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I got another one of those emails today. Well, actually I got about nine of them, I just picked one to talk about. I’m talking about one that comes with a subject line: “This glitch will assist you to create-wealth on a cellphone.”

The idea behind this is that there is allegedly a glitch of some kind in cell phones (or the cell phone network, it actually doesn’t say up front) that somebody has allegedly figured out how to make boatloads of money by exploiting it.

Out of pure morbid curiosity I went ahead and clicked on the link in the email to have a look at the site. The link in the email: http://jpdkq.lechterstrap.com/bqjhkzy/nbqnvwgyn/ redirected me to http://appscem.com/cb102.html?refer=CD15567

The page is simple, making claims that this cell phone glitch that wireless companies don’t want people to know about is making millionaires. There’s a standard “name and email” opt-in form that you have to fill out in order to go farther into the site.

Just above the form is a statement “Only 500 available! Total remaining:” and a counter that starts at 137 and begins to count down from there. There’s a trick here though. I left that page open for a couple hours because I had to do something away from the computer. I was able to look in once in a while and my suspicions were confirmed. The counter decrements for a while and then if you wait long enough, it resets and starts counting down again.

This means that it’s NOT counting down some mythical limited inventory of something. It’s just there to add a little “you’d better hurry” pressure to get you to opt-in quicker.

OH, and about that opt-in form, Don’t give ‘em your name and email unless you want a crapload of spam. I had a look at their terms and conditions page (the link was all the way at the bottom of the page in small type). If you give them an email address you are agreeing to them basically doing any blasted thing they want with it. Here’s the privacy policy section of their terms page:

Privacy Policy: We may share or sell your Information, including your nonpublic personal information, for compensation with third parties; such third parties may include, but are not limited to, our affiliates, marketing companies, advertising agencies, data compilers, advertisers, data companies, data brokers, and, to the extent permitted by law, individual reference and look-up service programs. Such Information may be used by such third parties to provide you with information, advertisements, commercial communications and materials on products and services that may be of interest, for direct marketing or any other business.

I don’t know if there even IS any such cell phone glitch like they’re making claims about but that paragraph makes clear what the true purpose of that page is. To collect email addresses to both sell and use for their own email marketing campaigns. Giving them an email address is going to guarantee you a flood of spam that you’re going to have a hell of a time getting stopped because you have no idea how many companies are going to get your address added to their list thanks to these people.

BTW- if there actually is such a “glitch” and you know anything factual about it, I’d love to hear what you’ve got to say about it.

Technorati Tags: cell phone scam, email address collection, cell phone glitch, pressure tactic, sell email address

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It’s not very often that I want to “watch tv online” but I heard about this site, http://www.tvchannelsfree.com/, where you’re supposed to be able to do just that.

The first thing I hate about the site is that once the page loads you get hit with a popup, even though I have Firefox set to block unrequested popups. This one is basically a captcha, asking you to enter a three letter code. I figure ok, this is annoying but I can go along with it.

Then comes the kicker. Once you enter their little code, the popup does NOT go away. Instead it reloads with a message asking you for your cell phone number, saying “A Password will be Texted to your Cell Phone”.

There’s a problem with this. My cellphone is one of those pay as you go things and I currently don’t have any minutes on it. That means that I CAN’T receive their bloody text message with their bloody password in it. How about all those who don’t fargin have a cell phone? There’s a load of people around that don’t need or want cell phones, how about them?

The thing promises that they’ll never share your cell phone number with anyone but I’ll just bet you end up getting a crapload of text messages from them spamming you with all sorts of crap. Is it a scam? I don’t know but it sure smells like one.

Conclusion: tvchanelsfree.com is a pile of crap and you’re better off going to YouTube or almost ANY other video site.

Technorati Tags: watch tv, text message, tvchannelsfree.com, password, watch tv online, online tv, cell phone, crap websites, website, txt msg

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A few days ago I went searching for a site to watch a movie online that I didn’t have in my collection. It didn’t take me more than a few minutes to find a link to the full move hosted by megavideo. Satisfied that I could then watch this hour and a half video online I proceeded to watch. Heck, I didn’t even mind the advertising on the site because it didn’t intrude on the move I was watching. Oh yeah, if you’re curious, the movie was “Phantasm” from 1978.

The dealbreaker came approximately just short of halfway through. The movie stopped and a popover appeared informing me that I had watched 72 minutes of video (i hadn’t, I was only about 45 minutes or so into it.) and that I would have to wait 52 minutes to see the rest of it OR I could click the handy dandy link they provided and pay for a subscription to their site and get right back to the movie.

The problem I’ve got with this is that the site did not have any notification that you can only watch 72 minutes before it cuts you off (or I’d have gone someplace else right away.). If there was any such notification, it wasn’t placed where a person like myself just arriving who only wanted to watch a movie would see it.

This kind of marketing is crap. If you’re going to charge a fee, say so up front. Don’t just let somebody get started and then cut ‘em off in the middle and present your sales pitch. Frankly, if I wanted to pay for something like that then I’d get this Watch Tv Online package instead. Honestly, it’s a MUCH better deal with a boatload more content and they don’t play this crap that megavideo did.

Technorati Tags: movies online, megavideo, watch movies online. watch tv online

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I think that anyone that’s been online for more than a few weeks has probably seen those emails that promise a free Del XPS Laptop. I got four of them in my email just this morning and decided just for the heck of it to take a closer look at their “offer”. I was not surprised at what I found.

This particular offer took me to “GadgetCenter.us.com” Where the first text (actually it wasn’t text, it was an image with text painted into it) on the page said “Answer this brief survey and receive a free laptop”. Under that in smaller type it said “participation required, click here for details”.

Here’s what you have to do to get that “Free” laptop:

1) Be a U.S. resident at least 18 years of age or older
2) Register with valid information
3) Complete 2 Silver offers, 2 Gold offers, and 8 Platinum offers
(Of course, most of these “reward offers” will either require a purchase or apply for, qualify for and receive a credit card which you then have to activate by making a purchase, transferring a balance or taking a cash advance)
4) Then you have to refer not one but TWO unique households, that also complete the program requirements
5) Finally, you have to do all this within sixty days of signing up.

Obviously, they’re making their money from the “reward offers” that they require you to complete. This has got to be one of the sleaziest ways to make affiliate money that I’ve ever seen. They get people completing offers like mad trying to qualify for that laptop, knowing full well that very few (if any!) will ever manage to complete all requirements, especially the one where you refer two unique households that ALSO complete all requirements. That requirement alone makes certain that they’re NEVER going to have to come up with that free laptop!

Conclusion, train your email program’s junk filter to nuke this sucker and avoid “offers” of this kind like the plague that it is. Frankly, you’d be ahead of the game to just buy the freakin laptop in the first place. For that matter, in my opinion you’d have a better chance of getting a free laptop by writing Dell and asking for one than you would by driving yourself (and your friends and family) nuts trying to complete these impossible requirements.

Technorati Tags: free laptop scam, shady marketing tactics, laptop survey scam, laptop scam, dell xps laptop, phony laptop offer

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What is vishing? “vishing” is a socially engineered means of stealing information and / or money from people using the voice telephone network. The term is short for “voice phishing,” and is the telephone equivalent of online scams designed to get people to reveal personal information.

How does it work? Attackers use caller ID spoofing to make their calls look like they are coming from a legitimate number. Because people typically trust caller ID, spoofed phone numbers can be especially damaging.

Like online phishing attacks, that direct victims to bogus Web sites, vishing attacks usually include a recorded message telling victims to call a toll free number. They’re then asked to enter a credit card number or some other personal information. For example, in warranty scams, victims are asked to buy a phony extended warranty for their car, costing them anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 or more.

There’s several companies that offer commercial spoofing services, like SpoofCard. For that matter, VoIP services, like Skype and others, allow people to pick their area code and even the prefix number they want when setting up a new number. These numbers can then be used to hide where the calls are coming from.

Strangely enough, caller ID spoofing is not illegal. Yet. However there is legislation proposed that would make spoofing a phone number to look like it’s coming from somebody else illegal.

On the other hand, there are actually some legitimate uses for spoofing. VOIP providers by definition have to use spoofing, or some other kind of number manipulation, to create their users phone numbers. There’s other legitimate uses, like as doctors and other professionals that may want to return calls from patients / clients without revealing their home numbers. Online dating services that allow people talk to potential matches without exposinging their real phone numbers use spoofing. ID spoofing is also used to hide the location of victims in domestic violence cases.

Some sophisticated attacks combine vishing and phishing. Typically starting with a phishing e-mail saying there’s been a problem with some online account such as a bank, credit card company, online retailer, Etc. The victim is directed to call a number and enter their information to verify their account.

Some Vishing advice

Be wary of all unknown callers. Don’t trust phone calls any more than you would e-mails that ask for personal information.

Don’t trust caller ID. Remember that just like the From line on an Email, it can be easily faked.

Call them back. When someone is selling something or asking for personal information, say you’ll call them back, then get the company’s number from a third party like directory assistance. If it’s a bank or credit card company, use the contact number from your bill or or statement. Never give credit card information or other personal information to someone who calls you.

Register your number with the National Do Not Call registry at donotcall.gov

Technorati Tags: Dating Services, Voice Telephone, Vishing, Scams, Skype, Telephone Network, Caller Id Spoofing, Phone Number, Phishing Attacks, Attackers

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I had occasion to be looking for a movie download and in the course of my search I ended up on a page on “Jaheims Blog“.

The post, titled “Download Yankee Doodle Dandy Online!” was a synopsis / description of the movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy” with James Cagney. It also included a link with the anchor text “Download Yankee Doodle Dandy Online Right Now!” which misleads you to believing that by clicking that link, you can download the movie.

Not so.

In actual fact, the link was to http://loomis.ipodpsp.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=YankeeDoodleDandy, which is an affiliate link. When you click on it, you end up at http://www.satellitetvtopc.com/?hop=loomis which is a sales page for one of those “Watch tv on your pc” programs which happens to sell for $49.95.

This is deceptive marketing. Lead someone to believe that they’re going to get something that they’re looking for and in actual fact you’re going to hit them up with a sales page.

I’m not blaming the satellite tv on pc people. This is entirely the fault of the affiliate for engaging in spammy deceptive marketing and I sincerely hope that they lose their affiliate status. This is *NOT* the way to monetize a blog OR sell a product!

Technorati Tags: bullshit, bogus download, movie download, deceptive marketing

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On of the tons of items that land in my junk mail folder is this little gem that announces in the subject line “You’ve Recevied Dell XPS !!”. In the email itself (which is in html format with remote loading images), The main image shows the laptop with the words “Test and keep a FREE dell laptop”

Going to the site and looking over the rules you find out that this “prize” really isn’t one at all. Not only that but the only place I saw anything about testing a Dell laptop is the text in the email image which is repeated on the site itself.

The TRUTH about how you’re supposed to get this allegedly “Free” laptop is that once you sign up, you have to complete a total of Eight sponsor offers, wait for the advertisers to confirm that you’ve completed their offer, give them your shipping address, possibly have to complete another offer Etc.. etc.

Even after all that, there’s still every chance that one or more of the offers you complete will end up being disqualified. If you manage to avoid that pitfall, then some eight weeks after you give them your shipping address, you finally get the laptop.

The big problem with this kind of “offer” is that in meeting the requirements it is entirely too easy to end up spending as much as or more than what you would have spent just going to Dell and buying the thing outright.

Therefore, my advice is when this kind of email arrives, use your email program’s junk filter to mark it AS junk and let the thing get auto-deleted because, to paraphrase an old tv commercial, “Dude, you are SO not getting a free Dell!“.

Technorati Tags: free laptop offer, Subject Line, Pitfall, ps, Email, Free Dell Laptop, Truth About, Advertisers, Shipping Address, Old Tv

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I’ve spent the last several posts talking about scams and bogus get rich quick schemes and It’s refreshing to have something to talk about that not only isn’t bogus, it’s free with no strings attached, It’s a free tool called AdwordsDigger..

If you’ve been using Google Adwords then you probably know that in addition to the content network, they also have an option for placement. This is where you either provide a list of keywords, choose by topic, or by demographics and Your ads then appear on targeted sites which fit your criteria and are running Adsense ads. You can also use any combination of those factors.

The problem is that it can be confusing trying to figure out how to select just the right placements to get the best return on your investment. When I started my first Adwords campaign I spent an hour or so reading the documentation and playing with the placement settings but I finally decided to skip it entirely because with all the options I had a hard time figuring out exactly what settings to use.

That’s changed now that I’ve Got AdwordsDigger. I may use demographics and keywords as placement factors but one other thing I’ll be doing is using a list of URLs that I’d like to have my ads appear on.

It’s simple enough, once I’ve done my keyword research and I know which high traffic keywords I’m targeting, I’ll take that list of keywords and put it into AdwordsDigger. Next I’ll set it to search for about 30 urls for each keyword and start it going.

AdwordsDigger then goes to Google and finds the top ranked url for each keyword. It also show me if they have adsense (along with what ad format they’re using) and the Alexa rank.

I’ll use this list to hand pick top ranking urls with high traffic and have AdwordsDigger save that list in a text file. Then, when setting up Adwords Placement, I will give it that list of urls.

The result is that in addition to my ads appearing on the content network, they will also be appearing on that select list of urls I handed Google. Because of their traffic and relevance to my keywords I should see a significantly improved click through rate which will no doubt lead to better conversion rates.

All this because one I have my keywords I spent another few minutes using this free tool. It’s brought to you by the same people that came up with Keyword Corral, another great tool that’s saved me a lot of time in keyword research.

What have you got to lose? Its a FREE tool. and no, it’s not going to start nagging you for money later and it’s not a trial version. it’s the full ball of wax. Adwordsdigger has a place in my Adwords toolbox from here out. Take a couple minutes and check out this free tool now.

Technorati Tags: marketing plan outline, small business marketing, free adwords tool, tools of marketing, web marketing strategies, advertise your blog, online website marketing, adwords tool, paid search marketing, search engines marketing

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Y’know, I honestly think I see something like ten to twenty of these things a day and because of that I normally delete them without a second glance. In fact, most of the time Thunderbird’s junk filter gets them and the only time I actually see them is when I’m clearing out the junk mail folder. Today I got to thinking about it and asking myself “why is it that people still try this kind of email scam when it’s so obviously crap?”. The answer was immediately obvious. “Because it works.”

Only an insane person continues to devote time, money and effort to pursue something that doesn’t work. That means that there are plenty of people around that will believe these emails are real and buy into the scam. Eventually of course, they find out that it wasn’t real but usually only after their identity has been stolen, their bank accounts cleaned out and credit cards maxed out and they’re left with nothing but a mountain of debt, a lousy credit rating and no idea how they’re going to fix the situation. Because of that, I’m going to go over one such email that I received this afternoon.

Red flag #1:

Subject: FINAL NOTIFICATION!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excessive use of exclamation points or other punctuation in the subject line. A genuine email *might* use one, perhaps two if they’re realy pushing it. Also, the subject in all caps is suspect as well. While some do have a habit of shouting their subject, most legitimate “offcial” type emails I’ve seen avoid the practice entirely.

Red flag #2:

To: undisclosed-recipients: ;

If this email is supposedly TO me, why is my email address not on the TO: line? The use of “undisclosed-recipients” means that the email was sent to a large numer of people at once.

Red flag #3:

From: “Hewlett Packard”
Reply-To:

The From and Reply-To: are set to different addresses and the Reply-To is set to a free webmail address instead of a corporate address at hp.com. Since the Reply-To field is where any replies will go unless you change it when you reply, this is a good way to keep replies from being sent to the From address since most of the time people will simply hit reply, type their message and send it.

Red flag #4:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Interesting. Somebody knows me enough know my email address and have something life changing for me but doesn’t know if I’m a Sir or Madam? The bullshit detector is already nearly pegged and we haven’t gotten into the main part of their message yet.

It is obvious that this notification came to you as a surprise, but please finds time to read it carefully as we congratulate you over your success in the following official publication of results of the e-mail electronic online draw held by Hewlett Packard

1) Use of “please finds time to”. It’s a small thing, but one that’s indicative of a writer that doensn’t use English as a primary language.

2) A real message like this would probably be some type of “canned” message with the specific details filled in before sending.

3) Lotteries and many other contests that I’ve ever paid any attetion to are fond of telling people “You can’t win if you don’t enter” and they’re right. I cannot possibly have won this event because I have never entered it.

Red flag #5:

In promotion to our Hardware & Software Products {H.S.P.} your email address emerged as one of the online winning emails in the 1st category and therefore attracted a cash award of Ј750.000.00 (Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling). Our winnings are arranged in three categories with different prizes accorded to each category.

1) Once again there’s this pesky little detail of my not having entered in any such contest n the first place.

2) Any contest, sweepstakes, drawing or whatever that I DO actually enter will be paying any and all cash prizes in U.S. Dollars. I’ve nothing against Pounds Stirling, it’s just that with me being an American and living in the U.S. of A., Pounds Stirling means only the expense and trouble of getting it converted to Dollars.

Red flag #6:

Therefore we write to officially notify you of this award and also direct you to contact the following department for your claims award. And in other to facilitate your claiming process, you are required to send them the following personal information for your cash payment processing.

v Your Full Names:
v copy of drivers license or international passport or any other legal means of identification.
v Contact Address.
v Mobile Telephone Number:
v Fax numbers (optional):
v Nationality/Country:
v Date of Birth:
v Age/Sex:
v Occupation:

NEVER and I do mean NEVER answer an email that’s requesting information like this! If you suspect that it **MIGHT** be legitimate or from a website that you’re a member of, check it out with the site.

DO NOT USE LINKS PROVIDED IN THE EMAIL!!

Instead, log in to the site as you normally would. Preferably by typing it’s address into your browser yourself. Most sites, such as ebay or PayPal, will notify you automatically when you log in if any information is needed or has to be updated. They will NOT send you an email asking for the information.

Legitimate contests or anyone that you have actually done business with will NOT ask you for information like this, EVER.

The reason for this is that given the information requested above, stealing your identity becomes very easy. Like taking candy from a baby. They can then clean out your bank accounts, obtain your credit information and run up monstrous debts overnight and worse, far worse.

Another note, legitimate companies DO NOT send emails such as the one described above. If your email program has junk filtering ability, turn it on and take the time to correct it when it marks something wrong. Over time this “training” will allow that junk filter to save you a lot of time and trouble.

Technorati Tags: spam, bogus email, credit card fraud, email scam, identity theft

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You’ve probably seen this email or others like it. The subject line reads “Secrets to eBay fortunes”. The email body shows as a single picture with a green background. It shows logo’s for msnbc, cnn, and cbs news without actually making any claims about them

The main part of the graphic is somebody holding what looks like lots of money and large red and white text “Get your FREE kit today”

The entire email links to: http://visitbridge.com/lwevgjfhpgwd/yzeplldt/

Which automatically redirects visitors to:
https://secure.subscriptionmarketinginc.com/wealthtools/new_offer4/index.php?sub={numbers]&sub1={numbers}

Red flag #1:

On this page is more news and media logos above the words “in the news”. There is no actual claims about what these may or may not be saying about the product nor do they link to anything. My guess is that they’re there to take psychological advantage of any trust the visitor has in the news and media that the logo’s represent.

Essentially it manages to look like an endorsement without actually being one. I consider this deceptive marketing unless they actually show, along with those logos, links to things that the news and media in question have actually said about them.

Red flag #2:

There’s a couple of “testimonials” but since there’s no links or contact information to allow them to be verified they don’t actually contribute anything useful. More empty psychological window dressing that tries to give the visitor a “we used it and it worked, you should too.” kind of message. Unfortunately without the ability to verify them it’s best to ignore them.

Red flag #3:

There is no mention on the page itself saying anything about shipping or membership fees. And while I’m sure that most people never actually read it, The Terms and Conditions page does disclose fairly early on and in clear terms that:

As more fully described below, after your risk-free 10 day trial, you’ll be charged the monthly subscription fee of $48.73

However I didn’t find any mention of what the shipping fee would be for the “free” kit.

Filling in dummy info to get a look at the second page shows right away that they’re charging $3.87 for shipping. Naturally, this is how they get your credit card info for the monthly subscription.

Under the “ship my kit” button in small print you’re informed that you have immediate access to “The Seller’s Lounge member website” and that the starter kit will ship within 2 to 3 business days. They also spell out that you’re on a 10 day free trial of the member site and after that time your credit card get’s billed 48.73 every month until you cancel.

You can cancel membership Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM ET by calling 866-785-7328, or by emailing support@thesellerslounge.net

Red flag #4:

A couple more important tidbits about cancellation can be found in the terms. Essentially that if you log into the site even once, you’re no longer entitled to a refund:

Because access to the Online Resource Center is granted as a membership in a training and informational online resource, money paid for membership is not refundable after the customer has logged into the site.

You also don’t get a refund on the shipping fee:

For our 10-day risk-free trial, you will not be entitled to a refund of shipping and handling fees if you choose to cancel your subscription.

So you can cancel, but be prepared to not get much, if any, actual refund.

Red flag #5:

Looking at the privacy policy shows that any email & contact information you provide them will be shared:

when we determine that the information will be used in a way that will greatly benefit the consumer. We enjoy assisting our clients with the best quality and economical information to assist them in their financial education

My translation: If you give us contact information, we’re going to use it.

I recommend hitting “Delete” when the “Secrets to eBay fortunes” email arrives.

I honestly don’t believe that it’s necessary to get hooked into a membership site like this in order to succeed on Ebay or any place else for that matter. What’s really needed is some simple tips that can very often be had for free.

In fact, I’ve got an ebook “Automated Ebay Sales” that I bought a couple of years ago for $7.00 that provides a lot of tips for selling information products on Ebay. it’s aimed at selling information products on Ebay but a lot of what this ebook talks about can easily be applied to other products.

I’m not even selling it!

Instead, I’m giving that $7.00 ebook away as a bonus offer for a backup program that I’m selling for only $1.99!

Yeah, I’m giving away a bonus item that’s actually worth MORE than the product I’m selling. I’m doing that because I want the backup utility to be easily and cheaply available. I got caught without enough backups once and it cost me a lot of lost files.

Technorati Tags: msnbc, fortunes, ebay, subscription fee, ebay fortunes secrets, membership fees, media logos, testimonials, window dressing, email offer

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