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.

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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! 

 

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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.

 

 

What support is there for over 50s economically inactive / underactive to find more work?

The Government has announced that it would like more over 50s, who are able to work*, to come back to the workplace after apparently lots of people took earlyish retirement during the (ongoing) Covid pandemic. I'm not quite in that position (never retired) but since 2018 I've been working two days a week and so have some spare time, and I have no objection to the Government's wish to extract more of my free time as paid labour.

But I think it has to meet me halfway.

I asked at my local Job Centre Plus about their over 50s work champions (or whatever they're called) but it seems that as I don't receive benefits I probably can't use that service anyway.

What I would find useful may not actually exist, but it's this.

As much as possible I'd like to outsource the 'cognitive load' of looking for jobs, tailoring my CV / filling in an application form, tailoring my covering letter and generally applying for jobs, as I have minimal interest in doing any of that. I don't mean that I should simply be given a job, just that I want to go through the annoying part of the process once and be 'sorted' into one or more (temporary) jobs.

I would like to be assigned a job through some sort of labour exchange or employment agency. After going through my CV and interviewing me, and discussing what I'd enjoy / not enjoy doing this employment agency would then work in the background to match me with a job. I'd then get a call saying "Jo, on Wednesday you'll be at WidgetCo's factory making widgets" or whatever it is they find for me to do.

Does this arrangement exist? 

I did upload my CV to what I thought was an employment agency website but that just attracted unsuitable-job spam including regular invitations to work in Dubai. Nope. I also don't use LinkedIn (you'd still have to apply for a job if your attention was drawn to it, they don't just give you jobs - as there's no pre-approval thing that I'm aware of).

*I am not talking about those who are unwell or who have caring responsibilities or already trying to find work.

 

 

I recommend pre-emptively blocking emails from Cupventi and quite possibly Beehiiv for good measure

Occasionally I get spam in my Gmail account. 

It's usually fairly straightforward to deal with - deleting, unsubscribing, reporting as spam etc. You can also set up a redirect so that if an email arrives containing a keyword it bypasses your inbox and goes to the Bin or some other holding mailbox. 

Generally telling Gmail that an email is spam and unsubscribing means that's the end of it, not so with 'Cupventi' who seem more determined to irritate me with their spam emails about coffee, using Beehiiv as their newsletter provider (Beehiiv are somewhat the innocent party here). A different spam newsletter, also via Beehiiv, was easier to get rid of.

I initially unsubscribed from the daily (!) Cupventi newsletter and reported it as spam so was surprised to receive another message a day later. I contacted Beehiiv on Twitter to let them know that Cupventi were misusing their system and they told me they'd look into it. 

Everything went quiet for a while but a couple of days ago I received another one so I repeated the process of unsubscribing, reporting as spam and letting Beehiiv know. I also set up a redirect so that anything that mentions Cupventi or Beehiiv is automatically re-routed to my Gmail bin so I'll literally never see another message from them again unless I check. Guess what I stupidly just did. I'm quite irritated.

So... I have decided to republish without permission their copyrighted text, mangling all the links to they can't point to anything to show you precisely what you're not missing. No need for you to wait to be subscribed unwillingly to their repetitive (see bits I've bolded) blethers about coffee, feel free to pre-emptively block Cupventi, and possibly Beehiiv for good measure. 

Spam email below

 

Adjudications etc by the Advertising Standards Authority against misleading #homeopathy claims

Originally posted in July 2015. Bizarrely flagged up today (!) for containing adult content. I've removed a word from Comfort Click's upheld ASA adjudication for 'Wartrol wart relief spray' as the location of the warts appears to have triggered the flagging...

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Original post

These days it's fairly rare to get an actual Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) adjudication on a misleading homeopathy claim. That's because most homeopathy complaints are fast-tracked to the ASA's Compliance team rather than being investigated (because the ASA, like so many others, has previously investigated homeopathy and found there's no evidence that it's effective for any condition) and the Compliance team doesn't publish its findings.

Last week there was a new adjudication, against Teddington Homeopathy, for claims made about using 'CEASE Therapy' for treating autism.

There are now 11 ASA adjudications upheld against misleading homeopathy claims, 2 upheld in part and 1 not upheld. There are also 11 'informally resolved' complaints where the homeopath has agreed to amend their website and remove the incorrect claims, so no further action needs be taken.

Since most homeopaths do amend their website when asked by the ASA relatively few of them find their way to the non-compliant online advertisers but the Islington Homeopathy Clinic has managed to make it there.

Here's the list.

ASA adjudicatons upheld

Teddington Homeopathy
Re: CEASE therapy
Date: 22 July 2015
Decision: Upheld

Happy Homeopathy
Re: menopause relief
Date: 11 June 2014
Decision: Upheld

Islington Homeopathy Clinic
Date: 26 February 2014
Decision: Upheld

Steve Scrutton Homeopathy
Re: homeopathy for depression
Date: 18 September 2013  
Decision: Upheld

Steve Scrutton Homeopathy
Re: homeopathy for influenza
Date: 8 August 2012  
Decision: Upheld

Society of Homeopaths 
Date: 3 July 2013
Decision: Upheld

Dr Batras Positive Health Clinic (UK) Ltd
Re: homeopathy for psoriasis 
Date: 27 April 2011  
Decision: Upheld

British Institute for Allergy and Environmental Therapy
Re: allergy testing
Date: 9 March 2011  
Decision: Upheld

The Homeopathic Clinic
Re: thermal mammography
Date: 2 March 2011
Decision: Upheld

Comfort Click Ltd t/a ShytoBuy.co.uk
Re: homeopathic wart relief spray
Date: 4 July 2012  
Decision: Upheld

CNM The College of Naturopathic Medicine Ltd
Re: naturopathy
Date: 13 March 2013
Decision: Upheld

ASA adjudications upheld in part

Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century
Date: 3 July 2013
Decision: Upheld in part

Ainsworths (London) Ltd t/a Ainsworths Homeopathic Pharmacy
Date: 27 July 2011
Decision: Upheld in part

ASA adjudications NOT upheld

Neals Yard (Natural Remedies) Ltd
Date: 2 February 2011
Decision: Not Upheld

Informally resolved cases

Happy Homeopathy                                         23 Oct 2013
Maya Homeopathy                                           23 April 2014
Naturally Well Homeopathy                            12 Feb 2014
Amanda Hughes Homeopathy                         12 Mar 2014
Classical Homeopathic Healing                       22 May 2013
The Kernow Chiropractic Clinics                     19 Jun 2013
Team Health Windsor                                       14 Aug 2013
The Rock Clinic t/a Rock Clinic Association                   19 Jun 2013
North Lakes Clinic                                                            19 Jun 2013
University College London Hospitals t/a
The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine        2 May 2012

My favourite podcasts by middle aged white guys

I often see Twitterers and columnists opining that we don't need any more podcasts from middle aged (or middle class) white men and I would like to be an outlier on this, and recommend the following excellent and entertaining podcasts from that demographic. Other demographics are available.

Kermode and Mayo's Take: Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode
https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/
Apple podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

A continuation of the excellent 'Wittertainment', the BBC 5 Live show that ran for ages before Simon and Mark parted company with the BBC and set sail under their own steam. Fabulous interviews with people who make films and streaming series, pithy film reviews, amiable complaints about various annoyances, audience emails, terrible jokes and a general feeling of warm film-fan community. There have been a couple of live events too in London, hugely popular.

There's a free version and a paid-for version and a whole bunch of extras. The free version has some rather funny adverts. 

Bunk Bed: Peter Curran and Patrick Marber
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0735nh6/episodes/downloads
BBC Sounds

Love this. Late night chats recorded lying down in the dark while in bunk beds. Gentle and funny bickering and story-telling with occasional guests on the pull-out mattress, all in 15 minutes. I love the sounds of the duvets rustling and the conversations veering off in directions. 

Here's a lovely review from the Royal Television Society: https://rts.org.uk/article/ear-candy-bunk-bed

Really? No, Really?: Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden
https://reallynoreally.com/
iHeart Radio | Apple podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | Simplecast

The new kid on the block. I have recently been bingeing Seinfeld on Netflix, getting me through a miserable bout of Covid (now recovered) and just so delighted that the end of that coincided with Jason Alexander launching a podcast with his pal Peter Tilden. It's a lovely buffet of odd facts and interesting guests in which they're trying to get to the bottom of why the things that make them go "Really? No, Really?" are that way. It's funny and fact-checked so ticks my boxes.

Coincidentally both Patrick Marber (Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan on The Day Today) and Jason Alexander (George Costanza on Seinfeld) have been making me laugh for 30 odd years and both are now directing (Marber, Leopoldstadt) or about to direct (Alexander, The Cottage) plays on Broadway. I wonder if they know each other! Also, perhaps there are other left-handed, Jewish, poker-playing actor-directors whose podcasts I might like to hear about...?