Tag Archives: scams

A Letter from the “Assistant Secretary of State.”

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Please us with this email again! Right, folks – the Bureau of Consular Affairs is going to use a foxmail address. For the love of all that’s holy, never respond to an email like this. If you do, you’re handing your hard-earned money to fleabitten African scammers. YES, THIS IS A SCAM. Yes, I’m SHOUTING!

From: Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson <Anderson@gamma.ocn.ne.jp>
Subject: Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson,

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Bureau of Consular Affairs

Washington, DC 20520
Greeting from USA Embassy,

Attn Dear Citizens! Please us with this email again ( homelandsecurity20@foxmail.com )

This is to notify you that your consignment has been in our custody we are waiting for you to comply with our instructions before your package delivery will be effected to your delivery address. We have been waiting for you to contact us regarding your consignment box which Courier Company suppose to deliver to you which is on hold by USA Home Land Security Department Bureau and requesting for clearance certificate which will be obtain from the origination of the consignment box before it will be released. As a result of you not comply within duration given by Benin Government that is the reason the consignment box was diverted to treasury but the government of American have decide to make the world happy by been willing to release the package consisting of a Bank Draft Total sum of $ 3.5millions usd written with your name as the beneficiary within 4 hours immediately you secure the clearance certificate today.

After the Meeting Held by Our board of Director Which WAS Concluded That the Delivery of your Consignment to your address MUST BE Complete within 4hrs upon your Comply to Our requirement Which IS by sending the sum of  $ 155.00Usd  to enable the origin Obtain the needed certificate and your consignment for onward delivery to your house immediately without any further delay we decide to contact you because we confirm some offices are trying to deceive you.

Note that your consignment box has been arrived in US embassy and waiting to receive clearance certificate before the gate pass is given. Mean while you are advice to reconfirm the below information upon contacting us to avoid delivery to wrong person.

1, Full name:
2, Address:
3, Occupation:
4, Cell-Phone:
5, Nearest Airport:

Once you notify us with the Above Information include with the $ 55 payment we Will release your Consignment to you. Note That you Are expected to pay only  $ 155.00Usd  for Clearance certificate and you Are to pay it to Benin Republic as the origination of the Consignment box in favor of: Ofor Eze as Our accountant officer in Benin Republic Send the  $ 155.00Usd through Western Union or Money gram once you receive this mail with the Information Below for IMMEDIATE release of your Consignment box,

Receiver name: Ofor Eze
Country .. Benin Republic
city .. Cotonou
question: Yes
Answer: Yes.
Amount necessary. $ 155.00usd

Once you send the money, try to notify us with the MTCN for easy pick up and for immediate action on the release of your consignment.

Please treat this as matter of urgency .Note that any uncliam consignment will be return to the Courier Company after 3 days for final divertion as a result of failure to comply with our instruction and claim your consignment which arrived from Africa to our local airport here in USA.

So you are urgently advise to comply with our demand so that we will release your consignment we are working for the best of America citizen.

Treat with dispatch,
Yours Faithfully,
Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson,
FROM UNITED STATE OF AMERICA
Call +19189363447
Email: homelandsecurity20@foxmail.com

The Lads from Benin are still busy. They may be from Lagos, too – one can never tell where these drones are operating from.

Here’s my response to this one:

Nigerian Camels

All I can hope is that emails like this raise their blood pressure enough to precipitate a massive stroke…

The Old Wolf has spoken.

An .EXE file is not an invoice

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Chapa NO MALWARE

Today’s scam email:

From: “Agnessa Arina” <agnessaarina@yahoo.es>
To: redacted
Subject: FW::deposit invoice copy

Hi,

we are updating our company email address so i’m sending you the outstanding balance and new lodging.

Confirm receipt.

Amy chan

Tridium, Inc.
3951 Westerre Parkway, Suite 350
Richmond, VA 23233
USA.

View Download

That “Download” is a file called “deposit copy.exe” – something you NEVER want to click on. EXE files are PROGRAMS, and they are BAD NEWS. From code that will log your keystrokes, steal your information, turn your machine into a zombie spamming device, to encrypting all your files for ransom, these malware programs will make your life a living hell. Just don’t do it.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Never “Verify Your Email.”

Posted on by The Old Wolf

No email service will send you a message asking you to provide your address and password, or other financial data. They just won’t.

yahoo

This email is bogus. Note the red circle next to the “click to validate” link – that’s a warning from WOT (Web of Trust) that indicates the website is not to be trusted.

If you’re foolish enough to click the link, which goes to http://bookinghh.myfreesitehost.com/smluptt/wadohjom.htm (NOT a Yahoo website), you’ll get this:

Yahoo2

If you fill out this information, scammers now have access to your email account, and they will use it to steal information or send out criminal spam.

Never do this. Be careful out there.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Woo Water

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Visitng a LYS (Local Yarn Shop) in Logan, Utah, I had a glance at the April 2, 2015 edition of Time™ while my wife was finishing up her browsing.

And once again it was confirmed that there’s a sucker born every minute.

Producers try to replicate the success of coconut water

Coconut water, the trendy sports drink that’s exploded into a $400 million-a-year business in the U.S., has new competition. Bottled-water outfits are trying to sell consumers on H2O with vegetables, tree saps and other flavored ingredients. Startups and small companies especially are marketing a raft of new products spiked with a little extra…

Coconut water? I had never heard of such a thing. But have a look at all the wannabes who are jumping on the money train:

water

©Time Magazine

Claims, claims, claims! Improves digestion, soothes sore throats, revitalizes, liver detox, hangover relief, woo, woo, woo! In today’s atmosphere of anti-science and galloping gullibility, there is more opportunity to profit from the ignorance of the masses than ever. Plus ça change…

Edit: Props to Sharon Neeman for catching an error: Victoria’s Kitchen Almond water makes no claims at all, except that it’s delicious and refreshing, which I could certainly get behind if that sort of thing appealed to me.

Petroleum

Lucky Luke, “À l’ombre des derricks”

Snake oil salesmen and purveyors of medical quackery have been around since the dawn of time, but let marketing departments get a whiff of a trend, and the trickle becomes a deluge.

I have nothing against natural remedies per se, and have expanded on this topic in other articles. What I do object to is pure

BS Meter

which these products are, and I recommend that you save your money.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Scam – RE: It’s OK…….Call (202) 241 6918

Posted on by The Old Wolf

An email that arrived yesterday from “Victor Brown.” The interesting thing is that I called this Washington, DC number and got a recording with a decidedly African accent. The message I left is not suitable for public consumption.

From: Victor Brown <victorbrown08@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: It’s OK…….Call (202) 241 6918

To: ldncntr@mail.com

I have sent you some emails concerning your unclaimed compensation funds but have not gotten favorable reply from you. Why? If you are no longer interested in your unclaimed approved funds, let me know and it would be reassigned to the next batch of claimants or reverted to the coffers immediately for domestic appropriation.

What have I done to you that you have decided to destroy all the good work I have done for you to bring your funds release process to completion? I have done everything humanly possible to complete your funds release process but you are becoming unconcerned, unyielding and uncooperative lately. Why have you decided to ruin this transaction after I have virtually completed the entire release process?

Why haven’t you complied as I directed so that we can get this done within 6 hours and you get your approved funds without hindrance? Why are you delaying? I have expended resources to bring this transaction to this conclusive end but your silence is discouraging. 753 out of the 755 persons in our last 3 Batches Payment Schedule have received their entitlements but I have been waiting to hear from you for days as you promised by no word till now.
Are you ok? All is set to get this transaction completed for you get your funds as soon as I hear from you.
Please get back to me and comply so that the transaction can be completed as scheduled.

Yours Faithfully,
Victor Brown
NW Washington, D.C. 20008
Telephone: (202) 241 6918
Email: vicbrown@consultant.com

It goes without saying that this is a Nigerian 419 email. What I found interesting is that the USA has forwarding numbers similar to the famous UK redirect prefix “44 70”.

Please be careful out there, and make sure your loved ones are protected from this kind of criminal activity. There is no money waiting in Africa for anyone.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Gasp! My $2,500,000 is gone!

Posted on by The Old Wolf
Subject: IF YOU FAIL TO SEND THE $40 THIS WEEK YOUR $2.500, 000.00 IS GONE
From: IMF OFFICIAL <imfpublicaffairs01@gmail.com>

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

INTERNATIONAL MONITORING FUND NATIONAL HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY COMPLEX
SENATE HOUSE – UPPER CHAMBERS WUSE DISTRICT, COTONOU/BENIN REPUBLIC
Our Ref: FGN /SNT/STB

IF YOU FAIL TO SEND THE $40 THIS WEEK YOUR $2.500, 000.00 IS GONE

I have to inform you again, that we are not playing over this, I know my reason for the continuous sending of this notification to you, the fact is that you can’t seem to trust any one again over this payment for what you have been in cantered in many months ago, but I want you to trust me, I cannot scam you for $40 it is for bank processing of your payment, the fees of $40 is clearly written to you before, I did not invent the bill to defraud you of $40 it is an official bank payment processing fee, and the good part of this, is that you will never, ever be disturbed again over any kind of payment, this is final, and the forms from there becomes effective once we submit your payment application processing fee and pay the form fee of $40 I don’t want you to loose this fund this time, because you may never get another such good opportunity, the federal government is keen and very determined to pay your overdue debts, this is not a fluke, I would not want you to loose this fund out of ignorance, I will send you all the documents as soon as bank payment processing fee is paid, you have to trust me, you will get your fund, find a way to get $40 you will not loose it,instead it will bring your financial breakthrough, find the money and send it to our bursary.

The reason why am sending you this IS because I want you to receive your USD2.5M immediately we are trying to round up for this payment program.The processing charges which was initially on the high price has been cut down by the payout bank considering the poor economic situations that make it difficult for the middle class citizens to meet up with the processing charges of their entitlement. Upon the confirmation of your processing charges you will get your $2.500, 000.00 into your account within 15hrs.

Here is the payment information through western union money transfer or money gram money transfer finally my advice to you is not to abandon this transaction because of the requirement of ($40) Account Officer Info:

Send the fee through Western Union or Money Gram only.

Receiver’s first Name: Joe Mba

City:::::::::::::: Cotonou
Country: ::::::::Benin Republic
Text Question: ::::::code
Answer::::::::code
Amount required: :::::::$40
Sender’s Name:::::
MTCN Number#:
Sender’s address:

As soon as the payment is received today, you will receive your $2.5M the same today without any delay.

Best Regards
Mrs. Waziri Lukman

Suffice it to say this is just another Benin scam; and as usual, the takeaway is that all such letters promising  you money from Africa are criminal enterprises designed to get your money. It’s interesting that these boys are scratching for the tiniest sums, but of course anyone who pays them will be asked for more, and more, and more until their funds are gone or until they catch on.

NEVER SEND MONEY BY WESTERN UNION OR MONEY CARD OR ANY OTHER SUCH SERVICE TO SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW. IF YOU DO, YOUR MONEY WILL BE GONE FOREVER.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Phishing: Watch those URLs

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Today in my Yahoo! mail account:

Yahoo

If you click that “Sign In” link, you get taken to

http://www.oficinadentalpr.com/includes/drpbx/db/obfuscated.php

which is apparently a dental office in Brazil. (I tried contacting them to let them know that their website had been compromised, but their contact page seems to be malfunctioning.)

Edit: As of today, the entire “Oficina Dental” account has been suspended. Either they got infected and their ISP suspended them on general principles, or the whole page was a sleazy front for this scam operation. We’ll never know.

At any rate, this is what you get:

Yahoo2

Which leads you to the regular “Enter your critical personal information and credit card and bank data” page.

The ongoing lesson: Don’t click embedded links in emails. Just don’t.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Malware download from “eBay GMBH” (German Ebay)

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Clearly not from the German version of eBay, but posting this here just in case anyone gets the same email and Googles for it.

Rechnung für [redacted] noch offen: Nummer 19879661
Sent By: Inkasso Ebay GmbH   On:Apr 04/22/15 12:59 AM
Forderung an [redacted].22 04.2015-Inkasso Ebay GmbH.zip (130 KB) | Download

Sehr geehrter Kunde [Redacted], Ihr Kreditinstitut hat die Kontoabbuchung zurück buchen lassen. Sie haben eine ungedeckte Forderung bei der Firma Ebay GmbH.

Aufgrund des bestehenden Zahlungsrückstands sind Sie verpflichtet außerdem, die durch unsere Beauftragung entstandenen Kosten von 43,90 Euro zu tragen. Wir erwarten die vollständige Zahlung bis zum 24.04.2015 auf unser Bankkonto. Namens unseren Mandanten fordern wir Sie auf, die offene Forderung sofort zu begleichen. Bei Fragen oder Unklarheiten erwarten wir eine Kontaktaufnahme innerhalb des gleichen Zeitraums.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass keine weitere Mahnung erfolgt. Nach Ablauf der Frist wird die Akte dem Gericht und der Schufa übergeben. Eine vollständige Kostenaufstellung, der Sie alle Buchungen entnehmen können, ist beigefügt.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Inkasso Voigt Marlon

Achtung: Dies ist ein Betrug. Keine angehängten Dateien öffnen!

Summary: I have an open invoice because of a declined charge with Ebay Germany. If I don’t pay immediately, a collection company will come after me and I’ll be reported to the General Credit Protection Agency. Notice that ZIP file up there in red, supposedly an invoice. Unzip it, and there’s another zip file. Unzip that, and there’s a file called

[redacted] Forderung 22.04.2015 – Inkasso Ebay GmbH.com (meaning, supposedly, a demand for collection.)

That’s a .COM file, or rather a simple executable file… in other words, a program. These are BAD NEWS for anyone who is foolish enough to open them. They’re just as bad as .EXE files. NEVER OPEN AN EXE OR COM FILE UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IT IS AND WHOM IT’S FROM.

Interestingly enough, I ran a virus check on this file and it came up with nothing. However, submitting it to VirusTotal.com came up with this:

viruses

In other words, it’s a nasty. The anti-virus programs indicated came up with multiple offenders for this file – one example that I followed for illustrative purposes was Packed.Win32.Katusha.o, which is a Trojan that can connect to a remote IRC server once it has infiltrated a PC. Packed.Win32.Katusha.o will download harmful files from the server that will damage the infected machine even further.

If you run this insidious program, you have just opened wide a door to the criminal element, and your computer will be infected with keyloggers, other trojans, made part of a botnet of spamming computers, infected with the dreaded CryptoLocker, or who knows what else. It will, at the very least, cause you inconvenience, and at the very worst destroy all your files, give criminals access to your personal data and/or your email accounts, and cost you lots of money. These people are horrible individuals. They want only one thing – to make money at your expense, and they don’t care how they do it.

Don’t ever fall victim to them.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Please do not share from these 10 Websites or Facebook Pages

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This is a condensation of an excellent article from DawnsBrain. I’ve summarized the ten here for easy consumption, but her complete article is worth a read.

DBRielly_LovePotionsAndSnakeOil

☛ TL;DR – these websites promote pseudoscientific woo¹, and are dangerous in that they lead people to shun and be afraid of science-based health and medicine. ☚

10) Alex Jones

Mr. Jones uses a ton of hyperbole, conspiracy theories, and a loose connection to reality, to whip up fear and loathing in his audience.

9) The Food Babe

Ms. Hari, the “Food Babe”, parrots Dr. Mercola and cobbles together cherry-picked blurbs from questionable studies and Wikipedia. She uses the term “investigation” to excuse the fact that she often gives medical advice without having any education in the life sciences. She picks the weirdest ingredients to go after.

#8 Eat Clean. Train Mean. Live Green.

Ms. McDonald mixes some common-sense dietary advice with a shot of “detox” and disordered eating, GMO and fluoride fearmongering, and pondering about chemtrails. She even claims that honey is medicine. Proof that even registered dietitians can be wacko.

#7 Dr. Joseph Mercola

Dr. Mercola, by virtue of his credentials and large fanbase, is possibly one of the most dangerous people on Facebook. Because he generates fear around science-based medicine, he discourages people from seeking real help for illness. He also scares people away from vaccinations, fluoride, GMO food, pasteurized dairy, and dental fillings. But you know, buy his line of supplements and all will be well.

#6 Prevention Magazine

Everyone that promotes “natural cures” above all else seems to jump from one cure-all to another. WebMD specifically states that there is insufficient evidence for at least three items on their list.

#5 NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com is arguably the most balls-to-the-wall looniest page on Facebook. They have never met a conspiracy theory they don’t love.

#4 Collective Evolution

All the misinformation, all the time.

#3 MindBodyGreen

The “conversations about health” are decidedly in favor of “natural remedies” that are not supported by scientific research. People who waste their time mucking about with ineffective alternative treatments often die much sooner.

#2 Spirit Science

Most of their posts are harmless new-agey spiritual stuff and kookiness. But sometimes they veer into unsupportable natural remedies and outright pseudoscience.

#1 The Mind Unleashed

They’re a good example of slipping in a bit of bullshit here and there amongst the standard viral Facebook stuff. There’s a theme of immature hippy-style mistrust of any and every authority. What are you rebelling against? What have you got?

Bonus Post

Ernest Hemingway coined the term Crap Detector to refer to the little mechanism that ought to be working inside each person’s brain.

The most certain way to develop this ability to discern truth from baloney is education. In particular, an education in science will help protect you from the charlatans and cranks of the world.

I highly recommend starting with one of the many free online resources, such as Crash Course: Biology, Crash Course: Chemistry, and Crash Course: Anatomy and Physiology.

Bonus 2:

Dawn did not mention him, but I personally would add Mehmet Oz to the list. A sad case of a classically-trained physician who has sold his reputation for a mess of pottage, and in his quest to find natural remedies has devolved into a pitchman for the most ridiculous and worthless products known to man.

Disclaimer: Even with education in the hard sciences, it’s wise to remember that not everything is known that can be known. Aspirin is a direct outgrowth of historical use of willow bark to treat fevers. I have a strong conviction that there are literally countless chemical compounds out in nature that remain to be discovered that can have beneficial effects on human health and disease… but most of them have not been discovered yet.

Heath and wellness is soon to be, if it’s not already, a trillion-dollar industry – and everyone and their dog wants a slice of that pie. Trouble is, most of those dollars will be made selling bullcrap to the ignorant. There are very few exceptions.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

¹ Woo is a term used among skeptical writers to describe pseudoscientific explanations that have certain common characteristics.

Another INTERPOL Threat

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Another scam from Benin.

NEVER RESPOND TO SILLY EMAILS LIKE THIS. If you are contacted out of the blue by someone who wants you to wire money by Western Union to anywhere in the world, it’s a SCAM. Delete such messages. NEVER SEND MONEY BY WESTERN UNION TO ANYONE UNKNOWN TO YOU.

No, Interpol is not after me. No, I won’t send them any money.

Subject: Urgent Attention,
From: INTERPOL POLICE <interpolgeneralofpoliceforce@gmail.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
FBI OFFICE Washington, DC

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 190 ? member countries. Our role is to enable police around the world to work together to make the world a safer place. Our high-tech infrastructure of technical and operational support helps meet the growing challenges of fighting crime in the 21st century.

Urgent Attention,

We have this morning discovered that you have been making foreign legal transactions with Western Unions, Money Grams, Diplomatic Agents and Banks with West African Countries (Benin, Nigeria, Ghana etc.). We went further with the investigations we found out that you don’t have Money Laundering Clearance Certificate, which is a major Federal Offence. You have violated the World Federal Law, which constituted against smuggling of large amount of money and trafficking of drug e.t.c., without having Money Laundering Clearance Certificate before you commenced the transaction. You want to receive such huge amount of money from UPS DHL FEDEX WESTERN UNION AND MONEY GRAM HEAD Quater Benin Republic which is a foreign Delivery. Meanwhile we have stopped the Delivery, not only the ATM CARD was stopped but the total Transaction of the sum of ($10.2million dollars )

Furthermore, be advised that according to the World Wide Law Enforcement Agency together with the FBI rules and regulations, you are to obtain the document from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Benin Republic which is the origin of the fund in question. Also Note that you are to take care of the documentation to be issued to you right away, because due to the content of the document and how importance and secured the document is, you are to take care of the document by sending them the sum of $90.00 US Dollars only to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Benin Republic for issuing of the document right away and your payment will be release to you. That is the only way the Economic and Financial Crime Commission Benin Republic will issue you the document, because they are going to issue you the Authentic and Original copy of the documents.

Note that your rights are limited; anything you SAY or DO will be used as evidence against you in the court of Law. You have the full rights to remain silent and obey the Law. Don’t think we don’t know you or your address. We will get you arrested if you fail to provide the document or pay for it to be obtained from Benin Republic. The Arrest Warrant can only be withdrawn once the document is obtained. There are three charges against you, which are:

1. Smuggling of a huge amount of money into your country without Money Laundering Clearance Certificate is a violation to Federal Law. 2. Smuggling of a huge amount of money into your country without a proper documentation is a violation 2003 Federal Constitution, otherwise, called illegal transaction. 3. it’s a Conspiracy, a Criminal Attempt and Disobedience to the Federal Law, which will eventually lead you to 5-year imprisonment.

You Should Send The Money Direct To The Country Of Origin Of The Fund In Question:

Country: Benin Republic
State/City: Cotonou
Text Q.: info
Answer: Yes
Amount;;;;;;$90
Receiver Name: FELIS IKE
Sender name: and MTCN is needed;

Once, you make the payment, attach and send to us the copy of the payment slip for verification before sending it to the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Benin Republic.

WARNING: Failure to pay for this documentation is a confirmation that you wanted to smuggle the funds into the country which is a federal offense and a gross violation of the Patriot Act and legal action will be taken immediately by arresting and detaining you and if found guilty, you will be jailed As terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering is a serious problem in our community today. The UNITED STATE INTERPOL world’s largest international police organization will not stop at any length in tracing you down and prosecuting any criminal who indulge in this criminal act.

Sign:General Shawn A. Bray, head of the Central Investigation Bureau UNITED STATE INTERPOL world’s largest international police organization

FBI WEB SITE http://www.fbi.gov/
interpol site http://www.justice.gov/
Supreme Court of United State

Still haven’t figured out what’s up over in Africa; I haven’t gotten a single scam letter from Nigeria in a dog’s age – all of these drones claim to be operating out of Benin, just next door. Whatever the case, it’s still the same scammers running the same tired old scam.

Be careful out there, and protect your loved ones.

The Old Wolf has spoken.