Category: Scams

  • Email Phishing Scam – uk-c.co – Very sneaky!

    Despite me going back to normal style blogging, I can’t help still being interested in attempted internet scams.

    A customer at work has asked me for help as they spotted a phishing scam that used their domain name, and upon closer inspection I spotted something I had not seen before. Perhaps this scammers undoing!

    I have changed the domain name to safeguard my customer.

    The emails read like this;

    Subject: Settle up this payment
    Date: Mon, 21 May 2018 13:14:53 +0200
    From: Kevin Playwright <kevin@playwright.me.uk>
    Reply-To: Kevin Playwright <kevin@playwright.me.uk-c.co>
    To: accounts@playwright.me.uk

    I need you to process a faster payment for a new beneficiary, payee details attached.

    I will send the documents once i’ll be at my desk.
    Leave a reply once completed or in case you get any problem while setting it up.

    Regards,
    Kevin Playwright.

    Sent from my iPhone

    The email is flawed in a few ways, firstly there is no-one called Kevin in this organisation, and secondly, there is certainly no-one called Kevin who carries the surname which happens to be the same name as the organisation Kevin is supposed to be part of.

    The next point which my customer didnt notice, was the reply-to address. As regular readers of my scam blogs will know, this is one of the first things I check as this often leads straight back to the crook!

    Usually, if the reply-to address isn’t the same as the send address (IE email account fully hacked) then it will be completely different – but in this case it was a hybrid!

    Let’s take a closer look at those email addresses.

    kevin@playwright.me.uk <- Sending address
    kevin@playwright.me.uk-c.co <- Reply-to address

    Notice the bit at the end of the reply to address?

    If we reverse that to make a domain name, the extension is .co and the bit before that, before the next dot is uk-c – which means that this email address is fake, but has been created to fool you into thinking you are replying to the original sender.

    Their domain is: http://uk-c.co

    If you visit it, you spot that its a mail server;

    They can apply this scam to any UK email address;

    test@domain.co.uk-c.co

    It would be so easy to miss.

    Be careful peeps, if something doesn’t feel right STOP and pick up the phone. Call the person who emailed you, call your IT mate, comment on one of my blogs – just dont brush it off as nothing.

    Stay safe peeps.

    PS I’ve reported them to ICANN hopefully they have their domain taken off them.

  • F*ck you, Rob Carona! Hacked PayPal Account and Personal Info Leak SCAMMER!

    This was sent to me earlier in the year, and it angered me if i’m being honest! Ive obfuscated the actual details but they were an actual legit old postal address of mine.

    From: Rob Carona robcarona@hotmail.com
    Date: 28 March 2017 at 12:44
    Subject: Olly
    To: Olly <one-of-my@email-accounts.com>

    Hello, Olly!

    I am bothering you for a very serious cause. Though you don’t know me, but I have a lot of personal info about you. The matter is that, most likely by mistake, the information of your account has been emailed to me.
    For instance, your address is:
    123 My Actual Old Road
    My Actual Town
    My Actual County
    MY 01D ZIP

    I am a lawful citizen, so I decided to caution] you, that your PayPal account may have been hacked. I attached the file – name.dot that examine what info has become accessible for attackers. File password is – 2811

    I look forward to hearing from you,
    Robbi Caronna

    This type of scam is the worst – as this preys on fear, the fear of having your identiy stolen and used for god knows what.

    The email came with an attachment which appeared to be a Word Document but that would have had Macros in it, and those macros would have more than likely been some kind of virus or would have installed some kind of malware to my PC.

    So, Robbi Caronna – fu*k you, you garbage person. If I was elderly, or young and naive I could have easily falled for this and ended up with my PC infected and my world turned upside down. You prey on the inexperienced and vulnerable and no doubt profit from that.

    I hope you get an infection in your bottyhole that is untreatable and leaves you in pain for the rest of your existence.

    I reached out to Robba for a comment, he didnt have one. Asshat.

  • Yоur Вloсkchain Confirmatiоn Сodе – Cryptocurrency Spoof Email Phishing SCAM

    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!

     

     

  • BBC Iraq War Hidden Stash of Money SCAM!

    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!