Another spam email, promising me millions ;)

I do love a good scam email. This was correctly categorised as spam by Gmail and placed in a folder, however I am unable to resist playing along (if you do this, don't click links) so I hoiked it out to see what they send out when you 'bite'. 

Not surprisingly an almost identical version of the second email can be found here https://stopscamfraud.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25093

This arrived first, apparently from someone at HungKuang university in Taiwan, who may have had their account hacked or phished. Email address begins with letter u then there are eight numbers.

_________________________________

On Tue, 24 Oct 2023 at 20:30, Name redacted <[email address redacted]@ms.hk.edu.tw> wrote:

Hello

I apologize for the urgency, but could you please speak with me at your soonest possible convenience?”


*Sincerely,*

[Name redacted]
*President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy*
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

_________________________________

 

I replied disingenuously that this had reached me in error, which of course triggered this one:

_________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: [redacted but now a Gmail address]
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 at 08:22
Subject: Re: Mutual Benefit
To: [me]

Hello [me]

Thanks for your swift response, firstly, I will formally introduce myself to you, my name is Mr. [Name Redacted]. I am currently the President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy. I am sorry to have encroached into your privacy in this manner, without further delays, I will immediately proceed with the details of the proposal as said in my introductory email to you.

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this email confidential and also respect the integrity of the information that you are coming across as a result of this email. I contacted you privately and no one is aware of this communication thus the reason why I had us communicate strictly via our email.

I am the personal accountant to one (Late Mr. Robert), a foreign contractor with Royal Dutch, who has an investment account with my bank. Unfortunately, my client died along with his nuclear family in France while on a Sabbatical leave during the summer of the year 2011, may their soul rest in peace. He died without leaving a Will. Several efforts were made to find his extended family through his embassy without success.

Furthermore, I received a notification last week to provide the next of kin of my late client being his personal accountant or the account risk being transferred to the government (es-cheat) in 14 days' time. I am contacting you to assist me in repatriating the funds left behind by my late client. This claim will be executed without breaching any Turkish laws and success is guaranteed if we co-operate on this. The bank will release the account to you because of the recommendation of you as the next of kin.

I am a man of high integrity; I will not lie to you and I expect the same from you. The amount involved is €8,250,700.00EUR (Eight Million Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Seven Hundred Euros), I propose we share the proceeds 50/50, I think this is fair?

I will provide you with all the necessary information about this deal when I get your response. I am contacting you to assist me because I know you can handle this. The bank could not identify any of his relatives because nobody came to make claims, of which no one knows of his account with my bank. That's the reason I contacted you, to stand in as the NEXT OF KIN to my late client because in a few weeks' time all the assets will be handed over to the government, so I thought it wise it could be of benefit to us if we did co-operate as one to archive this.

I assure you that there will be no form of Risk or illegality in carrying out this transaction because I have been working on this for a very long time and have made sure that the process is free and fair for both of us. I anticipate your cooperation. Treat this proposal with utmost confidentiality and urgency for 100% success. Do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you.

My position as President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas guarantees the successful execution of this transaction. If you find yourself able to work with me, I urge you to indicate that without delay. Once again, do note it's confidential, and be assured that this transaction would be profitable for both of us.

Thanks in advance for considering this, and I await your prompt response.

*Sincerely,*

[redacted, in case they've stolen a real person's email account and are using their name]
*President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy*

 _________________________________

The 'sextortion' bitcoin email scam is back

Found this in the Spam mailbox on one of my email accounts today. It's a load of tosh copied and pasted and sent out in the hope that someone will bite. I see the address has already been reported, and it looks like some people have sent money. I've forwarded it to report@phishing.gov.uk and have added my report to those already on ChainAbuse / Bitcoin Abuse.

If you get one of these do not give them money. They are talking nonsense.

Screenshots at the end.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

From "hakapgijvnwwfvjfscs@ns1.engenho.io"

Hi,

I'm a hacker and have successfully managed to hack your operating system.
Currently I have gained full access to your account.

I've been watching you for a few months now ╭ ᑎ ╮

The fact is that your computer has been infected with malware through an adult site that you visited.
If you are not familiar with this, I will explain.
Trojan virus gives me full access and control over a computer or other device.
This means that I can see everything on your screen, turn on the camera and microphone, but you do not know about it.
I also have access to all your contacts and all your correspondence.

You may be wondering why your antivirus cannot detect my malicious software.
The malware I used is driver-based, I update its signatures every 4 hours.
Hence your antivirus is unable to detect its presence.

I made a video showing how you satisfy yourself in the left half of the screen,
and the right half shows the video you were watching at the time.

With one mouse click, I can send this video to all your emails and contacts on your social networks.
I can also make public all your e-mail correspondence and chat history on the messengers that you use.

I believe you would definitely want to avoid this from happening.
Here is what you need to do - transfer the Bitcoin equivalent of $500 to my Bitcoin account
(that is rather a simple process, which you can check out online in case if you don't know how to do that).

Below is my bitcoin account information:
18P9Lu2n6uB6s3QeL1C9D2pA4wCaiU1z9H

Once the required amount is transferred to my account, I will proceed with deleting all those videos and disappear from your life once and for all.
Kindly ensure you complete the abovementioned transfer within 52 hours (more than 2 days).
I will receive a notification right after you open this email, hence the countdown will start.

Trust me, I am very careful, calculative and never make mistakes.
If I discover that you shared this message with others, I will straight away proceed with making your private videos public.

Have a nice day! 

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

 

1. Image above shows google search results from entering the bitcoin wallet into the search bar.

 

2. Image above shows two reports already made by other people about this address

3. Image above is a screenshot of the email sent to one of my Gmail addresses, as it appears in the spam folder.

 

 

Genevieve Flight of Shambhallah Healing Centre found guilty at Gloucester Crown Court

Genevieve Flight is or was the director of the Shambhallah Healing Center/Centre and she and her centre made a variety of misleading claims about being able to cure Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, as well as asthma, cancer and diabetes. 

She maintained that there is no disease that doesn't also have a cure, and she was reported to Trading Standards after she infiltrated a closed cancer patient Facebook group and tried to tout her cures there. This resulted in a court case and a jury at Gloucester Crown Court found her guilty in her absence (apparently she's fled to Nigeria and was tried in absentia) and there is an arrest warrant for her, for her to attend court for sentencing.

"She was convicted of six charges of falsely claiming a product can cure illness, and six of engaging in a misleading practice." (BBC News)

The Shambhallah Healing Centre has previously had two Advertising Standards Authority adjudications upheld against it, in 2018, for similar misleading claims. I had wondered if she might be being prosecuted under the Cancer Act 1939 but it's more to do with misleading practice. 

A transcript of her Trading Standards interview was read out in court (copies are in a couple of papers below, eg Metro) and she suggested that TS send her someone suffering from an ailment and she'd cure them. This was a spectacularly unwise move on her part, removing the misleading claims and agreeing not to repeat them could possibly have averted any further court action.

I wish I'd been in court to hear a medical expert explain that her Brain Tonic couldn't cure Alzheimer's. 

According to the First Gazette notice* (of 1 Dec 2020) on the Companies House website the company will be struck off the register after the accounts were made up for the dormant company in August 2019. From looking at the previous accounts / filings it seems that the company began with £2 and ended with £2. That's two pounds. Not sure I really understand that!

*Note that these Gazette Notices to strike companies off registers can happen for fairly non-sinister reasons - sometimes this is triggered by a default on filing, and may be later reversed, though if the company is dormant this is probably correct in this case.

Further reading
Advertising Standards Authority
ASA Ruling on Shambhallah Healing Center Ltd (3 January 2018)

- which includes this absolute gem in response to a request from the ASA for info and evidence "Shambhallah Healing Center did not believe that they needed to provide documentary evidence to support their claims because it was their policy that complainants must undergo their treatment in order to declare that it did not work. They invited the ASA to select a candidate to undergo their treatment. They further stated that they had been using these methods to treat patients since the second century BCE.".

ASA Ruling on Shambhallah Healing Center Ltd (2 May 2018)

Courts 'causelist'
Summary of her case T20190281 which began on took place on several dates over 17 October 2019, 11 May 2020 and 3-4 December 2020 concluding on 4 Dec.

News articles
Police issue arrest warrant for 'holistic healer', 43, after she was found guilty of advertising fake 'Brain Tonic' she claimed could cure Alzheimer's, Huntington's disease and cancer (4 December 2020) Daily Mail

Woman who sold bogus ‘brain tonic’ cure is on the run (4 December 2020) Gloucestershire Live

Hunt for ‘holistic healer’ who claimed she had cure for Alzheimer’s and cancer (4 December 2020) Metro

Gloucester 'brain tonic' seller guilty of false claims (4 December 2020) BBC News 

Quedgeley woman claimed she had Alzheimer’s and cancer cure (5 December 2020) Stroud News & Journal

BBC Points West news clips
4 December 2020 - from 3m33s (clip no longer available)
3 December 2020 - from 17min (clip no longer available)

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/genevieve.flight/
https://www.facebook.com/Genevieve-Gold-Flight-151990864838186/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005150956956

Twitter
https://twitter.com/GenevieveFlight
https://twitter.com/shambhallahheal
https://twitter.com/ShebaMoonCups

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/Genevieveflight/

 

I don't think Argos is giving away free Black Friday vouchers today with "shopgift.win"

I've just seen a Facebook post suggesting that Argos is giving away a voucher today only as special deal. The link / URL / address is a little unusual in that it contains argos•co•uk but also has shopgift•win at the end of it, as part of the same link.

argos•co•uk•shopgift•win as opposed to argos•co•uk/shopgift•win

This made me a bit suspicious so I did a WHOIS search to find out a bit more by pasting the full link here http://whois.domaintools.com/

It returned this page http://whois.domaintools.com/shopgift.win telling me that the domain was registered 3 days ago. It also made it very clear (look at the lack of argos in that link) what the domain actually was. So I don't think it's really from Argos. 

Firefox also helpfully greys out bits of addresses to highlight what's the domain and what might not be.

shopgift•win is in black text, it's not really argos.co.uk

argos.co.uk is in black

In taking the next screenshot of the anonymised post on Facebook I also spotted the little info 'i' icon beween the red logos and the grey panel at the bottom, on the right...

... clicking on that tells me the same thing as above (useful info from Facebook which is a plus)

The voucher page asks questions and invites you to share a Facebook link - I'd recommend ignoring it. As I didn't find any other information about it on Google, Argos' page or on social media I thought I'd write this up in case anyone else was wondering if it was real and searched, as I did. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this is other than to get a link shared and perhaps access Facebook information.

Google could warn people who are searching for "how to buy bitcoin" about scams like this email

I've just received another one of those 'warning' scam emails telling me that some malware has been added to my computer to monitor my activity and a video of me is to be sent to all my contacts unless I pay up. It's twaddle.

These emails all ask for payment in bitcoin and include a search suggestion to find out how to do that as presumably most people have no idea (I don't). I ran the suggested search for "how to buy bitcoin" and was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a warning from Google to let people know that this search is often related to scams.

------

From: annmariereid@c.anopost.ga
Subject: Fwd: ❗ ATTENTION! You are screwed now Jo Brodie...

Do I have your attention?
You are really screwed now and you better read this... !

Your device was recently infected with a software I developed,
and now you have a problem you need to solve,
because it has gone too far..

You probably noticed your device is acting strangely lately.
That's because you downloaded a nasty software I created
while you were browsing the Ƿornographic website...

The software automatically:
1) Started your Ƈamera and begun recoding you,
uploading the footage to my server...
2) Recording your device screen
3) Copied all your contact lists from mail program, facebook
and your device chain
4) Started logging what you write

The problem is that it has cought you while you have been
ʍasturbating.. and I didn't plan to see that.. but I did.

I now have the Jo Brodie.mp4 file with you
ʍasturbating to this hardcore stuff... ugly!! :((


Let me get straight to the point.

If you do not do what I ask you now, I will upload this
ugly video file with you ... and the stuff you were watching
to several video upload sites and I will send the links
to all your friends, family members and associates.

I am sure they will not like what they will see and I am
also sure you don't want me to do that, right ?


So do you want me to uninstall the nasty software from
your device and stop recording you?
Do you want me to forget about this whole issue??

I think 2,000 USD is a fair price for my silence. I know you
can handle to send me this money - and it is enough for
me to get lost. So how do you send the cash?? Bitcoin.

I checked right now and 1 Bitcoin is worth 4,960 bucks.
So...

Send exactly 0.409482 BTC to my Bitcoin wallet.

This is my Bitcoin wallet address:
3HSiUV[redacted]QLb4tbaVf2SgWbhi

If you do not know how to send cash using bitcoin,
type 'how to buy bitcoin' in google. There's plenty
of guides.

Ok.. so what if you decide not to pay ?
Well if you want to test my patience - go on.
I will destroy your social life, you can count on that.

You think that visiting Police is a good idea ? Nope.
I don't live in your country and I know how to stay
Anonymous. I will send the compromising video to
everyone you know!

Just send me the 2,000 USD and we forget about
the whole thing. I have family to feed too.

***********************************************
Send 2,000 USD worth of bitcoin to this address:

0.409482 BTC
to this address:

3HSiUV[redacted]QLb4tbaVf2SgWbhi

(copy and paste it - it's cAsE sensitive)
***********************************************

After you send the money to my wallet (exact
amount!) - I will see it and I will remove the video
and deactivate the rec software.

I give you 5 days only to send the transfer..

The time starts ticking after you open this letter
(I included a pixel in this message and I will
know when you read it).


Don't try to contact me - I am using an untracable
email to deliver this message to you.

I am waiting for your cash.
And don't forget the shame if you ignore me.

Annmarie

Not having any psychic ability... here's how I'd do it.

Genuine psychics can apparently rely on dead people communicating directly (though rarely clearly) with them. I've had experience of listening to an Edison wax cylinder recording made from 1888. It was very muffled so I expect hearing from people who've passed over is somewhat similar. I'm also not certain how you 'hear' from someone who's died as their vocal cords won't be working, but such is the mystery of communicating with those who are no longer here.

I don't have the gift of speaking with the spirit world so I'd be unable to do that without some sleight of hand. Here's how I'd give people the impression that I can do it though - it's almost the same thing I think. Obviously this is a thought experiment and I won't actually tell people that I can talk to their departed loved ones as it seems cruel to do so if you can't actually do that.

1. Local and national newspapers' archives (online, libraries)
First, I'd find out who's died locally within the last year. Most towns have a local newspaper and their archive is online. I'd search the name of the city / town and add 'local paper' or 'local news' and see what comes up. Noting the web address(es) of local paper(s) I might expand the search with something like:

inurl:localnewspaper.co.uk died
or
inurl:localnewspaper.co.uk death - and you can use Google's search features to restrict to within a particular time period.

I might also just try the name of the town and 'died' and variants of that. And of course mainstream newspapers' obituaries (almost all online).

2. If you build it they will share their data with you
Probably I'd have already set up a Facebook page or Twitter feed so that people could tell me which shows they were coming to - a few scrolls through their profiles ('Facebook creeping') might tell me if they'd lost someone (or even if their friends had lost someone) and who that person was.

Someone on Twitter might have mentioned a few months ago something about someone they'd lost and that wouldn't show up on looking at their current profile, fortunately Twitter's advanced search lets you go back much further in someone's tweets.

I'd probably also have a sign-up form on my website with a field for people's postcode. That tells me their city and street, and in some cases narrows it down to a few houses so I can have a good idea of where they live and perhaps what amenities are nearby (perhaps a local church, might take a wander and look at the headstones if I'm in the area). Their email address might not be very instructive (gmail.com) but maybe they'll use a work email address so I'll know where they work. If I sold things on my website I'd have their bank information too, might be able to get further info from that.



3. Advanced trolling
There used to be a magazine psychic who asked readers to send in a photo, name, phone number and SAE (stamped addressed envelope). I wonder how many of the people writing in understood what information could be gleaned from that, though this was a few years ago in the earlier days of the internet when finding info out would have taken a different set of research skills.

Another person, Peter Popoff (an evangelical preacher / 'healer'), had a clever technique of (a) getting people to fill out prayer cards at his events with their name, address and afflictions and (b) getting his wife to communicate this to him by an in-ear microphone. Of course the audience at his shows didn't know about this in-ear microphone and believed that he was receiving this information through divine means.

4. Further reading
Techniques used by psychics include psychological tricks such as cold reading (making reasonable guesstimates about you from your appearance, and the things you say and contribute to the conversation) and hot reading (doing a background check on you, foreknowledge).

I might also familiarise myself with some examples of 'jigsaw identification' which shows how bits of information that are not obviously related can be used to triangulate other bits of information.