Stupidest Spam of the Week Mad Scientist

Many scammers offer magical remedies for dementia, Alzheimer’s and similar long term afflictions.

This latest scammer is greedy as she offers cures for dementia, Alzheimer’s, tinnitus, hearing loss and all other brain problems in one.

She claims that a mad scientist is being sued by Big Pharma for curing Alzheimer’s.

If someone genuinely had such a cure why would you call them mad? Plus, court cases create publicity which presumably she thinks the pharmaceuticals companies don’t want.

She says that over 7,000 people have had their brain diseases eradicated and there’s a video to click to see the proof.

As usual (with these scam stories), lawyers are trying to get this information blocked so you have to view it soon.

It is sad that people could possibly believe such rubbish, but criminals will continue to peddle this drivel until they are caught.

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The Scam Survivors Website

https://scamsurvivors.com

The website says it exists because: Scammers will take your money with no cares about the lives it ruins.  People are nothing but a money amount to them – a living, breathing ATM machine.

The site is run by volunteers and has three goals:

  1. To make scammers’ lives harder by exposing their details and scripts to search engines.
  2. Educating the public, thus removing scammers’ sources of income as scams will continue as long as there are victims.
  3. Helping people to see that, even after being scammed, they CAN move forward and things DO get better.

They cover a wide range of scams including:- 419, fund transfer, tax refund, beneficiary/inheritance/next of kin, hitman, parcel, gold/diamond, charity, love/romance/catfish, dying widow/widower, military, lottery, secret shopper/work from home, business/investment/supply invitation, loan, ATM card, tax refund, recovery/compensation, conference, Craigslist, webcam blackmail, phishing, grandchild/friend in distress and car wrap.

The Scam Survivors staff say they offer non-judgmental help and advice for those scammed online.

For many people who have been scammed, the psychological effects are worse than the monetary loss.

There is an active forum with nearly 200,000  posts.

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Bitcoin Scams

Bitcoin attracts a huge number of scammers offering guaranteed returns, fake accounts, Bitcoin machines, AI based investments etc. As with many scams, they try to tap into people’s greed.

Common Bitcoin Scams

  1. Social Media

Scammers create fake social media accounts and use them to entice people to fall for various scams or sometimes they buy stolen social media accounts and invite everyone on the real owners contact list to click a link to something supposedly wonderful or funny etc. but it links to a scam site.

This is most commonly on Twitter but also occurs on the other social media networks.

2. Fake Currency Exchanges

The scammers offer membership of a supposed cybercurrency exchange where you can buy and sell Bitcoins and other cyber currencies at low margins.

Never sign up for an account without being sure it is real. Some of these scammers setup what appears to be an exchange but it’s not.

3. Fake Currency Wallets

You can store your cyber currency in digital wallets and some scammers have created fake wallets. Some have even created USB keys branded to look like a digital wallet but loaded with malware to steal yaccess top your cyber currency which the criminals can then steal.

4. Fake APPS

Scammers have created all sorts of fake APPS related to cyber currencies and some even managed to get them available on the Google and APPLE stores.

5. Celebrity Giveaways

The scammers impersonate a celebrity and announce that they’re giving away a lot of cryptocurrency for free, as long as you send them some cryptocurrency first.

The scammers will often promise to send back double what you send them. Although especially prominent on Twitter, this scam has also appeared on platforms including YouTube, where scammers will impersonate a celebrity in a video or livestream.

6. Fake Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)

These are the cyber currency equivalent of new company offerings of shares. What better than convince people there is a new cyber currency coming to market and they must get a share of the no doubt enormous gains to be made as happened in the early days of Bitcoin. Many of these fake offerings are made to sound very similar to Bitcoin.

7. Bitcoin Mining

The process of creating new Bitcoins is called Bitcoin mining and it’s a process that requires vast amounts of computing power. Some scammers offer to let you on a deal with Bitcoin mining setups. These are always a bad idea as most mining nowadays is carried out by criminals.

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

 

 

 

 

Compensation for a Data Breach

A data breach is where confidential information is copied and either released in public e.g.  on a web site or is stolen by criminals for identity theft, online blackmail or similar.

Many well-known organisations have suffered from data breaches, revealing confidential information such as login and password, payment card details, date of birth etc. of their customers

When this happens, the company has a legal obligation to inform the authorities and all users who may be affected by this.

If your data is lost and it causes you financial damage or distress, you may be able to make a claim for compensation from the organisation that was breached.

The criteria for a compensation claim for a data breach include:

  1. Financial losses.
  3. Loss of privacy.

The GDPR gives you a right to claim compensation from an organisation if you have suffered damage as a result of it breaking data protection law. This includes both financial loss and other types of loss.

The Citizens Advice Bureau provides information on taking legal action in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

To Complain and Claim Compensation

  1. Complain to the company that lost your data

Explain any problems you believe have been caused by the data breach and include any distress you have suffered. It’s also useful to specify what compensation you want

  1. Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

You can take your issues with how the organisation dealt with your confidential information to the |Information Commissioner but it’s better for this to be after you have given the company a chance to review your claim first.

  1. Use the Small Claims Court

This is a cheap and simple process if you cannot reach agreement with the company.

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

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Facebook Messenger Update Scam

This scam targets people who use Facebook Messenger.

Adverts by text or email or on Facebook Messenger tell you that you must update to the latest version of the Messenger APP for security reasons.

There is a link to click to update and this leads to a page that looks like Facebook and asks for your login and password.

If you provide those details then they are forwarded to the scammer.

The page may then claim your APP has been updated or ask for bank details to verify who you are.

This scam started in mid 2020 but has been growing ever since. The criminals involved have created thousands of fake Facebook profiles to aid this scam.

Some versions of the adverts offer incentives to get people to click the link such as a monetary reward or cryptocurrency.

Never click on such links in unsolicited emails – especially shortened links where you cannot see what website the link would take you to.

If you want to check if you have the latest genuine version of Messenger then go to your APP store which will show you the latest and whether you need to update.

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

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