Stormbringer's Thunder

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen The most effective way to keep your identity, finances, privacy, and so on safe online is to never go online. Easy enough... Unfortunately, since internet activity is ubiquitous and even expected, it is impractical to stay offline and live in this world. There are owlhoots looking to get information and money, and many are very skilled. Software developers are constantly updating against viruses, phishing, and other hacks — which is one reason to let your operating system, virus scanner, and other software update itself. Cybercrime warning, Pixabay / Gerd Altmann (geralt) Okay, we know that most folks cannot completely avoid going online to do certain minimal things. Sneaky people still find ways of causing people harm. Education is extremely important, and I reckon a good measure of suspicion is useful. Experience is helpful but getting that also has risks because people are exposed to sites that may be harmful. Suspicious Facebook Messenger message with link (...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Some website owners have a burr under their collective saddles about ad blockers, and we frequently encounter a site that will say, in essence, "Shut off your ad blocker or we won't let you view our site". (If I wanted to get bullied, I'd talk about the truth of biblical creation science to atheists.) So, I click out of the site — which may have received traffic if I used them as a reference in an article. There are some sites that ask you nicely to shut off the ad blocker, but let you continue. An attitude like that may cause me to reconsider if I have to go back there again. Some cranky authors attempt to make a case that  we are "stealing" if we use an ad blocker . Are we stealing when we fast-forward through commercials on our DVRs? Wonder where their foundation is for morality and ethics. Anyway, such a complaint doesn't make a whole heap of sense if you study on it. Bandwidth Not everyone is blessed with ultra-high spe...

Sometimes, I feel that I'm remiss if I don't occasionally remind people to never give out personal information! Most of my readers are not only tasteful, but highly intelligent. (Then there are the atheopaths — go ahead and take advantage of the special offer in the next paragraph.) Ignore any e-mail that wants personal information or a "click here", especially if the requested information was (a) in your spam folder, (b) not from anyone you know, (c) sounds too good to be true. Still, a reminder now and then helps, yes? morgueFile/mconnors Aside from the bad grammar from someone who does not speaks good engrish, the scam looks a bit more convincing than others. By the way, f or the atheopaths who are upset that they missed out on my Wingless Chicken Bones franchise offers, take a break from your ongoing pointless mission to demonize people . Here's another great deal for you!  Please pay attention, the font and color changes are to offset my wording ...

Taking time out of my bus y schedule before Question Evolution Day . Do I really need to lecture you on the dangers of even responding to one of these, let alone, giving personal information? Good, I didn't think I did. But I couldn't help but high light some indicators that this is garbage. Just another public service from Stormbringer Productions. Corporate Finance <office@ibex-bank-management.com> t o undisclosed recipients Attn: Sir/Madam You have been issued payment notice of Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($10.5M). The Zenith Bank will Programmed your fund($10.5M)into an ATM CARD, Powered By Master-Card/Visa card. The debit card can be used on any ATM machine/P.O.S (POINT OF SALES) all over the world, or you can go to your bank to off-load the funds. You are advised to re-confirm to us the below information or call me immediately on +234-802-213-2112 (1) Your Full-Name: (2) Your Physical address not PO...

And now for something completely different. Spammer listing: Another public service from Stormbringer Productions™. It's the evening before Thanksgiving in America. After all the turkey and things, perhaps the processed pork product that the unpleasantness in your e-mail is named after might sound like a nice change. If you want to get involved in fighting spam, there are two heavy-hitters. The first one I use extensively, it's " Knujon " ("No Junk" spelled backwards). Just register with them and then forward your e-mail. Read the details at the site. The second is more involved, but it is another aggressive, reputable opponent in the war on spam: Spamcop . I do not use it yet, but here's the link. Since Yahoo! AOL and other providers do not seem overly concerned with the spam that their customers receive, I take the extra step and report it, even though it's in my spam folder. When certain domains are reported enough times, they get blacklis...

Buona sera.  I received an e-mail from my old pal Joshua James. And then he sent me "2nd Attempt" e-mail. It certainly is nice that he's persistent. He probably knows me and I rudely forgot about him, because he actually addressed me by name on one of my accounts where I conduct legitimate business. Let's see... what are the problem areas? Trust has to be earned.  I learned from some of my associates this valuable lesson, that you don't give away too much trust too soon or you could end up taking a dirt nap, capice?  Trust your instinct a little, but give trust slowly. This cafone  hasn't done anything to earn my trust, since I never heard of the guy before. The only  thing going for it is that my name is there, but he could have bought it from another of my business contacts or subscriptions. Hotmail flagged it.  Sure, I get stuff flagged all the time. That's why I check the spam filter. I'm a member.  Of what? I didn't join anything. C...

Buona sera. Time for some thunder from Stormbringer! Yours truly performs a public service on occasion. Well, on many occasions. Anyway, I like to show scams and spam. Although most of my readers are perceptive, I still want to warn the general populace. Those that do not need to be warned can share my contempt for this loser. Scammers deserve to be exposed, capice? Nicky forwarded this e-mail that he received. We both wonder, how low can people go? -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Top Priority Mail; Read and Reply Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:23:52 -0800 From: Rob Bingham <jbloom713@aol.com> Reply-To: <cpt.rob@blumail.org> Due to security reasons I have attached a business proposal that will yield huge benefits. Read the attached instruction and reply. letter from Bin.rob.html ...

Buon giorno. You know I try to sound the alarm now and then. After all, I hate seeing people get ripped off, get viruses, scammed or whatever. This monstrosity came in the mail, and I'm going to show the world how cafones like this gang conduct business. Many people want to begin, improve or rebuild their credit rating, often after declaring bankruptcy. Sneaky people play on the hopes and sometimes desperation of people. This one is not the worst, it's just typical. In the picture (click for larger), you'll see that this company is "CreditOne". Their logo looks deceptively similar to CapitalOne , that's the first thing that bothered me. And you're "pre-approved" unless they decide you're no good after all. Well, even legitimate companies pull this trick, so I can't complain too loudly. By the way, I think the pretend credit card that companies attach is kind of insulting; we know what a credit card looks like, Leroy. There's ...

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Buon giorno. No, my title is not talking about sneaky Basement Cat. Instead, I'm talking about a telephone call I received from an almost-victim. Fortunately, she made the right choices and did not get burned. She related her story to me so that I can sound yet another scam warning. And you know that I like exposing the scammers. This one reminds me of the XP Antivirus (and similar names) scams . That one gives you a fake pop-up, telling you that you have many viruses while it is scanning your computer. (The last time I saw this, they were using animated gif files to simulate scanning.) Often, the victim downloads the malware because they were tricked into it. In this case, the target receives a telephone call from someone claiming to represent Microsoft. The scammer (often reported to have an Indian accent) says that Microsoft has...

The same thing I've told you about before . They want to settle an estate in the UK, but do not even put my name in the e-mail. The headers indicate "Yahoo" for the mailer, not what is written in the letter. Nothing wrong with Yahoo Mail, but established legal firms do not use free Web mail services. For people who are not regular readers, this is a scam. If you get a letter like this, delete it. What is funny is at the very end, they have the "misuse of this letter may be illegal" tag line, when the entire thing that was sent to me is illegal. Ha!   I put in extra line breaks to make the letter fit: From: Mrs Kathy McGowan AGGS Consultants Service Ltd. This is a confidential message from AGGS Consultants: private consulting firm in London,  United Kingdom. I have been directed to contact you with regards to ongoing investigations involving a  deceased client of Royal Bank of Scotland. The client, who shared the same last name with you,  died intestate so...

This just in. Yes, you must think I'm stupid. Probably because some people fall for this kind of crap. This has been reported, but I'm going to show the world the kind of thing that they can get in their Inbox. My readers are bright and will not fall for it. Perhaps someone less skilled in the Internet will need and heed the warning from this spammer scammer. By the way, the domains are "HK (Hong Kong), but the headers show China. Admittedly, they can all be faked. Trust no one like this. Here is the letter: Attn! I am writing you again because I presume our first correspondence was not successful. I have a mutual business project to transfer huge amount of money from my bank here to you based on a properly planned out strategy. This fund is deposit by Mr. Irshad Ahmad, Pakistani who died under some incomprehensible circumstances in Afghanistan. I will appreciate if you consider this project objective without any bias or stereotypes. Once we have successfully c...

Buona sera. I've been showing you scams and such to give you a warning, and to expose the losers that are doing it. Now I've decided to show you what a real one looks like. Naturally, I'll delete all of the pertinent information. My changes will be in red, the rest will be what the company sent me. In this case, I got an e-mail from one of those that gets impersonated quite a bit, eBay. Remember, this is a real letter. Hello **My Name** ( Valid account name ),------------------------------------------------------------------------------------eBay sent this message to **My Name** ( Valid account name ). Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more: http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/name-userid-emails.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is a courtesy reminder that the following credit/debit card on file for your eBay account will soon e...

Here's the latest scam to hit one of my Inboxes. Note that this lying weasel does not even use an established domain, but is using Netscape.net (which was taken over by AOL several years ago!) and also aim.com. AIM is AOL Instant Messenger's free e-mail service. At the bottom, it looks like the e-mail came from a German site because of the advertising tag line. The headers do not support this. I wonder why spammers and scammers like "three"? Three millions pounds, three million dollars... Once again, I will remind you to never send personal information to strangers, never reply to these things at all (your e-mail address is not validated to them and you'll get even more), if it looks to good to be true, you know that's the case. And I hope you can see through the fake religiousness of this. Mrs Rosemary Everson Email:roseverson@netscape.net Dear Beloved, My name is Rosemary Everson,i am a dying woman who has decided to donate What i have to you. I am 5...

Buona sera. I was hoping for something to let some venom loose on, and what did I find in my Inbox? A scam. And not just a scam, but one of the classics. So, I'll perform my public service of educating you on this stuff (and you can refer others back here so they can see this and learn something), and also try to humiliate the scammers. One way I do that is to post the thing that they sent (and they sent it three times to an account that I have under one of my assumed names). And I checked the headers (you don't have to, they're often faked). Although it pretends to be for the UK, the headers say that it came from Mexico. Here we go. I'll show you what was sent, and then tell you some things about it. Most of my regular readers do not need a refresher course, but it won't hurt in case you're getting rusty. Dear WINNER [No name, of course] We wish to congratulate you over YAHOO AWARDS CENTER ( UK ) UNITED KINGDOM Postcode Lotto E-mail program. [Don'...

You know I'm frequently trying to provide a public service. Here's another one. This puppy just dropped into my personal Inbox. If you get this, don't click on anything, just delete it. It claims to give me an update to Windows XP and to Vista. If it was from Microsoft, well, my computer is registered, I get automatic updates, and they know full well what system I have. Why delete it? After a brief search, I found out it's a phishing scam (click for definition) , and I took out the active link: Free Update Windows XP,Vista About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers. Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute a...

What can I say? If you get something like this, don't fall for it! And this is hilarious: Two of the links show that Kim Woo Choong is going to jail for fraud! These losers can't even scam right! And they want me to invest funds in China? Yeah, I'll invest in the Tibetan people! It'll be a helluva birthday gift for the Dalai Lama! Now, I also hope you don't break the cardinal rule, and I'll say it again: NEVER give personal or confidential information away to strangers. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is" still holds true, so don't trust this stuff. Some of these stronzos are stupid enough to keep circulating their names all over the Internet for a while. But later on, they'll change their names. The basic approach that I've posted in scams in this Weblog will still remain, however. So don't be fooled. Dear Friend, This is a Management Placement on behalf of Mr. Kim Woo Choong. Mr. Kim Woo Choong is looking for an expe...

Wowie! No more sneaking at night, no more shaking down late payments for cheese deliveries, no more government work...Yeah, sure. One of the first rules in Not Being Scammed is that you don't fall for "winning" a lottery that you never entered. In a foreign country. Where they don't know your name. Don't be a cafone . I have fun showing these scammers up, so here's today's lesson. From the keyboard of the lovely and talented Stephanie Wilson: UK GAMING BOARD ALERT. Compliments of the day to You and Your Family. We wish to inform you of the result of the National Lottery Sweepstakes program The entire staff of the Uk National Lottery wishes to inform you that your Email address has won the total Cash Prize of £850,000.00 The draw was done electronically with several email addresses provided to this office by microsoft to enhance the utilization of the internet. Your email address attached to Serial no: 5368/02, was Picked as One Of the Five Winning email Ad...

Updated 3-21-2008 There have been many hits on this posting from people doing searches. Glad I can be of service. A bit of new material is posted at the end. You never met a weblog writer quite like me! Gather round, gang. Uncle Bob wants to show you a scam. Remember, I do this stuff to entertain and educate. Most of my readers won't fall for this, but maybe someone who stumbles on this site (and they do come from all around the world) will take the warning. Be suspicious! I received two letters in two days. They're almost identical. (I'm not the only one , either.) I'll reproduce one here and put my comments in red. FROM: ALPHA FINANCIAL CONSULT. Yes, this does exist. LONDON, U.K. We wish to notify you again (?) that you were listed as a beneficiary to the total sum of £6,000,000.00 GBP (Six Million British Pounds) in the codicil and last testament of the deceased. (Name now withheld since this is our second letter to you). No, it's not. We con...