Category: Uncategorized

Stupidest Spam of the Week Compensation Payment

An email supposedly from Mark Watson but his email address is revjones5050@… So, he has a split personality. Then he tells you to contact Reverend Jones and gives a new email address.

“My Good Friend, I’m happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transferred under the cooperation of a new partner from Paraguay. Presently I am in Paraguay for investment projects with my own Share of the total sum. Mean while, I didn’t forget your past efforts and Attempts to assist me in transferring those funds despite that it failed Us some how. Now contact my confidential secretary as i stated below and he send you your check for $2,500,000.00 which I kept for your compensation.”

The email goes on but you can see the story.

Now, is this just a phishing message and contacting Rev Jones will simply lead to a request for lots of personal information which the scammer then sells to other criminals?

Or maybe it’s the start of a 419 scam where they keep you on the line expecting the big cheque and in the meantime there are small sums for you to pay to get that cheque released, but it never happens.

Who knows.

Either way it’s just a basic scam and the poor grammar and whole setup of the message suggests the scammer is trying to find greedy idiots.

No one in their right mind would think an email from someone you’ve never heard of but promises to pay you $2.5 million for your previous help could possibly be true.

A common scam.

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Door to Door Con Men

Many legitimate businesses sell products door-to-door (e,g, windows, solar panels, cleaning products, home maintenance, tree surgeons etc.)

There are also utility company staff who may visit to read meters. Charity collectors may knock on your door to ask for donations or may leave plastic bags for you to fill with clothes and shoes etc. and leave out for collection. Possibly many other door to door sales visitors can turn up.

However, some scammers also use the door-to-door approach, usually targeting elderly people.

They typically sell shoddy goods at inflated prices or promise services that they never deliver e.g. paving your driveway. Some try to gain entry to the person’s home in order to steal money or valuables.

Do remember:-

  • Door-to-door sales people are uninvited and must leave if you ask them to.
  • Door-to-door sales often involve selling goods or services that are not delivered or are very poor quality. It’s much better to buy from local trader s you know.
  • Some scammers conduct surveys so they can obtain your personal details or disguise their intention to sell you something.
  • Sometimes, the sales person may be selling a genuine product but is on commission so the more they can make you pay then the more money they get. This seems to be common with double glazing sales people.

If someone knocks at your front door claiming to be from a company always check their ID. If you are not happy then do not let them into your home.  If worried, then call the Police non-emergency number.

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

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Snatch Ransomware

Ransomware is software that infects computers in businesses and in homes, then it encrypts files and threatens that unless a ransom is paid (usually by Bitcoin) that the decryption key necessary to restore the files will not be provided. Many people and businesses have been caught out by this and in some cases lost a great deal of money and/or valuable documents, photos etc.

Now, there is a nastier than usual form of this software called Snatch Ransomware.

This ransomware uses a trick to bypass antivirus software and is able to encrypt files without being detected.

The trick they use causes the computer to reboot into safe mode without any anti-virus protection then the ransomware can go about encrypting files without being blocked.

Safe mode on a PC is designed for when the computer is not running correctly and it enables testing, fixing and restore.  However, the criminals behind Snatch are using this mode to prevent anti-virus protection running.

The Snatch criminals use legitimate systems tools to access badly protected systems.  This is unusual as most ransomware criminals access as quickly as possible, encrypt whatever files can be found and move on.

The number of Snatch victims so far appears to be very small. Coverware is a company that specializes in extortion negotiations between ransomware victims and attackers and they have handled ransom payments for Snatch ransomware infections on 12 occasions between July and October 2019. The payments ranged from $2,000 to $35,000.

Keep your protection up to date.

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The Google Voice Account Scam

Google Voice is a telephone service that provides call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, for Google Account customers in the U.S., Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

Google Voice provides a U.S. telephone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Calls to this number are forwarded to telephone numbers of the user’s choice. Multiple destinations may be specified that ring simultaneously for incoming calls and any can be answered.

Users in the U.S. can also make outbound calls to domestic and international destinations.

Google Voice services include voicemail, free text messaging, call history, conference calling, call screening, blocking of unwanted calls, and voice transcription to text of voicemail messages.

How The Scam Works

You put your telephone number on the Internet e.g. on your own website or social media or a dating website etc. or on a classified advert in a local paper.

A scammer contacts you via text or email.  They claim they need you to prove you are real person, not a computer and that they are using a special phone service that requires that you give them the six-digit code number that will be played to you by an automated verification call or text message from Google.

This may sounds reasonable and you go through with it, but then shortly afterwards that your name and number are being used to scam people and you no longer have control of your phone number. What happened?

The scammer has in fact, gone through the Google Voice setup process.  They tell Google Voice to call your personal number, and the automated call speaks the code, or the text message supplies the code.

The then give the scammer that code and Google issues the new voice number not to you but to the scammer.

The scammer then uses that voice account to scam people then is likely to drop it and get a new one through the same process.

In the worst cases, illegal activity carried out on these fake accounts might involve law enforcement and you will have to prove it wasn’t you carrying out the scam.

Do not give Google verification codes to anyone.

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Time-wasters Update

Partyofthesin (actual email address is twoomail.com) claims to have sent me a message and I just need to sign up to read and reply. It says by clicking the link I agree to an account being created for me. No thanks. I have no idea if this is real or completely fake but there’s no way I would sign up for something unknown like this.

You may have seen programmes on TV and news items about how your gut bacteria affect more than your digestive system. That is true but the scammers have jumped on to the bandwagon claiming all sorts of miracle effects from your gut bacteria. “Obesity Cure” (breaking news – scientists link weight gain to gut bacteria) tells me there is one simple tweak that will force your body to get rid of stubborn unwanted belly fat every day for the rest of your life. No – just a scammer intent on stealing from you every day for the rest of their life.

Kelvin Quarterman tells me an invoice is due. Apparently there is an outstanding payment of $6408 and they would appreciate if it is paid out no later a date two weeks from now. The invoice is attached and has a password 1234. You’re out of luck evil thief – I am not going to open any attached document – certainly not one that is password protected to try to get it past the anti-virus scanner.

Martin Jones (email address is jm8587196 @gmail.com) is trustee of a $1.3 Billion portfolio and he wants my advice on where to invest the money. How about you invest it all in Bitcoin scams and lose every cent.

Solar Chargers (email address is @steptowards.bid) have got 223 solar chargers to give away to the first people who respond to the email. Nope – it’s just a scammer looking for names and addresses to sell to other scammers. There are no chargers.

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