A kind reader woke us up this morning with a missive that made my blood boil: another scam iOS maker was, in an insult to the great Mojang itself, selling a scam version of Minecraft. The company, Installous is selling something called Minecraft Mobile, a $2.99 app that actually produces a bunch of lines on the screen that flock around finger taps. → Read More
Update: Apple has removed the offending apps, the company told me via email. Holiday downloaders are now safe from this attempted scam.
A couple of new apps that just hit the iOS App Store ahead of the annual App Store holiday freeze are not what they appear to be. Masquerading as official Halo 4 ports for Apple’s mobile devices, these are actually a pretty lame racing game and an adequate… → Read More
“Nicodemus Jones” was a big fan of bestselling crime author RJ Ellory. His five-star Amazon reviews of Ellory’s books were littered with phrases like “modern masterpiece”, “will touch your soul”, “a magnificent book.” He was less kind to Mark Billingham and Stuart MacBride, both of whom were victims of one-star reviews by “Jones.” Last week, author Jeremy Duns found out why: “Jones” was actually… → Read More
It’s rare to see a scam play out in real time and to watch a potential victim turn the tables on the offender. After receiving an invoice from an unknown company for services he did not pay for, Ken from group blog Popehat (who prefers to remain anonymous) did a little digging. He found that the scammers were repeat offenders and that their paper trail, when properly researched, was a mile… → Read More
I’ve always considered eBay a haven for flim-flam artists, con-men, and fools but this takes the cake. The old scam – basically a fine-print ruse where you’re actually selling a link or a box or something while making it look like you’re selling the real thing – is still alive and well on eBay but now it’s taken a decidedly more commercial turn. These new… → Read More
Matt invited us to a Facebook party last week, something along the lines of “CLICK HERE FOR A FREE IPAD~!” Now, I knew this was malware-related because I know Matt knows I wouldn’t want an iPad—free or otherwise. Clearly something smelled fishy here. The point is, even so-called techies can be the victim of malware. There’s a new scam going around Facebook right now that, while not malicious… → Read More
From now on, any story about “hackers” or “hacking” will be accompanied by a link to the song “Halcyon And On And On,” as made famous by the movie Hackers. With that in mind: who made more money last year, Wall Street fat-cats or hackers? The U.S. FDIC says that online scams cost businesses $25 million last year. These scams include phishing and other associated nonsense, which you really ought to… → Read More
I think I’m getting to the point that, instead of feeling bad for people who fall victim to phishing scheme, or any other online nonsense, I’m actually like, “You know what? Serves you right.” There’s a new scam going around that exploits Internet Explorer (in Windows XP, mostly), and it works by tricking users into pressing the F1 key at a certain time. Once the key is pressed, any ol’ code a… → Read More
Video Professor continues to be angry that I called them a scam in my original Scamville post. They’ve gotten nowhere reaching out to me directly (more on that below), so now they’ve tried complaining to the Washington Post, which has syndicated our content since 2008. The Washington Post stood firm beside us today and kept our original post as written. Good for them.
Essentially Video Professor… → Read More
Truth be told, I have no idea why I’m about to write this post, other than the fact that it’s in my little writing queue. You can’t fight City Hall. Here’s the deal: the Federal Government of the United States spent a bunch of money investigating various online marketing scams. How they work, what makes people fall for them, etc. Consumers lost some $1.4 billion to such scams. → Read More
Notice less phishing e-mail lately? There’s a reason, hot shot: the volume of phishing e-mail has dropped from 0.79 percent of all e-mail sent to 0.49 percent. If we’re looking at just “bad” e-mail, though, phishing scams still make up the bulk: 86.9 percent of “bad” e-mail was phishing-related this month. That’s down six percent from July. → Read More
Apparently it’s not okay to send West Virginia’s governor five free laptops. What a world! Governor Joe Manchin’s office got a nice four-pack of Compaq laptops earlier this month, followed a week later by a fifth machine from HP. The only problem was that nobody in his office ordered them or paid for them. → Read More
Oh, dear. Imagine you’re minding your own business at the local Wal-Mart when a man approaches you. “Hey, buddy, want a brand new TV?” “Sure,” you reply, “why not?” The man pops open his boot, shows off what looks to be a TV… → Read More
Well, now I’m not shopping at CircuitCity.com or Best Buy. Seriously. The new CircuitCity.com launched under new management last week we found the following statement within the return policy section.
Some manufacturers have implemented returns restrictions that prevent CircuitCity.com from being able to accept returns or offer exchanges, replacements or credits on their products for any reason. → Read More
Buying a plasma TV can be so frustrating. First, you as the informed consumer, know that plamsa TVs generally produce a superior picture verse LCDs but sometimes TV salesmen don’t agree. That being said, this guy managed to buy a plasma from Sears and turned down the $300 three-year service plan only to have the company call him a few days later to pitch the plan again. This time though, the rep… → Read More
According to the FTC, over a million – a million! – people have been tricked “into buying computer security products such as WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus,” through a tactic commonly known as scareware. Yes, those little boxes that pop up on just about every single non-technical computer user’s computer telling them that their computer might be… → Read More
Get this. You know how when you have to confirm your bank account with, say, Paypal or Google Checkout or any number of online services that want to make sure the bank account that they’re going to be depositing money into belongs to you? So you’ll generally receive two small deposits — pennies each — that you’ll have to confirm, right? Well some guy used an automated… → Read More
Careful with that next e-mail you get from the iTunes music store — it might be a ruse. A cunning attempt to trick you, as it were. According to Computerworld, People began receiving spammed messages yesterday telling them that they must correct a problem with their iTunes account, said Andrew Lochart, an executive at e-mail security vendor Proofpoint Inc. A link in the spam leads to a site… → Read More
Xziex is a company that makes water out of air. That’s right: no longer do you need to, ummm… do stuff with water… ummm… like get water from rivers and lakes and… ummm? Like Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen you can build a moisture farm and ummm…. Well, basically this is some sort of fascinating idea that pulls water out of the air. While most of us would call this a… → Read More
Disappointed because you didn’t pre-order GTA IV and now can’t play it like everyone else? Even if that’s the case, don’t fall victim to e-mail hoaxes that, according to spam filtering house ClearMyMail, have accounted for more than 50 percent of all spam messages in the past day. Repeated for emphasis, because italics alone do not convey the gravity of the situation: GTA… → Read More
I am more than willing to suspend my disbelief in all manner of situations. I, for example, still believe that my family and wife love me and that the world is not colluding to to kill me. I believe that what I am writing now matters, to some degree, and that it will help you in your day-to-day existence. I also believe that I will eventually return to my original college weight of 175 through… → Read More
Remember the Craigslist scam in Southern Oregon where an unknown person or persons posted asking people to come clear out a house? Well, it was actually supposed to be a way to cover the tracks of two bumbling burglars. Amber and Brandon Herbert originally broke into the property’s garage and as a way to keep from getting caught a post of the Craig’s list ad encouraging folks to come… → Read More
Again with the phishing! The FBI is warning of “new” attacks, called vishing, that are encouraging email recipients to call toll-free numbers which ultimately lead down a VoIP hole to an south Asian sweatshop where a young man will answer and read a real-sounding script asking for PINs, SSNs, and your tumescent girth. Urban legend or no, it’s something to warn your parents about. → Read More
Wow. Nothing better than seeing a scammer get scammed. There have been some pretty ingenious scambaiting techniques throughout the ages, but getting a scammer to rewrite all 293 pages of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by hand has got to be in the top ten of all time. Kudos to the 419 Eater web site for all the great trickery. Harry Potter & The Well of Scammers [419 Eater] via… → Read More
I hate it when people call or chat with me on Skype randomly. I know some people use this opportunity to share stories of their native lands and to brush up on their English, but I use it as opportunity to share pictures of the Lemon Party (don’t search for it. Trust me.) This, however, is a wonderful new method of getting attention by spamming thousands of accounts with fake spyware links… → Read More
Nigerian company LANCOR is suing the OLPC project for infringing on their Nigerian keyboard design, causing us to wonder if some sort of 419 spamming virus hasn’t infiltrated the Nigerian judicial system, rendering completely useless. The suit holds that the OLPC uses extra keys to allow users to type using the Nigerian alphabet. While this is clearly a case of insane people suing a charity… → Read More
I have lost more than one cellphone to water damage. I once actually sent a phone of mine through the wash on accident. That was embarrassing. Normally, though, one could take the phone into their carrier’s store and feign ignorance. “It just stopped working, I dunno?” and walk out with a replacement. Don’t try this with the iPhone. The iPhone, as well as the iPod touch… → Read More
I had a moment to mull over this “30-year laptop battery story” and I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that it’s a pump and dump scheme of nefarious proportions. Penny stock companies that promise “unlimited energy” and “cures for cancer” often try to build a case for their stock by getting a piece in the legitimate media. As this is getting harder… → Read More
There’s a great article over on dslreports.com about the innerworkings of a Romanian eBay scamming operation and how one victim got his revenge. A handful of resourceful eBay users were able to track down the ringleader and warn would-be victims to stay away from the phony auctions. One Russian user wasn’t so lucky, however, and ended up getting bilked out of $2,000 — his… → Read More
The Consumerist and Cory Doctorow both wrote a bit on AT&T’s secret $10 DSL (“Downstream speeds up to 768Kbps/Upstream speeds up to 128Kbps”) which offers bare bones access because of an FCC loophole they couldn’t close when the bought BellSouth. You have to sign up for a full year, though. That’s all well and good, but Cory suggests avoiding the service &mdash… → Read More
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