Stupidest Scam or Spam of the Week Essay Cheating

There are many online services that provide essays on demand, plus academic papers and similar of all kinds.

This is not the same as services that are welcomed by the academic communities for providing test papers, reference materials etc.

Instead, these sites target people who want to do better than they deserve.

Why write a long essay for school or college when you can pay a website to provide it for you with no effort?

That’s effectively their sales pitch and these sites are common.

Large academic institutions have to protect against their students ‘cheating’ in this way but some people will always try.

Some of the latest scam emails offering this service use software to randomly combine stock phrases into messages they hope to get through the spam filters at the email service providers, but they also make it obvious that the sender has no clue what they are doing

e.g. “When it pertains to your career as brilliant future”

or “that way you wouldn’t have to reconsider prior to trusting us”

or “enjoy the incentives of wonderfully created academic documents”

or “We promote your growth in the right direction”

No-one in their right mind would want to trust an organisation to produce documents when they put out this kind of message and sends it from a private Gmail address.

Do the work yourself.

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July 9, 2022

Time-Wasters Update

Hashim Mohammed claims in an email that he is desperate to buy PPE products – face masks, rapid tests, gowns and gloves. So, he is looking for a supplier or distributor to fulfil large orders. Anyone really looking for a PPE supplier could find any number very easily and would not send out emails to random addresses – especially not to a radio station. Just a scam message of course looking for someone dumb enough to reply.

An email from Stuart Scan Data says it’s a designated memo sent to me using Fujifilm ApeosPort C4570. No idea whether that exists or not – it’s a simple scam message. There is attachment labelled as a PDF file but in fact has the extension.pdf.htm so it’s a webpage which is no doubt loaded with malware. No thanks. Never open documents in unsolicited emails.

Chronoboost is a good sounding name but is used by scammers to name a supposed fast acting antidote to sleep problems that would, supposedly, otherwise lead to stroke, diabetes type 3, Alzheimer’s etc. This is another magical health remedy dreamed up by scammers. All rubbish.

“Tea Burn” offers a simple 10 second trick that turns any cup of tea into “super” tea that speeds up your “thyroids” instantly causing weight loss and to top that it also whitens your teeth in the process. Worth a good laugh at the stupidity of this, but definitely not worth clicking the link to see the tea perform its magic.

A fax notification arrives from an email address at toroslav-bid.gov.tr which is a Turkish address but not the government of course. Does anyone in the civilised world still use faxes??? I won’t be clicking the link to check non existent faxes.

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July 8, 2022

The Data Reform Bill

In 2022, the government consulted on plans for data reforms and has now publishing its response to those comments.

It sets out how the Data Reform Bill announced in this year’s Queen’s Speech will strengthen the UK’s high data protection standards while reducing burdens on businesses to deliver around £1 billion in cost savings that they can use to grow their business and boost the economy.

The Data Reform Bill will more clearly define the scope of scientific research and give scientists clarity about when they can obtain user consent to collect or use data for broad research purposes.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO)

The plans will modernise the ICO i.e. the data regulator, so it can better help businesses comply with the law.

The ICO received 130,000 complaints last year about unwanted calls and messages, but was only able to issue fines totalling £2.8 million.

The ICO will be given more enforcement powers – they will be able to take action over high volumes of unanswered calls by using heavier fines.

Reducing Business Burdens

Data-driven trade generated nearly three quarters of the UK’s total service exports and generated an estimated £234 billion for the economy in 2019.

The European Union’s highly complex General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has many positive features in protecting data but it also has drawbacks restricting the innovative use of data.

This bill will remove the UK GDPR’s prescriptive requirements giving organisations little flexibility about how they manage data risks – including the need for certain organisations, such as small businesses, to have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and to undertake lengthy impact assessments.

It means a small business such as an independent pharmacist won’t have to recruit an independent DPO to fulfil the requirements of UK GDPR, provided they can manage risks effectively themselves, and they will not have to fill out unnecessary forms where the risk is low.

Organisations will still be required to have a privacy management programme to ensure they are accountable for how they process personal data. The same high data protection standards will remain but organisations will have more flexibility to determine how they meet these standards.

Protecting consumers from nuisance calls

The fines will increase from the current maximum of £500,000 and be brought in line with current UK GDPR penalties which are up to four per cent global turnover or £17.5 million, whichever is greater.

Those Annoying Cookies

Currently, users have to give their consent for cookies (the data points which allow sites to remember information about an individual’s visit) to be collected. To do so users have to opt in to cookie collection every time they visit a new site.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

July 6, 2022

Your Phone APPS Are Tracking You

A surprising number of smartphone APPS ask on installation for permission to access your location. For APPS such as the Automobile Association or Map based APPS or Local weather or Find a Restaurant this makes sense but many APPS want to track your location for their own benefit – not yours.

Carnegie Mellon University carried out a study on Android phones. The researchers followed 23 Android phone owners for three weeks. In the first week, they were asked to use their apps as they normally would. In the second week, the participants used an app called App Ops to monitor and manage the data those apps were using. In the third week, the research team introduced a “privacy nudge” alert that would ping the participants each time an app requested location data.

The title of the study is: Your Location Has Been Shared 5,398 Times! A Field Study on Mobile App Privacy Nudging.

APPS access your location so they can build a profile on your activities and sell that data to Marketing companies. This is most common with free APPS as the makers need some way to make money and Marketing companies pay for tracking data.

Stop Location Tracking

Try to choose APPS that don’t require permission such as tracking location, but if you do use such APPS then reset permissions so they cannot access your location.

On your Android phone open the Settings app then go to Apps & notifications, choose an app, and select Permissions. On iOS open the Settings app then pick an app to see the permissions it has.

To find out exactly what use is made of your location data means reading the terms and conditions for the APP which almost no-one ever bothers with.

Taking back control

On Android you can disable location tracking on the device as a whole by opening Settings, then tapping Security & location and Location, and then turning tracking off.

On iOS open Settings, then go to Privacy and Location services, and disable the feature.

It’s your phone so you should be in charge.

July 4, 2022

Be an exclusive Product Tester

An email from “Luxury Opinions”

Title says “Join an exclusive community for free to test new to market luxury goods”

That’s a good ‘hook’ – who wouldn’t want to test luxury items for free.

It goes on to explain

“We’re looking for the most discerning members of the UK public to join our exclusive luxury research community. Our clients (major global banks and luxury companies) are looking for luxury minded people like yourself to join LuxuryOpinions.com in order to help them better understand the UK’s most affluent consumers”.

“discerning” and “luxury minded” are good phrases – used in this case to make me feel special.

“Members of LuxuryOpinions participate in occasional online luxury/wealth surveys in exchange for amazing incentives (up to £100 for a short survey).

On top of that:

Earn your first £20 just for signing up today.
100% Privacy protection
No marketing / sales, just honest market research”

Sounds too good to be true because of course it’s just a scam.

£20 just for joining – so you have to give bank details for the payment.

OOPS – that would be your bank account emptied.

Don’t be fooled by wonderful offers – they are always a con.

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July 3, 2022

Free Outdoor Power Thingy

Offering free electrical power is a common scam, particularly popular in the USA.

Some scammers offer simplistic rubbish and some write complex messages filled with technical jargon trying to convince the reader they know what they are talking about.

This latest scammer goes for a mixture – some technical jargon but she really cannot be bothered putting in the effort to make it seem realistic.

e.g. “Our factory has all kinds of professional; test equipment”

or “we keep exploring its very best in the way of depth of power innovation”.

Or “Bionics design”

Or “Extremely aesthetic design”

Her email address is alexy @marching.com and there is a website at marching.com but it’s loaded with malware so best avoided.

She is supposedly selling an outdoor power station but part of the description means her product is actually a power storage device not a power generator.

All rubbish. If you actually want solar power or other outdoor forms of power generation – find accredited products and never reply to unsolicited email messages.

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