Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Scam Alerts

I think it would be a good idea to have a thread where we could warn one another about scams.

I did find a thread for e-mail scams, but the scam I want to mention is not of the e-mail type.

Has anyone else seen those ads on TV for "services" with names like MyCleanPC, DoubleMySpeed, MaxMySpeed, etc.? According to the linked article, if the site says it comes from a company called CyberDefender, it's a scam.

http://smarterotti.com/post/2010/03...ls-Never-Heard-of-the-1st-Amendment.aspx

Oh, the article writer says that the legal firm that sent him the warning on behalf of CyberDefender usually handles estate litigation and--wait for it--equine veterinary malpractice.

Horse's ass comes to mind....

By going after the guy, CyberDefender is getting more bad publicity than they would have otherwise. And it shows that it pays to search for complaints on-line before you buy/download something (and hope you can evaluate whether the complaints are justified).

Is it too embarrassing to admit that I almost got sucked into one of those "Secret Shopper" scams once?



Also, I freely admit that the job market here is so crummy, and I've been panning through it for so long, that I can nearly always tell when job listings on CL are scams. Sometimes I'll apply for them anyway so I can get some wiggle room on my Unemployment quota. Then I'll just ignore the scammer when they email me to phish for info.

The best one I ever saw was the company that was looking for a receptionist to work in their alleged storefront that sold fine linens. I went to the website to check it out. A very nice layout, but all the product links were inactive, making it pretty much the equivalent of that fake town scene from Blazing Saddles.

Hey, I have to grab the laughs when I can, y'know?

I recommend downloading the "Web of Trust" plug in for Firefox Google Chrome or Safari. It provides a worldwide community rating system for websites.

WoT members rate sites for trustworthiness in each of 4 categories. When another member with the plug-in visits that site, the browser will display a warning or the site will be blocked if the community has blacklisted it.

Recently I got a call from "Hilton Hotels" telling me that after all of my recent stays at their hotels, I won a incredibly cheap stay for four days in Las Vegas--the kicker, I had to give them my credit card right on the phone to lock it in.

Now, I brushed them off because I have a baby at home and going out to Vegas for a few days isn't realistic (and could lead to my divorce).

But then I started to wonder--was this a scam that I unknowingly avoided? I've only stayed at a Hilton one or two times in the last year, since I usually stay at Marriots when I travel.

I've been trying to find a way to watch the NFL online and I've come across some dubious sites like atdhe.net and livenflfootballstream.com. Anyone heard anything about these? They seem great, but I guess that's the only dubious thing about them - they seem too good to be true.

And you KNOW that old maxim. "If it sounds too good to be true... it probably is."

However!, if any of you should receive an email informing you that you've just won a brand new 2010 Dodge Ram -


<span style="font-size: 10px;">(oooooooo, shiny!) </span>

- and all you have to do is pay a small processing fee of $2,000 dollars, then by all means do so because I'm...THEY'RE...157% legit! (or so I've been told by the Pope)

[snip]

I don't think that you need to wonder. The demand for the credit card number is pretty much all the tip-off you need, regardless of which chain claims to be calling you.

Yikes.

Whether small-time phone scammers "giving away free hotel stays" or big-time Wall Street scammers selling worthless financial products that turn out to be so much swamp gas [hi, Greedman Sucks, er, Goldman Sachs], all we make in the USA any more is bull nass of various sorts. No wonder the country's going to hell.

Somewhere in the afterlife, King George III is ROTFLHAO.

Recently my computer caught a trojan. I caught it making text files of the web page log on passwords that I saved in my browsers. Unfortunately the only password I save is pretty much this site. Also I think I caught it before it transmitted.

[snip]

Hey, how d'ya think I feel, having to practically share a surname with those pocket-vacuuming jerks?