The Blessing Loom Money System

This is an old scam that comes up in new forms every so often.

It is generally known as “The Blessing Loom”, but also sometimes as “The Infinity Loom” or “Giving Circle”.

The basic idea is very simple.

The originators recruit new members who pay an entry fee and then recruit further members to pay in. Meanwhile the originators take these entry fees and can back out of the scheme whenever they want to.

It is a form of Ponzi scheme (a.k.a. Pyramid scheme) where new members pay earlier members and the cycle of recruitment continues.

Eventually the scam goes away, only to resurface at some later date.

In 2020, the state of Utah had significant problems with The Blessing Loom as large numbers of people fell for the scam and lost a lot of money. The main version in circulation charged women $100 to join and had the promise of an $800 pay-out.

The picture of an octagon at the top shows 8 names. The idea is that you pay to get one spot and in time your name moves into the middle then all 8 people sent you the money. But, as always with these schemes a few make money and everyone else loses. You cannot make money appear from nowhere except by conning people.

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

Fightback Ninja Signature

Stupidest Spam of the Week Robot Cleaner

Robot vacuum cleaners are a common target for scammers.

Usually they pick some little known robot cleaner, copy photos, add some text and send out emails by the million advertising the cleaner.

Sometimes this is just trying to sell rubbish products to people at high prices with the intention of making fast money and disappearing.

Other times, there is no product – just scammers copying other scammers but not even bothering with a product.

This latest set of emails sent out by the million has photos of a weird looking cleaner but it is the description that marks it plainly as a scam.

e.g.

“Soft cotton water absorbent cloth water absorbent cloth”

“Bottom cleaning experts”

“Anti-lock design”

“Let your life full of health”

“Intelligent to stop drop sensing”

But clearly not intelligent enough to write a description that makes any sense.

The message also lists prices which start at 129 for one but doesn’t say what currency the prices are.

Perhaps it’s 129 pennies, but probably not.

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

Fightback Ninja Signature

The Banking Protocol Scheme

Under the Banking Protocol scheme, branch staff are trained to detect the warning signs that someone is being scammed and make an emergency call to the police. Police will then visit the branch to investigate the suspected fraud and arrest any suspects still on the scene.

The scheme has now prevented £116 million in scams since it was introduced three years ago.

The Banking Protocol allows bank branch staff to contact police if they suspect a customer is in the process of being scammed, with police making an immediate priority response to the branch. This can prevent customers from falling victim to fraud, while allowing police to catch the fraudsters in the act.

Over 100 suspected fraudsters were arrested through the initiative in the first half of this year. These range from rogue traders who demand cash for unnecessary work on people’s property, to courier scam fraudsters who persuade their victims take out a large sum of cash and hand it over to someone posing as a courier.

Customers would first be asked by the bank to visit their local branch to complete the transaction, enabling branch staff to carry out additional checks and use the Banking Protocol if necessary. However, if the customer is unable to visit their bank branch, for example if they are vulnerable or have a disability, staff would be able to directly alert the local police who will make a visit to the customer’s home and assess whether they have fallen victim to a scam.

These scams will only stop when the banks make it too difficult for them to succeed.

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

Fightback Ninja Signature

More Internet Domain Names

Brooklands Radio is obviously a radio station and the Internet domain “.radio” is becoming more popular.

In theory we could buy the domain name BrooklandsRadio.radio or Brooklands.radio or something similar if we wanted to.

“.radio” is an example of a domain name suffix or top level domain as they are called.

Many of these such as .com or .co.uk can be bought by anyone for maybe £5 – £20 per year.

And some are incredibly valuable such as Google.com or Microsoft.com or bbc.co.uk.

Some have protected registrations which means you can only own the domain if it is relevant to your business.  “.radio” is protected so only radio stations and business in the field of radio can buy such a domain name.

Why is there a need to protect domains? There are unfortunately a lot of people (claim jumpers) who buy domain names they think will be valuable then try to sell them at a profit to someone who needs that one.

If .radio was not protected then someone could buy up the domain bbc.radio for example and then sell it at an extortionate price to the BBC if they wanted it.  This can prevent people getting the domain names that they should have for their business.

There are new Internet domain extensions created periodically and some of the more interesting names are: domains are

.charity.com

.theatre.com

.rugby.com

.smile.com

.motorcycles.com

.rsvp .com

.dad .com

.kid.com

.seek.com

And so on.

There’s a world of new domain names to choose from. But most businesses still use .com as it’s so well known.

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

Fightback Ninja Signature