Category Archives: Scams

Switch to Pink Facebook Hoax Spreading Fast

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Message appearing on Facebook claiming to change your Facebook Pink, is a survey scam

There are ways to switch to a Pink Facebook using Chrome which you can Google for but there is a link spreading on Facebook at the moment, which is a hoax.

Title – Switch to Pink Facebook (Limited Time)

The link here is the same as all survey scams – when you click it, it spams all of your friends facebook walls telling them of the good news, that you have a pink facebook, which you don’t realise until its too late.

You are asked to first fill in a survey for verification but of course, nothing happens, they now have lots of information from you and the scammers have been paid for their efforts in scamming you.

If you see this on your wall delete it, and tell the person to inform followers that it is a scam, and follow these instructions to remove a facebook scam.

Always check out suspicious links before clicking it, IF IN DOUBT DON’T CLICK !

Update : There are now other scams – asking you click the link to get Black Facebook – Blue Facebook, and probably rainbow Facebook – as I said these are fake. There are ways to change the background and ways to get colours in chrome but I’d search on Google for those if I were you.

Hope this helps

 

 

Facebook video scam puts convincing personal message on your wall

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More scams ….

I got this today – on my Facebook wall – shared by one of my friends, you might think it is authentic as it had my name in it.

It shows the link as a blogspot address which if you look at it – doesn’t look too real – UYTUTIUYUIUIOU looks like someone had a heart attack at the keyboard.

There is usually a telltale sign that says its a fake share – that is it on this one, apart from the fact it has a possible explicit picture beside the message.  There was another similar one recently with a different picture.

Hey Michelle u wont believe!  I dare you to watch this

98% Of People Cant Watch This Video For More Than 25 Seconds

I checked others that were shared and they had different messages but all with a personal touch.

Amazing! dave check the sad post I dare you can watch this .
Hey! kevin u wont believe! I dare you can watch this .

And so on …..

Obviously this is a scam, but a bit of a clever one – it tricks you into thinking that your friend has actually seen this video by using your name.  And it first makes you share the “video” before you’ve even seen it.   There is no video – but eventually a survey scam for you to fill out so that you pay the scammers.

Don’t be fooled into clicking this link ……

I think the fact that you shared this to all of your friends is enough fun for the scammers and there probably isn’t any actual hacking going on but as always I suggest…

As precaution check your allowed applications.

Go to your Privacy Settings,  Apps and Websites – Edit Settings – Apps you use – and check which apps that you have allowed.

Also change your password.

Hope this helps

Facebook scam video – OMG I just hate RIHANNA after watching this video

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Rihanna OMG

OMG I just hate Rihanna after watching this video, has found its way to my friends facebook walls.

Scammers are using celebrities we like to get to us, this time its to watch Rihanna on youtube.   Scams are sometimes connected to celebrities because hackers know people just can’t wait to click that link without thinking, and by then its too late.

This particular scam has been around for ages now, its changed shape or form but essentially its always the same – this is what it looks like now…

As you see it tells you that you will LOST your all respect for RIHANNA after watching this, a tell-tail sign that its fake, its very bad English.

As many scams or hoaxes like this is actually a survey scam –  when you click the link it will take you to a survey – and you know the rest…. if you don’t, then read these! 🙂

 

These and many more are pretty much the same if not identical as the survey scam above, you don’t see a video at all but you are taken to a survey which if you complete the scammer gets paid for violating your page and  your friends and you get nothing.

Please try not to be fooled by these scams, I know its difficult if its something popular like this but ask yourself if the first place you would have heard about this would have been Facebook and not the news.

As precaution check your allowed applications.

Go to your Privacy Settings,  Apps and Websites – Edit Settings – Apps you use – and check which apps that you have allowed.

Also change your password.

Hope this helps

Picture Source – creative commons

Email hacker Simon Ashton is it a Hoax ?

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Hacker Simon Ashton

Simon Ashton must be a famous email hacker by now!

I was shocked and surprised to receive in my email a hacker hoax that has been going around since 1995 – Do you remember those? Every other email in your Hotmail box was a FW of spam!  Lots of spam!  NOW this virus warning email has made its way to my Gmail, and I don’t like that. 

Famous Hacker Simon Ashton

So, what happens if you get an email in your inbox warning you of Hacker Simon Ashton

The email says

VERY URGENT – PLEASE READ – NOT A JOKE

IF A PERSON CALLED SIMON ASHTON ( SIMON25@HOTMAIL.CO.UK ) CONTACTS YOU THROUGH EMAIL DON’T OPEN THE MESSAGE. DELETE IT BECAUSE HE IS A HACKER!!

TELL EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS HIM THEN YOU WILL GET HIM ON YOUR LIST. HE WILL FIGURE OUT YOUR ID COMPUTER ADDRESS, SO COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE EVEN IF YOU DON’T CARE FOR THEM AND FAST BECAUSE IF HE HACKS THEIR EMAIL HE HACKS YOUR MAIL TOO!!!!!…..

Anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail titled ‘Mail Server Report’

If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying: ‘It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.’

Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC,
And the person who o sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.

This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon. AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the anti virus software’s are not capable of destroying it .

The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself ‘life owner’..

PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to
PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY!

Hacker Simon Ashton

 

Firstly the warning didn’t arrive this morning, from Microsoft and Norton, this email is 15 years old at least!  And there is no way that Simon Ashton can hack you from adding you to his list.   Its absolute rubbish. If this guy ever even existed he’s probably retired by now! Lol This is just a bogus hacker warning that does nothing but get in the way.

No one knows why this started, some say hackers just did it for a laugh to see how far they could fool people, others say its a great way to gain email addresses, if everyone sends it to everyone in their contacts list. However, its so old now, its probably not being used for anything at all. 

Don’t forward on these things, they are annoying pieces of spam. It doesn’t help anyone, if you want to watch out for warnings – bookmark my website!

If you get this email or similar, tell the person that sent it that is it a hoax and direct them to here so they can read for themselves.

I don’t think hackers are particularly worried about email anymore, they are far more busy with our social networking sites.

The only way to gain access to your accounts are via your password – they get this by either just guessing, sending bogus messages so you enter your password (phishing email) or via keystroke capturing. Which can also come from bogus messages/links.

Update – 2015 – can you believe this is doing the rounds again – asking  you to send the email to another address so they can check it out – don’t – just delete the email and carry on.

What is a Phishing email

The email will usually be from someone or something you recognise like your bank or paypal – frightening  you into thinking that you need to click the link to reset your account or similar – the link will look real but it will be fake and ask you to log into your bank account for example, and now they have your password and any other details.  Like this Yahoo Email Phishing Scam and it happens on Twitter to – Twitter DM Phishing Scam 

 

Remember never forward or click any links that you are not sure about.  Google it first, Google is your friend 🙂

Hope this helps

 

 

 

Scam Alerts – Facebook, Girl killed herself scam & Twitter email

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There are two scams flying around the internet, one on Facebook and the other is a variation on email scams, designed to hack.

Facebook – 

Girl Killed Herself on Halloween After Dad Posted This on Her Wall – The scam link shows this picture.

This is just a rerun by scammers of the past which as usual is spreading deathly fast! Excuse the pun! It actually has the cheek to ask you to share and recommend it before you’ve even been taken to the link to see if it is real.

As usual this doesn’t take you to a video or even an update but to a online survey. I’d like to say luckily enough as who really wants to see whatever that content is. The picture is gruesomeness people!

Twitter email scams

We have seen and are getting other reports of various scams being sent via email – pretending to be a notification from Twitter.com.

The message either says,

  • You have been banned or blocked on Twitter (I got this one –  Funny as I was already logged in when I received it)
  • You have an unread direct message
  • You have 1 unread message
  • You have changed your email address

Or something similar – of course this is designed to make you curious to think what you have missed or done and so you click the link.

These links aren’t connect to Twitter.com at all but appear to be a Phishing site that will manage to get your password when they ask you to log in.

The best thing to do, is not use notifications but to just log into twitter the normal way and see if this is in fact true.

Also I am going to add once more – please do not click messages in your DM folder that say something like

These are all spam scams, don’t click them as this compromises your account and they will just send out the same messages to all of your friends.
If you notice that messages are going out from your account that you didn’t send –
Revoke access to any third party application that you don’t recognise
Change your password
Update any 3rd party apps that you do use to log in after you have changed your password.
And remember to delete all of the tweets that were send out, and maybe apologise and warn others.

Okay, I just felt that might need saying again, as I we are seeing many people getting caught by these DM’s again.

Hope this helps,

 

Facebook Gold Membership Hoax

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The Gold Membership hoax could now cost money!  Fake “where to pay” sites are appearing.

Facebook users have been warned that facebook charging scams  like this are circulating, they are FAKE.  However people are still sharing these things –  I’ve seen facebook pages and messages with a link to a website to pay your money – don’t click it, and certainly don’t pay its bogus!

This one went viral really quickly …

FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES

FACEBOOK SUPPOSEDLY JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY.

Facebook have said themselves they have no intention of charging.

Being shared right now – I believe it is supposed to be a joke as it is very funny but people are taking it seriously.

Remember Facebook makes it money through advertising, and with new facebook there will be even more advertising, they do not need us to pay.

Don’t help the scammers scam others and just don’t repost or share for them.

Hope this helps…

Clever Facebook 7th Birthday Scam

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Facebook users are  being lead to believe that they can get a free pair of shoes as a special gift from Facebook as a birthday celebration.

To redeem your gift all you have to do is verify your Facebook account by logging into Facebook mobile.
There is even a video showing you how to do this to make it seem even more realistic and because it is quite tricky to find your facebook mobile email.  You then have to complete a survey (which is how they earn their money)  This should always be an alarm for users, surveys on Facebook are usually dodgy.
Another alarm for us, is that you never get anything for free – free iPad click here, how often do you see that, do you click it? Free shoes? No pictures or sizing?  Apparently there is also one of these that has free T-shirts.
If you do this you have allowed the scammer to use your Facebook account and post status updates or upload videos to your profile as they now have your facebookmobile email address, which is what this is used for.
If you were scammed you need to change  or refresh your Facebook mobile email address right away, at the same address as the scammers told you go to.
Hope this helps

Paedo Alert! Protecting our kids

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Facebook say they have “no objection in principle” to installing an anti-paedophile panic button on its site for kids who feel that they may be in danger.…. Paedo Alert!

This one statement has produced two different sides of coverage…..
Facebook Might Add ‘Panic Button’ To Protect Kids
The Next Web
Facebook rules out installing ‘panic button’
BBC News
 
What exactly does that statement mean?
 
I think it means they are biding their time until they can come up with another solution, maybe they don’t like to be told what to do?
Facebook was criticised for not doing enough to protect our youngsters after the murder of Ashleigh Hall. The schoolgirl was killed by 33 year old serial rapist Peter Chapman who pretended to be young boy on the site and lured her to her death.
However it seems that a CEOP panic button would not have helped Ashleigh as it has been reported that she didn’t suspect his motives so she had no reason to feel threatened by him, he seemed to her like a pleasant teenage boy. This led her to secretly meet him, telling her mum she was staying at a friend’s house – soon later she was dead.
I’m not sure why Facebook would not want to install a CEOP Panic button; I originally thought they were concerned about blatant misuse and the unavoidable work that would go into monitoring it.However reports from the CEOP ‘Report Abuse’ mechanism go directly to the child exploitation and on line protection intelligence centre and the team there then analyse, assess and take appropriate action according to the perceived risk and threat to an individual child, so I assume it would not be any more work or cost to Facebook am I wrong?
Link to CEOP
MSN and Bebo have had these buttons for some time and I believe they are working for them.
Facebook do have their own links on the help page already for various concerns about harassment, bullying or suspected paedophiles but you do have to look for them. A button on each page would mean immediate reporting.
Whether or not this Button materialises or not it still remains apparent that we need to educate our children. They too, like to social network online which I assume is why they have 400+ friends on their accounts, there is no way at 15 etc they “know” this. Many people and the strangers that they are friends with are gaining information and looking at pictures of them each day, and especially where children/teenagers are concerned this is not good and not safe.

Paedo Alert!

 
Trust is a two-way street
 
We can help as parents to keep the communications open, so that teens will feel comfortable enough talk to us about what they are doing in their lives.
Some key features that we all know but sometimes forget….
 
  • Be Available – don’t always say “In a minute”.
  • Don’t ask too many difficult questions – they will clam up.
  • Try not to be defensive.
  • Be straight forward in giving feedback.
  • Talk about yourself, not always about what they do wrong.
  • Continue with physical affection – let them know you care.
  • Always give positive feedback when they do right.
Paedo Alert!
 
Protecting our kids
 
We would all like some way of protecting our teenagers from these beasts other than the usual advice (like these) which some youngsters choose to ignore, teenagers know best, right? We need to reinforce these guidelines.
 
  • Never meet someone on your own – especially not without telling your family exactly where you are going. MOST IMPORTANT! You cannot trust anyone, (sad but true) even if they promise you the world.
  • Be sensible about what information you put on your profile page – obviously never put your address or phone number.
  • In order to prevent harassment from strangers, be careful to accept friend requests only from people you know in real life.
  • Always report any messages or profiles that look suspicious.
  • If someone is abusive use “Report/Block person” link that appears at the bottom of the user’s profile.
  • Don’t have suggestive or sexual profile pictures this can only attract the wrong type of person.
  • Be careful what photos you let everyone see, only put pictures in albums you would be happy for your mum to see – “friends only” is an excellent privacy button.
  • Remember there is a link to report a possible sex offender on the Facebook help page, so if you are concerned use this link
 
Facebook has an age limit of 13; there is a reason for this. Maybe you didn’t realise how easy it is for kids to bypass this; perhaps it might help if Facebook made this harder to access. It worries me that children of this age or younger could be targeted; perhaps you think the age limit should be higher?
 
These guidelines don’t stop the fun, chatting and playing games with their friends online, that is what it’s all about but it is time to start being a bit more vigilant and see if we can get our kids to be. On its own I’m still not convinced another link/button will help but alongside some basic guidance and our help, it will assist. It’s a dangerous world out there; we need to not invite it into our homes.