DHS.ORG? Homeland Security?

Ok... so why would Homeland security be taking care of something like this? Its something the FBI takes care of. Homeland Security basically takes care of immigration, and airline security, and blah blah. Anyway... got this email today.

Subject: US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
From: "US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY" -dhs@dhs.org- (Um... dhs.org is a domain name provider or something like that. If it was really homeland security, it would be dhs.GOV)
To: undisclosed-recipients (They wouldn't be contacting multiple people for an individuals problem.)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Washington, DC 20528
US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Attn: Beneficiary, (I'd imagine they would know our name. Most importantly, they know how to find you personally.)
This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal transaction with Impostors claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo former Governor Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr. Frank Nweke, none officials of Oceanic Bank, none officials of Zenith Bank and some impostors claiming to be the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents. (What a way to have a run on sentence... I highly doubt there would be any mistakes like this. I mean, it IS suppose to be coming from our government.) During our Investigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.
So therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by coordinating your payment in the total amount of US$800,000.00 (Should read: total amount of $800,000.00 USD. That's how I normally see things on government forms that are for international use.) which will be deposited into an ATM CARD (Ok... so why would it be given to an ATM card only? Normally the government sends paper checks.) which you will use to withdraw funds anywhere of the world. You now have the lawful right to claim your funds which have been deposited into the ATM CARD.
Since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been involved in this transaction, you are now to be rest assured that this transaction is legitimate and completely risk-free as it is our duty to Protect and Serve citizens of the United States Of America. (You definately shouldn't need the reassurance note. And it shouldn't even be mentioned at all!) All you have to do is immediately contact the ATM CARD CENTER via E-mail for instructions on how to procure your Approval Slip which contains details on how to receive and activate your ATM CARD for immediate use to withdraw funds being paid to you. (There should be a number listed as well. E-mail is not the only option you have. Remember to check the site for contact numbers and such. Homeland Security in Washington has two numbers listed on their site at http://www.dhs.gov/)
The total amount for everything is US$300.00 (Three Hundred US Dollars). (What??? Now you have to pay? Yeah... the government sends a real statement in the mail with a bill. And they certainly would seize your accounts and income to get their money if you don't pay up.) We have tried our possible best to indicate that this US$300.00 should be deducted from your funds, but we found out that the funds have already been deposited in an ATM CARD and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the beneficiary which the PIN would be released to. (Gotta love the mumbo-jumbo they scrape up when trying to grasp for words to make things a little more longer.) Therefore you will be required to pay the required fee to the Agent in-charge of this transaction via Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram International Transfer. (That alone should scream scam. Like I said, real government business would be sent to your mailing address and in a statement/bill form. You pay by check, you can contact a number listed and allow them to do it electronically, or you can simply log online to make your payment. The ability to pay online may vary based on department and such.)
In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact the agent in-charge ( Mr. MORGAN JAMES) via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:
CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: MR. MORGAN JAMES (No department title or anything?)
EMAIL: mrgnjames8@gmail.com (Real agents have an @blahblah.gov email. They have no need to contact you through yahoo.com, gmail.com, or any other e-mail provider. Unless its under cover work, but you wouldn't know if it was or not.)
Immediately contact Mr. MORGAN JAMES of the ATM Card Center with the following information:
Full Name: The government knows who you are...
Address: They know where you live, granted you are updating it like you are suppose to.
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Direct Telephone Number: Official mail comes in a good old fashion envelope and mailbox.
Current Occupation: Why should your occupation be important?
Once you have sent the required information to Mr. MORGAN JAMES he will contact you with instructions on how to make the payment of US$300.00 for the Approval Slip after which he will proceed towards delivery of the ATM CARD without any further delay. You have hereby been authorized/guaranteed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to commence towards completing this transaction, as there shall be NO delay once payment for the Approval Slip has been made to the authorized agent.
This letter will serve as proof that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is authorizing you to pay the required US$300.00 ONLY to Mr. MORGAN JAMES via information in which he shall send to you, if you do not receive your ATM CARD containing your funds in amount of US$800,000.00 we shall be held responsible for the loss and this shall invite a penalty of $3,000.00USD which will be made PAYABLE ONLY to you (The Beneficiary).
Once you have completed payment of US$300.00 to the agent in charge of this transaction, immediately contact me back so as to ensure your ATM CARD gets to you rapidly. (Why should there be any need what-so-ever to contact more people if it was already rest assured that I would receive the money that was mentioned?)
Mr. Michael Heimbach
Special Agent DHS.
Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostor or office claiming to be in possession of your ATM CARD, you are advised only to be in contact with Mr. MORGAN JAMES of the ATM CARD CENTER who is the rightful person you are suppose to deal with in regards your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any email you get from any impostors to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation. (Shouldn't be receiving any other emails granted this is secure and private information...)

Yeah... seriously. Read all emails in full and do your research. The only time you are asked for personal information is when you are filing claims and making the point to contact them yourself. Its how they identify who you are.
You can visit the official FBI website at http://www.fbi.gov/. They also have a site that lists several internet crimes and such at http://www.ic3.gov/. You can also visit http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx for a list of different crime schemes.

Stay safe!

Haiti 2010 Devistation: 7.0 Earthquake

For donations, I recommend that you go directly through to American Red Cross or other reputable organizations and companies. Below is a list I have checked for you, but you are welcome to double check. Its always the safest way. :)

1. American Red Cross
2. Sprint PCS - Text message donations
3. T-Mobile - Text message donations
4. Verizon Wireless - Text message donations (Same as T-Mobile's text number)
5. Former President Bill Clinton - Clinton Foundation
6. UNICEF
7. The Salvation Army
8. Habitat for Humanity

You can find more charities in this article: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/haiti-earthquake-help-victims/story?id=9547030&page=1

PLEASE BE CAREFUL FOR SCAMS! They will not ask for money sent to Western Union...
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/186887/fbi_warns_of_bogus_haiti_online_donation_scams.html
I highly suggest reading that article! Going through donations from emails or phone services could be a scam. Be very careful about where you send your donations. If sending a check by mail, I suggest that you run a Google Earth search on the address to make sure that it is going where you expect it to. Its sad to know there are internet scams, and I really don't want you to fall victim to them.

Your donation will go a long way for the families in Haiti regardless of the amount.

Western Union

I was too slow for this one. It was a Western Union email explaining that "my account" had been limited. I find this funny to receive this after I sent some money out through Western Union.
Anyway... they asked for all my log in details and blah blah. Same old same old. You know how emails usually have the sender's name and then the email? Well, these scams usually use the real companies name as the main contact, which is usually what brings in the people. So rather "Mrs. Smith "... you will see "credit@westernunion.com " But sometimes even this email can be masked. Either way, this is a crappy set up. The whole email is an image. Once you get it loaded, the whole body is clickable.
After proceeding to click, I was brought to a crappy page. It looked legit, but it was definitely not. The URL was total gobbledygook. None of the buttons on the top were clickable, and the buttons below the user and password area, the buttons work. Basically, this person used the simplest of HTML or something. But yeah... I entered a bunch of random letters and it accepted them... so yeah...
Like I said, I was little late to get to the next step in regards to the account. Was removed pretty quickly, which is very good.
If its in spam, its probably there for a reason. Don't bother with it unless you are expecting something. And if you do have an account with the company the email lists, just open a new window in your browser and go to the company site and check for yourself.

Happy new year and safe net browsing!

Wally-world!

Hello readers!

I just got a new scam for ya. Its made out to look like it is from Walmart, however, there are a few things that are little off. I wouldn't say this is a bad site when it comes to quality, because it almost looked legit. The person that designed this did it fairly well to serve its purpose. The email though, well, it was plain and not at all like normal emails sent from the retail giant. My bill statements come with blue boarders full of ads for products in their stores. But this email... take a look:

There is absolutely nothing but a link to a site that makes you take the survey in order to get $150 gift certificate (in the subject line... can't miss it!). The site that hosts the survey is a "3rd party" site. http://jefferson-financialfcu.com/walmart/survey.html (In one single day, its gone from the web.) Anyway, the survey is pretty quick, which isn't usual for Walmart... cause I've received REAL surveys from them... and the ones I normally get are three pages long. By pages, I mean that they put 5 questions then have a "next" button that brings you to the next 5, etc etc. I of course... left mine blank.


After the blank form was submitted, I was brought to this next page... which asked for credit card details? They should only be asking for mailing address... not credit card stuff. If you are a winner of the gift certificate, you will get a mailed certificate, a plastic credit card like gift card mailed, or a confirmation code to redeem your gift cert at a local Walmart store (there is one around every corner like a Starbucks, don't be lazy bums!). Seriously.

As you can see... all my fields are funked up. It took it like it were real information though. Actually, it took a couple tries. It declined sixteen 1's and 123 all over. Once I finally was allowed to submit, I was brought to a VERY sad looking "Thank you" page...

Yeah... After seeing a page like that... You would either think nothing of it if you are really oblivious, or you'd think something was definitely wrong at that point.

I now bring you to the actual Jefferson Financial page that hosted the fake survey. As you can see... there really is nothing to it.

Once you are done with everything, you are brought to another page. This would happen to be the REAL site related to Walmart. Applications for jobs, contact information, corporate details and more will be posted here. Check out the logo change on the top bar, too. All the links on the fake survey site brings you to the real Walmart page.

Needless to say, Walmart took the fake site down immediately.

Hopefully by now, some of you have a better understand on what to look for to protect yourself.

Thanks for reading! Until next scam...

FedChoice gone phishing.

Received yet another email scam. This one was a phishing site for FedChoice.org.

As you can see, this is the email. Plain and very simple. It is easy to mask your email to look like someone else sent it, but you need the right email service to do this with. When I clicked on the link, I was brought to www.fedchoice-profiles.org rather fedchoice.org, which is the correct site.

This is the first page that I was taken to.

"Need assistance logging in?" Sure! But where do I click? Its not a common thing to find great help sometimes... but I didn't think it was that hard to find. Yeah... I entered fake information and was brought to another page that was just areas to fill in personal information, such as full credit card information. Again... asking 16 digits, when some cards are less, depending the company you have the card with. Duh? Why would a company like this need your credit card? They have other means of going through your information in a more secure fashion...


Anyway, being the click happy person I am... I clicked everything! At the top, you'll find two bottons; Help Center and Contact Us. The Help Center link went NO WHERE. The contact page brought me to the page where you need to provide your credit card number and such. The second time, it brought me to the REAL contact page... shown below:
Notice how blue the page looks... and how the layout doesn't look like anything the phishing site shows. The Log-In box at the top... the colorful tabs... the url is simple... There is a lot more presentation to the actual site that has actual content. Remember, amateur phisher-men are not interested in what their site looks like in compared to the real thing... especially if its working for them.

Anyway... Looking back at the page where you submit your card details, etc... you are brought to this page: Again... from gray naked page to colorful and fully dressed page. Major difference between the two. Even if you are colorblind, there is no excuse! Its obvious to see that one site has a lot more going on than the other. Something phishy about it... But I emailed them and asked them what the deal was with their site. Barely 10 minutes later, someone wrote back to warn me it was a phishing attempt and that they were in the process of getting it taken care of.
Very good to know! And was very good response time from who ever wrote me back. :)

Don't answer things with out knowing why that information is necessary. Especially online. Once in a while, there will be actual LIVE HELP and they will get on a call with you... chances are, the caller ID is blocked, but if you have a really good one, it will say the company name. If it doesn't look like something you know, just be cautious about it. If the person asks you a series of questions you know they should have on file already, question them. Chances are, you'll ask them too many questions and they will hang up on you assuming you have figured them out.

Anyway, stay safe everyone. Thanks for viewing.

$650,000 for my friend!

These ones are always interesting to read. If it were me, I think I'd be a little more cautious of who I send $650,000 to... Its not like its only $30 to throw around. And if I was sincerely grateful for someone's efforts, I would at least remember the person's name. Otherwise, in all honesty, I'd be keeping that money. Either that, only $10,000 for that kind of help. That is just me though. Really would depend on what the hell was going on actually. But yeah... to find out people actually fall for this one would truly be shocking... Seriously... when can you remember helping this guy out???
You call the number, you give them your bank information, and they wipe you clean and ruin your credit. The end.

I have an eBay message?

I came across yet another email scam trying to get your information for eBay. I forgot to show the sender details, however, this was sent from "message@message.com" to my work spam mailing list.
Sure this may look like a real eBay.com email, but again... the sender isn't sending from an eBay certified email. And though a skilled artist, I suck at computer art... but I'm confident I can replicate these same details just using the basic paint program that Windows provides.

*** REMEMBER!!!! eBay, PayPal, banks, credit card companies, etc etc... If you have an account with them, THEY KNOW WHO THEIR CLIENTS ARE!

"Dear eBay Member" shouldn't even really be thought about. People need to be more aware of what they are getting themselves into when it comes to their person information and the internet. This is why some sites require that you pick a picture from their selection. So that way, if you don't see the image you selected, you know its not the real deal.
Anyway, breaking down this first image... The logo brought me to the real eBay page. However, when I tried to click on the "Learn More" link, it wasn't a functioning link. It just looked it by color while mousing over didn't change a the mouse icon or a sub-caption of the link or its description.
Other than the eBay sign, the "Respond Now" icon and the links for the "item" are click able. Problem is, they bring you to a fake log in. This example wasn't the greatest idea because the link was already banned. In fact, here are the two pages I was bought to after clicking on it multiple times.

This is the first time I clicked on the "Respond Now" button. I've seen this a lot lately for sites I have to check from affiliates. Notice that the site isn't even an eBay related URL. Its for www.evolv.pl instead. By the way, the .pl at the end of a URL signifies that it is a Polish website. Just like .hk is Hong Kong, .jp is Japan, .uk is United Kingdom, .au is Australia, etcetera.
Click the link at the bottom of the post if you wish to see more URL codes.

After clicking the "Respond Now" button for a second time, this is what I was brought to. The second two links showed the same thing. And its all in Polish.

These are truly simple to avoid... you just have to learn to pay attention to what you are doing.
If you are interested in viewing more URL codes like the ones described below the second image, please visit http://www.bitmedia.com/cc/url1.htm.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!