Author: comptroller

January 3, 2019

“Legal” Cannabis Suppliers

Cannabis is used by many people in the UK (and most countries) for recreational purposes despite it being illegal just about everywhere.

But, there is growing evidence that Cannabis derivatives can be an effective treatment in a wide range of medical conditions. Often, these are cases where painkillers and other treatments have limited use or the side effects are debilitating for the sufferer.

Since November 2018, Medicinal cannabis products can be legally prescribed to some patients across the UK for the first time.

However, scammers always eager to take advantage of any opportunity to cheat people are putting out emails and fake websites offering ‘legal’ cannabis to UK citizens.

The messages claim it is now legal to buy cannabis products in the UK – but that’s only true in a small number of cases. People cannot just decide to buy cannabis products unless they do illegally.

The email titles are a give-a-way e.g. Legal Cannabis in UK. Smoke some weed today”

The messages tell you to claim you have one of the following medical conditions:-

Depression
Stress disorder
Insomnia
Chronic pain

The treatments can be prescribed only by specialist doctors in a limited number of circumstances where other medicines have failed.

Cannabis-based products can now be prescribed, but only by specialist hospital doctors in a small number of cases, and not by GPs.

New NHS guidance for doctors in England says Cannabis should be prescribed only when there is clear published evidence of its benefit and other treatment options have been exhausted.

The treatments can be prescribed in cases of:-

Children with rare, severe forms of epilepsy
Adults with vomiting or nausea caused by chemotherapy
Adults with muscle stiffness caused by multiple sclerosis

If a patient is not already in touch with a specialist doctor they can be referred to one by their GP if the doctor deems this appropriate.

Do not believe you can get Cannabis on the NHS or otherwise legally in the UK, except in rare cases.

If you have any experiences with this situation, do let me know, by email.

January 2, 2019

Crypto Currency Scams

Crypto Currencies are the new Internet currencies. They aren’t created by governments or banks but by new organisations seeking to develop (or benefit from) new possibilities in currency transactions and investments.

There are lots of these new currencies but the biggest and most famous by far is Bitcoin.

You can see that the value of Bitcoin started at near zero and reached over $2,000 in 2017.

The first ever Bitcoin transaction was the purchase of 2 pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins.

The price has always been extremely volatile and having reached an all-time high of over $20,000 it crashed to less than $4,000 by the end of 2018.

Scammers usually offer one of the following:-

A guaranteed way to make money betting on the Bitcoin price
Automated “scientific” methods for gambling on Bitcoins e.g. using artificial intelligence
A way to invest in Bitcoin that guarantees you will make lots of money
Bitcoin vending machines
Fake Bitcoin accounts opened in your name

These deals are also offered for other crypto currencies but most people have only heard of Bitcoin so the scammers focus on that one. Plus, there are lots of stories of people who invested a little in Bitcoins and are now millionaires. Some of these are true but as with any form of gambling or investing – past results do not tell you what will happen in the future.

Anyone who invested in Bitcoin in early January 2018 had lost 85% of their money by that Christmas.

The scammers don’t care of course as they only care about themselves and how much money they can steal from people.

Most of the scams are entirely fake – there is no Bitcoin investment or anything else of value and the ones that do actually lead to investment in Bitcoins are usually so highly leveraged as to make it impossible for anyone to benefit except for the scammers.

If you want to invest or deal in Bitcoins or any other cyber currency – take professional advice and be aware that you could easily lose everything.

Do leave a comment on this post – click on the post title then scroll down to leave your comment.

December 31, 2018

The Worst Scams of 2018

1. Remote PC Problem Scams

This scam is largely carried out by scam call centres in India. They phone people (mostly in the UK and USA) and claim to be from Microsoft or BT or Virgin or similar company and tell the victim that their Internet connection has been infected with a virus or that someone unauthorised is using it or that it has been used for illegal purposes. Then after the frightener they convince the victim that they can fix the problem and just need access to the victim’s PC. Once they get access they can install malware that searches for financial details, logins and passwords etc.

Microsoft, BT etc. will never call people like this – these calls are always a scam.

2. Fake/Counterfeit Scam

We have all seen fake goods being sold on the high street, in pop up shops, on the beach etc.

And the Internet is full of websites that copy the big names but sell fake versions of their products.

Don’t be caught out – only buy from reputable sources and don’t encourage crime by buying fake goods.

If you buy fake goods online, the fraudsters are likely to copy your credit card details and run up a huge bill for you to pay.

3. The Overpayment Scam

You sell an item online and the buyer ‘accidentally’ sends you a cheque for too much. A worried call then ensures and the caller asks you to pay them the difference. This sounds OK but it’s a very bad move as the original cheque will bounce, leaving you out of pocket. Many people do not realise that although a cheque clears within 5 days, the bank can take the money back up to another 5 days later if the cheque bounces. If you are overpaid then wait 10 working days before repaying any difference.

4. The Payday Loan Scam

Some people take out payday loans just to tide themselves over for a few days at the end of the month after an unusually costly month.

But many take out these expensive loans in desperation to fend off bailiffs, keep the electricity running, pay for medical bills etc. and these are the people targeted by scammers.

The scammers create fake websites that look like payday loan companies but are just a front. You are offered cheap loans with no collateral but once they have your financial details, they will make your life much worse off and even more in debt. Be very careful with payday loans online – only trust a reputable company.

Sometimes the scammers offer loans but you have to pay a security fee or advance fee up front – always a con.

5. Working from Home Scam

Many people would love to work from home and earn a good salary. There are some such jobs but most don’t get advertised as they are usually for people already at a business changing their working habits to work more from home.

There are some very well paid home jobs including translators, writers and other jobs where serious expertise is required, whereas the fake jobs offered by scammers are usually data entry, social media posting etc. that require little skill and supposedly pay hugely.

These are always fake. It is easy to find good data entry people for £10 per hour so why would anyone pay a lot more than that?

Research shows that more than 98% of work at home offers are fake. Do not be taken in.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

December 30, 2018

Stupidest Scam of the Week – Einstein’s Brain

There have been scams in the past based on quotes by Albert Einstein, some of the things he supposedly believed that allow people to achieve anything they want and some based on random stupid machines that he reportedly endorsed.

All lies of course.

This latest scam is definitely the dumbest of the lot.

The title of the email is “Thankfully, Einstein’s Brain was Stolen! Read Why!”

That should certainly warn anyone with their own brain that what follows can only be rubbish.

It goes on “Before he was cremated, pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey stole his brain. And thanks to him, scientists studied his brain and discovered something EXTRAORDINARY.

They saw a brain unlike any human being born in this world. It’s size, shape, activity or performance, and its ability to harness potentials in all areas of his brain are truly remarkable.

Scientists studied further and conducted countless experiments to test if it’s possible to copy Einstein’s secrets and apply it to an ordinary human being.

The result is YES – it can be done and absolutely safe to practice”.

This is appallingly stupid. The scammer must want to catch people with an IQ less than their shoe size as anyone else would have been laughing too hard to continue reading.

Really? – find Einstein’s secrets by looking at his brain.

It is well documented that Einstein’s brain was measured and examined and the conclusion was that there were no signs of genius – the brain was entirely average. That’s true for all brains examined since.

Even if science did find anomalies in Einstein’s brain – you couldn’t replicate that in someone else.

Genius is elusive – as it should be.

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December 29, 2018

Time-Wasters Update

“I found your website. I would like to discuss a business proposal with you”. Any email that starts by claiming to have seen your website but doesn’t give the URL of the website is likely to be a mass mailing spam message and hence is to be deleted.

Next email says ‘You will shop free at Morrisons soon with a £500 voucher”. This is a well-known scam whereby the message offers a free shopping voucher but in fact just leads to a survey and no-one gets a free voucher. Morrisons don’t even make £500 vouchers. The message contains “Dear #Firstname#” which means the scammer doesn’t know how to do mass emails correctly.

A message claiming to be from HMRC but the email address is actually hmrc-payert-gov.uk which is nothing to do with government. The message says I owe £11,621.10 according to their records and I need to pay immediately. I should check the attached EXCEL file for details. Unfortunately EXCEL files can contain macros which may harm your PC or install unwanted programmes so never open an attached spreadsheet file.

Bankline have sent me a warning that they think someone has accessed my account from a suspicious location. What location is that? Maybe it’s where the scammers are who sent this message. However, I don’t have a Bankline account so is of no concern and I wont be opening the attached file supposedly containing the details.

The laziest scammer ever may be using the email address john @smarten.xyz as he keeps sending out huge volumes of blank messages. In reality, the messages are simply to see which emails he bought from a hacker are real rather than invented by the hacker ad to see which gullible people actually send him a reply asking why the message is blank. Those people will then be added to a suckers list.

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December 28, 2018

Morrison’s to Pay Staff after Data Breach

In 2014, the personal details of thousands of Morrison’s staff including salaries, bank account details and home addresses were stolen and published online.

At the time, Morrisons said that all the staff details published were put on an unspecified location on the web for a few hours and were taken down immediately when they were discovered. It said in a statement: “We can confirm there has been no loss of customer data and no colleague will be left financially disadvantaged.” It was working with police to identify the source of the theft.

The hacker posted the information – including names, addresses, bank account details and salaries – online and sent it to newspapers.

It turned out that it was an employee, Andrew Skelton, who had posted the data online. He was caught and jailed for eight years in 2015 after being found guilty at Bradford Crown Court of fraud, securing unauthorised access to computer material and disclosing personal data.

However, Morrisons faced a huge payout to staff whose personal data were posted on the Internet after workers brought a claim against the company for “upset and distress”.

The High Court ruling that Morrisons is liable for the data breach then the Court of Appeal upheld the original decision against the supermarket. Morrisons said it would now appeal to the Supreme Court.

This case is the first data leak class action in the UK.

Morrisons had argued that it could not be held liable for the criminal misuse of its data, but three Court of Appeal judges rejected the company’s appeal, saying they agreed with the High Court’s earlier decision.

They said Morrisons was “vicariously liable for the offences committed by Mr Skelton against the claimants”.

Skelton was given eight years in prison for fraud, securing unauthorised access to computer material and disclosing personal data at a criminal trial in 2015.

The case continues.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.