Category: Scams

This last year – like many others – I have started getting involved in cryptocurrency. I kick myself for not getting involved in it earlier but never mind. Anyway, as its a reasonably new thing for me I am still learning the terminology, the technology and the processes of how everything works, so when I got this email I had to do a double take and remember my checks before clicking on anything.

Check number #1 – Is the sender email address, legit?

Err nope!

Check number #2 – Is the reply to address the same as the sender address

In this case it was, but the sender address has already failed to pass the first test so check #2 is kinda not required.

Check number #3 – Do the links go where they should go?

Errr – NOPE!

Conclusion – SCAM SPOOF FAKE EMAIL.

Now imagine this, you are new to Crypto, you are not an experienced internet user but have heard about Crypto and want to get involved. You  hear the term Blockchain so you Google it – end up on Blockchain.info and you open an account and start investing.

You then get this email a few days later. You’re just gonna click on it aren’t you!

This email shows to me that the scams are evolving and the people creating them are paying attention to what is happening in the world and reacting to it by modifying their scams. And with Crypto related stuff, once those coins are gone they are GONE. There is no bank to ring and complain to. Thats it!

Be extra careful in 2018 peeps! These scammers are EVERYWHERE!

 

 

Is there no place these scummy douchebags won’t go?

I got this email from my work earlier in the month and I was shocked at the angel these guys had gone into this scam, its the same as the traditional 419 nigerian scams but this one uses an old BBC article from the Iraq war to try and legitimise the scam. It starts;

Dear friend,

How are you doing? Thanks for showing interest.I am a senior British military officer , I served in Iraq during and after gulf war respectively and presently I have been deployed for a peace mission in Afghanistan.

Thanks for showing interest? When did I do that then?

During our mission in Iraq 2003, we found stashes of hidden cash that ran into millions of dollars and before returning the money we found to Iraqi government we kept some money which we shared among those that went for the operation and I got about $12.5 million dollars and the money has been secretly and safely kept in a security company because of fear of being questioned about how I got such money because our salaries and details as soldiers is well known.

Lol and a “Security Company” wouldn’t ask where you got $12.5 million dollars from??

Now that American government are pulling out troops from Afghanistan , I want to resign and go into business ,so I want this money to be moved to your country and invested in your care in a profitable business in your country so I contacted you because I need a capable person that will assist in receiving the money then when I return home from Afghanistan, I will travel to your country to meet you in person so that we can discuss in details which area we can invest . You can go through this link below my friend to get a clear understanding of what I am talking about.

Hmm;

Ooookkkkkkk…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2988455.stm

The link does indeed go to a page on the BBC site that talks about US troops finding a shed load of money in Baghdad – the article is from 2003 though! (Wow, how crap was the BBC website in 2003!?)

I need your confirmation that you are able to manage these huge funds.I contacted you because I am looking for a capable foreign partner whom I can entrust this money in his care for investing in a profitable business as I don’t have idea of any business because I have never been engaged or involved in any business activity before.
Take care and hoping to hear from you as regards to my letter of proposition.

I’d love to know why they think im a “capable foreign partner” as Im historically pretty terrible with money management haha.

All in all, a very typical 419 scam, but with a different twist. Dont fall for it peeps.

I’ve replied to the guy of course, but hes not replied yet.

It was sent from;

David Hook – davidhook411@yahoo.com (reply to address was the same)

I will let you know if I hear back!

Stay ScamWise, peeps!

I have recently written about a scammer called Stuart Paskin, he runs a number of businesses and websites including The White Tent, and has built his entire “empire” up by moving from Digital Agency to Digital Agency scamming them to do work, then announcing the work wasnt up to scratch and moving onto another company.

The White Tent is their current, main website that we worked on in 2016 and the start of 2017 – and from the second we spoke to Stuart at The White Tent we knew he was going to be trouble.

The White Tent had been made in Opencart which is our eCommerce platform of choice – the tasks he asked us to do were all within our capabilities and we were able to complete them as and when we were asked to complete them, apart from on a couple of occasions where things were delayed due to requests from customers who pay us a monthly retainer and get higher priority support. As we started working on things we noticed more and more things that just didnt seem to sit well with us, he had admin accounts set up for 3 or 4 different companies who all seemed to specialise in Opencart development and was always talking crap about the people who had worked on it in the past.

We sent Stuart Paskin our first invoice and heard nothing apart from more demands of work he wanted doing, and we actually got passed over to one of his little henchmen Stewart Stalker – Stewart made excuses for Stuart as to why invoices were not being paid (not in the office, also used a family member’s illness as an excuse) and we were reassured time and time again that they would be sorted.

Halfway through our “Business relationship” Stuart drafted in a lovely lady to do PPC and Social Media marketing, and then started to get her to chase us for updates on tasks he had asked me to do – I later found out she was also not paid a penny for any of the work she did and found it extremely upsetting and demoralising to have to call people like myself and chase us for updates – knowing full well we weren’t being paid on time for our work either.

Anyway – time went on and we did bit and bobs on The White Tent as Stuart and Stewart continued to dangle a carrot, promising we would be paid “if we just…” – but we were growing increasingly frustrated about the whole situation so we started doing some digging.

We found a forum post by someone called Paul over on the Opencart forums, and our bad feeling suddenly turned into a sickening feeling as we realised we were the victim of a serial scammer. I reached out to Paul and his experience was pretty much the same as ours – he also told me of about 9 other people he had spoken to who were in exactly the same boat. Horrifying!

We managed to get 80% of our invoices paid and cut ties with The White Tent, but there are some of the people before and after us that are still struggling to get paid for the brilliant work they did.

A word of warning to anyone doing due diligence on this company or these scammers – STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

If you’ve been screwed over by these conmen then I would love to hear your story. COmment below or fill out my contact form.

Stay Scam Wise, people.