The Which? Investment Scam

Scammers are using the name Which? Magazine to make their scam messages about cyber currency investments seem genuine.

Which? Magazine are clear that they never send emails recommending people buy cybercurrency or any other ‘investment’.

Which? Magazine take these criminal activities very seriously and do everything they can to stop the criminals using  the name Which? but it’s difficult to stop them all.

The scam messages typically also include the Which magazine logo and copyright message.

The fake messages use email addresses that are obviously not Which? magazine.

Typically they claim to be advertising ‘Which? Recommended Bonds’ and state that these have ‘been closely vetted by a member of our team’ , then there’s a link to click to see the rates on offer. The link is to a fake website made to look like Which? magazine, but it sends your details to the scammer and there are no bonds etc.

It also states that Which? Bond Rates is an Introducer Appointed Representative of Which? Financial Services Limited. That is untrue.

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

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Stupidest Scam or Spam of the Week PayPal Fakes

More than four hundred million people now use PayPal for paying on line so scammers target those users with their phishing scams and fake websites.

Most scammers just copy a typical message from PayPal – use the correct layout, grammar, logo, safety messages etc.

But some are as dumb as dog dirt and send ridiculous messages that are obviously fake.

This latest scammer uses terrible grammar, nothing copied from a real PayPal email message and the text makes no sense.

The message is addressed to “USER”

“Your request is pending of your $805.78”.

“If you have not done this then reach us”.

“It will take 2-3 working days to reflect on your statement”.

“Item: HP Deskjet 2050S wifi inkje status: Pending”.

The top of the message says it’s from Pay-Pay and the bottom says its from Pay-Pal.

Both are incorrect as it’s a from a Gmail account which means it’s from a person (i.e. a scammer) not a business.

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The UK Online Safety Bill Makes Progress

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-first-online-safety-laws-introduced-in-pa

The UK Online Safety Bill marks a milestone in the fight for a new digital age which is safer for users and holds tech giants to account. It will protect children from harmful content such as pornography and limit people’s exposure to illegal content, while protecting freedom of speech.

At least that’s the intention, but these matters are very difficult to codify into law and the online world keeps changing at an ever faster pace.

Key points include:

  • It will require social media platforms, search engines and other apps and websites allowing people to post their own content to protect children, tackle illegal activity and uphold their stated terms and conditions.
  • The regulator Ofcom will have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to ten per cent of their annual global turnover, force them to improve their practices and block non-compliant sites.
  • Executives whose companies fail to cooperate with Ofcom’s information requests could now face prosecution or jail time within two months of the Bill becoming law, instead of two years as it was previously drafted.

The government significantly strengthened the Bill since it was first published in draft in May 2021. Changes since the draft Bill include:

  • Making sure all websites which publish or host pornography, including commercial sites, put robust checks in place to ensure users are 18 years old or over.
  • Adding new measures to clamp down on anonymous trolls to give people more control over who can contact them and what they see online.
  • Making companies proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content and criminal activity quicker.
  • Criminalising the sending of unsolicited sexual images to people using social media, known as cyber-flashing
  • Giving people the right to appeal if they feel their social media posts were removed unfairly
  • Preventing online scams, such as paid-for fraudulent adverts, investment fraud and romance scammers
  • Requiring pornography websites to verify their users’ ages

Any firm breaching the rules would face a fine of up to 10% of its turnover, while non-compliant websites could be blocked entirely.

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

Likely Loans

Likely Loans are a payday loan operation – part of Oakbrook Finance Ltd.

They typically charge 59.99% APR and to get people who will pay that they target those with poor credit ratings unable to get cheaper loans.

Internet reviews of Likely Loans seem split between those who love the quick access to funds e.g.

“Excellent service. Money within 24hrs and payments taken on regular dates”

and those who think the company are scammers and liars e.g.

“CON AVOID. WORST LOAN COMPANY EVER. RUINED MY CREDIT SCORE EVEN AFTER BEING A LOYAL PAY EXTRA CUSTOMER. HISTORY MEANS NOTHING ..AVOID”

Trustpilot shows 78% excellent reviews so they are pleasing some people.

Manoj Kumar Badale Is the longest serving director of Oakwood and is listed on 76 companies at Companies House – either active or dissolved companies. That’s quite a record and would worry some people.

Pay day loans may be a necessary evil for some people, but are better avoided if at all possible.

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

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Data Breaches Facts

Hackers break into company computer systems and steal confidential information. i.e. they make copies of it for their own purposes.

The hackers might then ransom the data back to the owner or sell it to a competitor or sell it to other scammers or  might make us of it in phishing scams i.e. to get more confidential information which they can then sell to fraudsters.

This is big business and usually it’s the customers of the hacked business that suffer.

We give our private and financial information to companies to do business with them but we expect they will do everything necessary to keep that data secure.

Many companies do have excellent data security but some fall short.

The cost to a company of a data breach can include:-

  1. Creation of contact databases
  2. Regulatory requirements
  3. External experts
  4. Postal costs
  5. Communications set-ups
  6. Audit services
  7. Helpdesk
  8. Legal expenditures
  9. Reimbursement for customers
  10. Cost of cleaning up data

Besides the material costs, there may be reputation damage.

Recent research shows:-

  • The average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million
  • The average global total cost per record stolen is $141 but there is huge variance across incidents.
  • Companies in South Africa and India have the highest chance of data breaches whereas companies in Germany and Canada have the lowest.
  • The mean time to identify and contain a breach is 280 days
  • The faster the breach is recognised, then generally the lower the total cost
  • The increasing use of mobile platforms is increasing the chances of data breaches.

For information on how to recognise a cyber-attack see

https://fightbackonline.org/index.php/business/102-do-you-know-if-your-business-has-been-cyber-attacked

[facts taken from 2020 Cost of Data Breach Study]

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