Author: Olly

Sambo Metals SCAM Followup – Nomvula Tshefu SCAMMER

Last year, I blogged about a scammer that tried to do us over at Work. It was a common scam style whereby the scammer tries to get you to take an overpayment for some services – and then send part of the payment to a 3rd party.

The scam comes in the form of the scammer using stolen cards, and the 3rd party is actually them. Meaning they are basically using you to wash dirty money!

Anyway, a concerned business owner, Petra, sent me an email chain between themselves and a scammer calling themselves Nomvula Tshefu – and using the same email as the Sambo Metals scammer – sambornetals1@gmail.com and within the chain the scammer tries to book a room and would probably be trying to use the same scam they tried on us – but thanks to Petra’s thorough approach to her work she managed to squash the scam early on!

Here’s how the emails went down;

Von: Nomvula Tshefu [mailto:sambornetals1@gmail.com]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 9. Juni 2016 17:22
An: XXXXXX@XXX.XXX
Betreff: Reservation for 8 Guest.

Good Day,

I will like to book 4 double rooms for 8 guest from 18th of June to 30th of June. Please advise if you have available rooms. How much is per night?

I await your response

Thanks

Nomvula Tshefu

Nothing wrong with that enquiry – ok apart from the fact this guy clearly hasn’t read their website!

On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 5:29 PM, Petra <XXXXXX@XXX.XXX> wrote:
Hello,

we only have one holiday-apartement! It is place for only three Persons!

Greetings

Petra

Ooops…not off to the best start!

Von: Nomvula Tshefu [mailto:sambornetals1@gmail.com]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 9. Juni 2016 18:32
An: Petra
Betreff: Re: information from Petra in Oberfranken

We can book that for 3 let us know and do yous erve breakfast

Petra decided to clear up a few points…

Von: Petra [mailto:XXXXXX@XXX.XXX]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 9. Juni 2016 19:17
An: ‘Nomvula Tshefu’
Betreff: AW: information from Petra in Oberfranken

Hello,,

please look to my homepage. This is an apartment with kitchen.
I don´t make breakfast.

The apartment is still free in time from 18. till 30. of june. We receive the payment on the day of arrival.
For 3 people per day you pay 35,00 Euro plus final cleaning 35,00 Euro. Total price for 12 days: 455,00 €

Would you like to book? Then you will get a booking confirmation by mail.
But before I can make the booking finished, I still need some information.
As we work with reservation system, we need a complete address and telephone number from you.

Greetings, Petra

Tick tock tick tock… no reply…

On Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 9:07 AM, Petra <XXXXXX@XXX.XXX> wrote:
Hello, Mrs. Nomvula Tshefu

the booking has not yet been confirmed! Please let me know if I can make the booking complete (For three person, from 18. till 30. of june)

Or you don´t want complete these booking ?

Please reply also in this case.

Greetings, Petra

Maybe they were scamming other people and didnt have time to reply ot the first email… This one got a response though…

Von: Nomvula Tshefu [mailto:sambornetals1@gmail.com]
Gesendet: Dienstag, 14. Juni 2016 09:44
An: Petra
Betreff: Re: Please reply quickly Petra in Oberfranken

I want to complete the booking and how much is the total again so i can send you my card details to make the full payment for the booking and secure it for me.

Again – this guy wants to get to the payment part ASAP – I wonder why….?!

On Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Petra <XXXXXX@XXX.XXX> wrote:
Hello,
before I can make the booking finished, I still need some information.
As we work with reservation system, we need a complete address and telephone number from you.

Then you get a confirmation email
In this e-mail you will receive our bank details and pay € 455.00
The total price for 12 nights/3 people – from 18.06 to 30.06.2016 – is € 455,00

If the money has arrived on the account, you still get an email confirmation. And then everything is perfect.

Greetings, Petra

Petra being stern and sticking to her guns – well done you! The fact she runs her business properly also means she saved her own skin here. If she worked from a reservation book and everything was done manually I dare say she would have been screwed over by this clown.

The reply she got next was a golden piece of editorial wonderstuff;

Von: Nomvula Tshefu [mailto:sambornetals1@gmail.com]
Gesendet: Dienstag, 14. Juni 2016 12:35
An: Petra
Betreff: Re: Petra in Oberfranken

CANCEL.

Wow. This scammer didnt even try!

Petra took this opportunity to send a reply back which I feel was fitting – I would have probably been a tad more offensive 🙂

Von: Petra [mailto:XXXXXX@XXX.XXX]
Gesendet: Dienstag, 14. Juni 2016 13:21
An: ‘Nomvula Tshefu’
Betreff: Petra in Oberfranken

Hello,

I hope you soon find another hobby, so you do not rob working people their time.
In the future your emails are landing in my spam folder. Have a nice day.

Petra

It was at this point Petra reached out to me and told me of her story.

Thanks, Petra! 🙂

If you get an email like this or an email from anyone you dont like the look of, then post a comment or contact me and I’ll do my best to help you get to the bottom of it.

10 August 2016
The Truth Behind the Marina Joyce Saga
Over the last few years ive become enthralled in the YouTube community and how it seems to be a world unto itself. There are major celebrities on there that have never graced the big screens, TV or any other medium apart from YouTube, one of those “Celebrities” is Marina Joyce…

Now, I dont follow fashion channels and im not a girl – so initially this didnt even come onto my radar, but a few nights ago I watched a video from Phil DeFranco and he was talking about it in more detail. I was intrigued, so did some research – And I can see why so much hype and discussion has been born off the back of this…

Marina Joyce Backstory.

Marina Joyce is a YouTuber that covers very girly subjects, date outfit ideas, summer outfits, things to say to boys bla bla bla. Her style is quite bright and colourful and happy – and up until fairly recently her videos were well researched, professionally shot and edited. She is/was a professional YouTuber and she had (before this all kicked off) amassed around 600,000 subscribers along the way. Not too shabby!

Then, it seemed like out of nowhere her demeanor changed, her confidence vanished, her camera skills (shooting and acting) went to shit and her last few videos are just really peculiar – i’d even go as far as to say they are quite uncomfortable to watch!

Now, there are a few theories that could explain what is happening to Marina Joyce, and ive listed them below with my personal views on each matter;

Captured by ISIS and being held to ransom.

Come on guys. Really? Hopefully I dont have to explain why this is a stupid theory. Why would ISIS go after someone like Marina Joyce? When they could take Michelle Phan (8.6 million subscribers)…..Hang on… as if ISIS would kidnap a youtuber full stop! Next!

Victim of Domestic Abuse.

As awful as this would be, this theory a realistic one. The last batch of videos she has shown a lack of confidence, and she almost looks distant or that she has something weighing her down.

A few people have commented on the fact she is seen glancing off camera and sometimes looks scared to death. This would be indicative of domestic abuse (or that she’s being held to ransom by ISIS – see point 1 above) and she is also shown covered in bruises. In a video with ComedyShortsGamer – who set up a Q&A session with her that was quite blatantly set up to answer some of the questions the community have been asking – she says the bruises are because she goes on adventures in the woods etc and always falls over. Hmm.

She just comes across as being very distracted, spaced out, and that could be due to domestic abuse.

She’s high as a kite

Philip DeFranco touched upon a point that recently, Marina Joyce posted something on Facebook claiming she wanted to be a God and worshipped like Buddha. She also spoke about wanting to build a retreat on Machu Picchu in Peru.

Crazy, right? As if she’d get the planning permission haha.

But seriously, she refers to a Kundalini Yoga Retreat which according to Phil is often associated with holistic/alternitive drug/medicine use and entering states of meditation that people often struggle to come back from.

She talks a lot about a recent near death experience and how her mind has been opened and how she can see and speak to spirits – maybe shes now permanently trippin’ on some meditation/hallucinogen related trip?

She Cant Handle the Pressure.

Ok, so im throwing this one in the mix as this is a theory of mine, and not one ive seen floating about YouTube.

Another reason why Marina Joyce has (or appears to) have lost her confidence, how she looks to be seeking approval from someone off camera and is fumbling her words etc – is that perhaps she is drowning in the popularity a bit? Maybe she did intend to stir things up a bit but its become totally overwhelming, and that has caused her brain to go off on some “God Complex” hype.

She could now potentially be working with a larger team to make her videos – perhaps the presence of so many people off camera makes her nervous? Or maybe she is being sponsored by a large advertising agency or something who are quite demanding, and being the small, naeve girl she is then maybe she’s struggling to spin all the plates and keep everyone happy (or thinks that way, and its playing on her mind?)

Sure, there are elements of the saga that dont fit in with this (IE she’s appeared on other channels and is equally as weird, and none of those channel owners have come forward to say she brought an entourage with her – and also the fact she’s posting cryptic facebook posts about building temples and people calling her a God) but as a bit of an outsider to this story it’s certainly more plausible than the ISIS theory, which made headlines around the world!

She is losing her mind.

Aside from all other theories, the more of her recent videos you watch and the more you compare them to the facts stated by Anna Campbell and other similar YouTubers, you cant deny that this theory fits the bill.

I won’t reinvent the wheel though, just watch Anna’s video (there is a part 2 on her channel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJhudoWR5U

Now apparently Marina has come forward to admit it was all a hoax – however you cannot deny the change in the way Marina talks, acts and the general vibe you get from her videos.

To summarise, I totally agree with Anna and I believe this girl is going through some mental health issues, and due to the fact this girl is a YouTuber, we are all witnessing a young british girl lose her mind, online.

Take from this what you will – and I genuinely hope this girl gets the help she needs – post your thoughts and comments below and if you find or see anything else that may bolster one of these arguments or squash them then I would love to see it.

Sources;
10 August 2016
The Mechanify.com SCAMMERS – WARNING

It makes a refreshing change to be blogging about a new subject, in this post I will be explaining how we had the mickey taken out of us by a bunch of scammers branding themselves up as Mechanify.

I will start from the beginning…

They approached us in October of 2014 and required us to look at the KashFlow integration aspect of their new platform called Mechanify.

What is Mechanify?

It was supposed to revolutionise the motor repair industry by taking their old fashioned approach and bringing it to the 21st century. I dont think they actually asked any garages if this would be something they would want and just assumed, and pushed on regardless.

We were initially contacted by Lucky Garba, and dealt with their creative director Kevin Barton.

The main scammer here is a guy that goes by the name “Uvie Ugono” and as well as trying to destroy the motor trade industry he also has some renewable energy scam going off in Nigeria. He bats this about like he deserves a knighthood, but all he really does is sell solar panels to one of the most sun-rich (and cash-poor) countries in the world.

What went wrong?

Well, working for Mechanify initially started out OK, they paid their bills and all was well in the world. They got us to do more and more on the site as they were nearing the deadline they had set for themselves. It became apparent that the system was very incomplete – and with the deadline getting nearer by the day they started to panic and got us to do even more work. There were aspects of their overarching business plan that were just non existent within the system so we really had our work cut out for us. You could say we bailed them out the poop – BIG TIME.

Our team met all deadlines and managed to make Mechanify actually work, and all the time costs were increasing, we were telling them costs were increasing, and they simply told us to carry on; “it will be fine”….

Once we had completed the work, we then fought for over seven months to get our invoices paid. Then, after roughly eight months of chasing payments (and being promised them multiple times by everyone we spoke to) every single outstanding invoice was unnecessarily scrutinized so we had to spend even more time explaining exactly what each line on our invoices referred to – this would have taken five minutes if they had come back to us straight away, but eight months is a long time to sit on your hands doing nothing!

Once we explained the bits and bobs (again) and they once again agreed to pay their bills, things seem to settle down…

They agreed to pay within the next few days, but payment didnt arrive so I chased it again (bear in mind we’re over 8 months overdue already at this point)

Then another month passed…. No payment. I chased it once again but this time I bolded some words and said that I would potentially have to go down the legal route if we didnt have something from them soon. Uvie piped up again…

I felt he was being patronising here – but I let it slide as I wanted him to pay for the work we had done. However a few more days passed and I had to email them all again. I then got this gem from Uvie Ugono;

Buying sterling on the black market? Is that actually a thing? Also, if they had paid their bills when they were due he wouldn’t have been in Uganda or wherever the hell he claimed to be at the time – so I didnt give 3 shits about his convoluted process – PAY ME MY MONEY!

No-one gives a shit.

Then, a couple of days later TOTALLY out the blue, this essay arrived in my inbox. Maybe he was mates with one of the scammers ive pissed off in the past? His reasons are unclear, but he decided to erupt at us, blaming us for disabling his website (we hadnt – he is just a bit simple)

What a steamy pile of shit.

Again, he chose to be quite condescending in this email – acting like multi million dollar contracts are more important than the payments he owed to us? Money is money, debts are debts. Pay them and these situations magically dont happen!

I strongly believe that the reasons this pirate kept fobbing us off is that he was, and probably always has been penniless. If you are an entrepreneur, and do multi million dollar deals every day you dont argue over a £1,400 debt that is owed to a company that have created you your next online business.

Anyway, after we informed Uvie we hadn’t taken his shitty website down, he went all childish and refused to talk to us again, claiming we had insulted him and we were unprofessional etc etc. It amazes me that someone who is my senior, and is supposed to be some amazing entrepreneur tycoon, could act in such a childish, pathetic manner.

A few days after this email chain stopped, Lucky rang and apologised for Uvie being a childish moron, and explained how Uvie had reached his conclusion about the site being down, and how he’d decided we were to blame – Lucky then promised to get the debts cleared, even if it was £50 here or there. I was fine with this and thanked him for taking the correct stance on the situation and trying to get it all resolved.

Unfortunately, we had no further contact from Lucky, thankfully none from Uvie, and Kevin vanished into the fog.

Along the way Uvie also told us he had resigned from the company as he didnt want to deal with the mess caused by other people any more – yet as of today (15th July 2016) he is still listed as a director.

We’ve taken the matter to the small claims court and we’ll hopefully retrieve our money that way – but unfortunately the company is now in a position to strike off, according to Companies House.

I wonder how many other suppliers have been ripped off by these scammers? If you have been ripoped off by Mechanify.com or Uvie Ugono then post in the comments below.

The silver lining that came from this was in the form of our revised T’s and C’s that have stopped this kind of situation from happening again. We also credit and background check every new customer with the hope we can spot the dodgy ones before we start any work!

Be warned, peeps. There are scammers everywhere!

15 July 2016
Vulnerability found in WP Mobile Detector plugin for WordPress

Our security team have reported a new vulnerability found in a commonly used WordPress plugin, called WP Mobile Detector. We are hearing that;

“The plugin has a new Zero Day vulnerability allowing attacker to exploit a Arbitrary File Upload (AFU) vulnerability. The plugin has been removed from the WordPress repository and does not have an active patch available.”

Amazingly. the issue seems to be the old TimThumb issue where a hacker can send a certain request to the timthumb file and hey presto they have access to your files and hosting account.

It seems that attackers have been using this vulnerability to inject SEO spam into websites all over the internet, so if you notice links appearing on pages that you didnt add its likely you’re infected.

Contact your support team today.

3 June 2016