Roman Frolov

 

This name keeps turning up in fraudulent scams on the Internet. It is also the name of someone who appears to be the genuine Chief Accountant of Rostelcom.

I suspect that there is no connection except that the fraudsters are using a real name for credibility.

So if you get an e-mail from Roman Frolov offering you a job then bin it. But if he was asking for accounting software, behave as you would with any other possible customer in Russia.

An Idea for Greetings Cards

 

Go to any decent computer shop and you can buy decent blank cards that you can put through your printer.

But why not use Google or Live Maps to create a nice picture of their house for the front.

You can either print direct on the card or on photographic paper, which can be stuck on with a Pritt stick.

Does Google Add Blogs Immediately?

 

This is a test to see if Google now adds blogs immediately.

qwertyuiop23

This phrase will be searched for to see how long it takes to get in the search engine.

Pump and Dump Goes Graphical

 

Stonebridge Resources Exploration is now being promoted using elegant graphics, with even fake adverts for trading web sites at the bottom.

It doesn't matter how professional it is, it's still crap.

Abuse

 

A good web site always receives mail on abuse@xxx.xxx.

FreeWebCards.com, who today have started showering me with spam, have just bounced my e-mail to abuse@freewebcards.com.

So in my book, they're spammers and crooks.

DON'T USE THEM.

FreeWebCards.com

 

I've had 210 messages so far advertising this site. All were spam.

When I click them Prevx says that the site contains spyware of a malicious nature.

The company seems to have been around for some time and looks fairly legitimate, but I would suspend my use of this company until they sort out the spam problem.

I've also found this post on McAffe. So perhaps stay away.

The Bar Goes Blogging

 

I've just come across a serious blog from the Inner Temple Library. That is also my wife's Inn of Court.

It should also be integrated properly into their web site, so that it has the same look and feel and helps that web site rise to the top of the heap.

The Power of Celebrity

 

In my test blog, I made a sensible comment about a minor celebrity, who is well liked in the UK, for what they do.

I was quite surprised at what happened.

I now find that approximately ten percent of my page views are to the four pages in the blog that refer to them. The blog has about 200 posts and about 1,200 page views every day. There is also quite a correlation between the page views and when they are in the news.

Does this give an interesting way to get your web site up the search engine?

Suppose you are a local business in a town like Ipswich or Norwich in the UK or say Boise in the US. You might be a garden centre, a clothes shop or a speciality cheese shop. So perhaps some of your SEO money might better be diverted to a minor local celebrity who already uses your services. They could promote your site with a few comments, which would then be picked up by the search engine. It's also a two way street, so they might like the local promotion too.

I think if my logic is correct, that this is rather a sad commentary on how much celebrities shape our lives and ideas.

Pump and Dump Goes German

 

I have done a full analysis for all the spam I received on April 22nd, 2007.

One major difference was that I received 426 spam messages promoting a German company called County Line Energy. Or at least it's listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

That's nearly eight percent of all the spam I received.

Making a Web Site Sweat

 

I've been doing something similar as an experiment with a web site. I won't give the name here as then everybody would go and look at it and that would ruin all the stats. Sorry, you'll just have to wait on that.

Basically, I've created a WordPress blog, which I've expanded in WordPress with extra pages to form a complete site exclusively in WordPress. I'm about to change the template, so that the site looks better, but I won't do that until I have a large amount of traffic, so that I can assess whether the new template makes a difference.

Wordpress gives people all of the hooks they need to come back again and again and if the content is good, then they will. I've also found that the blog gets an average of about 1,000 page views a day, with a maximum of about 3,000. This means that in most searches it is in the top ten in Google. So I think we can say that it actually doesn't take much to get to the top in a non-competitive market, as it seems most web sites are lucky to get perhaps a hundred page views a day.

Now what gets you looked at.

1. Blogs seem to get read by the search engines much more often than ordinary web pages. I commented about a BBC program in the blog and that appeared in Google the next day. I may have been lucky, but usually Google picks up the blog entry within a few days.

2. I go into forums, find topics and post messages. In one case I sent an e-mail to the moderator and he published an article on the blog and traffic tripled for a week. When it settled down it was fifty percent higher than before the post.

3. I generally post to this blog about five or six times a week. This keeps it fresh.

4. I also add posts, which are in essence not really connected to the blog. For instance, if your blog is about marriage, you might put in a story about swans being monogamous. Or even one about how the weather is really good today and you went out and had a lovely walk in the park. These off topic posts tend to bring in visitors, who aren't really looking for you, but when they see you are a serious site, they take a good look.

5. If your blog is about something like marriage counselling, which is a distress purchase, keep a light tone in some posts. I've known my wife for over forty years and sometimes we've gone through some stale patches, which have often been relieved by some silly and very erotic incidents. There was the incident in Berlin in a two star Michelin restaurant...

6. Answer all comments quickly and promptly. As in the previous post be upbeat and funny where it helps.

7. Think about RSS feeds. Most Wordpress templates incorporate these.

The biggest advantage of this approach, is you spend all the times on the words.

It was Lindbergh who when asked if he should take a navigator when he crossed the Atlantic, said that he'd take the fuel instead. You're better off in the first instance adding the words and then doing the style later.

AMUST Registry Cleaner

 

Someone is sending spam to try and sell this product which appears to be from Russia.

If the product is any good, why are they doing this? Reviews on the web say it is by the way.

I have reported this spam to their support people.

A point here is that as Russia is responsible for a lot of the spam that comes to my computer, would you trust an anti-virus, anti-spyware or registry cleaner from that company?

I wouldn't but I might if they cleaned their spamming up.

Live Maps

 

This is the same view as for Google Maps on Microsoft Live Maps.


Note that the pitch is being relaid.

I will not say which is better, but look for yourself.

Google Maps

 

The image shows a satellite view of Portman Road from Google Maps.


Note that South is to the bottom of the map, which gives the time at perhaps eleven in the morning. The long shadows indicate that this picture was probably taken in the winter. the pitch is covered in plastic, which also happens during the winter.

This type of mapping is excellent for all sorts of purposes.

We've been trying to use it to locate the direction of the drains on a field on the stud. Not very successfully, I should say, as there isn't a high definition image of the farm on Google and what images there are were taken at the wrong time of year.

Prevx

 

I was impressed with this company's software, who seemed to have solved my problems with the football babes.



I'll buy the software at the affordable price of about fifteen pounds, if it protects me for the next thirty days of the free trial.

HijackThis

 

This is a powerful tool that can be used to identify possible threats to your computer, that might hijack it and use it for all sorts of nefarious purposes.

This link I give goes directly to one of the many pages that feature the software. But if you want to learn more type "HijackThis" into a search engine.

As of March 12th, 2007, it would appear that HijackThis and CWShreeder have been sold to Trend Micro. This appeared on the Merijn.org website.

From what is said, it looks like this will produce a better program.

sexyfootballbabes.com - 2

 

The bloody porn women came back. It's not that I'm a prude where soft porn is concerned and that was all that was on the front page of the site, but they looked silly with too much silicon.

Does anybody like that? They must.

I do seem to have solved the problem this time, by first using a program called HijackThis and then installing Prevx to remove the virus that was causing the problem.

But what a sweat.

If I ever come across the bastard who invented this virus, I'll put a shotgun up his arse backwards and then pull the trigger. Hoefully, He'll break his neck when he hits the ground.

Angel & Associates

 

I had 185 fraudulent e-mails offering the usual job to collect money from someone calling themselves Angel & Associates.

There was no web site this time, just a GMail address.

It was a pretty unprofessional attempt and I suspect that they have been shut down, but watch out for them.

sexyfootballbabes.com

 

Somehow this web site got into my computer.

Basically, it would move the current browser to that web site. It's porn coming out of Panama, so don't bother complaining.

I searched the Internet for it and found that it has infested Italy and most of the complaints about it are in Italian, so as my Italian is only as good as a menu, that wasn't much use.

I did get the impression that it was caused by some sort of cookie, file or registry entry.

1. I ran my anti-spyware and virus check software and found nothing. Always do this first if you think you have been infected.

2. I then ran the Regedit program and searched the Registry for "sexyfootball". I found nothing. (If you want to know more about Regedit use Google to search.)

3. As the sexyfootballbabes turned up regularly, I looked up Scheduled Tasks in the Windows Control Panel. There were none.

4. Finally, I searched for any files with names contained "sexyfootball". I found several and I deleted them all.

The problem was now cleared, but I still don't know how I got infected.

REST Pro - The End

 

This is the sequence of e-mails that I exchanged with REST Pro. I did not get a reply to the last one.

Why should I not worry if you're working worldwide. Surely, that could mean that you are working somewhere that is legally very different to the UK.

I've just checked your web site and I find the same Heall Road address. So did the people who wrote your web site, make the same mistake.

XXXX (I used a ficticious name here.)

>From: "Rest Pro Company"
>To: "XXXX"
>Subject: Re: REST Pro
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:18:14 +0400
>
>Hi XXXX,
>
>Yes, that's a registraton error, the company who register domains
>put wrong
>values, however you should not worry about this, we are working
>worldwide.
>
>Best Regards,
>Jeffrey Doerrer,
>Employment department,
>Rest Pro company.
>
>
>
>On 4/10/07, XXXX wrote:
>>
>>Before I fill in the form, I've checked your domain name and find
>>it
>>registered to :-
>>
>>Rest Pro Company
>>Mickle Jeffery (restpro@pisem.net)
>>General Office 9113-9127 Heall Road
>>Washington
>>Washington,99205
>>US
>>
>>That address doesn't check out on Google Maps.
>>
>>Can you please explain this? I would assume it's some simple
>>administrative
>>error.
>>
>>I really am quite excited about this venture, but as you know there
>>are a
>>lot of frauds about, so you must understand my caution.
>>
>>XXXX
>>
>> >From: "Rest Pro Company"
>> >To: "XXXX"
>> >Subject: Re: REST Pro
>> >Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:27:38 +0400
>> >
>> >Good day,
>> >
>> >You can see details and application for this job at our website:
>> >http://www.rest-company.com
>> >To apply please use this link:
>>http://www.rest-company.com/careerform.html
>> >
>> >Best Regards,
>> >Jeffrey Doerrer,
>> >Employment department,
>> >Rest Pro company.
>> >
>> >
>> >On 4/10/07, XXXX wrote:
>> >>
>> >>Thank you for your job offer.
>> >>
>> >>Can you please contact me?
>> >>
>> >>XXXX
>> >>xxx@hotmail.co.uk
>>
>>

I'll leave everyone to draw their own conclusions.

Aegis Capital Group

 

This has now taken over from it seems both Lux Capital and United Cargo as the fraud of choice out of Hong Kong. The others have stopped and now Aegis is coming in strong.

It seems though that the real Aegis Capital Group has been quick off the mark and has a message about the fraud on their web site.

Let's hope that the Hong Kong authorities get a grip on this one.

REST Pro - Part 2

 

I e-mailed REST Pro using a newly-created Hotmail address and got a reply, asking me to log in to their site at rest-company.com. Don't!

I also checked who owns the domain name.

Rest Pro Company
Mickle Jeffery (restpro@pisem.net)
General Office 9113-9127 Heall Road
Washington 99205
Tel. +1.2037025506

That looks pretty good until you check it out using Google Maps. For a start there is no Heall Road in the whole of the US and certainly not in Spokane, Washington.

I wonder what will happen if I report this to Nominet.

I got a good response from them, despite the fact they are not responsible, so now I'm on to ICANN in Belguim.

REST Pro - Yet Another Fraud

 

On Sunday night a new fraud started from a company that loosely calls itself REST Pro.

All you get is an e-mail address, restprocompanyop2@gmail.com, to write to.

The funny thing about this company is that it has something like thirty to forty general managers, the first of whom was Mr. Bean.

Avoid these e-mails like the plague.

Or on the other hand! Go to Hotmail, Yahoo or GMail and create an anonymous e-mail address and then send them an e-mail saying you're interested. Then pass the forms and everything else you get to the Police.

If enough of us did this, then they might take some action.

But I doubt it.

Yahoo's Attitude to Fraud

 

A week ago, I posted a typical Nigerian fraud, which was based on a Yahoo e-mail address.

I reported it to Yahoo and have since heard nothing.

This is just not good enough.

Blogging as a Spam Source

 

This was posted by Robert Tarrall on the SPAM-L spam list, which is a good source for trends as to what the spammers are up to and who is going to be their next victim.

Blogspot.com is quickly becoming a favourite hosting site for the spammers; about 20% of the blogspot.com URLs coming through our mailserver recently are spam.

Worse, Google (owner of blogspot.com) ignores email-based spam complaints and refuses to accept Spamcop reports. You're supposed to VISIT THE SPAMMER'S SITE and flag it as in violation; once enough people have flagged the site Google will supposedly take it down. Doesn't seem to be working very well - less than 10% of the spammer sites are taken down within 2 days so these are essentially guaranteed to stay up long enough for the spammer to get his results.

The porn spammers are setting the sites up so they immediately redirect to the real porn site, or at least something outside of Blogspot. You could turn off Javascript and avoid the redirect but then of course you couldn't flag the blog, so it is *impossible* to even follow Google's instructions for reporting the site.

In the past, this "refuse abuse reports, don't take down spammer sites" would ensure a quickly expanding listing (in the MAPS RBL in the early days, more recently in SPEWS) and other proactive blocklists. Didn't always work but in Google's case appearance is everything and if it became widely known that a Google property was a favoured refuge for porn spammers you could be sure that Google would change their tune.

Shame we no longer have that kind of leverage. Unlikely that Spamhaus would take this on and I'm not aware of any other blocklists with sufficient penetration to make a difference.

Here's a random sample of the spamvertised blogspot.com hostnames coming through our mailserver in the last couple of days. The *one* hostname marked [D] was either deleted or never existed. The ones marked [*] are redirects to porn sites using javascript embedded in the blog post.

debtalaiekhila
debtslaonen
foc-fuckk-com [*]
fsktsrmf-p-stars [*]
hvakjailekaakear [D]
local-a24fpkm8-7478
local-a334lskx-5209
local-av8xj3i7-2857
local-az5kher8-5888
mortenakahto
mortenakehlkhi
mortenakjaihl
mortenskjaih
mortenskjaxxo
vit-beavermovies-com [*]
yvyhhncb-p-stars [*]

I hope that Blogger do something about this worrying development.

Thanks to Robert for giving me permission to post this here.

Contacting Your MP

 

This web site called WriteToThem.com is rather nice.

You can just put your message in a form and send it to your MP, Councillor or European MP.

A Classic Nigerian Scam

 

I received this this morning and feel it is so typical it ought to be published.

Compliment.
How are you doing. Hope you have not forgotten me, I am Dr/Mr.Morris Campbell, the man from Nigeria who contacted you some time ago to assist me secure the release of some money accrued from the over invoicing of a contract/inheritance that was awarded by my government some time ago during the military regime.
Though you were not able to asist me conclude the transaction, I'm happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transffered under the assistance and cooperation of a new partner from Brazil.Presently i'm in London-United Kingdom for investment projects with my own share of the total sum.
meanwhile, i didn't forget your past efforts and attempts to assit me in transffering those funds, I made sure you are not left out the benefit of the transaction hence I kept aside for you sum of Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars.($500,000.00)Draft.
I and my new partner agreed to compensate you with that amount for all your past efforts and attempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much,so feel free and get in touch with my secretary Mr. Kelly Rampaul and instruct him on how to send the Bank draft to you.
Please do let me know immediately you receive the Draft so that we can share the joy together after all the sufferness at that time. In the moment, i'm very busy here because of the investment projects which me and my partner are having at hand, finally,remember that i had left instruction to my secretary so as soon as you contact him, he will send the Draft to you,so feel free to get intouch with MY SECETARY NOW.
Below is the contact of my secetary:
Mr. KELLY RAMPAUL,
E-mail:kellyrampaul003@yahoo.co.uk
With Best Regards,
Dr. MORRIS CAMPBELL.

I've left all of his spelling mistakes and bad punctuation in for your amusement.

Wouldn't it be funny if everybody forwarded all of their spam to the e-mail address? I won't be doing this as it would be unfair to Yahoo.

I have reported the e-mail address to Yahoo.

The World's Worst PayPal Scam

 

This e-mail has to be seen to be believed. It is typical of many PayPal phishing scams that turn up.

Dear PayPal customer!

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account.We requested information from you for the following reason:

We recently received a report of unauthorized credit card use associated with this account. As a precaution, we have limited access to your PayPal account in order to protect against future unauthorized transactions.You can check your transaction details here:

http://www.mitest.co.kr/

Case ID Number: PP-773-826-180

If, after reviewing your transaction information, you seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal Email ID PP662

Who would go to a web site in Korea to sort out a PayPal problem?

German Spam

 

Over the last few days, I've been getting a lot of Pump and Dump scams aimed at the Germans.

Oh dear!

Let's hope the Germans do something about it.