Category: Phishing

September 4, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

“Eat This Astronaut Food for Vertigo Immunity” is a very silly title for a scam email. It shows a graphic of a brain that supposedly proves that vertigo is not a normal part of ageing. But then nobody said it was part of aging. Vertigo is a simple biological problem that is usually temporary and easily resolved or sometimes longer lasting and requires an adjustment to a way of life. There is no such thing as food to make you into an astronaut.

An email from Microsoft warns us that they tried to take payment for our Microsoft 365 family subscription and the charge failed. We have to update our payment card details or Microsoft Office will stop working. The scammer is too dumb to realise that business email addresses are not going to have family subscriptions to Microsoft.

Lots of emails from fake Chinese companies currently. A latest one is from a company with no name that claims to be in Shenzhen. The grammar and spelling contain numerous mistakes. Any genuine business email would have been properly written and spell checked so is an obvious fake.

Another email claiming to be Twitter warning us that our account has been locked. The scammer wants us to click the link to login so they can steal our login and password. But the address the message is from is “twtter” – they hope we don’t spot the misspelling. Tough luck – we did.

Boost your memory or cure Alzheimer’s or improve your brain are typical scammer targets for magic remedies. “One Trick Tonight to Boost Your Memory” is the sales pitch by a scammer calling himself Cliff Carr. It supposedly lets you build a higher memory with no effort. There is no such thing as a “higher memory” and it’s all just a scam of course.

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August 30, 2021

Gmail Phishing Scams

Scammers have long used Hotmail, Yahoo, Yandex email accounts and those of many other email providers. But seldom used Gmail as it is more difficult to create Gmail accounts.

However, people trust Gmail more so the scammers are now creating and using more Gmail accounts.

The Typical Scam

You receive an email from someone you know and open it.
It contains a message and an attached file. As you know the person who sent the message you open the attached file without thinking.
When you click the attachment, you are redirected to what seems to be the Gmail sign-in page and you enter your login and password.
The result is not what you expect. You have in fact given your login and password to a scammer on a fake webpage made to look like a Gmail login screen.
The attachment that is sent isn’t actually an attachment; it is just an image of an attachment which links to a fake Gmail sign in page. When you enter your Gmail login details, it sends them to the scammer and she has instant access to your email account.
As the scammers can access your account, they can send emails that appear to be from you and hence it’s easier for them to convince people who know you to pass on confidential information. And the cycle continues with more people being targeted.

The Dangers

There’s a lot a scammer can do with your email address as most websites use it as an ID. A scammer may try your login and password on numerous websites in the hope of gaining access in your name and hence be able to buy products and you get the bills etc.

Most websites have a ‘forgotten password’ feature so if the scammer uses that they can get the ‘reset password’ message and get hence change your password. Getting access to your own account then becomes seriously difficult.

How to av

oid the Gmail Phishing scam:

Stay cautious and if not sure of an email then do not open it or any attachment
Do not click on links in emails
Beware of messages claiming to be from friends but that seem odd
Beware of any messages claiming to be from Google about your account

Do you have an opinion on this matter? Please comment in the box below.

August 28, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

An email tells us we have to confirm the password for one of our email accounts or risk losing it. The message claims to be from the radio station but is fact from prpfnf.co.kr which is the republic of Korea. Our radio station is not in Korea, so it’s a scam.

Yet another supposed diabetes remedy email. This one claims it has a secret that your doctor and the scientists wont tell you – about this magical way to cure the medical condition in just 30 seconds per day using an ancient remedy. Then you can eat all the sweet food you want with no spike in your blood sugar. Only likely if the remedy kills the patient. An unpleasant way to cure diabetes.

The next scam email offers instant tooth cavity repair. You have to mix coconut oil with a secret mineral only known by the scammer and then use it to fill any cavities instantly. It is supposed to be a secret, but the email also says that millions of people have done this and there’s a 100% success rate. Anyone who’s had cavities treated by a dentist knows that step 1 by the dentist is to remove the decay that has caused the cavity and clean it completely as otherwise putting a filler over the hole will just let the decay continue underneath until the tooth is eaten away. Stupid scammer.

Most scammers are fairly dumb, but this latest one sent an email with the first line ‘Please advise your most competitive price and expedited delivery for the attached items asap on or before 27.24.2021’ but forgot to attach the supposed list of products. Depending on whether it’s an American or English date format, it’s either the 24^th or 27^th month of 2021 which makes it sometime in the year 2023. What a moron.

There are huge numbers of emails claiming to be from Chinese companies offering all sorts of products and it can be difficult to tell if they are genuinely stupid people who think that sending out emails by the billion to random email addresses is the best way to get business from people outside China or are they just scam emails. One recent one is titled ‘Signage Manufacturing’ and says it’s from xgxsigns.com. But the message contains simple grammatical and spelling mistakes such as ‘price competition,high quanlity I am thomsom’ and there is no excuse for that as everyone has spell checkers and grammar checkers. So, probably scams.

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August 21, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

There used to be huge amounts of spam and scam messages about MBNA credit cards but recently just a small number of phishing emails about MBNA. These typically claim there is a new login process to check your card or it has been locked for some reason. The scammer wants you to click the link then input your login and password. That would be a rather stupid thing to do – even if you have an MBNA card as we don’t. The latest such messages are by a creative scammer as the link says online.mbna but is actually to berry-abyssinian-iguana-colossus.glitch.me/error

Would you like to win an S21? I have no idea what an S21 is so it doesn’t sound a very attractive offer to me. The email has very little information – just a large banner message saying ‘HURRY UP! REWARDS HAVE ARRRIVED”. I wont be replying to this one or clicking the nameless link.

An email from Ayaz Ibrahim offers me gold at $40,000 per kilo as he has decided to sell his 300 kilogram lot. He says he chose me to be the first customer and his price is around 20% off the official price currently. Does he really expect to find people with $40,000 in cash available to start buying one kilo gold bars? That’s hard to imagine, but maybe some people are so desperate they would go for it. Or maybe it’s just a ruse to find people interested in gold for a different scam he has planned. Don’t know and certainly would never reply to such a scam email.

There are many scammers sending out supermarket survey emails offering the promise of money off vouchers from high street supermarkets. These seem to occur in waves then disappear for a while then return for another wave. This latest one is claiming to be from Lidl but the sender’s email address is adataaltics.pro so it’s a scam and Lidl do not send out mass emails. They use an APP to offer customers special offers and discounts.. Do not reply to emails asking you to fill in a survey in return for a reward.

“Five second fat vaccine found in Amazon” is the title on a scam email. Surely anyone reading that would realise instantly that it’s a scam, but perhaps desperation pushes some people to suspend judgement. It goes on about freedom from diets and exercise but looking ten years younger and losing as much fat as you want with no effort. This scammer has an active imagination but nothing real to offer.

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August 14, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

An email tells us that one of our radio station email addresses expires today and we need to reset the password and the message says it’s from the radio station support department. In fact, the email is from fuitvjpx1a7.co.jp which obviously a randomly generated email address nothing to do with the radio station. Plus, it’s actually a dead email address they targeted.

Next is a long email advertising new ergonomic chairs that are ideal for our office – so it says. There are a lot of these type of emails recently claiming to be selling some common product for offices, but there are no company details, they have no idea who we are and the sender’s email address isn’t a company address but a random one e.g. atumedyhiuifmaetyx @… whereas the sender claims to be Harley Atwell George. Pathetic.

The fake bank account messages continue as always. This one uses the Natwest logo and a section copied from a real NatWest email. ‘Dear Valued Customer’ – No, NatWest knows their customer’s names unlike the scammers sending these messages to random people in the hope they have a NatWest account. So, I wont be verifying my account as the message demands I do.

An email from Pamela McDonnell asks whether we would like to jump on a quick call in the morning to discuss their Beauty and Cosmetics shops list. Certainly there are worse things to waste time on, but really? – sending an email like that to huge numbers of people in the hope of finding the very tiny percentage who might possibly be interested. Dreadful time waster.

An email titled ‘Better Roof Measurements’ is an unusual one. The only reason to need exact measurements of a roof is if you intend to replace it and then your builder should make the measurements they need. Plus, such measurements are in the house deeds. So, is there a market for such services? Roofez seem to think it’s a common activity and charge $40 to give what they claim to be exact measurements of your roof. That’s just weird, but then the sender’s email address doesn’t match the supposed company name so perhaps it’s all just made up.

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August 7, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

A message from ‘Flavia Rima’ just says ‘Hello Darling, how are you – do let me know’. A simple message from a scammer trying to see if the email address is active. If I reply then my email address goes on the higher priced ‘active spam address list’. No thanks.

A strange email from Helen Campuso says she wants to show me her Manifestation Secret that will FORCE the universe to give me the life of my dreams – money, happiness, success, and more… Typical scammer rubbish of course.

Another wave of fake TV licence renewal emails. This set claim that my automatic renewal failed and I have to click the link to renew or my licence will expire or my details will be passed to a debt collector. It’s a cheap looking badly written email so hopefully no-one will believe it and it’s from a “.live.co.uk” email address which is obviously nothing to do with TV licences. No thanks.

Yet another fake UPS delivery message. Supposedly, they tried to deliver the package but couldn’t and I should click the attached file to see the problem. However, the attached file is “.iso” format which means it’s meant to be an archive i.e. a backup and should not be opened.

Yippee! I have won a new BMW 7 series and $1.5 million in a special lottery by International Balloting Systems. It must be safe as it has been approved by the British Gaming Board. Hang on a minute – if it’s based in the USA and the prize is in dollars how can it possibly approved by a British Gaming authority? I just have to supply lots of personal information – passport details, name and address etc. to collect my winnings and the car although how I get a car from America to London I don’t know. Just the usual scammer rubbish, sadly.

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