Category: Time-Wasters

Any time-wasters not normally classed as scammers or spammers

February 13, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

Many 419 (advance fee) scammers claim to be from the FBI or United Nations, offering payments to people who have supposedly been scammed and are due compensation. Anyone who has not been scammed should realise immediately this is another scam, but some are enticed by the thought of an unexpected huge compensation payment even though it makes no sense. They respond to the scammer and get entangled in the webs of lies. This latest such scam message claims that my overdue compensation payment has been endorsed and is mine to collect from my bank. I just have to supply the scammer with my bank details and also my name as she doesn’t actually know who I am. No thanks.

A message claiming to be from applied.com warns me there has been an unusual login attempt on my APPLE account and I need to click the attached PDF file to see the details. However, the sender’s actual email address is a rubbish one “noreplyn0repply788123njasjjaf388138-1218087033” which is not APPLE and the attached PDF was in fact a WORD template document, no doubt stuffed with malware. Plus, I don’t have an APPLE account.

An email from Teresa Sam says ‘Reply Me For Business’, ‘View proposal and get back’. Obviously, this is rather poor grammar but Teresa’s email address is actually someone named Alan so perhaps a confused scammer or just a lazy one who cannot be bothered making sure the email address matches the claimed name. All fake of course.

HMRC tell me that I owe them £281.24 and the debt is two weeks past settlement date so I must pay immediately or face jail. Good job they are not HMRC, just scammers so can be ignored.

A “Domain Services Expiration Notice” arrives for the radio station. These have been occurring for several years in the few weeks before the radio station’s domain name is due for renewal. These scammers look up the renewal date for many people’s domain names then send out these messages which are actually selling SEO services but formatted to look like they are about the domain names. The scammer’s idea is to get people to register with them believing they are just renewing their domain name but in fact have signed up for real or fake SEO services, depending on the scammer. When the scammer offers real SEO services then they are not committing a crime, but when they don’t provide any services and just take the money then that is illegal. Either way – always read such messages carefully and be aware that scammers can tell when your domain name is dur for renewal and may try to catch you out.

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February 6, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

A message tells me that a temporary email address I use is due to be terminated unless I upgrade my account. But that email address is a temporary one, so is unimportant. Also, the message is from vanphatpro1998 which is not the company that provide the email address so it’s from a scammer and should be ignored.

The Japanese Red Soda fat burning secret is yet another magic means of supposedly losing tons of weight with no effort. Sadly, these are always scams and drinking a glass of soda before 10 am in the morning as specified in the message isn’t going to make you lose 33 lbs of fat in one month with no exercise as is claimed. Effortless dieting does not exist except in the minds of scammers.

A message from APPLE tells me they have accepted my order and I should open the attached tax invoice document. But it’s not from APPLE of course – it is actually from usdosaldiw5313.rloavhymrc.com which is an obvious fake. The attached file is a WORD document so as part of a scam is very likely to contain malware. No thanks.

An email tells me that my parcel delivery is on hold as the company have incomplete address information. I can choose to click to update my delivery details and have the parcel re-delivered or to click to arrange a new delivery address or I can choose to collect the parcel in person in Acton. No thanks – I wont do any of those as there is no parcel.

The Coronavirus has led to worldwide shortages of personal protective equipment, hand sanitiser, face masks, test equipment and much more. Scammers love this kind of problem as it makes people more willing to buy these items from unproven suppliers and even governments have fallen for some of the scammers tricks in their haste to buy the necessary items. There are still scammers offering face masks for sale and sending out mass spam emails. This latest one claims to be able to source any quantities wanted and at low prices. But no-one should ever buy from people who send out mass emails as they are almost guaranteed to be scammers. Always research any supplier before making a commitment.

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December 19, 2020

Time-Wasters Update

“This is the biggest turning point in the fight against Alzheimer’s” is a sales pitch for a supposed cure for Alzheimer’s. This is very cruel as there is currently no cure for the disease and the scammer’s email claims his cure only takes 28 days. Science has known for some time that dementia (including Alzheimer’s) causes permanent degradation of the brain and current treatments can slow the loss but not stop or reverse it. Emails claiming magic remedies for Alzheimer’s are always fake.

“Doctors are stunned as forgotten study exposes cause of toenail fungus”. This is the usual scammers message and it goes on to claim a new magic trick can get rid of the fungus in a few seconds. However, the cause of toenail fungus is well known – it’s just a fungus that’s in the air and can get into nails and cause problems. The fungus doesn’t just sit on the nails it gets into the nails which is why it takes a lot of effort to get rid of it thoroughly. There is no magic answer – just regular treatment with anti-fungals until it eventually dissipates.

Mr. Okrapah Ajdei says he looking for manufacturing, trading or exporting companies to partner with. He wants to sell our products to the government of Ghana. Nope – just a scammer looking to find desperate idiots as anyone who replies to his email must be that.

A quotation request arrives from Husam Al-Sanhilie. He is on the International Procurement committee – part of the Supreme Committee for Legacy and Delivery for the Qatar 2022 FIFA world cup. He wants us to tender for supply of assorted products and services for the World Cup. This is the start of a long winded and stupid scam. The sender uses a Gmail address so is not an official of any kind – just a scammer. The whole thing is obviously rubbish.

An email arrives that says it from admin@ “the radio station” (i.e. our email address). It’s just an advert for athletic clothing but the scammer has gone to the trouble of spoofing the radio station email address i.e. changing the email header information so that it appears to be from the radio station. Most scammers use this technique to get through spam filters especially with phishing emails but this one is just a rubbish ad for gym stuff. We all have to beware of emails that appear to have come from our own organisation or someone we know, but the truth is that people can make the email sender appear to be anything they want.

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December 13, 2020

Stupidest Spam of the Week Sixth Sense

A scammer using the name Vincent Wright has a novel approach to getting people to click a link.

“I had a wave of goosebumps come over me as I read your name earlier today?.

Like some kind of eerie suspicion that you were in desperate need of guidance from these last few weeks events?

What happened to you?

I can sense something brewing?

Powerful energy surrounding you that will be focused into one of two directions very soon?”

It carries on like this – weird comments intended to draw people in. So, he had goosebumps when he read my name. Nope – the message has gone to millions of unknown people randomly. His comments are entirely made up.

“I feel like I’ve met you before… perhaps in another life?”

Maybe he thinks he’s being mysterious but really it’s just creepy and pathetic.

The message is singed off by Adrianna so Vincent/Adrianna clearly has a memory problem.

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November 22, 2020

Stupidest Spam of the Week Colonel Gaddafi

Years ago there was a spate of advance fee scams using the name of Colonel Gaddafi’s widow. These were typical scams in telling a ridiculous story and claiming there is a huge fortune waiting to be collected and you can share in it if you offer just a tiny bit of help collecting those riches.

Some moron is now repeating these old messages.

e.g “Greetings from Libya, I am the wife of the ex-Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, the former and late leader of Libya Colonel Muammar Qadhafi who was betrayed and embattled by Libyan

and murdered by the Libyan rebels which led to his untimely death.

Since then, me and my children has been on travel ban, no access to bank accounts and we have been rendered homeless and at the same time we are under threat and we are not allowed to

invest or operate bank account. I wrote this letter because I need you to help me to secure some of my family funds that is deposited by my late husband in different security companies abroad which is no longer safe under the name of my late husband therefore I urgently need your help to transfer the amount to your bank account”.

She offers you 30% of the total funds and just wants to know some details from you to start the process of recovering the money.

She wants your name, address, phone numbers, gender, age, occupation and a copy of your identification.

All good information to sell to identity thieves.

She wants to benefit from two scams at once – the Advance Fee Scam and Identity Theft.

Any riches that Gaddafi had are long since gone.

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November 21, 2020

Time-Wasters Update

“WHOIS final warning for email account shutdown” is yet another phishing email trying to get our login and password details. Never click on links in such emails – check with your email provider if you’re not sure whether it’s a scam or not.

Georgia Quinn emails to tell me that my gift is waiting for me. I simply need to confirm my name and address. The gift is apparently free cakes. The email sender appears to work for a company called Lead Forensics. That is a real company and is nothing to do with crime investigation. Their tagline is “Lead Forensics is the software that reveals the identity of your anonymous website visitors”. On the Internet, many people choose to be anonymous (i.e. not login or register on websites) so they don’t get pestered by spammers and scammers, but Lead Forensics see their mission as being to remove that anonymity and make sure those people are pestered by unwanted emails and calls. We don’t know if the cakes are real or just a lie to get people to send in their details. Don’t reply.

“Reverse Alzheimer’s in 3 minutes a day”. It’s sad that scammers go after people suffering from Alzheimer’s but there are many scams targeting them. This one claims that scientists have found the secret of how memories are stored and how to restore them. If there was any such breakthrough we would all know about it and not need scammers to inform people. The email even includes pictures supposed to prove the cure but of course they don’t prove anything except that the scammer can copy and paste pictures.

Another scam message and this claims that you follow an at home trick before bed and you are guaranteed to wake up with insane energy. Scammers always promise far too much to be anything but fake. Pathetic.

“Scientists from Harvard and Johns Hopkins have revealed there’s a nasty mistake most diabetics are making every single night”. Lots of scammers target diabetics as it’s very common problem and the only real answers involve weight loss and exercise. There are no magic pills to take diabetes away, so scammers invent magic potions, exercises and ‘weird’ rituals to entice people. This scammer keeps the supposed answer secret and instead lists lots of things that are proven not to work and claims his secret is different to them all. There are scientists at Harvard working on research on diabetes but their results are published for anyone to read and they do not have any magic answers as yet – or the entire world would know about it.

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