

Scammers never stop.

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January 17, 2020

VirusTotal URL Checker

There are numerous services that keep track of websites loaded with malware.

VirusTotal site at www.virustotal.com/gui/home will check URLs (i.e. Internet addresses) for you.

Option 1 is to upload a file and have it checked for malware

Option 2 is to type in a URL to be checked.

Then VirusTotal checks against more than 70 blacklists created by the anti-malware companies.

Virus Total Community

The VirusTotal Community is a network of interested parties that allows them to comment on files and URLs and share notes with each other. This can be useful in detecting malicious content and also in identifying false positives which are the harmless items sometimes detected as malicious by one or more scanners.

If you find a suspicious web site or receive a suspicious document of any kind then try the virustotal checker.