In case you have not noticed, well, not surprisingly, wollenberginternational.com is also down.
But new HYIPs will always pop up - perhaps the same guy under another name - to collect more money from gullible victims.
Don't fall for it.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
ColonyInvest closed down, people loose millions in Thailand/Vietnam
Police have moved in on the ColonyInvest fraudsters, the Nation, Bangkok, reports. Many people have lost millions of baht in this fraudulent pyramid scheme. See The Nation.
Also in Vietnam people have been cheated out of Billions of VND by the pyramid scheme. Police have arrested 15 people. See Thanhnien News.com.
We have warned here against ColonyInvest since June 2007.
This just serves as a reminder that all these schemes that promise exceedingly high interest rates, these so-called HYIPs, are fraudulent. While they may pay some money in the beginning, this money comes from other investors, and not from proper investments, which never have such high rates of interest. The whole thing just collapses whenever the mastermind decides to run away with the money.
Also in Vietnam people have been cheated out of Billions of VND by the pyramid scheme. Police have arrested 15 people. See Thanhnien News.com.
We have warned here against ColonyInvest since June 2007.
This just serves as a reminder that all these schemes that promise exceedingly high interest rates, these so-called HYIPs, are fraudulent. While they may pay some money in the beginning, this money comes from other investors, and not from proper investments, which never have such high rates of interest. The whole thing just collapses whenever the mastermind decides to run away with the money.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Warning on stealthy Windows virus: Mebroot
BBC News report:
Warning on stealthy Windows virus
The creators of the virus are after bank logins and personal data
Security experts are warning about a stealthy Windows virus that steals login details for online bank accounts.
Analysis of Mebroot has shown that it uses its hidden position on the MBR as a beachhead so it can re-install these associated programs if they are deleted by anti-virus software.
Although the password-stealing programs that Mebroot installs can be found by security software, few commercial anti-virus packages currently detect its presence. Mebroot cannot be removed while a computer is running.
Computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 that are not fully patched are all vulnerable to the virus.
Warning on stealthy Windows virus
The creators of the virus are after bank logins and personal data
Security experts are warning about a stealthy Windows virus that steals login details for online bank accounts.
Analysis of Mebroot has shown that it uses its hidden position on the MBR as a beachhead so it can re-install these associated programs if they are deleted by anti-virus software.
Although the password-stealing programs that Mebroot installs can be found by security software, few commercial anti-virus packages currently detect its presence. Mebroot cannot be removed while a computer is running.
Computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 that are not fully patched are all vulnerable to the virus.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Euro Business Guide / European City Guide SCAM
Euro Business Guide sends out spam emails of the following nature:
Subject: European company registration 2007/2008
Dear Sirs,
If you like to have your company registered in the registry of European companies;
Please print out the enclosed form (PDF file), fill it and send it back to:
Euro Business Guide
P.O. Box 2021
3500 GA UTRECHT
The Netherlands
Updating is free of charge!!
Attached is a PDF form that one can fill out.
Again, you will notice that the form states in bold "Updating is free of charge".
However, when you read the tiny small print, you will see that you are actually signing a contract for 3 years, and they charge you 990 Euro per year, see enlargement here:
This is a variant of the same scam as the "European City Guide".
If you mistakenly signed one of these forms, DO NOT PAY.
As the following web sites show, these scammers are after easy cash and not after law suits, although they use bully tactics to intimiate their victims. Check out Stop The European City Guide and Stop the European City Guide. In fact, they have already been convicted of fraud. To evade the law, they just move from one place to another.
Subject: European company registration 2007/2008
Dear Sirs,
If you like to have your company registered in the registry of European companies;
Please print out the enclosed form (PDF file), fill it and send it back to:
Euro Business Guide
P.O. Box 2021
3500 GA UTRECHT
The Netherlands
Updating is free of charge!!
Attached is a PDF form that one can fill out.
Again, you will notice that the form states in bold "Updating is free of charge".
However, when you read the tiny small print, you will see that you are actually signing a contract for 3 years, and they charge you 990 Euro per year, see enlargement here:
This is a variant of the same scam as the "European City Guide".
If you mistakenly signed one of these forms, DO NOT PAY.
As the following web sites show, these scammers are after easy cash and not after law suits, although they use bully tactics to intimiate their victims. Check out Stop The European City Guide and Stop the European City Guide. In fact, they have already been convicted of fraud. To evade the law, they just move from one place to another.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
aa419 back, CastleCops under paypal reputation attack
aa419 is back again, though still under DDoS attack, according to their web site on a CastleCops server. CastleCops itself has been and is still under DDoS attack. As of 18.September they are down, but supposedly because of a hardware failure, according to a comment posted in a washingtonpost blog. In that blog they also report that CastleCops is now subject to a different type of attack. The crooks use hijacked PayPal accounts to make donations to CastleCops. To users this makes it look like CastleCops are the crooks. CastleCops is working with the FBI, and they are working on returning the defrauded money.
Cyberwar for real.
Cyberwar for real.
Friday, September 7, 2007
aa419 under attack.
aa419 (artists against 419 scams) is under serious DDOS attack, and mostly not accessible. In a cache at google, I found some of the following forum notes:
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:13 pm
As some of you may have noticed, aa419.org has been under a severe DDOS attack the last days. The attack is still ongoing. Our fabulous tech specialists were able to block thousands of IP addresses. As a result we can keep the website online despite the attack.
We strongly suspect that a Russian crime syndicate is behind this - apparently they are a bit upset about many, many shut down job scam / money mule scam websites. So in a way this DDOS attack is good news, because it certainly means that we cost these people a LOT of money.
We absolutley intend to keep aa419 online and not give in to them. And we think this is a good time to get some more money mule / job scam websites shut down.
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:42 pm
SumYunGai wrote:
Botnet time is expensive. I suppose you've passed the IP addresses on to ISPs so they can take the appropriate action, whether that's warning the user or shutting down their Internet connection.
Yes, we are passing the IP addresses on to the relevant ISPs. But we are talking about several thousand blocked IP addresses so far.
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:52 pm
Allright, the hoster temporarily took down our server. The criminals were pounding our server at 400GB/h. That means, they severaly increased the attack after our excellent tech guys were able to keep aa419 online the last days despite the attack.
We will keep you updated.
Also, 419eater.com and Scamwarners.com appears to be under attack (see this blog). And according to CastleCops, which is another anti-phising/malware/spam site, several other sites, including CastleCops are under severe ddos attacks.
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:13 pm
As some of you may have noticed, aa419.org has been under a severe DDOS attack the last days. The attack is still ongoing. Our fabulous tech specialists were able to block thousands of IP addresses. As a result we can keep the website online despite the attack.
We strongly suspect that a Russian crime syndicate is behind this - apparently they are a bit upset about many, many shut down job scam / money mule scam websites. So in a way this DDOS attack is good news, because it certainly means that we cost these people a LOT of money.
We absolutley intend to keep aa419 online and not give in to them. And we think this is a good time to get some more money mule / job scam websites shut down.
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:42 pm
SumYunGai wrote:
Botnet time is expensive. I suppose you've passed the IP addresses on to ISPs so they can take the appropriate action, whether that's warning the user or shutting down their Internet connection.
Yes, we are passing the IP addresses on to the relevant ISPs. But we are talking about several thousand blocked IP addresses so far.
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:52 pm
Allright, the hoster temporarily took down our server. The criminals were pounding our server at 400GB/h. That means, they severaly increased the attack after our excellent tech guys were able to keep aa419 online the last days despite the attack.
We will keep you updated.
Also, 419eater.com and Scamwarners.com appears to be under attack (see this blog). And according to CastleCops, which is another anti-phising/malware/spam site, several other sites, including CastleCops are under severe ddos attacks.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Virus and Anti-Spam software that gets you...
BBC News had a piece on virus and hacking tools that have become a commercial commodity for criminals to purchase. Apparently all kinds of hacking tools are now offered commercially and as kits. Expect more SPAM, phishing, and other types of attacks in the future.
Another threat to personal computers stems for poor or even fraudulent anti-virus and/or anti-spyware software. There is plenty of anti-spyware software out there that really only makes the problem worse. Bad and dangerous programs posing as security software are certainly not good. Therefore, buy your products only from large, established, reputable companies.
A notorious case of such rogue software is/was SpyLocked or SpyWareLocked. Searches with google turn up lots of sites with instructions how to remove it. See, e.g., these removal instructions.
It even got its own entry on Wikipedia. Another fake program is VirusLocker (see these removal instructions).
The imagination of fraudsters is unlimited. Check out this huge list of bad software sites on the Spyware Warrior Site.
Another threat to personal computers stems for poor or even fraudulent anti-virus and/or anti-spyware software. There is plenty of anti-spyware software out there that really only makes the problem worse. Bad and dangerous programs posing as security software are certainly not good. Therefore, buy your products only from large, established, reputable companies.
A notorious case of such rogue software is/was SpyLocked or SpyWareLocked. Searches with google turn up lots of sites with instructions how to remove it. See, e.g., these removal instructions.
It even got its own entry on Wikipedia. Another fake program is VirusLocker (see these removal instructions).
The imagination of fraudsters is unlimited. Check out this huge list of bad software sites on the Spyware Warrior Site.
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