Author: comptroller

May 13, 2019

The POWER For Women Scam

The message title is “You’ve Been Selected By POWER – Women Only Network”.

Selected to be scammed that is – but the message then says “Congratulations! You Have Been Recognised by P.O.W.E.R.”.

POWER is then defined as Professional Organisation of Women of Excellence Recognised.

Clearly the scammer wanted to use the word Power then had to invent a phrase where the initial letters make the word Power but the result is laughable.

The email continues abut how lucky you are to be chosen and how much women like working with other proactive innovative women, such as you.

There are many ways to target a specific audience with a scam and sometimes these things are targeted at women and use language taken from genuine women’s networking groups etc. to increase believability.

However, this one is a con and so are many others. If you do receive such a message, then check the authenticity of the organisation before replying.

The message was sent from the email address costsroofing.stream which is obviously not a networking group.

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May 12, 2019

Stupidest Scam of the Week Archangel Michael

Hundreds of millions of people around the world believe in Christianity and some of those believe in angels. This scam targets those people – especially those who don’t actually know anything about angels in the Bible.

The title of the message is “A Prayer That Delivers a Bouquet of Miracles”.

“Here’s some news from God.

Archangel Michael has unleashed a wondrous secret of abundance for only those who are bold enough to take the next step.

These precious sentences actually activate Archangel Michael to do your bidding”.

So, the scammer is offering magic words that make a genie grant your wishes but dressed up in Christian words.

This is just so pathetic.

Hopefully no-one will fall for this rubbish, but some are so desperate they might.

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May 11, 2019

Time-Wasters Update

Joseph Nauber offers a business loan or seed capital for my project and claims to be from Prime Financial Advisers – an investment brokerage firm. But his email address is abc@ jiniea.net which is obviously a made up email address not one for someone senior at a brokerage firm, plus he doesn’t even know my name.

Peter Walton’s message says that Donald Trump has just set in motion one of the most terrible events in human history – an event foretold 2,500 years old. Then he claims the documentary he can show you has been banned in most states. Typical scammer old testament rubbish aimed at conspiracy nuts and Christian extremists.

An advert for an “insane” invention that turns your slow Wi-Fi into a next generation high speed line. Its called WiFiBoost. But it’s just the same kit you can get in any gadget shop or large supermarket that lets you use the mains wiring in your home for sending wi-fi signals. Nothing special except a much higher price than elsewhere.

You too can ‘Trade Like a Pro’ according to the latest email from postmaster@ fabricaiphone.com. Discover a smarter and simpler way to trade using “our patented copy feature”. Nope – just the usual rubbish trying to cheat people already struggling in the financial markets.

“Avoid Bread! Except for this unique delicious bread”. An interesting opening line in this scam message, but uses the scammer trick of telling you something commonplace is bad for you and only this email contains the answer. It claims that bread has a hidden compound that makes it impossible for you to lose weight, but there is a magic bread perfected by her friend Kelly Herring over 10 years – click to find out. No thanks. I make my own Ninja warrior bread.

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May 10, 2019

Facebook and Google Stopped $100 Million Fraud

A Lithuanian man, Evaldas Rimasauska, conned Google and Facebook into transferring over $100m into accounts he controlled.

He sent fake invoices to Google and Facebook between 2013 and 2015.

Mr Rimasauskas and his associates posed as Quanta Computer, a hardware company based in Taiwan that had done business with Facebook and Google.
M r Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Manhattan, where Judge George B Daniels said the charge could carry as many as 30 years in prison and a fine up $1m or twice the crime’s proceeds.

In a statement, Geoffrey S Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said: “As Evaldas Rimasauskas admitted today, he devised a blatant scheme to fleece US companies out of $100m, and then siphoned those funds to bank accounts around the globe.”

Mr Rimasauskas was extradited from Lithuania to the United States in 2017.

In a court appearance, Mr Rimasauskas said that he had knowingly participated in fraud and that his role was to set up the bank accounts to facilitate the scheme, Bloomberg reported.

After money was wired from the tech companies to the bank accounts in Cyprus and Latvia, the Justice Department said in its statement, Mr Rimasauskas “caused the stolen funds to be quickly wired into different bank accounts in various locations throughout the world, including Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Hong Kong.”

In emailed statements Sunday, Facebook said the company had “recovered the bulk of the funds shortly after the incident and has been cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation”.

Google said it had “detected this fraud and promptly alerted the authorities. We recouped the funds and we’re pleased this matter is resolved”.

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May 9, 2019

Browser Hijackers

A browser hijacker is software that modifies your web browser’s settings without permission. The result is usually unwanted advertising in the browser, and sometimes the hijacker replaces the home page setting or search engine page with their own page. Making you unintentionally visit certain websites gives the hijacker higher advertising revenue. Browser hijackers may also contain spyware to obtain banking information and other confidential data.

Browser hijackers infect computers usually through shareware, freeware, and advertisement support applications deployed through web browser add-ons. Adware and spyware infections can also result in browser hijackers, as does exploitation of certain browser vulnerabilities.

The malware can be an email attachment or website accessed from a link in a message. Torrents can also be used for infecting a computer with the malware.

Symptoms of Browser Hijacking

Your search engine has been replaced by
Endless pop-up advertisements
Much slower than usual for loading webpages
Extra toolbars on the web browser that you didn’t install

Examples of well-known browser hijackers include Ask Toolbar, GoSave, Coupon Server, CoollWebSearch and RocketTab.

Sometimes when you want to download a piece of software, there is a custom downloading tool that leads you through the process and often these will install browser addons or other malware without your permission. The screens may be designed to trick you into accepting installation of software that you don’t want.

The browser hijackers benefit from their hijack as follows:-

Display persistent advertising that pays the hijacker
Steal confidential information
Spy on users

If your computer suffers a browser hijacking, you may be able to uninstall it in your browser settings or your anti-virus or anti-malware software may be able to remove it. Otherwise there are specialist removal tools on the Internet.

How to Protect Your Systems from Browser Hijacking

Also, try to avoid running freeware programs, which upon installation may unpack software you’re unaware of. And be sure you check the download settings of any software you intend to install to reduce the chances of unwanted applications making their way onto your computer.

May 8, 2019

The Banks Secret Blacklist of Fraudsters

Banks and financial institutions build up lists of fraudsters and dodgy businesses and try to varying degrees to protect their clients from those companies.

They identify dodgy companies largely through customer queries, complaints and disputes over card payments.

These blacklists are secret because if made public, the institution would have to provide evidence in each case where the company challenged them. Where they have such evidence it is passed to the Police,

but having proof of a scam is very different from warning people of a company that may have dodgy practices.

The lists may include so called ‘legal scams’ such as copycat firms which charge excessive fees for official services such as passports, driving licences and European Health Insurance Cards. This is not illegal, but it is morally wrong.

They may also include photographic and modelling agencies, timeshare sellers, firms selling computer software and security packages and investment companies.

Websites that offer free trials for beauty products but fail to make it clear shoppers will automatically be signed up for expensive subscriptions can be included.

Some may push unnecessary insurance such as cover for products.

Nationwide also blocks payments to illegal companies such as investment firms identified as scammers by the financial watchdog.

When a customer tries to make a card payment to one of these black-listed companies the bank will block it.

Each bank has its own blacklist. Britain’s biggest building society, Nationwide, says it blocks payments to more than 1,000 companies.

Lloyds Banking Group says about 1 per cent of payments are registered as high-risk.

If you see these sorts of dodgy company dealings, do tell your bank.

Stay safe.

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