Category: Scams

Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency Transactions Scams Twitter Twitter Verification

Twitter’s murky verification process is helping cryptocurrency scams thrive

sudshr47 February 26, 2018

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Twitter verification, or the blue checkmark that appears next to an official account’s name, is seen by most people as a badge of credibility. It’s meant to distinguish real accounts from the fake ones.

But for scammers, the same blue checkmark can be exploited to take money from unwitting users, as BuzzFeed reported last week. 

The BuzzFeed story describes how an account called @Tronfoundation, a company offering the cryptocurrency token $TRX, was impersonated by about a dozen accounts. But the one fake account that really stuck out from the pack was @Tronfoundationl because it somehow acquired a blue verified checkmark — even though the account was fake. Read more…

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Cryptocurrency Elon Musk ethereum Scams Twitter

For the love of god stop sending ‘Elon Musk’ your Ethereum. It’s a scam.

sudshr47 February 21, 2018

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People, please please please listen closely: Elon Musk is not giving away Ether. 

Scammers have swarmed Twitter in recent weeks in an attempt to trick people out of their hard-earned cryptocurrency, and as a particular tweet today makes clear they’re having a lot of success. 

The scam itself is incredibly simple, and starts with someone famous tweeting out some random statement. Like this, for example:

Today’s Falcon launch carries 2 SpaceX test satellites for global broadband. If successful, Starlink constellation will serve least served.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 21, 2018 Read more…

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Europe Italy Scams tourism travel

Tourists end up with $1300 restaurant bill in Venice, prompting anger from mayor

sudshr47 January 23, 2018

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Avoiding being ripped off is an inevitable part of travelling, but sometimes you get unlucky.

Four Japanese visitors were presented with a €1,143 ($1,350) bill at a Venice restaurant, prompting anger from the city’s mayor, according to a report by ANSA.

The group of students dined at the restaurant located near the tourist hotspot St Mark’s Square, and ordered four steaks, a fried fish platter and mineral water. 

Three other women, who were part of the group, suspected they were being scammed and decided to leave the restaurant, but still ended up paying €350 ($535) for three pasta dishes. Read more…

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Celebrities Culture instagram Oprah Winfrey Scams

A disrespectful scammer has dared to impersonate Oprah

sudshr47 December 22, 2017

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It appears that some reckless online scammer has decided that of all the celebrities to impersonate, they’d like to take a stab at Oprah. 

As expected, though, Oprah is onto them. In a video posted to her Instagram and Twitter accounts on Thursday, she warns the people not to fall for the scam accounts — which, apparently, are primarily on Instagram and use her name and avatar to host fake “giveaways.”

“Hi, everybody. I just wanted you to know that somebody out there is trying to scam you using my name and my avatar on social media, asking for money if you sign up for an OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) account on Instagram,” she says. She is standing in front of a beautiful Christmas tree — the position of ultimate authority. Read more…

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Bots Email New Zealand Scams Tech

Email bot wastes a scammer’s time with mindless chit-chat

sudshr47 November 10, 2017

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While you might be wise enough to delete or flag emails promising great wealth in far-flung countries, not everyone is so savvy to these scams.

To ensure these scammers have less time to prey on real people, New Zealand online safety organisation Netsafe has developed a tool called Re:scam. 

It’s an artificially intelligent email bot which engages with scammers in mindless, never-ending conversation, full of unrelated questions that waste their time — it’s a similar strategy adopted by Mashable‘s scam crusader Scamalot. Read more…

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