1 and 1 Ionos Email Scam

The Internet company 1 & 1 IONOS are a major player in email service, web hosting etc. They claim to be the largest hosting company in Europe.

Scammers know this and repeatedly send out emails trying to con people into keying in their IONOS login and password.

These phishing scams target people with IONOS accounts and they take many forms – the most common being a threat that your email will be discontinued unless you login to confirm your details.

This latest one is claims to be just checking the WHOIS data for your Internet domains. This is the information on domain ownership that is required by the domain registrar.

The registrar does send out such emails to confirm the details, but they always list the information and ask for a return message only if there is a mistake.

The scammers sending these fake messages claiming to be from IONOS do not know whether you own any domains so cannot list such information and the email is general e.g. “we believe you own domains and now have to verify as follows…”

These emails are generally well written, grammatically correct and even have a picture of someone supposed to be head of customer services.

1 and 1 IONOS started out in Germany and for some reason these fake emails have the message in English then repeated in German then pages of adverts for electronics and watches at impossibly low prices.

Weird and all fake.

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

November 21, 2021

Stupidest Spam of the Week Altcoin Predictions

There are endless cryptocurrency scams. Mostly these rely on people’s greed for instant money and play on the reputation of Bitcoin in particular for making millionaires.

Bitcoin has bankrupted many people as well, as the price swings are often violent and unpredictable.

This latest scam also tries to jump on the bandwagon of Artificial Intelligence.

It claims that MIT scientists have an AI that can predict with 100 % accuracy which cryptocurrencies are just about to make a 15,000% increase in price.

Supposedly it has done that previously for the scientists and they made millions.

Now they have more predictions and want to sell them online.

Cryptocurrencies have no physical basis i.e. no assets of any kind or meaning beyond what people give them.

So, the price of cryptocurrencies is entirely a matter of supply and demand. If people want more then the price goes up and if people want less then the price goes down.

Hence, no computer model could ever predict with any certainty what will happen to the price as it would be predicting how people will behave and that’s not going to happen.

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November 20, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

Another fake message arrives claiming an email box is full up and needs to be upgraded. These are simple phishing scams – if you click the link to upgrade it takes you to a fake webpage designed to look like a genuine upgrade page but it takes your email address and password and forwards them to the scammer. The message claims to be from Postmaster but is from purpleparrot.com.cn and strangely complains that the mailbox is just under 2GB but has to be upgraded to 500GB which is an unrealistically big jump but then most scammers are too dumb to understand what it means. A simple phishing scam.

An email from Jonathon tells us thank you for placing an order with them, although there’s no company name to identify who “them” might be. Plus, the email is from a Gmail address not a business email address. This one doesn’t contain a link to click as do almost all scam messages, but it has a telephone number in America that you should call if you have questions about the order (which you haven’t placed). The scammers phone number in this case is +1 833 815-3366 I wont be calling it.

Another approach by scammers is to send messages saying that there are documents waiting for me on the Radio station printer, that 2 people have sent these documents for me and I just need to login in to access them. All lies of course.

Yet another reminder to pay an overdue invoice arrives. It has an attached document so presumably that is full of malware. This one is from smj-ueg1098asf321-2@ lastwinter.net which is obviously a scammer’s email address. Every business receives large numbers of these simple phishing messages so hopefully everyone is used to watching out for them by now. Typical scammer rubbish of course.

There are endless scams based on diabetes cures. Diabetes type II is the scourge of Western society and huge amounts of money are spent trying to treat the disease. Scammers recognise this and that there is no medical cure – only lifestyle changes that many find too difficult. This latest magic remedy is supposedly a simple ingredient made from common beans and one dose in your morning coffee reverses the diabetes domino effect and ‘slashes’ your blood sugar permanently. There is no such ingredient and no such ‘slashing’ effect, just a criminal trying to con people.

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November 19, 2021

Comedian Joe Lycette And The Property Scammer

Joe Lycette is a comedian and he likes to take on scammers, using humour.

One story he tells is about how a property scammer tried to con him, but Joe turned the tables and had a lot of fun in the process.

A friend of Joe’s was looking for a property on Gumtree and was emailing with an agent about a property he was interested in but realised it was probably a scam. His friend passed the emails to Joe

Joe then emailed Gemma the scammer posing as a property agent, saying he was interested in the property.

The agent claimed she was in Stockholm and needed Joe to pay $220 deposit so she could arrange a viewing.

The payment should be via her trusted partner moneytoindia.com

Joe sent her an email claiming he was on holiday in Stockholm and wanted to meet up.

Then the agent claimed she had left and was in Munich.

“Guten tag Frau Gemma – what a co-incidence” he replied “I’m also in Berlin in Potsdamer Platz”,.

So she then claimed to have left Berlin, but still wanted the $220.

Joe then replied that he was happy to forward the money, but a friend of his at the FBI would just do a quick check first to ensure it wasn’t a scam.

Gemma replied quickly –“The property is no longer on the market. Please confirm receipt of this message”

Then another email – “Did you get my last email?”

He got a series of these progressively more desperate messages saying there was no need for an FBI check.

He ignored these for a few days then finally replied.

“In order to secure cancellation of the FBI check you will need to pay me a deposit of $300 through my trusted partner moneytojoe.org. or alternatively promise to stop trying to scam people. “

He actually got an apology and a promise from Gemma.

Joe performs this story very well – you can find him on Youtube.

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November 18, 2021

Survey Scams

A survey scam is where the survey either doesn’t exist or is just a pretext to get your personal information – this can be via email, website, call or text.

It may start out as just a request to fill in a short survey but usually there are incentives – e.g. a cash payment, a major discount at a well-known retailer, a gift voucher, a free holiday etc.

The questions are general stuff e.g. do you have pets, favourite holiday location, what newspapers o you read but the ones that matter are the ones with information they can sell – where were you born, birth date, mothers maiden name, occupation, mobile number, address etc.

That information can be sold to legitimate business such as Marketing companies but more probably will be sold to thieves and in particular identity thieves.

If, shortly after filling in a survey you get lots of cold calls, floods of spam emails etc. then your details have been sold on.

To gain your trust, the scammers will often claim their survey is on behalf of a major high street store or supermarket or a famous clothes outlet etc.

Check the exact email address of the sender as it may have a slight deliberate misspelling e.g. Morrisonis instead of Morrisons.

If someone calls wanting to pre check your eligibility for a survey with a major reward, do not trust and do not provide any personal information.

There are many genuine surveys, but if the rewards look too good for a 5 minute survey then be very suspicious and do not give away any information that can be used by criminals.

November 17, 2021

Stay Secure on TikTok

As with other popular social media networks, you need to be careful what you put in your TikTok profile, the various privacy settings, who you allow to see your posts and what you choose to post.

Here are some tips:

Make your account private: Any content you post on the account is only visible to people who you connect with on the app.
Only allow friends to send messages: Do not accept messages from strangers on TikTok.
Don’t suggest your account to others: This is about whether you want others to see your account. TikTok’s privacy features let you choose whether you want your account to be suggested to others. This will also stop your TikTok account from coming up in search engine results (unless you want that to happen).
Don’t let people download your videos: If you’re going to the trouble of making videos you don’t want people downloading them and using them for their own purposes.
Limit comments: Unless you really want to know other people’s uninformed opinions.
Set Two Factor Authentication: This provides better protection than just a password but can be more time consuming.

If you have any experiences with TikTok security do let me know, by email.