by Alan Langford | 2014-10-23 | Observations on Everything
Now that domain registrars have made another ludicrous cash grab by charging for domain privacy services, people are opting out of privacy protection. Well, the scum of the Earth is waiting to victimize unsuspecting new registrants:
Hi there,
Domain Name: [redacted] (Account #nnnnn)
This email is being sent out to you because search registration for [redacted] is pending.
Please register these domains to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo ASAP to avoid late fees.
Registering for search engines would help you show up in search results and increase your online presence.
You can register your domain at: [link]
We sincerely appreciate your business! If you require anything, we are at your service.
Remember… If you do not register your domain with the search engines, it may not appear in the search engine listing when people are looking for you. Failure to complete your domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may make it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web. Complete your search engine registration today at: www.searchregistry.org
Sincerely,
Search Engine Registry
1787 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Suite 1025
Washington DC, 20006
But never fear. For acting quickly, not only will you avoid late fees (???), but you get a HUGE discount. Yes, now you can pay just $100 for nothing!
by Alan Langford | 2012-05-15 | Observations on Everything
Another case where the use of unique, hard to guess mail addresses reveals a problem with data security. This time the co-victim and/or offender is the Yellow Pages Group. (more…)
by Alan Langford | 2012-03-01 | Observations on Everything
What’s worse than a security issue? Ignoring it and hoping it will go away.
First a bit of background. For years, I’ve been tracking spam by generating unique forwarding addresses every time I register on a site. The intent was to be able to track the sources of spam and easily disable a compromised address. In practice, it’s proven to be a tool for detecting all sorts of misbehaviour. (more…)
by Alan Langford | 2011-04-14 | Observations on Everything
Microsoft must have finally gotten the upper hand in Windows security.
I just talked with a non-technical friend who got a call from a call centre purporting to be Microsoft. The agent explained, in broken English, that Microsoft had “detected a virus on her computer”. He then attempted to direct her to TeamViewer, a remote desktop access application.
It was at this point that she wisely terminated the call and got in touch with me. (more…)
by Alan Langford | 2009-05-21 | Observations on Everything
Edited 2020: Consumer Reports “archived” the articles referenced here when they stopped publishing Consumerist in 2017. Since they didn’t bother to put in redirects for their old URLs, the links have been broken for some time. Better yet, with the latest reorganization of this site, the internal link didn’t work because I didn’t bother to put in redirects either. Sad face. Now they all work again.
Since my Skype Fraud post is one of the most popular here, I thought I’d throw in a few references to some other similar tricks. This one is particularly funny:
Bad Luck Facebook Scammer, You Picked A Target Who Reads Consumerist with the wonderful phrase “Once I deposit the funds, you can print it out of any colour printer and it’s real money!”
Then there’s the original article referenced in the one above: Nigerian Scammers Break Into Your Gmail, Ask Your Friends For Money.
We can only hope that one of these days the scammers just go out of business because everyone has enough information to spot them and waste their time. Not likely, but one can hope.
Recent Comments