Scammers Copying Big Copyright Extortion Tactics

from the learn-from-the-best dept

It really was only a matter of time. For a while now, the entertainment industry has been using borderline extortion tactics with "pre-settlement" letters that promise individuals they won't get sued if only they pay a fee upfront -- ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. These letters have proven to be incredibly effective in getting people to simply pay up, so it's no surprise that other scammers have started copying the technique as well. Right now it sounds like they're simply calling people, but it's really only a matter of time until they start sending nearly identical "pre-settlement" letters on threatening letterhead, and getting folks to pay up as well. Of course, given the extremely flimsy nature of the evidence often used by the entertainment industry in sending out those letters, we'll once again note the very fine line between what these supposedly legitimate companies are doing and the out-and-out scammers are doing.

Filed Under: copyright, extortion, pre-settlement, scams

Nigerian Official Blames The Victims Of Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Scams

from the blame-the-victim dept

It still amazes us that people still fall for so-called Nigerian advance-fee 419 scam emails. I'd actually noticed that I'd stopped getting such emails offering me millions for helping smuggle gold out of the country, but in the last week there's been a new bunch of them -- and apparently people still fall for them. According to a Nigerian diplomat in Australia, he's just as amazed, and thus thinks the victims are equally to blame and deserve jailtime. He claims that the government "frowns" on these scams, and spends plenty of time trying to track down the scammers -- but we've been reporting on Nigerian gov't claims for years and years and they never seem to get very far in stopping the scammers. But, still, he claims that the victims are equally at fault.

While it's true that most of these scams prey on people's greed (they're basically roping people into "stealing" money), it's a bit extreme to claim they should be thrown in jail for being conned. If you read a book like Drake's Fortune, which describes a similar scam nearly a century ago that was incredibly effective, you realize how easily people are fooled into these things. And we've even seen cases where victims still believe the scammers after they've lost everything and the whole scam has been explained to them. That's how thoroughly convincing these scams can be.

Filed Under: 419, advance fee, blame, nigeria, scams

Phishing Scammer Gets Seven Years

from the this-ought-to-make-some-folks-happy dept

People seem to get pretty excited whenever we have stories of spammers and scammers getting long jail sentences, so I'm sure plenty of folks will be happy to hear that a phishing scammer just got sentenced to seven years in prison. Considering that he was scamming people's passwords to use elsewhere, this seems a lot more reasonable than the folks who get long jail sentences just for spamming. But, with all of these stories about spammers and phishers getting convicted, it always seems like the punishment is rather arbitrary. There's no clear pattern at all.

Filed Under: jailtime, phishing, scams

Do We Really Need Software To Catch Pump And Dump Stock Spammer Transactions?

from the is-it-that-difficult? dept

A few years ago, there was a study that showed that pump-and-dump stock spam scams actually made money for the scammers. However, what no one has been able to explain is why it isn't easy to track down those responsible. Just find out who bought a bunch of the stock just before the spam went out -- and who sold it all as others started buying up the stock. Sure, it's likely that scammers will try to cover their tracks, somewhat, but it shouldn't be that hard to track down who bought and sold early. In fact, it seems like it would be rather easy. So while we appreciate efforts like this new software that tries to notice such a pump-and-dump in action and alert traders of a potential issue, it's still not clear why this is really an issue at all. It still doesn't explain why we're simply not going after those who made money from the pump-and-dump scam in the first place. And, of course, there's the flip side of the argument: if you're suckered into buying a penny stock based on a spam email, some might say you deserve to lose your money.

Filed Under: pump and dump, scams, spam

Dumb Criminal Series: When Newspaper Subscriptions Jump From 65 To 2,781 Someone May Get Suspicious

from the no-one-will-notice dept

Romenesko points us to a good one for the "dumb criminal" series. A NY Times delivery carrier has been accused of defrauding the paper of over $300k by sending in fake newspaper subscriptions with the "bill me later" option checked. Apparently, he got paid based on the number of papers delivered, so he took the quick route to increasing his income. In a matter of months, his daily subscriptions jumped from 65 to 2,781 and his Sunday subscriptions went from 103 to 2,818 (seems that nearly everyone of the fake subbers signed up for Sunday deliver as well!).

It makes you wonder how he thought he could get away with such a scam, though his "defense" gives some suggestion. He says he had someone else doing the deliveries for him, and says it must be that guy's fault. Though, as the newspaper noted, when the NY Times grew suspicious and informed him that they were canceling thousands of subscriptions, he "did not seem upset and said it would not affect his workload." Oh yes, also there was the fact that the guy's recycling bins were filled to the brim with copies of the newspaper -- often still wrapped in their delivery bundles.

Filed Under: newspapers, scams, subscriptions

Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Scammers Move To... LinkedIn?

from the suckers,-suckers-everywhere dept

It still seems difficult to believe that anyone falls for those "Nigerian" advance fee 419 scams, but time and time again we read about smart people who should know better who fall for them. And reports come in about just how much money these scams make. And, the really amazing thing, is that many of the victims are so convinced by the scam that even after it's all revealed, and they've lost all their money, they still believe the scammer's story. However, times are getting harder to convince people about these scams over unsolicited email, so apparently they're starting to move onto social networks, including business social networks like LinkedIn. Perhaps I just use LinkedIn in a very different manner than most people, but I find it hard to believe that if some random unknown person suddenly "connected" to you on LinkedIn and offered you a cut of a multi-million dollar stash, you wouldn't be suspicious.

Filed Under: 419, advance fee, nigeria, scams, social networks
Companies: linkedin

Can Google Solve The Domain Tasting Problem?

from the worth-a-shot dept

The issue of "domain tasting" (or "domain kiting") has been getting a lot more attention lately. Dell sued a company for pulling a domain tasting scam to make ad money off of domains without having to pay for them and ICANN has recently started to look into the problem. Of course, at ICANN's snail's pace, it didn't seem like anything was going to happen any time soon -- so it appears Google has decided to step up with a potential solution.

For those who don't know, domain tasting is used by certain companies to register a bunch of domain names and place ads on them. Since ICANN's rules say that you can register a domain for five days before deciding if you actually want to pay for it and keep it, the domain tasters just hold onto the domain for five days, put Google AdSense on the domain and collect any money before returning the URL. If a domain is particularly valuable, they might actually buy it -- but the more recent scam is to have a series of shell companies repeatedly take the domain for five days at a time, quickly reregistering it seconds after the previous "holder" gives up the domain.

It's clearly a scam and wasn't at all what was intended with the five day grace period. However, with ICANN taking the slow road towards dealing with it, Google has now announced that it will not allow any Google AdSense ads to appear on a site during the five day grace period. This is a bit of a surprise, since Google likely makes plenty of money from this practice. While domain tasters will quickly gravitate to other ad platforms, Google was probably the most effective one, and hopefully other leading ad platforms will follow Google's lead.

Filed Under: domain kiting, domain names, domain tasting, scams
Companies: google, icann

ICANN Investigating Sites That Buy The Available Domain You Just Searched For

from the about-time... dept

Last year, we wrote about some reports that various domain name lookup sites were actually scams designed to register the domains you wanted. What people were noticing was that they would do a search on a domain name and find it was available. Then, a day later, they'd go back to register it and find it was taken. That could be a coincidence, but it was happening so often, that some people began to suspect foul play -- and that some whois sites were either registering the domains themselves, or selling their search lists to speculators who were hoping to buy up the domains and then flip them to people who were upset about missing out on them while they were available. It only took a year and a half or so of complaints, but ICANN has finally decided this might be a problem worth investigating. What's slightly odd about the investigation, though, is that the comments make it sound like ICANN is most worried that people think this is happening -- rather than whether or not it's actually happening. That is, they're quite concerned that there's a perception out there that this happens. They might get further not worrying so much about perception and just focusing on what's actually going on.

Filed Under: domain names, scams
Companies: icann

SEC Suspending Trades On Spam Scam Stocks

from the about-time dept

Pump and dump spam scams have been quite successful for scammers, but the SEC is apparently increasingly successful in stopping the practice. It's now suspending trading on certain stocks that appear susceptible to pump and dump scams -- and that's more than cut in half the number of complaints its received in the last few months. What still isn't clear, however, is why it's so difficult to track down those responsible for pump and dump scams. You just need to follow the money and look at who bought the stock right before the scam started and who sold out immediately afterwards and you probably have a pretty short list of suspects.

Filed Under: pump and dump, scams, spam
Companies: sec

Latest Phishing Scam... Actually University Research

from the gotta-trick-you-to-understand dept

Lots of people are trying to research phishing scams in order to better understand them and come up with better ways to protect against them, but some folks are apparently a bit upset at research coming out of Indiana University that involved actually phishing a variety of people to con important information out of them in order to understand what kind of phishing scams work. The researchers and the university are defending the practice, saying they learned a lot from it, and it's legal to be deceptive for the purpose of research so long as the deception is no different than what a person might come across normally and the risk to the person is minimal. Still, if any of the information is eventually misused or gets leaked, it certainly could create some problems for the university (and universities are no stranger to leaking data). The university still claims that this kind of research is key to preventing phishing... but oddly, the article seems to highlight what works for phishing scams, rather than what works to stop phishing scams. So, right now, the research seems to be telling scammers how to be more effective scammers, rather than coming up with ways to stop phishing.

Filed Under: phishing, research, scams
Companies: indiana university