Tech Tips and Reviews
We are trying to find the connection in all of these text messages that everyone seems to be getting. So we are checking to see if certain phone companies are either compromised or selling our phone numbers out to the next bidder.
[poll id=”28″]
No need for any personal information. Just who is the carrier you are using when you get the spam invites to bogus contests?
CashForChristmas.net is the latest spam to go around. This one came to me later in teh day than normal. No idea who is handing my cell phone number out to cell phone text message scammers/spammers
donnacindy479@CashForChristmas.net : Please enter 8939 here to claim your prize from last week’s entry www.CashForChristmas.net
CashForChristmas.net
and this image is what I got when I tried to leave,CashForChristmas.net While using Firefox browser.
CashForChristmas.net.scam
When I selected “Leave page” I got redirected to a penny bid/auction site. When I clicked “leave page” again, it finally let me go. but I had a background pop up that was on “target.freegiftcardtoday.com”
It was a bit scarier on Internet Explorer. So I left fast and didn’t get screen shot. but that dang “blink doink” sound Explorer makes when you get pop ups startled me.
From what I can guess, they get your email address by having you put this information in on their site, and they sell your email address off to some advertising company willing to spam you for the rest of your life. Of course, since you confirmed it’s a real email address . Do nothing with that website other than warn others of CashForChristmas.net’s risk to you and your privacy.
CashForChristmas.net does not have a prize and CashForChristmas.net does not have a winner.
do not go to CashForChristmas.net . they will give you nothing.
Notice the other messages about scam text messages on here and You will see that nothing changes between all of the sites this guy puts up.
CashForChristmas.net redirects you to
http://111.67.203.41/targob/
Poll trying to see if certain phone companies are selling our data
Have you received a text message from Getting XmasTarget.Com? Are you wondering if this Getting XmasTarget.Com is a cam?
The message reads:
My name is Justin. You contact is on the third place, Your X-mas code for http://xmastarget.com?HCBHJKAHEF is (and then some random 4 digit number)
The people who send these text messages are just expecting you to type in your special code and it will tell you that your code is valid, then the website will redirect you to a page to type in your email. your email address will then be sold to hundreds and hundreds of spam websites. Bad news.. no prize no gift. Read the message again, you won nothing. They do not say you won. They do not owe you anything, you willingly gave your email address to a spam broker (I shall coin that phrase!!!). The poor broken English should be the first clue. In his earlier scam text messages, he said less and it was easier to fall for. but now… Now he said a whole sentence.. Sorta.
The like button at the bottom of the page, the count never changes across all of the sites they use this thing on. It’s complete utter crap. best use of this is to share it with someone you hate and let them spam themselves to death. Also notice at the bottom of their page it says ” clicking continue you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy”. Which of course is written in some almost unnoticeable text color.
Highlights of User Agreement
1.These businesses may include providers of direct marketing services and applications, including lookup and reference, data enhancement, suppression and validation and email marketing. For example, if you express interest in a particular product or service, you may be contacted by telephone regarding that particular product or service. prizecenterdirect.us collects minimal demographic and personally identifiable information from many users. This information is aggregated and analyzed to help us tailor future offers and to help our marketing partners and advertising agencies understand the demographics of our customers in order to evaluate the potential effectiveness and profitability of doing business with us. Part of our business model involves sharing personally identifiable information, such as name and address, with third-party marketing concerns.
2.All information provided to prizecenterdirect.us by the users of this site may be used to support our suppression, validation and enhancement services to other marketing companies, advertising agencies, compilers and data companies.
XmasTarget.Com website that the text message spam wants you to visit.
Notice the other messages about scam text messages on here and You will see that nothing changes between all of the sites this guy puts up.
I am sorry to inform you but your cell phone number has been compromised and this dude has it and will continue to send you text messages. EVERY SINGLE DAY.
These messages break out between Thanksgiving and New Year, every year. This is the time when you are most likely to be gullible enough to think you have some special Christmas/New Year luck. And you might want to win back your expenses of the holiday season, in one hit.
Do not share that website on facebook. or we will have an epidemic of spam. and uncontrollable fury of 1996-1999 spam.
Hopefully after the holidays are over, this will subside.
On the plus side, there is an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of their page. On the downside, that link leads to a dead a page.
Poll trying to see if certain phone companies are selling our data
Have you received a text message from BBHolidayCards.net or BBHolidayCard.net? are you wondering if this BBHolidayCards.net and BBHolidayCard.net are scams?
The message reads:
Best Buy is giving away 50 One Thousand Dollar Gift Cards for the Holidays. Only 12 have been claimed. Enter 6384 here to get one! BBHolidayCard.net.
It’s the same message to everyone. This message is sent to millions of people, and I will guarantee you that at least 400 people will fall for it, and the messages will continue to roll out like this saying only 12 have claimed the prize.
Again, this scam does not say you won or what you won.
If this is the first text message scam you have received in the past week with the same format, and the text messages stop, consider yourself lucky. Everyone else is sick of these. It’s everyday the exact same way.
For no reason should you ever text back to these people. For no reason should you ever Click a link to the page they suggest you to go to. If for some mistaken reason you find yourself on their page, do not click any of the links on their page. If for some reason you find yourself on their page and clicking links with in their page that take you to some page that is supposed to be good, please say that you will not type in any confirmation codes or your phone number. Even/Especially if it is to remove you from a list. Because these are pump and dump sites. They are bought on stolen credit cards, they are not traceable and they will get you for everything they can. These people are practiced at doing this.
bbholidaycard.net
Just for your comfort, I took me a trip to that page on 4 different junk computers here at the office. Typed in random numbers. 8886, 8887,8889,5309.
All were accepted and listed as “valid” . This dude is going to sell your phone number, and the email address you put in after it redirects you. oh and to make it totally funny is there was a 5minute timer when you get to the page saying that’s how much time I had left to enter the code. Hit refresh button, and the 5 minute timer restarted. If it was valid and there was any reason for the timer other than anxiety, the timer wouldn’t start over. The scammer didn’t work out all of his bugs.
Please don’t tell me that people are hitting the share button on this crap. If so, then facebook people need to be warned also. The share count is fake. Notice in this previous scam from the same people, the likes count is the exact same. I guess it counter acts on it’s self. I mean if you share the link (and let’s say it could be winnable thing) Wouldn’t you be reducing your chances?
This BBHolidayCard.net text message is a scam
bbholidaycards.net is the same thing and takes you to the exact same page.
Poll trying to see if certain phone companies are selling our data
Just like yesterday’s scam, we have yet another text message scammer sending out links to a phone virus and getting bundles of confirmed phone numbers.
Gift-Winner.org Sends out a text message telling you that you have won some prize or contest and that you need to click a link http://Gift-Winner.org/xxx and requests that you put in a 4 digit code. It’s pretty safe to say that the 4 digits at the end of address are what confirm your phone number is real and the other 4 are just for show. The instance you click that link, your phone number gets sold to billions of spammers, and that virus on your phone, starts sending out the same text message you just received.
Your phone last day WON! Open http://gift-winner.orgxxxx and enter code xxxx
Notice they don’t say you you actually won anything you can obtain. and they don’t say that you will get anything by clicking that link and entering that code in they just say “open” and “enter the code”. They are trying to beat the legal system by not directly saying anything that could get them more fines and penalties.
Gift-Winner.org is a scam, do not click the link..
And yet again, Gift-Winner.Org is a website that just popped up today. This guy seriously needs to be stopped.
Question is, what have we all signed to that is the same? is it phone carrier? facebook? twitter? someone is selling our numbers out right?
gift-winner.org
Do not hit the share button on that page or this will get out of hand. The share count does not go up.
Notice the image in this page has the exact same “likes” count.
Poll trying to see if certain phone companies are selling our data
I got my text message from Winnergift.net, and decided to google the word “Winnergift.net,‘ and found exactly what I expected.
The owners of Winnergift.net, just registered their website today and are text messaging millions of people at the same time with unique links telling them they just won a prize.
The common message says
Your number last minute WON! Click
Winnergift.net, (XXXX), enter your code XXXX to get card in 24hrs.
Maybe one, maybe both sets of numbers I blocked out are phone number confirmation codes. I do not know. I do know that when you Google that link you will see that today, hundreds upon hundreds of people are checking by the phone numbers to see if Winnergift.net is legit. The phone number and the website are not legit.
It seems that winnergift is spoofing every confirmed phone number, so they can send out more text messages.
don’t click that link, do not confirm the last 4 digits and do not confirm the 4 digit code after the link.
This is a scam.
and now today’s version is gift-winner.org
Question is, what have we all signed to that is the same? is it phone carrier? facebook? twitter? someone is selling our numbers out right?
Poll trying to see if certain phone companies are selling our data
Got an email today. Clearly another Nigerian phishing scam. and clearly written by yet another moron who thinks the whole world works the way it does in their country. To bad so many people in the world just scan a page and panic and shovel out their money
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (info@lee.com)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington Dc
Customers Service Hours / Monday To Saturday
Office Hours Monday to Saturday:Dear Beneficiary,
Series of meetings have been held over the past 7 months with the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. This ended 3 days ago. It is obvious that you have not received your fund which is to the tune of $3.5Million due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reason and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of your fund.
The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have successfully passed a mandate to the current president of Nigeria his Excellency President Good luck
Jonathan to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owed to you and other individuals and organizations who have been found not to have receive their Contract Sum, Lottery/Gambling, Inheritance and the likes. Now how would you like to receive your payment? Because we have two method of payment which is by Check or by ATM card?ATM Card: We will be issuing you a custom pin based ATM card which you will use to withdraw up to $5,000 per day from any ATM machine that has the Master Card Logo on it and the card have to be renewed in 4 years time which is 2015. Also with the ATM card you will be able to transfer your funds to your local bank account. The ATM card comes with a handbook or manual to enlighten you about how to use it. Even if you do not have a bank account.
Check: To be deposited in your bank for it to be cleared within three working days. Your payment would be sent to you via any of your preferred option and would be mailed to you via UPS. Because we have signed a contract with UPS which should expire in next three weeks you will only need to pay $180 instead of $420 saving you $135 So if you pay before the three weeks 2011 you save $135 Take note that anyone asking you for some kind of money above the usual fee is definitely a fraudsters and you will have to stop communication with every other person if you have been in contact with any.
Also remember that all you will ever have to spend is $135.00 nothing more! Nothing less! And we guarantee the receipt of your fund to be successfully delivered to you within the next 24hrs after the receipt of payment has been confirmed.
Note: Everything has been taken care of by the Federal Government of Nigeria, The United Nation and also the FBI and including taxes, custom paper and clearance duty so all you will ever need to pay is $135.
DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE UNTIL YOU READ THIS: The actual fees for shipping your ATM card is $420 but because UPS have temporarily discontinued the C.O.D which gives you the chance to pay when package is delivered for international shipping We had to sign contract with them for bulk shipping which makes the fees reduce from the actual fee of $420 to $135 nothing more and no hidden fees of any sort!
To effect the release of your fund valued at $3.5Million us dollars you are advised to contact our correspondent in Africa the delivery officer Dr. with the information below,
Email: cdepartment97@yahoo.fr
Telephone: +234-7067014470You are advised to contact him with the information’s as stated below:
Your full Name..
Your Address:…..
Home/Cell Phone:……..
Preferred Payment Method (ATM / Cashier Check)Upon receipt of payment the delivery officer will ensure that your package is sent within 24 working hours. Because we are so sure of everything we are giving you a 100% money back guarantee if you do not receive payment/package within the next 24hrs after you have made the payment for shipping.
PAYMENT INFORMATION (WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER).
RECIEVERS NAME : ЎKЎKOWOLABI SALAMI
COUNTRY : 9th Floor, Federal Scretariat, Phase 1, Ikoyi, Lagos. Nigeria
QUESTION : How are you
ANSWER : Fine
AMOUNT EXPECTED: $135 USD
SENDER’S NAME: …………….
MTCN:………………………….PAYMENT DETAILS TO SEND TO US
Money transfer control number (MTCN)
Senders NameЎKЎKЎKЎK.
Senders addressЎKЎKЎKAs soon as you have made the payment, kindly send to us via email the payment details for confirmation. Upon the receipt of payment details, we shall e-mail you the tracking number of your parcel which will arrive within the next 48 working hours.
Yours sincerely,
Miss Donna Story
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possession of your ATM CARD, you are hereby advice only to be in contact with Mr.Lanre Smith of the ATM CARD CENTRE
who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.
Someone found something happening on Reddit where mystery accounts make posts and then disappear, and top voted commenter accounts where created the same day that the original post was created.
This is Clearly an issue of a dude who wanted to get his video seen. The video could very well be fake. Maybe? bu the trick was to create a few accounts, upvote his video, get it viral. Make a few comments he came up with while he was editing the video and making the accounts. Made those comments for legitimacy reasons and then. Poof … instant money from Google adsense, via reddit.
The same issue used to come up on Digg.com. where only certain content could make it to the top and be seen by everyone, and all of the good stuff was getting buried
Well a technician at the office got the virus “XP Antivirus 2012” for me to remove from his hp mini.
steady pop ups. No executable files would run.
To fix your .exe executable files to work again, you need to edit your registry and change one insert to say exefile
open regedit by right clicking the file in your windows folder, select RUN AS, uncheck the box that says “protect my computer and data from….” and then click ok. The regedit.exe will open
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Scroll down till you find the folder icon labeled “EXE”
look for (Default). Right click it and select “modify”. a text box will pop up and just type: exefile
and then click ok.
Now your executables are restored to functioning again.
Now… Since the virus runs as a spin off of an old virus that has been floating around, the fix is similar for each version of windows it was created for so here is the fix for the windows 7 version of this virus
Just scroll down till you see the virus scanners and all of that and use them all. They are all very important in removing this stupid thing.
RogueKiller.exe
ATF-Cleaner.exe helps clear up what’s on your computer in folders that you got locked out of in the attack.
Spybot
ESET Online Virus Scanner to clear out the Virus
[Microsoft Essentials Windows 7] | [Windows Defender Windows 8]Not a bad free Virus Scanner. Works pretty good.
unhide.exe will get your icons back and your files back if they disappeared when the virus hit you.
If I didn’t make it clear before. This is not a real virus scanner. This is not a real antivirus. This is a virus and will cause stress on your regular computer usage. You will be at your best interest to remove this resource hog bloated garbage and do not give these people money. do not give these people your personal information.
THIS IS A VIRUS!
I keep getting these emails all of the time. Funny thing is, the scams keep going to my email address that I really did register my battle.net account up for. Why is blizzard or battle.net passing out my email address like this ?
Greetings,
An investigation of your World of Warcraft account has found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded. As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with Blizzard\’s EULA under section 4 Paragraph B which can be found here: WoW -> Legal -> End User License Agreement and Section 8 of the Terms of Use found here:
WoW -> Legal -> Terms of UseThe investigation will be continued by Blizzard administration to determine the action to be taken against your account. If your account is found violating the EULA and Terms of Use, your account can, and will be suspended/closed/or terminated.
In order to keep this from occurring, you should immediately verify that you are the original owner of the account.Click on the link below to verify your Battle.net account e-mail address:
https://www.battle.net/account/support/password-verify.html
Account security is solely the responsibility of the account holder. Please be advised that in the event of a compromised account, Blizzard representatives will typically lock the account. In these cases the Account Administration team will require faxed receipt of ID materials before releasing the account for play.
Sincerely,
The Battle.net Account Team
Online Privacy Policy
The battle.net link above is real, but it was masked over the real link which was
“http://us.battle.net.zh-tay.in/login.html?app=wam&ref=https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/&eor=0&app=bam”
Now. If you look at that link in a glance, it could fool anyone. But if you are not one to be fooled or have ever heard of a phishing scam, you know this is a cheap trick. and it probably works, often.
Since I keep getting these scam email trying to get me to give up my battle net account name and password. I am going to quit reporting them to Blizzard and battle.net hoping they are handling and wondering why it keeps happening. I will leave these scam emails out here for you people to raise enough fuss to get battle.net to actually pursue legal action on people committing theft. Maybe they are shutting down the scam sites. Maybe… but they clearly are not catching the people involved. So. for every email I get, I will make a new post.
You don’t want to protect my content better with legal action? then I don’t want to protect you by doing my part the way you say.
GET BENT!
Email Address listed says it is
Blizzard Entertainment (WoWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com)
Email Title : Important information—Exploitative Activity
Originating I.P. address of the email 121.254.143.154
Method of transport : Foxmail 5.0 beta2
and another from WoWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com 194.3.196.156
http://us.battle.net.zh-piy.in/login.html?app=wam&ref=https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/&eor=0&app=bam