Category Archives: Fraud

Infuriating Fraud

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Mom’s been gone now almost two years – it hardly seems possible. But the scammers of the world still have her name on their lists. Yesterday we received a piece of mail addressed to her, from one of the most infuriating, amoral, and soulless scumbags out there: Joseph Rockfiller, the “Grand Treasurer of the Order of Saint Expedit.”

The entire communication is below.

Page1Page2Page3

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Rockfiller is without doubt a pseudonym, and the photo on the letter assuredly a model.

Almost everyone knows about the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud, also called the “419” scam, but letters like the one above, mailed out to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, are often more likely to attract victims, because they target the elderly and the infirm, those who are least educated, and more likely to believe the camel ejecta they are filled with.

I have mentioned this kind of fraud before, on the Sweepstakes Fraud Factsheet website, specifically mentions a scammer operating under the name of “Mathias,” and the letter that arrived yesterday is exactly the same kind of exasperating nonsense. “Mathias” only wanted $30.00 to start, but this Rockfiller operation is going for the brass ring, requesting “contributions” between $50.00 and $150.00, with commensurate “rewards” awaiting the faithful who swallow this excrement.

The address where victims send their money is 423 Brookline Avenue, #314, Boston, MA 02215:

UPS

The address is a UPS store; scammers of this nature invariably use maildrops or post office boxes to try to cover their trails. One of the things about scams like this is that although they violate all sorts of laws, the Post Office doesn’t give a rat’s south-40. I’ve taken many scummy mailings of this sort to my post office, and all I get is a blank stare or a “we can’t do anything about it” answer. Seriously irritating. Whether this outfit is operating from Boston or not is uncertain – On page 2, in tiny print, are the words “Human capital SA – MH 96960 Majuro.” If you failed geography, Majuro is a small atoll in the Marshall Islands, but that business name and address appears to be a dead end, or perhaps a red herring.

Just some of the mind-boggling horse-crap contained in this letter:

  • Secret prayers (“This prayer, that will be revealed as soon as you have become a full-fledged member of our Order…”)
  • Hollow promises – (“$450,000 have been put aside for you!”; By making a $150.00 offering to Saint Expedit and reciting his prayer: Will bring you $500.00 in a months time, $5,000 in two months time or $150,000 over a three month period.”)
  • Flattering weasel words (“A successor of the 1st circle cannont be just anyone! He or she must possess within themselves the stigmata of St. Expedit” … You are one of us … You are the missing piece of the equation.”)
  • General bullshit (“During the middle ages it was our mystical cognition which allowed our brother alchemists to transform lead into gold.”)
  • Screaming contradictions (“NATURALLY ALL OF THIS IS TOTALLY FREE! All that is asked of you is to choose the sum you wish to offer to the Order of Saint Expedit as noted in his mystical works, a minimum of $50.00 and a maximum of $150.00”).

The rest you can read for yourself, if you have the stomach for it.

The point of this exercise is simply to get the word out. If you have vulnerable loved ones, please monitor their mail. If they get on a “sucker list,” they will get hundreds of these solicitations and similar ones, and they stand to lose their money, their identity, and their dignity.

nofraud

Be careful out there.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Government Job Offer – Seems Legit

Posted on by The Old Wolf

From: “Abranco” <demoonth@demo.ontha.com>
To: <recipient list>
Subject: Government Job Offer

Dear Sir or Madam

Would you like to work for the Government organization and participate in the development of the United States? Perhaps it is your talent the country needs at this moment.

Requirements – U.S. citizenship and minimum age 21

We invite you to work closely, anyone who does not care about the life of the state.

If you are a student, military, businessman, retired – we’ll be happy to listen to the opinions of everyone and take help from you.

Please send a brief summary to the human resource assistant on the lyne.holt@gmail.com and you will be assigned to interview.

Yupyup, gotta get me some of that action.

Just in case you’re not sure about emails like this? They’re total frauds. Government bureaucrats may not be the brightest candles on the cake, but most of them know how to speak English; the writers of emails like this always leave behind telltale signatures: poor grammar, odd constructions, and mis-spelled words.

Be careful out there.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Snake Oil: Only $67.00

Posted on by The Old Wolf
FormerlySnakeOil

A comment recently appeared at this post, which read as follows:

It’s appropriate time to have the plans for future years and it’s time for you to be happy. We have read this article and if I really could I want to propose you number of interesting points or ideas. Maybe you can easily write next articles referring to this article. I wish to read more things about it!
kidney dialysis http://junk.spam.link

OK, as you wish. I’ll write my next article about what douchebags you are.

First of all, I’ve written before about blog spam – it’s probably one of the scummiest, most unethical ways of promoting a business, product, or service. So that’s red flag number one. Any business that needs to advertise or boost its page rankings by seeding other people’s blogs with random, idiotic comments and embedded links is a business or product or service or opportunity that sensible people will stay far, far away from.

Second of all, this particular link leads to a commercial offer from “Duncan Capicchiano, ND, fully Qualified Naturopath, Nutritionist, Herbalist, Medical Researcher and Author.” How loud can you scream “bullshit”? I like the way you screamed that. The touted system, available for only $67.00, trumpets

“You’re about to find out that it’s possible to reverse impaired kidney function and avoid dialysis and/or kidney transplant surgery.”

The (probably fake) testimonials included at his web page say things like:

“As soon as I had downloaded it (which was a piece of cake) I rushed out and bought bottles of Nutrient Name, Vitamin, and Herb Name (I already had most of the other recommended ingredients) and started the course.”

DrudgeSirenSmall People: This is DANGEROUS. If you have impaired kidney function, no herbal remedy is going to help you. If you’re already needing dialysis, do not put your faith in phony systems or nostrums or remedies. For the love of all that you consider holy, stay away from patent medicine or herbal scams of this nature. Just stay away. DrudgeSirenSmall

I’m not saying vitamins or herbs are bad. Some of them have overall systemic benefits. But there’s a reason the FDA makes nutritional products include the disclaimer,

“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Herbal or nutritional supplements are not regulated, and their effects are largely anecdotal; some people may see results that others don’t. If a program like this were truly effective, you would see a whole raft of peer-reviewed research about it in medical journals like JAMA or Lancet, but this bottom-feeder is operating out of Australia, so he doesn’t have to comply with FDA regulations – he can promise you the moon, add a bunch of important-sounding qualifications after his name, and rake in the money. If, as he advertises, 1,694 people have bought his system, he’s already banked about $113,000 – and he hasn’t delivered a single physical product – just a bunch of PDF files.

People like this are scummy, immoral, unethical, and harmful. They make me angry, especially when their shills post crap at my blog site. Do yourself a favor, and never give them a penny.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

So much junk, so many scumbags.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

A recent comment posted to one of my blog entries:

Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be on the net the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people consider worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks.

Typical of blog spam comments, the commenter includes a link to a Fotki.com “journal” in Spanish, which then links to a Spanish version of Holly Hayden’s [1] “H Miracle” hemorrhoid “cure”. Sheer snake oil, marketed to the most gullible sector of society. I perused the website until nausea overtook me, and will not provide a link to it. For only $69.96… Wait! Time-sensitive discount, only $37.00, you get

“a completely natural, guaranteed cure that’s far cheaper and safer than recurring creams or surgery … in my honest opinion. (That’s only the price of a few movie tickets …. a good family dinner …. or just 0.62 cents for 2 months.)

hmiracle

As seen on Ask, MSN, AOL and Yahoo: 100% pure baloney.

This lady is repackaging Preparation H, or manufacturing something akin to it, and selling it at ten prices with the worst sort of dishonest, barely-legal hucksterism. Notice the disclaimer:

The H Miracle system has a consistent 96.4% proven success rate at eliminating hemorrhoids safely, powerfully, naturally and easily. The small percent that doesn’t permanently cure includes those who may have a rare, complicated health issue that goes well beyond hemorrhoids and its usual variations. I have to be honest about this … despite the fact that the vast, vast majority of sufferers (including yourself) will be raving about the phenomenal results. Luckily, we have a personal strategy inside for those with more complex issues and even they end up benefiting tremendously …

In other words, if you buy our crap and it doesn’t perform, we’ve got an even more expensive product for pitiful anomalies like yourself. But in the meantime, we’ve got your money and our asses are covered.

The dishonesty of websites like this – and there are thousands and thousands out there – dismay me no end. People read, people believe without doing any research whatsoever, and people waste billions of dollars on quack remedies which do nothing for them. The link refers specifically to weight-loss nostrums, but there are countless other schemes and scams, many of them promoted by prominent figures who are either paid for their endorsements or who were bamboozled into believing that these products had some actual value.

The simple fact that the manufacturer of this product resorts to injecting trash comments like this into people’s blogs, hoping to raise their search-engine rankings, is a bright red flag waving in the middle of the meadow – it says “Stop!”

stop

Crampton, Gertrude and Gergely, Tibor, Tootle, Golden Press, 1945

No legitimate product, service, or company would ever advertise like this. Beware of such; stay far, far away.

On that note, today I received a memo from “Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank”:

Federal Reserve Bank Board New York.

NOTIFICATION OF CREDIT FROM Federal Reserve Bank.
Attn: Beneficiary: Please Sir.

Based on our findings in the investigations department we wish to warn you against some Miscreants, Hoodlums and Touts who go about scamming innocent people by claiming to be who they are not and thereby tarnishing the image of this wonderful country.

Instruction was given from the Office of Presidency ,United Nations (UN), World Bank and (IMF) to transfer your overdue fund through International ATM Debit/Master Card which you can use in any ATM and cash point machine anywhere in the world, shopping or banking for all your needs.
This directives was given to us at the Federal Reserve Bank after the joint meeting of the above mentioned bodies to help check the activity of fraud and illegal movement of money across the world.

You can withdrawal money from your International ATM Debit/Master Card from any ATM MACHINE location or center of your choice nearest to you, in any part of the world. You are advise to reconfirm your address where the Courier service will dispatch your ATM Card to you within 48hrs.We Have Been Mandated By The ECOWAS Parliament To Issue Out $10.5 Million only on your contract, inheritance and lotto promos related funds Also For Your Information, You Have To Stop Any Further Communication With Any Other Person (S) Or Office(S) To Avoid Any Hitches In Receiving Your Payment.

1. Your full Name:
2. Delivery Address:
3. Your direct Tel, Cell: Nos:
4. A copy of your ID or ID numbers for Identification:
5. Your Nearest Airport:

Finally, this is very urgent and important the bank are waiting to hear from you right away today, Bear in mind that the tracking number of your parcel will be given to you immediately the Processing charge and Stamp fee is received to avoid any immediate STOP ORDER from the United Nation office.

Note That Because Of Impostors, We Hereby Issued You Our Code Of Conduct, Which Is (ATM-110) So You Have To Indicate This Code When Contacting The Card Center By Using It As Your Subject.

Below are few list of tracking numbers you can track from UPS website to confirm people like you who have received their payment successfully.

Name : Donna L. Vargas: UPS Tracking Number: 1Z757F991598420403 (www.ups.com)
Name : Rovenda Elaine Clayton: UPS Tracking Number: 1Z757F991596606592 (www.ups.com)

CONGRATULATIONS. The Bank Wait For Your Expedite Response. Please Call The Ups shipping Agent Now (347-348-0897) Mr Steven Parker.

The bank Wait For Your Expedite Response.

Yours sincerely,

Mr.Ben S. Bernanke.
Ref.: bensbernanke/frb110/pres/un/wb/imf/pt.
Chairman Federal Reserve Bank Board New York.

This is the most transparent of Nigerian garbage. I called the above phone number just to see who would answer, and I got a message (in a British accent) indicating that the party was not available. I’m certain that somehow this number is wired to forward calls to a number in Nigeria or somewhere like it. Notice the mention of a “Processing charge and Stamp fee,” the which, once paid, would open the floodgates to an endless litany of requests for additional fees, bribes, charges, stamps, and whatever the victim is willing to send to collect his nonexistent funds, until he finally gives up in disgust.

Sadly, crooks and scammers like this are largely beyond the reach of the law; US federal agencies are powerless to act against these drones, and often the governments of the countries in which the scammers operate are ineffective in dealing with or party to the scam.

To be safe,

  • Never send money via Western Union or similar service anywhere, unless you are initiating the transaction and know who will be receiving the money.
  • Never give your banking or credit card information to anyone who requests it via email.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] “Independent Remedy Researcher & Official Article Columnist.” Now there are some impressive credentials, I tell you what.

“Who cares? It’s just blacks dying.”

Posted on by The Old Wolf

The epic inside story of long-term criminal fraud at Ranbaxy, the Indian drug company that makes generic Lipitor for millions of Americans.

Dirty Medicine – The Ranbaxy drug debacle

TL;DR: If you use generic drugs, you may want to find out where they are from. If they’re from Ranbaxy or Dr. Reddy’s, both in India, find a different provider for your health’s sake.

CEO Singh of Ranbaxy

In a conference call with a dozen company executives, one brushed aside … fears about the quality of the AIDS medicine Ranbaxy was supplying for Africa. “Who cares?” he said, … “It’s just blacks dying.”

This is shocking enough, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.

This recent article over at CNN Money raised all sorts of red flags for me this morning. It’s fairly long, but I read every word, and what I read left me shaken, not stirred. I would recommend reading it in its entirety.

I take two generic drugs provided to me via Welldyne RX, my company’s bulk drug provider, and I started doing some research. I discovered that one was made by Sun Pharmaceuticals, and the other by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, both based in India.

After having read the Ranbaxy article, and digging in to the various generic manufacturers of the drugs I take, it became clear that it’s not just the Russian Business Network selling counterfeit or low-quality drugs, but the legitimate pharmaceutical providers, each of whom has a byzantine network of providers and producers which make guaranteeing quality extremely difficult.

drug

Here’s are the manufacturers I found at drugs.com for generic omeprazole 20mg, which I take for recurring GERD:

  • MYLAN 6150 MYLAN 6150 (Omeprazole 20 mg) – Mylan (USA)
    In 2007, Mylan acquired a controlling interest in India-based Matrix Laboratories Limited, a top producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for generic drugs, and the generics business of Germany-based Merck KGaA
  • OME 20 OME 20 (Omeprazole 20 mg) – Sandoz (Germany)
  • 20 (Omeprazole 20 mg) – Major Pharmaceuticals (USA?)
  • 082 IMPAX 20 (Omeprazole 20 mg) – Teva (Israel)
  • KU 118 (Omeprazole delayed release 20 mg) – Kremers Urban (USA)
  • APO 020 (Omeprazole delayed release 20 mg) – Apotex (Canada)
  • OMEPRAZOLE 20mg R158 (Omeprazole delayed release 20 mg) – Dr. Reddy’s (India) – this is the one dispensed to me by WellDyne RX.
  • 20 (Omeprazole Delayed Release 20 mg) – Perrigo
  • OMP 20 (Omeprazole magnesium delayed-release 20 mg (base)) – Dr. Reddy’s (India)
  • ZA 10 20 mg (Omeprazole delayed-release 20 mg) – Zydus (India)
  • P (Prilosec otc 20 mg) – AstraZeneca (UK)
  • 607 PRILOSEC 20 (Prilosec 20 mg) – Merck (Germany)
  • 742 PRILOSEC 20 (Prilosec 20 mg) – AstraZeneca (UK)

Looking at these manufacturers and their supply chains, it would be difficult to know whether any medication is actually made in the USA without further digging. Many, many paths lead to India, and given the mind-bending history of corruption, fraud, abuse, mismanagement and outright criminal skullduggery uncovered at Ranbaxy, I am very leery of any medications that come from over there, even in part. Ranbaxy is still in operation, controlled in large part by Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo.

Some source articles:

For the Record, Sun Pharmaceuticals works out of India, but thus far seems free of complaints or black marks. But the entire landscape makes me nervous. Tomorrow I call WellDyne Rx to see if I can get my meds sourced from the USA.

The Old Wolf has Spoken.

The Lads from Lagos, again

Posted on by The Old Wolf

A recent study has concluded that Nigerian fraud letters are intentionally unbelievable, so as to weed out any but the most stupid of possible victims. That may be so in some cases, but I happen to think that most of these electronic missives are just drafted by really, really, stupid people in the first place.  Here’s a recent example:

Subject: WARNING FROM THE FBI OFFICE

From: Robert Mullerll <robertsmullerlllll@aol.com>

png imgres

ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITORY CRIMES DIVISION
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
J.EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING 935
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON
D.C. 20535-0001
TEL 202-324-3447Attn:Sir.Madam

This Is An Official Advice From The FBI, Foreign Remittance/Telegraphic Dept.(FRED), It Has Come To Our Notice That some Nigerians who is claiming to be HOME LAND SECURITY are calling you again regards to this transaction which Federal Government Has been Approved to pay you through United Nations office.You are hereby advice to contact them on this email address: info_unitednations56@yahoo.esBe careful with whoever is calling you or sending you emails regards to this fund we have never instructed any HOME LAND SECURITY to contact you is our duty to tell you if the person you are dealing with is the rightful person or not.

We will send a copy of this to U.S.State Secretary John Kerry ,the president of Nigeria and United Nations office in Nigeria to take note of this,

 

We Advice You Contact Us Immediately, and also contact the person Mr Godwin Ugo who will direct you and advice you on what to do.

Your’s sincerelyRobert S. Mueller, III
FBI Director


The errors and inconsistencies in this email are too many to count, and too grievous to be deliberately contrived. It was written by a moron who thinks he’s being clever enough to fool ignorant people who deserve to be scammed.
Be careful out there.
The Old Wolf has spoken.

Seriously, WordPress – Some weird stuff is going on.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Edit: an employee of WordPress responded to my inquiry about this phenomenon, and I have added her comments at the end of this article.

I mentioned in a previous post that a botnet of over 90,000 computers is mounting an attack on WordPress servers, attempting to crack machines with the userid “admin” and weak passwords. I also mentioned that I’ve noticed a disproportionate number of follows recently. I decided to document the activity, which can be seen in the chart below.

Followers

(Click for a larger version)

You can see that in the last month, I’ve attracted 156 followers, with several now showing up every day. That’s roughly as many as during the previous 11 months.

While I’d love to think that my blog is ferociously interesting, examining the data shows  unequivocally that the vast majority of these accounts are effectively spam – commercial accounts attempting to boost their own ratings.

Example:

User “mariva55” at http://dinheirograna.wordpress.com/, a Brazilian site with 5 entries – all created on 19 April, the same day it “followed” my blog – is a shill site for comoganharXXreais.com.br (link obfuscated). This website is listed on Joe Wein’s spam domain base blacklist, and is a get-rich-quick internet marketing scheme.

While I have a few legitimate followers from the last month, based on some comments that have shown up in various entries, the vast majority of these are similar to the example above; some of the accounts were created today and have already been deleted. I mean, why else would “Guitarmonk – First Formal Chain of Guitar schools in Delhi” be interested in my blog?

Can anybody shed any light on what’s happening, and why I’m being flooded with these “unsolicited commercial followers?”

The Old Wolf is annoyed.

From a WordPress customer service agent:

Thanks for the feedback. This recent influx of spam followers is a known issue, and I believe our team at WordPress.com is looking into ways to squash the problem. Some of this increase could be due to changes in the Reader, such as the new “You May Like” feature that you’ll see on the right hand side when you’re logged in to your account and searching for/reading new blogs.

If you have a public blog, you can’t block someone from following you; however, you can adjust settings to decrease the amount of spam comments:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/

Also, just FYI, there’s a “Report content” tool accessible from your admin bar at the top — hover over the blog name near the top left, and you’ll see a link to report content that is spam. While it’s not quite the tool to deal with the issue you specified, I just wanted to point it out in the meantime. You can also just use this form, too:

http://en.wordpress.com/report-spam/

I am grateful that someone took the time and trouble to respond to my inquiry. Hopefully as time goes on, this problem may be mitigated somewhat.

Students: Beware of the FAFSA scam.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Saw this over at Reddit and thought it was worth sharing, especially with so many students filing applications.

FAFSA (http://www.fafsa.ed.gov) is a legitimate government program providing student aid. It is FREE to apply for.’

right

There is another scummy outfit (http://fafsa.com) which charges students a FEE to file an application, which could be done for FREE at the legitimate government website.

wrong

If you are a student, or know one who is applying for federal student aid, direct everyone you know AWAY from fafsa.com.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

South African Scam

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Untypically, this one came from South Africa instead of Nigeria. This effort spells crudeness in the extreme, yet – astonishingly and sadly – there will be people who fall for this.

Scam

 

Terrible grammar, unbelievable premise, spelling mistakes, and improbable representations (Susan Boyle as “Microsoft Awards Secretary”, Oprah Winfrey as a “price winner”).

If there were every any question in your mind, no – you haven’t won a contest that you didn’t enter, and these people are only looking to lighten your wallet.

The Old Wolf has spoken.