The Google Ads Scam

This scam is a variation on the endless scam emails telling us that our email accounts are blocked or some other online account has been stopped.

This one targets website owners by using spam lists that include email addresses copied from websites.

Email title is ‘Your Google Ads Account Has Been Suspended’.

Then it says something like “Your Google Ads account 747-129-4244 has been suspended for Circumventing systems”.

The account number they quote is random of course, hoping that the email receiver has no idea of their Google Ads account number.

There is a link to click to reinstate the account and that goes to a scam website page www. 56712220912sol.com which is obviously not Google. No doubt the fake webpage would ask for your Google login and password to verify but would send them to the scammer.

The scammer who sent the emails must be lazy and/or stupid as part of the header of the message is in French and quotes a different account number.

Just a simple phishing scam where the scammer wants your Google login and password.

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

October 10, 2021

Stupidest Spam of the Week Anti-Diabetes

A moronic scammer is sending out messages with the idea of ‘anti-diabetes’ in them

“Grow your own anti-diabetic cells”

“Activate your anti-diabetic cells”

“This changes everything about diabetes”

This is obvious rubbish – it would like having anti-broken leg cells or anti-fat cells.

“it finally proves something doctors could have never thought possible:”

Supposedly it is a fruit that you can add to breakfast and it will make all diabetes drugs worthless.

Just click the link to find the truth.

No, just a pathetic scammer out to con desperate people.

To enter your email address and click on the subscribe button on top right to keep up to date with new posts.

October 9, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

Fiona Powell of carpenterios.pt tells me my account is 30 days past due date and this requires my immediate attention. I should contact her to setup a payment plan and the email includes two phone numbers. The email doesn’t say what the invoice is actually for which a real reminder would. It is a strange scam email as you cannot pay an invoice when you don’t have a copy of it and hence know the amount involved. Perhaps a forgetful scammer or just a stupid one.

An email claiming to be from Tesco tells me I have been selected as one of only 250 people to receive a Tesco survey and in return will get a gift voucher worth serious money at Tesco. Nope. Tesco does not do this kind of amateur Marketing. Lots of scammers use fake surveys to get your confidential information. Do not trust this kind of email.

Miss Monica Stone of Florida, USA tells me she is a registered representative in a Bitcoin investment company. So far she has introduced more than 750 people into Bitcoin investment and they are all earning good profits. She wants to introduce me to the money making opportunities. All lies of course. Her email address is customer_mers53451029812 and it’s a Yahoo personal address. So she’s just an evil scammer looking for people to fall for a Bitcoin scam or to get their details so she can sell them to other Bitcoin scammers.

David Moore says he has an offer for me – he wants to repatriate funds to my country although he obviously doesn’t know which country that is. He says he works in a US bank. The email sender’s address is a Myron Grey so this scammer cannot even be consistent with his fake name. Just a typical phishing email after your confidential details.

Most scammers are dumb as dirt but this latest one cannot even count. The message says my email account has almost exceeded its limit and shows a graphic to demonstrate that it is using 1279 MB out of 2000 MB available. That’s not what anyone else would say is almost at its limit. The message is from an Argentinian email domain that is nothing to do with our email provider.

Do click on the Facebook or Twitter icons on top right to follow Fight Back Ninja.

October 8, 2021

Have Fun With The Scammers

For a scammer time is their biggest asset, so wasting their time really annoys them.

The simple approach is to listen then say something like

“Oh, just got to turn the cooker off – back in a minute”

Or “There’s someone at the door – hold on”

Or “Hold on – just got to get something”

Or anything similar

Then leave them hanging on.

You can prolong this by going back to the call for a minute then excusing yourself again for another long break while the scammer waits and waits. They do give up and put the phone down to move on to the next target.

But to really have fun at their expense, requires a little more imagination.

e.g. 1. Jack says “A scammer called claiming to be from Microsoft Support and wanting to help me sort out problems with my computer.

I agreed and let him talk through what to do but I was using my toaster rather than my computer”.

“So, now you can go to your browser”

“What’s that?”

“Browser, that’s the icon you click to access the Internet”

“OK. I’ve got a green light and a red light – is it one of them?”

“Can you move the mouse down to the bottom of the screen?”

“I don’t have any mice in my home – it’s very clean”

And so on till the dummy realised he was being taken for a ride.

e.g. 2. Bill says “I like to try to sell them something e.g. I’m glad you called cause today is your lucky day. I have a new delivery of tooth fairies and I can do a great deal with you. These are authentic, organic, low carbon tooth fairies and usually retail at 90 dollars each but today only I can get you two boxes – that’s 24 at just $14 each.

That gets them off their stupid script and confused for what to say.

e.g. 3 Jay says “I find a big enough distraction confuses them e.g. tell them you just won millions on the lottery and you’ve trying to figure out whether to leave home or go overseas”

They often break from their practiced script and start talking like a real human and ask me what I am going to do with the money.

e.g. 4. Lipu says I had one of those “your computer has a virus! scammers call me when I was driving home one time – so I kept him on the phone for the hour long drive. I kept saying I was opening the wrong folder or couldn’t find the file and then was confused about the virus and just made-up anything I could think of and started complaining about how slow the computer was.

The guy got really frustrated and clearly wanted to end the call. Finally, when I pulled into my driveway I told him – Alright, I’m home now so thanks for the entertainment. Don’t call again.”

e.g. 5. Jim said he kept getting calls from computer scammers that want to install new security for my new computer. I keep them busy for a while and ask about what computer they are talking about as I claim to have 14 which keeps them busy for a while. When she asked for my credit card to pay for the security update I give them a random number with the right number of digits and of course when they try to take payment it fails and I blame them for typing it in wrongly.

Keep ‘em frustrated and never give them any genuine information about yourself.

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

October 7, 2021

NatWest Online Scam Series

Some scammers change from scam to scam, rapidly putting out millions of scam emails on one subject then disappearing only to reappear with a new scam offering.

Others stick to one they know works.

A massive scam campaign began some months ago with what looked to be many millions of scam emails claiming to be from NatWest bank warning people of a problem with their account. Of course there was a link to click to fix the situation, which would take you to a scam website designed to get your login and password and send those to the scammer.

These emails looked fairly professional unlike most such scam emails – they used the right NatWest logo, had correct grammar and made sense.

They did use copy graphics that you could see weren’t originals and the sender’s email address was obviously not Natwest e.g. updtesNatwe5tnxp0replyservices @ notification.com

This wasn’t a one-off as the emails landed in large numbers for days then switched to a different message – still NatWest but claiming the recipient was due a refund then switched to offering a bonus then ones that warned of unauthorised access to the recipients account, then warning of suspension and so on.

Meanwhile other scammers copied the approach and used the names of other banks rather than NatWest.

It is a tragedy that we have to be so careful on receiving emails as there are so many evil criminals out to steal from us, but be careful and don’t be caught out by these people.

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

October 6, 2021

Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey is a study of UK businesses, charities and education institutions. It was carried out in winter 2020/21

In the survey, micro business means 1-9 employees, small is 10-49, medium is 50–249 and large is 250 upwards.

On average, 39% of businesses and 26% of charities report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. The figures are higher in medium and large organisations as they are more often targeted by criminals.

However, evidence from the study suggests that the risk level is potentially higher than ever under COVID-19, and that businesses are finding it harder to administer cyber security measures during the pandemic.

Key Points For Business That Have Identified Breaches or Attacks

27% of these businesses and 23% of these charities experience such attacks at least once a week. The most common by far are phishing attacks (83% and 79% respectively), followed by impersonation (27% and 23%).
A sizeable number of these organisations report that costs are substantial.
21% and 18% respectively of businesses and charities end up losing money, data or other assets.
35% of businesses and 40% of charities report being negatively impacted e.g. because they require new post-breach measures, have staff time diverted or suffer wider business disruption.
The mean cost of all the cyber security breaches these businesses have experienced in the past 12 months is estimated to be £8,460. For medium and large firms combined, this average cost is £13,400.

77% of businesses say cyber security is a high priority for their directors or senior managers, while 68% of charities say this of their trustees.

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