Stupidest Scam or Spam of the Week Effortless Weight Loss

Lots of scammers target people wanting to lose weight as obesity is such a common problem in advanced countries and the standard method of restricting calories and/or exercising more can be difficult and perhaps unpleasant for many.

The email shows a cartoon of a woman eating a giant cup cake and has the slogan ”Stuff Your Face. Lose Weight”.

Perhaps that’s the Holy Grail for many aspiring to lose weight but of course it isn’t possible and would be very unhealthy if it was.

Your body needs nutritious food especially if you are restricting the calories, so using that calorie allowance on junk food would cause a range of health problems.

The scammer doesn’t worry about such things as she has no weight loss method – except for reducing the size of your wallet or purse. The pages of fake email end up with a video that you must watch and she exhorts you to watch till the end and you will immediately be dropping pounds afterwards.

No – it’s all just lies.

The scammer claims to be at least 5 years ahead of weight loss science. Nope – but perhaps destined for 5 years in prison when caught.

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March 26, 2022

Time-Wasters Update

Peggy Chan’s email says she has a lucrative deal to share with me 50:50 but then I’ve never heard of Peggy Chan and her email address is actually wu872.kai@ so she doesn’t seem to know her own name. Just a pathetic scam looking for idiots to reply.

Yet another 419 scam email arrives. Claims to be from a Robert Justin (senior bank officer) but is from a personal Gmail address tuli.jake and he has $10,500,000 for me payable by the Republic of Uganda. I just need to send him (to a different personal email address) a lot of personal information – full name, contact details, birth date, occupation, address etc. and the money will be released. Pathetic lies as usual.

Another health scam involves the scammer promising to tell you how to do a 5 second check that will identify if your thyroid gland is keeping you fat. Doctors do recommend a visual check on the thyroid gland which is in the neck but only a blood test checking hormone levels will tell you if your thyroid is working correctly. So, the supposed 5 second test is just fake.

The offer of a free Tesla series 3 car in a prize daw is back again this year. There is no such prize draw and the scammer still hasn’t learnt how to send out mail merges. The email says Hi {{firstname}} which is supposed to contain the recipients first name and it contains a list of supposed winners but that also contains entries such as {{FirstName}} {Surname}}. Scammers can get away with such dumb messages when they are looking for replies only from the dumbest people.

An email claiming to be from Nat West bank warns me there has been unusual activity on my account, so it has been temporarily suspended. I need to verify my account to remove the suspension and that must be done today or I forfeit the account. The email is from update5615222llpi0nmytza3421561 @notification.com so obviously from a scammer, plus he doesn’t know my name plus I don’t actually have any accounts at the Nat West.

March 25, 2022

Surrey Scammer Caught

Thomas Proudfoot 21, of Leatherhead in Surrey pleaded guilty to computer misuse, money laundering and several counts of fraud following an investigation by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist police unit funded by the banking and finance industry.

He was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison and also received a Criminal Behaviour Order to prevent further fraud offences.

Proudfoot had been conducting scams based around Covid business grants.

He would send out scam text messages that offered victims Covid-19 grants and asked them to click a link to a fake website.

The website asked for the victim’s personal and financial details which he could then use to steal from them.

Proudfoot also designed software which he sold as a service to other fraudsters, the court heard.

He also admitted to hacking a private business website and providing other individuals with software to help them commit fraud offences.

The Police found that he was selling methods to complete smishing and phishing fraud, including possessing copies of fake web pages relating to Covid-19 and other organisations.

Detective Sergeant Ben Hobbs at the DCPCU, said: “This sentencing is a warning to those who believe they can benefit financially from fraud that they will be caught and punished. The DCPCU will continue to clamp down on the criminal gangs seeking to use the pandemic to defraud people.

Good riddance, at least for a while, to a thief targeting vulnerable people during the pandemic.

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

March 24, 2022

Scams on Relief for Ukraine

The crisis in Ukraine as the people try to survive the Russian war machine brings out the best in many people around the world – doing what they can to help the refugees – buying goods to send to the border, making donations, emailing Russians to tell them the truth, boycotting all Russian made goods and so on.

But there are some lowlife scumbags who want to take advantage of that goodwill to steal for themselves.

These sub humans set up fake charities, send out emails saying that purchases of cyber currency will aid the Ukrainians in the war, offering to buy goods to send out there but all the while just keeping the money for themselves.

Watch out for unsolicited emails telling you to buy cybercurrency to become a “friend to Ukraine”, charities that have only just been set up and anything on social media that cannot be separately verified.

If people in your neighbourhood are working to help the Ukrainian refuges and need help then go along and see for yourself what they are doing and make sure it is legitimate.

It is true that the Ukrainian government are claimed to have more than $54 million from Bitcoin donations, but it’s very difficult to be sure than cyber currency donations actually get to where they claim.

To stay safe and not give money to criminals:

Donate to well established national charities e,g, the Red Cross, Unicef, Christian Aid or DEC Ukraine
Be wary of crowdfunding and social media fundraising appeals: Some are fake and some are well meaning but mismanaged.
Do not respond to cold calls asking for help for Ukraine – these are almost guaranteed to be scammers.
Beware brand new charities – a legitimate charity will not pressure you to make a donation immediately.

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

March 23, 2022

How to Deal With a Data Breach

If your business suffers a data breach i.e. hackers access your system and steal confidential information then you have a lot to do to deal with the breach, communicate with all affected parties and put in place better security to prevent another breach.

How well you deal with the breach often affects the total cost and the level of damage to your business reputation.

These four steps can help:-

1. Investigate the Breach

How did it happen?
What was stolen?
Can the hackers regain entry to your systems?
Have the hackers left any malware on your systems?

You’ll need to know exactly what information was lost in the data breach.

Less sensitive information includes name, address. phone number etc. This can be used by scammers and cold callers but that information is readily available for most people through the phone directory, social media and the Electoral register.

More sensitive information includes date of birth, name, financial details, payment card details etc. Combined with the less sensitive information this can be used for identity fraud.

If the stolen data includes names with login and passwords then you need to act fast to warn people to change their passwords.

2. Determine the Possible Damage

Once you know what data has been stolen, you need to understand how this can affect people i.e. how this data can be used by criminals. Will they likely sell the information to a competitor or to other scammers or ransom it back to you?

3. Communicate with All Interested Parties

You need to inform all affected parties ASAP. This may be customers, partners, staff, suppliers etc. If the breach is serious then you should inform the Information Commissioners Office. If relevant inform the Police.

4. Increase Your Security

Unless you have security experts, you may need to hire experts to assess your systems and see how security can be improved. Start enacting those improvements straightaway and of course close off whatever method the hackers used to get into your systems.

A data breach can be very serious and must be dealt with quickly and efficiently to minimise damage to your reputation.

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