Facebook Share Post Scam

Since social media began, people have been having fun sharing posts and tweets etc. that they like or find useful.

That’s the idea, but many people are very keen to have their posts shared by as many people as possible and want to bypass the tricky problem of actually finding something interesting to post in the first place.

Currently, many scammers resort to fake quizzes and offers.

They may claim that if you repost for them, you will get free entry in a million dollar give-away or for every 100 reposts you will get a $10 voucher off shopping at Walmart or for every ten people who read your repost means you get $5 or anything along these lines.

Facebook’s Terms and Conditions make it clear that it is wrong to use inducements to make people repost your content.

The same applies to people trying to win ‘friends’ by such cheating or supposedly rewarding positive comments added.

Facebook along with the rest of the users want to see posts that people like or find useful or educational rather than junk that has been reposted at a price.

There are numerous people who will arrange for large scale reposting, friend requests etc. for payment.

This is all wrong, but for many the game is to beat the system rather than playing fair.

Never use such tricks or you may be banned by Facebook.

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

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Stupidest Spam of the Week St Ethelberga

St. Ethelberga was a medieval church in Bishopsgate, central London but it was damaged by an IRA bomb in 1993.

It was rebuilt and restored and re-opened as The Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

Some scammers are using the name of St. Ethelberga’s for their criminal activities, trying to cash in on the reputation for integrity.

The emails claim to be from St. Ethelberga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace and even give a website address which is correct for the centre.

However the email address of the sender and the separate email address to reply to are both Gmail addresses – not St. Ethelberga’s.

The scam is the basic 419 Advance Fee scam with a common twist in that the sender is claiming that you have not been sent the correct compensation for having been scammed previously.

“we have decided to step into the process of your fund transfer to enable your funds to be transferred within the soonest possible time without needing to pay all the huge sums of monies that are being demanded from you by the remitting bank, you are to get back to us immediately.”

It doesn’t say how much money I am owed but I have to reply with my full details including copy of identification document etc.

Just a typical scammer looking for confidential details to sell to identity thieves.

Do not trust such messages, even if they appear to be from a well known organisation.

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Money Mail Fightback

The Daily Mail newspaper Money Mail department (also called the Consumer Champion) does a lot of good helping people to get their money back after being defrauded.

They claim that during 2020 they have managed to ‘claw back’ more than a million pounds for their readers, including for one victim of an investment scam who was conned out of £190,000.

That total also includes many women who realised their state pension was being underpaid.

The newspaper does a great job in championing people trapped by bureaucracy, badly trained customer service staff, insurance companies that stick rigidly to the small print, organisations that don’t care and retailers who wont accept faulty goods back.

If you’ve been conned in some way or let down by organisations then possibly Money Mail can help, however they have limited resources and can only take on a limited number of cases compared to the large numbers of people who do get conned in some way.

One of their key tasks is actually advising people on how to make a complaint and to make it politely and with full information as often, people’s response to aggressive complaining is to be aggressive back which is not what you want.

It is important to follow the rules on making complaints of any kind as you are far more likely to get a good response.

The Money Mail pages online are a useful resource for advice, warnings and also recommendations such as deals of the week.

Well done Money Mail.

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

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Coronavirus Vaccine Payment Scam

The Coronavirus vaccine is being rolled out across the United Kingdom and many other countries and it will save a lot of lives.

Some scammers see this as an opportunity to take advantage of people’s fear, to steal from them.

The most common scam is where they contact people and offer the vaccine but take a payment in cash or by card. Once they have your card details, they may empty your account.

In the UK, all Covid-19 vaccinations are carried out by the NHS and there is never any charge for this. Even if the premises is a private company e.g. ASDA supermarket pharmacy – there is no charge.

You may be contacted by the NHS, your employer, a GP surgery or pharmacy local to you, to receive your vaccine. 

– The NHS will never ask you for your bank account or card details.

– NHS staff do not arrive on your doorstep offering vaccines for payment.

– The NHS do not ask people to prove their identity by means of driving licence, passport etc.

Take care.

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

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Zeus Malware

Zeus Virus or Zeus Trojan malware (also called Zbot) is a form of malicious software that targets computers running Microsoft Windows, although some versions have been created for other devices and operating systems. It is most commonly used for trying to steal financial data.

It was first detected in 2007 and has infected millions of computers across the world.

The creator of Zeus malware published source code in 2011, which made it possible for many other criminals to create their own versions.

How Zeus Works

Step1. It creates a botnet – this is a network of infected computers that are secretly controlled by a Zeus command server.

Step 2.  The controlled computers then send information to the command server which can collate that for the criminals or can carry out various types of attacks on those computers.

Step 3. Zeus can also steal banking credentials from the machines it infects, by means of keylogging and other methods.

Zeus infects computers typically be means of

  1. Spam emails
  2. Social media campaigns
  3. Drive-by website downloads

How to Protect Against Zeus Malware

The means of protection are basically the same as against malware generally, including:

  • Up to date anti-virus and anti-malware
  • Regular backups of all important information and data
  • Use of strong passwords
  • All software updated as specified by the supplier
  • Consider the use of two factor authentication where appropriate

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

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