Old Acquaintances And Forgotten Resolutions

 It's New Year's Eve, and time to see the old year out, ignore new resolutions, and go party. Or stay in and fall asleep at nine. I have an image blog for the occasion.

The Bitcoin Cybersecurity Spammer

Despite our ridiculing them, ignoring them, or treating them with contempt or derision, they can't take a hint and just go away. Of course I speak of the vile rabble otherwise known as homo sapiens spammeritis annoyingus, aka internet scammers. They infest our blogs with spam comments hoping we might bite- usually a post that's old, which is why it's a good idea to have comments requiring moderation beyond a certain date. They send us spam emails hoping someone will be dumb enough to believe what they have to say.

The following came from one Amelia Hemsworth (yeah, sure, that's a believable name) in my blog comments recently, for a post that had been made quite some time ago.

Spyhost Cyber Security Company , in fact, never disappoint. Few weeks ago, I did invest $320,000 in bitcoin with a phony company. A few days after I made the investment, I was shocked to discover on my dashboard that it had climbed to almost $420,000. Never knew my happiness was about to diminish as I attempted to withdraw the money and was turned down. I repeatedly emailed help, but they never got back to me. I decided not to let that get away from me and started thinking of methods to get back what was properly mine. On social media, I came across folks who had also been duped by a similar investment fraud and had successfully retrieved their money via Spyhost Cyber Security Company . The experts at Spyhost Cyber Security Company are excellent and their top notch hacking prowess was proven of which I am now a living testimony because all my invested funds were recovered within 48 hours. If you want to recover money/ lost digital assets from con artists, consider using Spyhost Cyber Security Company. For additional information about their services, reach out to them through the contact means below;

The email address, which I'm not going to include, features as part of it cyberdude. Yeah, that's right. Cyberdude. Because that sounds all serious. 

This bit of nonsense reads in some respects a lot like your standard spellcaster spam comment, except instead of the sob story about the unfaithful lover and the miraculous totally fake doctor, we get the story about investing money in bitcoin (yeah, there's your first mistake) and then having a totally fake cybersecurity company hack their way into getting your money back. 

Ah, phishing. Not the boring kind, that's fishing, and besides, who wants to eat fish? No, phishing, the bane of existence of many of us in this day and age. I've lost track of how many emails at work I've marked as phishing. I once chatted with a fellow in IT at work about the compulsion to reply back with a "go fuck yourself" reply, which he could relate to, but he added that doing so gives them an in to plant all sorts of crap in the system. Best to just mark them as phishing, and there they disappear.

In this email, we get the standard format of the spammer, promising things will go your way if only you contact these people for help in this problem you've got (the actual problem starts if you contact them). They reassure that this is all legitimate (yeah, right), that everything is above board. Meanwhile, if you answer that, you're screwed.

Besides which, they tell the story about bitcoin, that form of cryptocurrency that has its ups and downs. More downs, really. I'm not really business savvy, but I've heard enough bad things about bitcoin that I wouldn't ever want to get near it. It's just asking for trouble. Just like believing that nonsense comment is asking for trouble. Because it's a verbatim comment seen in multiple blogs and posts the last couple of years, which I found when I started entering some key terms. And verbatim comments or emails are the hallmark of the spammer and scammer.

So no, no thank you.

Nice try, ace. Really. I get it. You've probably never even thought of finding an honest line of work. Maybe you're the low rung of an organized crime ring and they've got you by the fine hairs. To which I say, that's a you problem. Stop making it my problem. 

I suggest the following. Put yourself in cryosleep for the next three hundred years, and wake up in a dystopian world with these guys around. See how long you last.

The Great Jackpot Winner Scam

They have never heard of giving up, going away, or doing something productive with their lives. In fact, all they really have to live for is what they do. I speak of course of the internet scammers and spammers. Spamming our blogs and email with random pointless spam. Blogger usually filters out the spam comments (all while continuing to regularly shunt actual comments to spam too. Come on, Blogger, how long does it take you to sort that out?) The internet scammers who send us too good to be true nonsense, such as the following, which ended up in my email one day. Take it for the lie that it is.

Attention Please,

I am Edwin Castro the winner of the world's greatest jackpot in a national lottery $2.05 billion (ё1.79 billion).

SEE GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LINK:
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/2/winner-of-biggest-ever-lottery-jackpot-revealed-after-bagging-2-billion-ticket-738096

I am giving the sum $800,000.00 (Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars) each to some selected individuals as donation.

You have been luckily selected via mail system to receive the sum of $800,000.00 (Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars).

Note that you are required to contact Mr. Raymond Bradson with your donation code and personal contact details.

THIS IS YOUR DONATION CODE: ED-CASTRO-$800-2023

You have to contact him directly with the information below.
Name : Mr. Raymond Bradson
Email : raymondbradson@aliyun.com


Best Regards,

Edwin Castro.

Oh, sure, right, that's believable. Yes, there is an Edwin Castro who won a Powerball lottery. And if you look up his name, there's some controversy about his win. But there's also notice of an internet scammer posing as him and sending, well, the above email. To a half million or more people, no doubt. 

Because this isn't Edwin Castro. This is the cover story of a long line of email addresses that lead to some dark corner of the world with no extradition treaties.

Not a lottery winner.

Because a lottery winner wouldn't be handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars to select random people. No, they'd either be burning through it, getting annoyed by long lost relatives they haven't spoken to in years looking for handouts, finding themselves in a sudden relationship with a gold digger looking to score the big payoff....

...or saying absolutely nothing about it to anyone, banking the money, continuing their job, and being very discreet. 

The lottery winner scam is a pretty old trick, casting along the standard story of wanting to share the wealth to some deserved individuals, giving the name of a standard case worker, in this case the totally real Richard Bradson. They will promptly take your personal contact details, including social insurance number, credit card numbers, and banking numbers and passwords, and proceed to wreck havoc with your entire life before vanishing into the wind.

Nice try, numbskull, but let's face it, I've seen this before, and I know your methods.

Why don't you do the world a favour? Travel to Skull Island and make the acquaintance of a cranky giant ape.

Maple Syrup Hangover Time

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians. I have an image blog for the occasion. Enjoy!