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 long.
I won’t go into the particulars in this (it’s a five part series starting here), but Ken’s methods, including a PACER search for public records on the scammers, is a fruitful example of how to use public information to expose the ruse. Ken, who is a “current litigator and criminal defense lawyer at a small law firm in Los Angeles,” wrote me that he is using this case as an exercise to show how average folks can bring scammers out of the margins and into the light.
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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 auctions purport to sell iPads 2 but instead they ask you to give up your cellphone number for a lifetime of high-priced text messages and/or identity theft in the guise of an actual sale. → 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 right now, could well mutate into something not very nice with the flick of a switch. → 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 be smart to nowadays. → 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 hackers wants to execute can be executed. Right now, the only work-around is to not press F1 when prompted by any ol’ site. Cool. → 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 is arguing that they didn’t have the chance to respond to our post before we published, and that in general we aren’t behaving very journalistically.
One of my favorite habits of journalists is that they refuse to state an opinion. Instead, they find a source to say whatever it is they want said and then quote them. And when I say “favorite,” what I really mean is that I hate it.
The story the journalist writes has the look of objectivity but really it’s just the same as if the journalist wrote what she or he meant, directly, in the first place. A gold star journalist will then find a “balancing” quote from someone else, often the person or entity being attacked. “When did you stop beating your wife,” etc.
I prefer to just skip all that nonsense and get right to the meat of a matter. And most of my favorite bloggers do the same. None of us have the audacity to think that we are your only news source. You can find other opinions elsewhere, and judge them on their merits, too.
Video Professor was a side note in our original Scamville post, just one of a bunch of scams that were making their way into social games on Facebook and MySpace. But now we’re focused on them like a laser. → 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. Products from manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson, and others are not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON. All support as well as exchanges or replacements for DEFECTIVE merchandise, including within the first 30 days of ownership, must be handled directly with the product manufacturer. CircuitCity.com cannot accept any returns nor offer replacement, exchanges or credit for ANY product missing the UPC code. Only the product manufacturer can replace any DEFECTIVE item missing the UPC sticker.
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 ‘informed’ the buyer that plasma TV’s suck (or something like that) and need to be ‘recharged’ every five years at a cost of $500 so the $300 service plan is well justified. Thankfully, the customer turned down the service plan ’cause plasma TVs do not need recharging. → 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 infected and that they should buy $40+ antivirus software after running a system scan that’s nothing more than a poorly constructed animated GIF file. Those companies are in big trouble. → 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 script to open up around 58,000 accounts with E-Trade and Schwab.com and collected all the little deposits using a handful of bank accounts. When all was said and done, he walked away with around $50,000. The man, Michael Largent of California, also used the technique to nab over $8,000 from Google Checkout. He said he needed the money to pay down some debts. He hasn’t been charged by Google (maybe because Google doesn’t “prohibit multiple e-mail addresses and accounts”) but he’s facing computer, wire, and mail fraud charges for the E-Trade and Schwab stunts. Largent is currently out on bail. via Wired → 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 posing as an iTunes billing update page; that phony page asks for information, including credit card number and security code, Social Security number and mother’s maiden name. Lochart then went on to embarrass his teenage kids by saying, “The way that teenagers and young adults use the Internet, they show a certain level of trust or openness when they post their name and age and school on MySpace.” Daa-ad! Stop talking about Maey-Spaeece! You sound so lay-eeeme! → 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 dehumidifier, Xziex calls it a life-saver. Considering the energy consumed by the device could probably be used to filter more water than it generates using traditional methods, I’m going recommend a “Sell” You can take a gander at the actual site here without entering your personal information. Clearly Xziex has enough money to hire a designer but I wonder if this is more pyramid or OTC stock scam than a real product. As we see here, you can become an affiliate of the program for about $1700. I found this investment pitch which described the end product as “Vitalized Water:” What is Vitalized Water? Vitalized Water is hexagonally-structured – composed of six individual molecules of water, held together by common hydrogen bonds. This unique water structure is capable of rapid penetration within the cells of your body. Hexagonal water has been scientifically documented to improve hydration, nutrient delivery, waste removal, cellular communication and metabolic efficiency. But then I also noticed an ominous bit of text in that selfsame pitch: Fools, money, soon parted. (via Gearlog) → 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 IV spam—”get your FREE copy HERE“—has accounted for 50 percent of all e-mail spam today. This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. ClearMyMail also noted increased spam activity for other sought-after items, including the Wii ’round Christmastime. Look for more of the same when iPhone 2.0 comes out, which can’t happen soon enough. Bottom line, my fellow Americans, is not to click on strange e-mails. How much nicer the world would be if people merely exercised proper restraint and exhibited sound judgement. → 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 liberal application of sparkling wine and chili. I may delude myself, but my delusions are not harmful. Sadly, this is not the case with the Griffin ClearBoost iPhone case. This is a hard case with screen protector sticker and, I’m sad to say, a bit of metal that symbolizes one of the greatest scams perpetrated on mankind since the Kennedy assassination. As a case I’m happy to report that the ClearBoost does everything as advertised. It encloses your iPhone in hard plastic and keeps it from breaking or scratching at inopportune moments. That, alone, might be worth $20. Griffin has decided to add a cellboosting “technology” to this case, however, which knocks it up to $29. This is like adding paper wings to a cow and selling it for a million dollars. Scammers have been selling these “cell boosters” since the first Nokias crawled out of the pre-mordial soup and I recall one friend whose mother sent him a harmful EMF wave eating ladybug that he stuck against his phone to boost the reception and prevent brain cancer. While I cannot report definitively on the cancer (he’s OK now, but who knows about next week?), many tests have proven that putting a sticker on a radio does not improve reception. Take this excellent quote from an excellent article on the topic: Based on my testing, and the antenna theory as presented by the experts, cellphone antenna booster stickers do not work as advertised. Based on their marketing techniques, including the imaginary or unverifiable “experts” stating they work, it’s my belief antenna booster stickers are a scam. Pretty definitive, right? Now Griffin is a good company. I mean them no ill-will. They’ve been putting out good to great products for years and I’m sure someone in marketing was got the old snowjob on this product and is probably going to start kicking him or herself once folks figure out what’s going on here. Here’s a video → 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 in and take everything that wasn’t nailed down. Most of the goods have already been returned and the couple is now in custody. → 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. A standard vishing attack might use a phone number connected to an answering machine to harvest data. A large-scale scamming operation, however, could theoretically employ several people to act as call-center workers—who might not even be aware that they’re in the employ of an illegal business operation. Also, remember this the FBI warning us about vishing, so this probably all got popular in 2003 and they’re just getting around to putting out the memo. Again, friends, if someone is asking for your full SSN and bank card PIN, you’re probably getting scammed. FBI warns that “vishing” attacks are on the rise [ArsTechnica] → Read More
San Francisco, CA
