Stupidest Spam of the Week The CIA

An email claims to be from Kimberly Grant of the CIA in America.

She says she has been working on a huge international case and my name has come up. For a small fee ($10,000 in Bitcoin) she can guarantee to keep my name out of public documents.

Hhmm! Is the CIA so short of cash that it has to blackmail citizens or is this just one rogue spy?

Neither – it’s a pathetic scammer with a fantasy story.

She tells me that Case #29786514 is part of a large international operation set to arrest more than 2000 individuals suspected in 27 countries.

The data which could be used to acquire your personal information:

– Your ISP web browsing history,

– DNS queries history and connection logs,

– Online chat-room logs,

– Social media activity log.

She says she has contacted me as she realises I am a wealthy person and would not want my name in public.

She’s wrong about the wealth but then she doesn’t even know my name.

If I pay the money then she promises, upon confirmation of the money transfer, to take care of all the relevant files. She also tells me not to try to contact her – just to pay the money.

She is only a spy in her own fantasy.

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August 14, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

An email tells us that one of our radio station email addresses expires today and we need to reset the password and the message says it’s from the radio station support department. In fact, the email is from fuitvjpx1a7.co.jp which obviously a randomly generated email address nothing to do with the radio station. Plus, it’s actually a dead email address they targeted.

Next is a long email advertising new ergonomic chairs that are ideal for our office – so it says. There are a lot of these type of emails recently claiming to be selling some common product for offices, but there are no company details, they have no idea who we are and the sender’s email address isn’t a company address but a random one e.g. atumedyhiuifmaetyx @… whereas the sender claims to be Harley Atwell George. Pathetic.

The fake bank account messages continue as always. This one uses the Natwest logo and a section copied from a real NatWest email. ‘Dear Valued Customer’ – No, NatWest knows their customer’s names unlike the scammers sending these messages to random people in the hope they have a NatWest account. So, I wont be verifying my account as the message demands I do.

An email from Pamela McDonnell asks whether we would like to jump on a quick call in the morning to discuss their Beauty and Cosmetics shops list. Certainly there are worse things to waste time on, but really? – sending an email like that to huge numbers of people in the hope of finding the very tiny percentage who might possibly be interested. Dreadful time waster.

An email titled ‘Better Roof Measurements’ is an unusual one. The only reason to need exact measurements of a roof is if you intend to replace it and then your builder should make the measurements they need. Plus, such measurements are in the house deeds. So, is there a market for such services? Roofez seem to think it’s a common activity and charge $40 to give what they claim to be exact measurements of your roof. That’s just weird, but then the sender’s email address doesn’t match the supposed company name so perhaps it’s all just made up.

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August 13, 2021

Macs Bait Store

http://macsbaitstore.com/

“Welcome to Mac’s Bait Store – Where we keep them wriggling like a worm on a hook…”

They say the website is dedicated to annoying, confusing, confounding, teasing, and aggravating 419 scammers who prey on the innocent because they are too stupid and lazy to get a real job.

That is perhaps a harsh attitude towards scammers but these people do steal from anyone, including the most vulnerable with no thought as to the misery they cause.

Mac says:

Does someone you never met and do not know want to give you millions of dollars?
Did you win a lottery that you never entered?
Did someone you just met on the Personals ask you for money?
Did you receive an offer that seems too good to be true?

These are all scams – these people want to steal your hard earned money!

Mac believes that reporting scams to the authorities maybe but that you can choose to have some fun with the scammers and waste their time.

Scambaiting

This typically means responding to a scam email and pretending that you are interested in what they are offering, and posing as a potential victim.

The key reason for this is to waste the scammers time so they cannot move on to their next victim.

It can also be fun. Lots of information and stories at Mac’s Bait Store about successful scambaiters.

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

August 12, 2021

Insanely Rich Cryptocurrency Trading

Cryptocurrency scams usually offer riches through buying the currency and the sales pitch is about how many people are Bitcoin millionaires and the supposed continuous rise in value of all cryptocurrencies.

This is lies of course as the price of the various cryptocurrencies rises and falls dramatically and many people have lost large amounts of money. Though it is true that there are many who have made millions from Bitcoins in particular.

This latest scam offers a supposedly risk free way to invest in cryptocurrency , not by buying it but by using a new automated system that invests money for you and makes at least £1,270 per day profit for you, for 20 minutes of work.

That would be great if true, but it’s lies of course.

Currency trading in any form is gambling and there is no guaranteed way to win.

Plus, automated systems are terrible at guessing whether a commodity will rise or fall in value, as so much of the value depends on human judgement of the future.

Guaranteed profits – but only for the scammers.

Never trust a get rich scheme that claims to be 100% successful.

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August 9, 2021

Office Supplies Scams

Office supplies is big business and virtually every business needs to buy such supplies, so a lot of scammers target this. The most common such scams are:

Fake Invoices

You might get an invoice that appears genuine and is for a modest amount of money but is entirely fake. The scammer relies on people being too busy to check thoroughly to ensure every invoice is correct.

Or you get a genuine invoice, but the costs have been inflated – extra items charged that weren’t delivered or just higher prices for some items.

To make the invoice look genuine, these scammers often phone the company and ask who deals with invoices then use that name on the fake invoice.

Sometimes, the scammers send the merchandise and then the fake invoice weeks later so the company has to go to the trouble of trying to return the goods and prove they didn’t order them and it’s possible the company will have started using the supplies so is unable to return them in good condition.

2. Fake Rep

A scammer checks who your regular suppliers are (a simple fake sales call will usually get that information) and then calls pretending to be a new representative of one of those suppliers. This leads in time to fake invoices and potentially direct payments before the company realise they are not dealing with the correct company.

If a specific price is asked for, the scammer will give a quote that sounds reasonable for the entire quantity being ordered but is actually the price for a single unit of that supply. The difference only becomes apparent after the order has been delivered and the invoice received.

They may claim that they are sending you a promotional catalogue, but they’re really trying to get personal information to bill you for unnecessary services and supplies.

3. The False Gift

The office worker receives what appear to be a free gift – generally low value items such as pens, calendars, coffee mugs etc. Some time later invoices at very inflated prices arrive and specify the deliveries. This causes problems as the company has received the items but never authorised purchases and may end up paying to get rid of the problem.

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

Scambaiting

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