Facebook Fake Product Testers

The idea of being paid to work at home trying out new products such as iPhones and then being allowed to keep the products free of charge, is very appealing.

It is clearly not going to happen, but large numbers of people are attracted to these sorts of adverts.

These adverts can appear on any social media platform and in the press but are mostly seen on Facebook currently.

There are Marketing companies that will on occasion pay people to try products, but this is very limited, pays very little and you don’t get to keep anything valuable. Plus, the demand for such ‘work’ is so high that the companies involved don’t need to put out mass advertising – they generally have a list of people they trust to do such testing according to the rules they set.

So, almost all such adverts (possibly above 99%) you will see asking for product testers are scams.

Typically, the scammers ask for personal information as part of registration e.g. name, address, contact numbers, date of birth, bank details etc.

They can sell this to other criminals for identity theft purposes or get you to pay a registration fee or similar small charge then keep you hanging on, while they do everything they can to make money from you.

Some of these scammers are Marketing companies who try to stay just inside the law by occasionally giving a free gift to someone.

They make the money – they win. You lose.

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

Fightback Ninja Signature

Stupidest Spam of the Week Alcoholic Weight Loss

There are vast numbers of scammers targeting weight loss.

The Western world in particular has many millions of people desperate to lose weight and the standard methods of eat less and exercise more are hard work, so is there an easier alternative?

The scammers offer magic ingredients from the Himalayas, secret mystical rituals, long lost remedies, tricks using water or other household items and more ridiculous methods.

Plus of course there are the conspiracy theorists who claim it’s the government fault for adding something to the water to make everyone fat and denying that the proposed magic remedies work and so on.

It’s all pathetic lies from greedy scammers after your money.

As is this message “More than 12,000 overweight people have been able to supercharge their metabolism by a whopping 470%…  All thanks to a popular alcoholic drink.”

The scammer claims this magic answer has been proved by 18 universities including Princeton.

It they had found any such thing, then it would have been newspaper headlines – but that hasn’t happened.

By the way, your metabolism generates heat to keep you warm., If your metabolism was supercharged by 470% you would very rapidly overheat and die. Not advised.

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 38 Degrees Campaigns

https://home.38degrees.org.uk

38 Degrees is one of the UK’s biggest campaigning communities, with millions of members.

Campaigns

16,344

Total Actions Taken

39,649,749

 

38 Degrees say they are independent of all political parties. They are driven by issues and outcomes, and judge all politicians by the same standards regardless of what party they belong to.

They don’t take money from political parties, government or big business.  The campaigns are powered by small donations from thousands of 38 Degrees members averaging about £12 per donation.

If you have an idea to make your community, or the country, a better place, Campaigns by You helps you make it a reality. 38 Degrees let everyone create petitions, organise meetings, and win campaigns on the issues close to their hearts.

38 Degrees launched in 2009 and has several million people involved in the campaigns.

Highlights

  1. They helped stop the government’s plans to sell off our ancient national forests.
  2. They stopped plans for a massive mega-dairy in Lincolnshire.
  3. They stopped Donald Trump’s plans to build a golf course at the expense of families in Menie, Scotland, who were at risk of eviction.
  4. They also helped convince the government to sign up to the EU Directive on human trafficking.
  5. They forced the 2012 Olympic sponsors not to dodge their tax.
  6. They stopped eBay from selling illegal bee-killing pesticides.
  7. They helped make sure plans to cover up investigations into MPs expenses were scrapped.

Current campaigns

38 Degrees members campaign on a variety of different issues all year round – from keeping privatisation out of our NHS, to keeping libraries open, to stopping Murdoch’s power grab of BSkyB. They say they are concerned with defending fairness, protecting rights, promoting peace, preserving the planet and deepening democracy.

  • Provide a British Sign Language interpreter for Daily Government Briefings
  • End Our National Cladding Scandal
  • Urgently commit to doing more for all healthcare staff
  • Take real action on the climate emergency

Do leave a comment on this post – click on the post title then scroll down to leave your comment.

Fightback Ninja Signature

Mystery Shopper UK

Respectable websites carry adverts for UK Mystery Shopper.

Such as a picture of the Aldi supermarket sign plus the words “Free £100 Voucher”

Sounds interesting but it’s a link to the UK Mystery Shopper website where the story is rather different.

UK Mystery Shopper describes itself as a website where consumers can access and read member’s reviews of some of the UK’s most popular restaurants and stores.

Surprisingly there are very few reviews to be read.

The sales lines follow:

  • Earn £10 per hour with our jobs.
  • Mystery Shopping Jobs Giveaway £100 in free shopping if selected.
  • Free food shopping

And so on

There is an APPLY Now button. Simply enter your details and they’ll let you know if you’ve been chosen as a mystery shopper.

But you have to pay £34 to register.

Why?

If you have to pay to register an interest in a job then it’s a scam.

What do you get for your £34?

They may send you a list of companies that supposedly use mystery shoppers.

But the companies that do this are easily found on the Internet and they pay peanuts because there are so many people who want these jobs.

Is this in effect an illegal lottery where hundreds or thousands of people pay £34 but there’s little pay out or maybe occasionally someone gets a voucher.

That’s not a good deal – it’s better to play the actual lottery.
As for getting a job through them as a mystery shopper – there’s probably more chance of winning a jackpot on the National Lottery.

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

Ransomware Attack on Scottish Environmental Agency

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency was struck by a ransomware attack on Christmas Eve 2020 that shut down its internal networks.

This affected a major part of its systems including the contact centre, many internal systems, processes and internal communications.

Some experts believed that the attack had all the hallmarks of Russian organized cybercriminals, but that wasn’t proved.

A significant amount of data was stolen which included business information, procurement information, commercial operations and employee data.

The attack used Conti malware and some 20 files of confidential data was leaked on a Conti leaks site to push SEPA into paying the ransom.

SEPA involved the Police, the Scottish government, the National Cyber Security Centre and recovery experts to assist with removing the ransomware from their systems and recovering as much of their data as could be done.

SEPA prioritised the services most needed by the public and it took weeks for them to get back to fairly normal operations.

It is believed that they did not pay any ransom.

The lesson is clear – take better cyber precautions and always have off-site backups of everything important.

If you have any experiences with this ransomware do let me know, by email.

Fightback Ninja Signature