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Tuesday 31 July 2018

Another scam

I got a phone call. Apparently, my IP address is about to be changed! So I called them back.


I spoke to "Kevin Sharp". He had the usual difficult accent, and he asked my if I had Team Viewer installed (that's a commonly use Remote Access tool). No, I hadn't.So he talked me though accessing btopenreach5.webnode.com which is a very crude copy of a BT site.

I told him that my computer rebooted.

There was a conversation in Urdu in the background, and I was transferred to "Mike Morris".
Mike told me a whole selection of lies. First, he talked my through discovering one of Google's IP addresses, and told me that was my IP address. Then he told me that I've been hacked, and that someone tried to steal £904 from my account, but he's stopped that. He told me that this was because someone at my local Tesco was stealing my debit card number. But they now have a camera there, so they'll catch him soon.

Then he sent me to the fake BT site, and told me to click on a link there that would install a RAT (RemotePC.exe).  I told him I clicked on it and my computer rebooted. "It's been rebooting a lot recently, is this the virus?" I asked, innocently. He confirmed that it was.

More Urdu in the background. How stupid they must think we are. And they're probably right, they wouldn't be doing this is it didn't work, at least sometimes.

Then I panicked, and told him that I need to talk to my bank, to block my account, but he said he's already done it. I said I still felt that I needed to talk to my bank, and he offered to transfer the call to my bank. "Oh yes," I said eagerly, keen to find out how well they'd be able to impersonate my bank. But he didn't do that, and continued with his standard script. He wants me to visit my local Tesco. I have no idea why. He wants me to take my mobile phone with me when I go. I told him I don't have a mobile phone. "Are you sure?" he asked. I told him that it's possible that I hav a mobile phone that I don't know about. I think that piece of sarcasm flew over his head.

He asked for my address, so I gave him the address of someone who had spammed me a while ago. And he asked for my debit card number, and I gave him a 16 digit number to play with.

Then I told him I was very worried about all this, and I was going to talk to my bank,. and I hung up on him. That's so that when he tries to run the card, he isn't surprised that it fails.

Then I reported him to:

1) The Telephone preference service
2) Webnode abuse
3) BT Openreach

I'll give it an hour or two, then call him back. They don't get away that easily!

... later ...

I got an email back from webnode

" Webnode team, please check the content of the below-mentioned domain name. It looks like
phishing.


Best


Realtime Register Abuse Dept. "





One look at that site and they'll kill it, it's a very obviousd scam. A small victory :-)

Wednesday 11 July 2018

Facebook fakes

It was recently noticed that there are a lot of fake accounts on Facebook.

These were set up several years ago - perhaps Facebook was less discerning then? They have the following characteristics in common. We see them when they try to join a group.

All claim to be in the USA
The account was set up several years ago, and contains two posts, one to set up the profile picture, and one to set up the banner. Then nothing for several years.
Many of them are an attractive woman in an attractive pose.
Others are an attractive man.
Many of them are members of several other groups with related subjects.

What is the purpose of these accounts, and the purpose of joining a group? Nothing good, I fear. By joining the group, they get better access to the members of that group. And here's what I've seen happen ...

The person offers to friend you. If you accept, then you later on get an invitation to a page, which is for a different person.

Reporting this to Facebook seems to have no effect.

How widespread is this?

I'm seeing more fakes than genuine people. That's a big deal. Is it possible that Facebook has less than half of the accounts that it claims?

Monday 9 July 2018

Bojo bails

David Davis, Minister for Brexit has left the cabinet over the latest Theresa May proposal, supposedly agreed at Chequers.

Boris Johnson has followed suit.

I feel like I'm on the Titanic, and the crew hasn't merely given up on trying to save the ship or organise an orderly evacuation to lifeboats.

No. Half the staff have decided that now is the time to make more holes in the ship, and the other half have decided to shoot themselves in the foot.

So what now?

Can the May government survive this revolt? Is a leadership contest in the offing? Can Boris hold his nose and ally with Gove? Will Andrea Loathsome raise her hand? Will the Honourable Rees-Mogg indicate graciously that if asked to serve, he would not decline?

Dum de dum de dum de dum, dum de dum de dum dum ...



Bye bye Twitter

I just deleted my Twitter account. I've never used it apart from a few testing tweets. So it's just a database waiting to be hacked.

I only hope they delete my details.