Category: Uncategorized

Stupidest Spam of the Week Magic Invention

The Elite Thought They Have Destroyed All of The Evidence of This Device” is the title of a recent email campaign (I assume the grammatical error is deliberate).  It is yet another conspiracy theory based scam as these seem to be very popular, especially in the USA.

The message goes on about how the mystery assistant of the inventor realised the secret of the device on his deathbed.

Some scammers love the dramatic touch.

Then comes the conspiracy part – the device was censored from the beginning and the government burned all of the records regarding it, publicly.

It’s a strange image – of government lackies publicly burning records.

Plus, when the inventor tried to send a piece of the device out of state, he was sentenced to two years in prison, so it is claimed.

All fantasy of course and no-one with an IQ about that of a frog should believe any of it.

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Time-Wasters Update

Even Oxford and Cambridge doctors were alarmed when they saw this”.  A typical scammer’s opening gambit to get people interested or worried enough to click the link in the email which supposedly shows why washing your hands doesn’t protect you against Coronavirus and  instead you have a take a newly released group of ingredients that cleanses you from the inside.  Utter rubbish of course from a spammer paid to get you to click their link.

Yet another Coronavirus scam – this one claims “World Coronavirus Alert: Free Face Masks”. So, Laura Moore has thousands of such masks to give away to anyone who wants them. There are of course charities and individuals who do give away masks to health workers, care workers and members of the public. But this email is just a simple scam. It’s from kinf1people.rest which is obviously a meaningless made-up name and the .rest extension is supposed to be a restaurant. These pathetic losers try to take advantage of anyone in need. 

Another conspiracy theory message arrives. “EMERGENCY EMAIL Pandemic Survival”. This one has a long boring explanation of exponential growth that’s taken from a child’s book.  Then a story about a National Guardsmen who knows the secret truth about Coronavirus and will share it even though it’s likely to lead to his death. Clearly this scammer likes the dramatic touch. Some people want to believe any random rubbish. 

I shared this 7 second ritual with one of my clients a couple of months ago. She had been struggling with her weight all her life, but when she started this ritual, she had fast weight loss from her hips, thighs, face and arms.”. There is a link to click of course to see the evidence. But of course there is no evidence as the whole thing is a fantasy created by a scammer trying to sell you something that doesn’t exist.

High Returns Algorithm Investment Of Up To 28%”. This flood of emails is just a standard fake investment scam. Ignore such messages.

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Debt Collection Scam

This scam works by creating fear. Scammers phone random people and clam they owe a debt and must pay immediately otherwise a number of bad things will happen to them e.g. their credit rating will be ruined, they will be prosecuted in court, their friends and family will be told of the debt, the Police will be called, they will be arrested and so on.

The victim does not owe the debt but some pay up out of fear of what will happen otherwise.

This is a very nasty scam and does frighten people.

Signs of a debt collector scam:-

  1. The debt is to a business you have never heard of, for a product or service you have never received
  2. The caller refuses to give you the collection agency name, contact information, physical address and operating licence number – or gives you false information
  3. The caller demands immediate payment through a money transfer service or prepaid vouchers – anything that means you cannot get the money back as it will be untraceable.
  4. The caller demands that you provide sensitive personal information such as your banking information or your credit card number
  5. The caller threatens severe legal action or to send the police
  6. The caller phones you repeatedly but won’t provide anything in writing

What to do if you have been contacted by a debt collector or have received a debt collection letter you believe to be fake:-

  • Do not give any sensitive financial and personal information.
  • Do not discuss anything related to the debt.
  • Ask for a formal written notice or letter regarding the debt.
  • Look up the debt collector online and check if the information is false e.g. the address.

A genuine debt collector will always provide you with all relevant information in writing and will not pressurise you to pay off debts using money transfers or prepaid cards. They will also not ask for credit card details or similar personal information, but they will try to make a deal with you over repayment terms.

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What is Riskware

Terms ending in “ware” can mean something to do with software e.g. shareware, malware, ransomware, scareware, vapourware, firmware etc.

The term “riskware” is becoming more commonly used and you may find the anti-virus software on your computing devices warns you about ‘riskware’ pages or downloads.

Riskware is the name for legitimate programs that can cause damage if they are exploited by malicious users – to access or amend information they shouldn’t access. So, something named to be Riskware is not  malware as such, but it may be dangerous in the ways it can be used by hackers.

Riskware is similar to PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programmes) but riskware puts the user at risk rather than just being an inconvenience  or annoyance.

Riskware can include the following types of programs:

  • Remote administration utilities
  • File downloaders
  • Monitoring services
  • Password management utilities
  • Internet services such as File Transfer Programmes

These programs are not designed to be malicious – but they do have functions that can be used for malicious purposes by hackers.

e.g. Remote administration programs are utilities that allow support staff to take control of your computers in order to sort out problems, make updates etc. But the fact they can take control makes them a target for hackers who would like to control your devices for malicious purposes.

How to protect yourself against Riskware

You need to install anti-malware that can detect and warn against riskware e.g. Malwarebytes which runs constantly and can warn you if you’re are trying to run or download something classed as riskware.

If your computer warns you that a web site you’re trying to visit has riskware or a download is riskware then decide carefully whether to continue or to stop.

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John Lewis Mastercard Scam

This is Linda’s story.

I had a very plausible chap calling me yesterday saying he was from John Lewis Mastercard and that someone had requested a change to my default phone number. He was calling to check it was actually me.

I said that I hadn’t but he wanted to verify who I was, by asking the typical security questions you get from companies like John Lewis.

This worried me and I told him I wasn’t comfortable continuing the conversation.

He said that if I looked at the display number on the phone it would be the one on my credit card and it was.

Note: this doesn’t prove he is calling from that number as scammers use software to spoof the number i.e. make it look like he was calling from that number.

Anyway, I did stupidly tell him the colour of my credit card (standard security question) but then got suspicious and hung up. Needless to say when I contacted John Lewis on my landline they had not phoned me at all.

Apparently, the scammers can use even quite small pieces of information like that to their advantage. So I guess the lesson is never give any element of security information to anyone calling out of the blue. If it is your bank or credit card company they will not mind you phoning them back-preferably on a different phone to the one you were contacted on.

Stay safe!

Linda’s big tip: Do not call your bank or credit card lender from the same phone as the one you received the call on. ALWAYS use a different phone.

Well done Linda.

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

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Time-Wasters Update

Do you want a $100 bill coated in 24 K gold – for free? Sounds too good to be true, because it is a scam of course. But that’s the message in a flood of emails – you have to give the scammer your name, email address and physical address to get the money. There is no money of course, gold plated or otherwise  – all you would get is your name and details added to the suckers list that is passed around between scammers, then you would be flooded with other scams. Golden money is a nice idea though.

An email from Amazon tells me my Prime account is due for resubscription but my credit card details are out of date and I must update them or face the loss of my Prime account. The email isn’t really from Amazon of course as I don’t have a Prime account. It’s from mvv.fox.gzpprquetuqaq.com which is obviously not Amazon. If I clicked the link it would take me to a fake website made to look like Amazon and it’s job is to get people’s login and passwords as these sell for a high price.

Another email claiming we owe some business an amount of money. This one says she has tried repeatedly to get in touch with us and we have to pay up or she will start legal proceedings. However, there is no company name, just her title of book-keeper and she addresses us as Dear customer giving away that she has no idea who the email has gone to and has likely been sent to millions of email addresses.   A sad pathetic scammer.

Yet another HMRC grant offer arrives – fake of course. It has an attachment that the scammer wants you to open. No thanks – keep your malware. Strangely this email contains a reference “All content is licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0”. That licence does exist and lets people repeat a government message, but is not relevant in this case as the sender is a scammer not a media outlet informing people of something worthwhile.

Chen Susheng says he came across my name on Linkedin and has something very important to tell me – I just have to reply to his message to find out. It’s simple scam – just trying to find out which email owners are dumb enough to reply to an obviously fake message from someone they have never heard of. Do not reply to people you do not know.

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