Stupidest Spam of the Week Trading Oil

The email claims to be from something like “The beginners guide to trading in oil’.

A few of decades ago, trading in currency, company stocks etc. was almost exclusively for the professionals, but cultural changes and technology changes made these types of trading more available for private citizens.
Some made money and some lost money but over time these kinds of trading have expanded greatly and more and more people have tried their hand at beating the markets.

A recent set of emails with titles such as ‘Profits in Oil’ and ‘Make Money in Oil’ have appeared and the purpose is to convince people that some kind of trading involving oil is the new future for making tons of money from home.

Oil for salad dressing? Or for lubricating your car? Or in health remedies?

Nope – just plain oil for refining into petrol, aviation fuel etc.

Fancy buying a tanker full of oil? Nope. Neither do I.

Just a new way to attract people with promises of big money but it’s only the scammers who make money.

No thanks.

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September 4, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

“Eat This Astronaut Food for Vertigo Immunity” is a very silly title for a scam email. It shows a graphic of a brain that supposedly proves that vertigo is not a normal part of ageing. But then nobody said it was part of aging. Vertigo is a simple biological problem that is usually temporary and easily resolved or sometimes longer lasting and requires an adjustment to a way of life. There is no such thing as food to make you into an astronaut.

An email from Microsoft warns us that they tried to take payment for our Microsoft 365 family subscription and the charge failed. We have to update our payment card details or Microsoft Office will stop working. The scammer is too dumb to realise that business email addresses are not going to have family subscriptions to Microsoft.

Lots of emails from fake Chinese companies currently. A latest one is from a company with no name that claims to be in Shenzhen. The grammar and spelling contain numerous mistakes. Any genuine business email would have been properly written and spell checked so is an obvious fake.

Another email claiming to be Twitter warning us that our account has been locked. The scammer wants us to click the link to login so they can steal our login and password. But the address the message is from is “twtter” – they hope we don’t spot the misspelling. Tough luck – we did.

Boost your memory or cure Alzheimer’s or improve your brain are typical scammer targets for magic remedies. “One Trick Tonight to Boost Your Memory” is the sales pitch by a scammer calling himself Cliff Carr. It supposedly lets you build a higher memory with no effort. There is no such thing as a “higher memory” and it’s all just a scam of course.

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September 3, 2021

Bitcoin Mining Steamrollered

Bitcoin is the world’s most popular cyber currency – a currency that only exists in digital form, not in any physical sense.

There is a limited quantity of Bitcoin in the world because the means to create more is a very clever, computing intensive process that gets progressively more difficult to achieve as there are more Bitcoins. In time it will become impossible to create any more Bitcoins.

This protects the value of the Bitcoins already in existence.

Bitcoin mining is the process that allows the creation of new Bitcoins and it involves solving complex mathematical puzzles using vast amounts of computing power and in turn that means using huge amounts of electricity.

One Bitcoin is worth many thousands of dollars, so for those who can, Bitcoin mining can be profitable.

However, to make money at this usually involves using stolen computers and stolen electricity on a huge scale, so it is largely done by criminals using stolen computers running on stolen electricity.

Bitcoin mining is increasingly recognised to be an ecological disaster.

In Malaysia, Bitcoin miners stole $2 million worth of electricity siphoned from Sarawak Energy power lines, so the authorities found the culprits, seized 1,069 bitcoin mining computers, laid them out in a parking lot at police headquarters and used a steamroller to crush them. The video of this went viral.

Six people were charged in relation to the Bitcoin mining.

Good riddance to the criminals and their computers.

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

September 2, 2021

The Patriot Power Generator

There is a genuine product called a Patriot Power Generator and it’s for sale in America.

It is like it sounds but also things you don’t expect. The basic version contains:-

a power generator
Solar Panels
a 72 hour survival food kit
water filter
multi tool
reports about the power grid problems etc

there are endless spam emails trying to sell these devices.

I can’t imagine these things selling well in the UK except for camping or caravans. But in America some people have the mind-set of not trusting the government and thereby wanting to take precautions against various extreme eventualities such as a long term power outage.

Californians already know what power outages are like – thanks to the days of the Enron Corporation.

The email selling these power generators focuses on creating paranoia

“It’s 8:47 am and people are panicking in the streets…

We are now in a state of emergency.

The look of fear in your family’s eyes hits you like a punch in the guts”

There’s lots more of this stuff.

Seems a very nasty way to sell power generators.

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September 1, 2021

The Use of Online Directories

In the early days of the World Wide Web, a lot of people were setting up websites, but for people trying to use the web – the problem was how to find what they were looking for. The idea of online directories made sense as online versions of paper directories, which had been useful for a long time.

Online directories appeared by the hundred and served their purpose until the search engines became effective enough to replace them as the best way to find websites, topics, phrases, names etc. on the Internet.

Online directories can still serve a purpose as part of an online marketing strategy. For example, they are handy for businesses that do not have a website. This at least gives the business name, address and contact details findable on the Internet.

Best of the Web (https://bestoftheweb.com/) is probably the biggest of the directories still surviving. It claims to have 16 million businesses registered and is based in the U.S. but has local state versions e.g. https://botw.org/local/new-york/ and a UK version at https://botw.org.uk

Niche Directories

Having an entry in a niche directory can be useful and can get traffic to your website. These directories target a specific to an industry or an interest etc. If your website falls into such a specific niche, then consider an entry.

This can have a positive effect on your website ranking if the directory is well respected. Trade Association directories are the main niche directories.

Free or Paid Listings?

Most directories offer free listings with the option to pay to get a better listing such as with more photos, more prominence in searches etc.

But, it is difficult to justify spending a lot of money on an enhanced listing when the money could be spent on direct online advertising instead with Google, Bing, Facebook and others.

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August 30, 2021

Gmail Phishing Scams

Scammers have long used Hotmail, Yahoo, Yandex email accounts and those of many other email providers. But seldom used Gmail as it is more difficult to create Gmail accounts.

However, people trust Gmail more so the scammers are now creating and using more Gmail accounts.

The Typical Scam

You receive an email from someone you know and open it.
It contains a message and an attached file. As you know the person who sent the message you open the attached file without thinking.
When you click the attachment, you are redirected to what seems to be the Gmail sign-in page and you enter your login and password.
The result is not what you expect. You have in fact given your login and password to a scammer on a fake webpage made to look like a Gmail login screen.
The attachment that is sent isn’t actually an attachment; it is just an image of an attachment which links to a fake Gmail sign in page. When you enter your Gmail login details, it sends them to the scammer and she has instant access to your email account.
As the scammers can access your account, they can send emails that appear to be from you and hence it’s easier for them to convince people who know you to pass on confidential information. And the cycle continues with more people being targeted.

The Dangers

There’s a lot a scammer can do with your email address as most websites use it as an ID. A scammer may try your login and password on numerous websites in the hope of gaining access in your name and hence be able to buy products and you get the bills etc.

Most websites have a ‘forgotten password’ feature so if the scammer uses that they can get the ‘reset password’ message and get hence change your password. Getting access to your own account then becomes seriously difficult.

How to av

oid the Gmail Phishing scam:

Stay cautious and if not sure of an email then do not open it or any attachment
Do not click on links in emails
Beware of messages claiming to be from friends but that seem odd
Beware of any messages claiming to be from Google about your account

Do you have an opinion on this matter? Please comment in the box below.