Tag: fake

May 24, 2018

Fake Lead Generation

There are endless companies offering to send out millions of emails to sell your products. Some are genuine businesses that take care over their mailing lists but many are just spammers who buy mailing lists from anyone and send out any rubbish they are paid to.

There is also a different approach where you don’t pay for the number of emails sent out but for the number of leads generated from the emails.

Generating leads means that someone (or a computer) has clicked on a link or returned an email in order to show further interest in whatever is being promoted.

This sounds like a better option for the business buying the service and in some cases it is.

But there are many unscrupulous people who when offered a payment for each lead generated, manage to create huge numbers of supposed leads, but they may be very poor quality leads. “Poor quality” in this case means people are being tricked into clicking or replying to something nothing to do with the item being promoted so the chance of them buying is very slim.

They are a variety of ways to do this, including:-

Offering entry to a competition with big prizes
Fake retail vouchers e.g. 100 pounds Marks and Spencer voucher for answering 3 questions
Massive supposed discounts
Clickbait i.e. the link is labelled with something to catch the eye that may be completely irrelevant to the actual link e.g. Revealed: Meghan Markel’s Secret Past

The easiest approach for the unscrupulous is to simply invent supposed leads or buy spam mailing lists and claim they have responded.

Protect your business – do not buy leads unless you are absolutely sure it is the best approach and the business you are buying from is ethical and can get the results you want the way you want.

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

July 28, 2016

Beware of LinkedIn Job Offers

LinkedIn is a good site for job adverts but it unfortunately attracts the attentions of scammers who put fake job adverts on the LinkedIn service.

Sometimes they send out emails that look to be from LinkedIn containing job adverts. But they link to bogus sites designed to gather your identity information.

Also, you may receive an unexpected contact from a LinkedIn member offering a relevant job opportunity.

In this case, the scammer will have set up a phony profile and spammed potential victims, some of whom accept the contact request.

The details of the job offer are discussed, but what the scammer wants is your identity information and sometimes they ask for a fee for their ‘service’ .

It’s not normal practice to pay for a job opportunity, as the recruiters make their money from their clients so anyone asking for money should be a red flag warning to you.

Do be wary about accepting new contacts and check out their profile before accepting

Also, be wary if profiles contain only limited details of the person who’s contacting you, if there are misspellings or poor grammar, or if the person claims to live in Africa or the Middle East.

Do not give out confidential information to a prospective employer unless you have properly checked them (do a Google search on their name and business and look for reviews).

If you believe you have a phony in your contacts, you can block them via your LinkedIn account. You should also let LinkedIn know.

[source scambusters,org]

July 21, 2016

Unrequested Documents

At the radio station, we have received a flood of scam emails supposedly containing a document we requested.

These are clearly fake but the fact there have been so many with just minor differences between them makes it all the more obvious.

For example.

Email from Terri Jennings titled Financial Report

The content says

“Hello, I’ve attached the financial report you requested

Regards, Terri Jennings, Operations Director”

This appears to be from a company email address but that may be fake.

The point of the email is to get you to open the supposed financial report which is a zip file and hence may contain malware such as a virus or Trojan.

Other versions the same day include Another financial report but from an Abraham Bishop key account manager

And an invoice from Corrinne Briggs of the Finance department.

Also one where the content says “Hello Smith, I’m attaching the invoice you requested”

These are all rubbish and it is dangerous to open documents where you don’t know the sender and didn’t expect the document.

July 7, 2016

Bogus Hotel Bookings

Up to one in every 16 online room bookings is a fake, according to official figures.

The Federal Trade Commission says travellers have arrived at hotels only to learn there’s no record of their reservation, the hotel is fully booked, or they have to pay more for the only upgraded room available.

How does this happen?

You type in the name of a hotel and then click on the first result on Google. However this first result may be a scam website that looks like the real hotel site and once you enter your details – the money will disappear and you may believe you have a room booked, but in fact haven’t and you only find that out when you arrive at the hotel.

In other cases, the bogus sites actually pose as online travel agents, again using genuine logos and photos.

And in at least one reported case, a fake site had a “contact now” button that connected victims with a fully-staffed, bogus call centre.

Just because a webpage looks like the official site of your favourite hotel chain doesn’t necessarily mean it is. Before you reserve a room for your next out-of-town meeting or family vacation, make sure you know who’s at the other end of that BOOK NOW button.

Book directly through a hotel chain using the toll-free number or web address on your rewards card or in print ads.

Carry a printed copy (or an easily accessible smartphone copy) of any email confirmation you receive after making your booking.

How to Book Safely

Check that the website address matches what you expect (you wont get a legitimate booking for Hilton hotels at fredsplumbing333.com for example)
Book directly if possible
Before setting out on your journey, call the hotel (using a number you know to be genuine) to confirm they’re expecting you.

[source: scambusters.org]

June 16, 2016

Fake Watches Are Big Business

Over the past few weeks, Brooklands Radio station has received hundreds of emails trying to sell fake watches. These are harmless as they are so obvious.

But it is odd that specific scams and spams appear and become very common very quickly then disappear for a period only to reappear in a different guise later on. This is a very common one currently.

Marketing people tell you to vary your sales pitch and try different versions to see what works and these scammers seem to have read those Marketing books.

We received similar emails selling fake watches but with a variety of titles – some nothing to do with watches – just something to make the recipient open the email message.

Titles such as

Impress your co-workers with a fine new watch

Or Rolex doesn’t want you to see our prices

Or Economy uncertain – copy watches are the way to go

Or Diamonds at a steal

Or Green dial submariner at a steal

Or No-one will believe its fake

Or Cheapest luxury items

Or Start off with a new hobby

Or Its dream time for those who cannot afford

Selling fake watches is of course illegal even if you tell people the watches are copies or fakes it’s but presumably big business based on the number of emails being sent out about the watches. Remember that such sales may fund more serious illegal activities.

May 26, 2016

Don’t Buy a Worthless Degree

The email title is “Make it impossible for them to say no – get that degree”.

It goes on about losing out on jobs because you don’t have the right paperwork.

Then comes the pitch

“Get any degree in 5 weeks with our program. Best diplomas in every field of knowledge are now available for your order”.

And they do mean any – Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate degrees in any subject.

Then it says “Anyone with professional experience can get these degrees and there are no exams, no study required and no classes to attend”

Is such a degree going to be worth anything – No! Of course not.

It is sad that people feel they can cheat the system like this –that is the people offering these worthless degrees and no doubt some people will take up the offer with maybe good intentions or maybe just laziness.

Interestingly, there is no website to view – you have to phone their answer phone and leave details and apparently they will get back to you.

This is all a con. Worthwhile degrees take a lot of time and hard work to attain. Something so easily attained has no value.