Another 'sextortion' Bitcoin scam email - these are sent out randomly, do not pay them anything

Another one of these spam / scam emails in my spam folder in Gmail (see my previous post). 

They are sent out to long lists of email addresses and have nothing to do with you personally. Ignore them, do not send money. I just publish these in case others google some text from the email. I hope they find this (or another scam awareness page) and are reassured that it's nonsense.

I have reported the Bitcoin wallet (1KSb6ZYjXjP5aGyMf6LDfmad5rsC7fV73J) here too: https://www.chainabuse.com/

- - - - -

From: clifford@audumi.lv
Subject: Amount of taxes

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

I'VE GAINED ACCESS TO YOUR DEVICES DUE TO YOUR VISITS TO CERTAIN WEBSITES.
In fact, it was those sites that helped me. One of them contained my special code, which worked. This means that I can see everything happening on your scr and in front of it.

IF YOU DOUBT THIS, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
I'm not wasting my time on you and will simply post all this information about you on every possible website and social network, and send it to all your contacts.

I've made copies of your most interesting files and also have the contact addresses you use most often. I have your browsing history. I have everything I need. Initially, I was going to delete all the content from your devices and forget about it. But I looked at the sites you regularly visit and changed my mind. I'm talking about sites with all kinds of inappropriate content.

After some time, I had an idea. I took screenshots of the website pages where you spend your time alone. then I captured screenshots of you satisfying yourself using the cam of one of your deviecs. (by the way, I had to wait for you to successfully get in front of the canera lens.) But it was worth it, and it will impress all your acquaintances and regular people on the Internet.

To make a long story short, I'm offering you a DEAL. You transfer the money to me, and I'll delete all this stuff about you, and we will forget about each other.

1194 american dollars in Bitconis is fine with me.
My special wallet: 1KSb6ZYjXjP5aGyMf6LDfmad5rsC7fV73J

I give you only 44 hours from now to pay .
I've already mentioned what happens if you don't pay, I don't care, it's up to you.
And don't hold a grudge. Everyone has a job to do.

IF I SEE THE CONTENTS OF THIS EMAIL ON GOOGLE (etc.)
I WILL IMMEDIATELY PUBLISH ALL THE DATA COLLECTED,
NOT FORGETTING EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

 

 

 

Wasted money buying weight loss pills online? Try and get your money back and report to Action Fraud

This post is modified from one that appeared as part of an earlier post and is aimed at people in the UK.

Weight loss pills and supplements are advertised in newspapers (though I think some of them are cottoning on to the fact that they don't really work), magazines, television programmes and adverts, dedicated websites, pop-ups on other people's websites, sites like Instagram, Twitter and on YouTube. If you've bought some and wish you hadn't (check your credit card / debit card bill as there may be ongoing charges added) then here are some suggestions for what you might be able to do.

1. Try and get your money back
If you've bought pills (or anything online) with a debit or credit card then you may be able to get your money back. Have a look at the information on Section 75 and Chargeback at Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert page on Visa, Mastercard & Amex Chargeback: protection for debit card purchases. I think it only works if the cost was over £100 though but worth checking.

2a. Report the website to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
How to complain about misleading marketing / advertising (as of 2011 websites are included) - http://asa.org.uk/Consumers/How-to-complain.aspx

Have a look at what the Committee of Advertising Practice (they produce the guidelines that the ASA uses to determine if marketing material on websites or leaflets is OK) has to say about various types of weight loss advertising too.

• Weight control: Herbalife and similar weight management products
• Weight control: Food and Food Supplements
• Weight control: Pills, medicines and patches - note that "claims such as “decrease appetite”, “burn fat” and “speed up metabolism” are likely to be medicinal and should not be made for unauthorised products."

See also UK Government information on the Advertising Standards Authority 


2b. Report to Trading Standards 
From Trading Standards' website - Trading Standards tips for successful New Year's resolutions: 

• The New Year may seem like a perfect time to get back into those skinny jeans. Trading Standards is warning consumers to be sceptical of fad diets, misleading statements and exaggerated promises made by companiespromising to have a “miracle cure”. Not only will they fail to lighten anything but your wallet, many products may be untested and could be extremely unsafe.
• Trading Standards warns consumers to be wary of internet sellers or small ads offering weight loss supplements such as herbal remedies which promise an easy route to weightloss.
•  Consumers have reported falling foul of internet sites where they thought they were subscribingto a free slimming pill trial only to discover they were tied into expensive contracts.

The first port of call was previously Consumer Direct however Citizen's Advice took over this role in April 2012, see their Advice Guide.

If you know the operating address of the company then contact the relevant local Trading Standards office, you can do this from the UK Government's Trading Standards web portal. Note that the UK office address may not be the company's actual address (might be outside of the UK).

There's some good background advice in this This is Money article (note that it's from 2009 so some of the links won't work and Consumer Direct aren't involved anymore) - "Help! I've been caught by diet pills scam".

See also "Warning issued over illegal 'fat burning' chemical" (September 2013) from the Trading Standards Institute.


2c. Report it to Action Fraud
If you have lost money in buying unevidenced weight loss pills you can report this to Action Fraud, who have this to say on Miracle Health Scams:

"Miracle health scams can include fake ‘miracle’ cures and weight loss products as well as bogus online pharmacies.

It is unlikely that such products have been properly tested or that there is any proof that they are medically effective. Some of these products may even be harmful.

Advertising for miracle health cures often include fake testimonials from apparently satisfied customers, have unproven claims about the product’s effectiveness, make false claims about clinical tests and have worthless ‘money back’ guarantees."

---

Tis the season of weight loss pills, and other online pills, for which there is generally not very good evidence. 

Most are probably fairly harmless and just ineffective (waste of money, and a hassle to get a refund), but some aren't harmless and the sorts of risks can include:

• the pills do contain the ingredients listed but the pills should really only be used under medical supervision
• the pills don't contain the ingredients listed but some other (possibly prescription-only) medicine, perhaps one that has been taken off the market

To be fair, very few are actually lethal. Do watch out for the fat burning one above though.

Fairly often the pills will contain a variety of herbal ingredients and minerals but no evidence is given that the pills have been tested as a combination of those ingredients. If evidence is offered only for the individual ingredients (often small studies in animals or humans) then be wary as things can behave quite differently in combination - and if the pills haven't been tested in the format that they're being sold in then the company cannot reasonably make any claims about them.

I've written previously about the tactics of review sites* and the concept of article spinning** and this means that I sometimes get blog comments from people who are annoyed at having paid money for online pills - hope this updated post helps.


*they're often not actually review sites but provide a link to a merchant site from which you can buy the product, while giving the review site a small percentage of the sale - this is perfectly legal by the way, and often used to really good effect by some charitable organisations (eg with selling books through Amazon) it's just helpful to be aware of it.

**taking a block of text, changing a few words, and publishing this in the hope of fooling Google that it's a fresh new website - this has let people 'flood' the internet with similar websites all promoting the same product, though Google has begun penalising some of the sites.

Difficulties in rhyming orange, and cautionary scam site tale

Years ago while having lunch with my colleagues someone said they'd found a poetry site online to which you could submit poems with an opportunity to win something or other. We all thought this was a brilliant wheeze and agreed to rustle up a poem and send it in. Most of us did (after discussion I agreed to write the poem in which someone would attempt to rhyme something with 'orange') and then a few days later we all got emails or letters (some had included their postal address!) saying that we'd won the opportunity to have our excellent poems published in an anthology. Not only that but we were all invited to a ceremony in the US at which we'd receive an engraved cup with our name and something to highlight that we were published poets.

Alarm bells rang.

We had a look at the website and clicked on the links we'd been given which would show us the engraved item ready made for us to collect. Unfortunately connection speeds (even in an academic setting) were a little slower in those days and, over a busy lunch time when everyone was surfing, it was clear that what was loading was a generic picture of a metal cup and then another picture of our name was being overlaid on top of it. We were so scammed!

We investigated further and discovered that technically it managed to sail close enough to not being an actual scam to avoid being shut down - it was vanity publishing. It was true that everyone's poems would be published in an anthology which could be purchased and, apparently, people really did turn up to ceremonies at which they were given engraved trinkets. The poems were pretty rubbish though and there was no quality control - one colleague admitted that his poem had just been some random words and phrases stuck together and he was a bit surprised to find himself hailed as a poet laureate too.

I was amazed to find that people were falling for it though - some of the published poems were dreadful and it seems there was no editing of typos or spelling mistakes. Apparently it went on for years and Wikipedia has quite an interesting entry on it.

Anyway, here's my "winning" poem. It's obviously crap but I like to think it has flashes of genius. Fortunately it didn't cost me any money ;)

Unusually orange cereal bowl

By those of linguistic bent

it's said that "orange" s'not meant
to partake in a rhyme

for much of the time

(even written reversed it yields little verse!)

But this edict does not trouble me

nor put me off my poetry

and sustained by my porridge

for rhyme have I foraged...

...while "orange" is rhymeless, its superlatives ain't

I observe that my porridge-bowl has an orangeish taint*

(it's orangeish hue is clearly on view).

So I'm extremely chuffed to be able to boast

that my porringer is oranger than most.

Yes indeed, it stands up to the test,

my porringer's oranger than the rest.

I'm not in jest
Mine's the best

It's the orangest!

Copyright Me, (c) 2002. Also possibly www.poetry.com (no longer a scam site as it's now been bought out by Lulu Poetry).

*technically the term 'taint' with this meaning is archaic / obsolete and you should feel free to replace it with tint, but it doesn't rhyme as well, unless you also pronounce 'ain't' as 'int'.