Scammerama

  Where do scammers get their pictures from? Well, unsurprisingly, they nick them. Sometimes they forget to crop the source from the bottom corner of the picture - so they send a picture of a pretty girl from a Lingerie catalogue with a link to the catalogue.   Occasionally they don't bother to make up a new name, and re-use the name of a gorgeous pouting model girl on Instagram   Sometimes If you do a Reverse Image Search, it will find the source website.   And sometimes I find all three. As in the case of Janessa Brazil, a Brazilian porn star. A lot of scammers use her pics, and a lot of guys fall for the scam Here's her story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-64720239

 I had a call from a scammer the other day. Me: “Hello.” NOT-Microsoft support: “Hello. This is Bob Bobson from Microsoft Support. We are seeing a lot of virus activity from your device.” Me: “Oh no. My device? Are you sure?” NOT-Microsoft support: “Oh yes, we have many reports.” Me: “Oh jeez. How can I fix it?” NOT-Microsoft support: “It’s okay Sir. We can help you right now. Are you in front of your device Sir?” Me: “Yes. I was just about to use it. I’m glad you called.” NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes Sir, we are going to help you. Can you please push the Start button?” Me: “I think it’s already on.” NOT-Microsoft support: “Okay, Sir. Now you want to click on Control Panel.” Me: “I don’t see that.” NOT-Microsoft support: “Do you see a bunch of information above the Start button?” Me: “Yes.” NOT-Microsoft support: “That is your Control Panel.” Me: “Wow, I didn’t realise it had a name.” NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes Sir, now press on Internet Options.” Me: “Yeah, I definitely don’t see any

Pretty girl sends me a friend request. Ho Hum, here we go again. It must be a scam, because hot babes sending FRs out of the blue are not real - you know that. But this one is a bit different   "Are you into Dom / sub kinky erotic sex plays and fetish now?" Mistress Ezada Sinn asks.   Er, am I?  Not at all sure about that!  "Okay then, would you love to be Bondage Discipline Being tied up and Tortured Being Dildo Fucked Forced Masterbation (sic) Humiliation cage and spanked xx?"   Okay, it's fairly obvious that this one isn't a teenage Ghanaian lad with a Facebook account and a desire to separate me from $100.   Is she a working girl, looking for business?   Is she an actual dominatrix looking for a new slave?   Is she a previous scammer coming back to get revenge on me for messing her around previously?   One of my mates taking the piss?   I speak to a friend who is into the fetish scene. "She's a scammer " she says, with no hesitation. T

 Just in  case you were tempted... WARNING: Thinking of investing in Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies? Here's what you should know: If you've been contacted by a 'trader' promising big profits and offering to help you invest in cryptocurrency, this is a scam. See Cryptocurrency investment fraud - Action Fraud. - Always have control of your cryptocurrency wallet. If you didn't set the wallet up yourself or can't access the money in the wallet, this is a scam. You should stop making payments immediately. - Many cryptocurrency sellers are not registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Always use a firm that is on the Registered FCA list which can be found on the FCA website. You should also check the Temporarily Registered list which can be found on the same page. - If you ignore the above advice you could lose all of your money. Source:  Royal Bank of Scotland

Unusual to find a scam on LinkedIn, but I've seen a few of these lately.   Harry is an orthopedic surgeon. Do orthopedic surgeons wear yellow hi viz jackets instead of scrubs? So why is he working for the United Nations in Germany? And why does someone with ten years of experience have only four connections?   Where did he go to medical school? And if he is into orthopedics, why is he talking about being a neurosurgeon?   I'm pretty sure that Harry is a love Scammer, seeking to prey on wealthy women. That sort of thing isn't uncommon on Facebook. I get inundated with beautiful models who want to be my friend. LinkedIn isn't the obvious place for it though   I've reported him to LinkedIn as "Not representing a real individual" - we'll see what happens

Amazon offer a premium service called Prime.  From what I can gather, for $7.99 a month, you get free delivery, music, and movies.  Not something I want, but hey ho  However, enterprising scumbags in India want to persuade me to unsubscribe from it.  The phone rings, and it's Amazon Prime telling me that I am signed up, and if I want to unsubscribe I should press 1 An Indian girl answers, seemingly surprised to hear from me - I expect that most people simply hang up.  She introduces herself as Jennifer.  She tells me that scammers have signed me up for Amazon Prime for $39.99 a month and do I want to unsubscribe?  Yes please. She transfers me to "Simon", who speaks much better English.  He tries to talk me through the process of unsubscribing.  This involves giving him control of my laptop.  I don't think so, Simon In the bottom left hand corner of my keyboard, he tells me, is the Ctrl key.  Unfortunately I can't see it.  After a while we establish that he means t