SCAM ALERT...busy month indeed

Don't let scammers take advantage of your charitable notions this holiday season!

From: "Mrs. Safia Farkash Gadhafi"<test@bgctv.com>

Subject: I NEED YOUR HELP

Date: December 10, 2011 2:50:00 AM EST

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Reply-To: <mrs.safiafarkashgadhafi72@yahoo.com>

Hello,


I am Mrs. Safia Farkash Gadhafi the wife of the late Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi. Following the recent rebellion in my country and the brutal death of my husband on the 20 Oct 2011, I have been thrown into a state of utter confusion, frustration and hopelessness; I have been subjected to physical and psychological torture by the security agents in Algeria where we seek refuge at present.

My son was killed by the rebels for an offense he did not commit. As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with anybody within the country. You must have heard over the media reports and the internet on the recovery of various huge sums of money deposited by my husband in different security firms abroad, some companies willingly give up their secrets and disclosed our money confidently lodged there or many outright blackmail. In fact the total sum discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of $900 Million Dollars. And they are not relenting to make me poor for life; I got your contact email address through my research and out of desperation decided to reach you through this medium. I will give you more information as to this regard as soon as you reply. I repose great confidence in you hence my approach to you due to security network placed on my day to day affairs I cannot afford to visit the embassy so that is why I decided to contact you and I hope you will not betray my confidence


I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your account for safe keeping. This arrangement is known to you and me alone. I am seriously considering relocating to your country once the fund is transferred to you. I will be willing to offer you 30% of the total fund if only you will receive this fund and keep it for us.


Please note that honesty is the watch word in this transaction. I will require your full names and address and telephone so that we can commence communication immediately and I will give you a more detailed picture of things. In case you don’t accept please do not let me out to the security as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidence .I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith.


I appreciate your timely suggestion and interest over this matter


Best Regards

Mrs. Safia Farkash Gadhaf

On the 12th day of Christmas, someone sent to me...

Another scam! Read below! It would appear that cyber criminals were almost as busy as Santa's elves this season!

From: "Mrs Betty Wright"<unitednationss@imail.com>

Subject: *****SPAM***** TRANSFER BY INSTALLMENT ACCEPTED BY THE BANK

Date: December 10, 2011 7:21:51 AM EST

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Spam detection software, running on the system "stickyadsserver", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
admin for details.


Content preview: INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TRANSFER / AUDIT UNIT) SUBJECT: TRANSFER
BY INSTALLMENT ACCEPTED BY THE BANK Independent of UN Organization Westminster,
City of London SW1A 2EL, United Kingdom Tel: +447011196495 [...]


Content analysis details: (7.3 points, 5.0 required)


pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-1.4 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
1.8 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
0.7 MSOE_MID_WRONG_CASE MSOE_MID_WRONG_CASE
2.0 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
4.2 FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook

From: "Mrs Betty Wright"<unitednationss@imail.com>

Subject: TRANSFER BY INSTALLMENT ACCEPTED BY THE BANK

Date: December 10, 2011 7:21:51 AM EST

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Reply-To: <unitednationss@imail.com>

INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TRANSFER / AUDIT UNIT)
SUBJECT: TRANSFER BY INSTALLMENT ACCEPTED BY THE BANK
Independent of UN Organization
Westminster, City of London SW1A 2EL,
United Kingdom Tel: +447011196495




Attention:




Having understood your unstable situation, we in United Nations begged the First Bank Of Nigeria ,Lagos Branch to accept payment by installment on your behalf, to enable our beneficiaries receive their payment that we may reconcile with all countries of the world. We understood your plight as someone who has suffered a lot to get this fund into your private account.




Write the Bank and request that you want the money to be transferred to your account by installments, so that once the first payments enters into your account you can then use money from there to facilitate the transfer of the rest, once the first installments enters into your account that will equally give you another opportunity to do a test-transfer and withdrawal from your account to master Federal Reserve Online transfer procedure.






Suggestions:


If 50% of $600 is equal to = $300


By calculations: if $600 can handle US$10M $300 can also comfortably transfer the sum of US$5M. Once the US$5M is successfully transfer, you can withdraw money from there to handle the transfer of the rest US$5M.




NOTE: Write the Bank to tell them how much you have in hands so that the Bank calculate to tell how much you may receive as first payments-by installments, Do not be shy to indicate the amount you have in hands (no proper-amount is so small to trigger installments-payment base on our discussion with the Bank) so that the first payment will move to your account for you to confirm the existence of the fund before your proceed for the balance.






Finally, we have given instructions to the First Bank of Nigeria to release your Fund to you, so you are therefore advice to contact the GMD (Group Managing Director), First Bank of Nigeria with the following information. Person: Rev John Ikechukwu (GMD, First Bank of Nigeria) Office email address below:




Email: firstbankinternationaldept@rocketmail.com




Send him your direct phone number and contact address as we sincerely apologize for the plight you have gone through in the past years while trying to receive your money. Thanks for adhering to this instruction and once again accept our congratulations.




MRS. BETTY WRIGHT.
PERSONAL ASSISTANCE TO MR. BAN KI-MOON
(UN) SECRETARY GENERAL
Copyright (c) 2011
United Nation Organization
All Rights Reserved

And another scam to go with that last one...

Note: If you receive this message, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT.

From: "KASSYM-JOMART TOKAYEV"<skiersteve@aol.com>

Subject: Good News

Date: December 10, 2011 2:55:06 PM EST

Reply-To: <directorgeneral@wwjd.ru>

THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
FROM: KASSYM-JOMART TOKAYEV,
DIRECTORS-GENERAL.

Dear Sir/Madam,

We wish to bring to your notice the outcome of the meeting of the Governing Body of the United Nations Organization which came to an end on Tuesday 11:29:2011 in United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) under the auspices of our Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon in favor of all the affected contractors, fund inheritors and scam victims.

Please read the message attached for full details

Respectfully,
KASSYM-JOMART TOKAYEV
Directors-General of UNOG.

One of the many scams this holiday season!

From: "IMF"<info@idium.net>

Subject: Your Pending Payment

Date: December 10, 2011 8:34:49 AM EST

Reply-To: <imf.org.complaints@gmail.com>

IMF WORLD REGULATORY OFFICE
INTERNATIONAL FUNDS REGULATORY AUTHORITY
INTER-CONTINENTAL DEBT RECONCILIATION DEPT.
FROM THE DESK OF: HONORABLE MRS. CAROLYN EDWARD
DIRECTOR; IMF World Regulatory Office.
REF: UN/IPBN/IMF/12/11/2011
1900 Pennsylvania Ave NW,
Washington, DC, 20431
Email: imfcomplaintsdept@w.cn

Attention:

Your pending fund of Three Million Eight Hundred Thousand United States Of America Dollars($3,800,000:00 USD).Contact our Consultant with the information below for more information ;

Mr Mark Allen,
Senior Regional Representative
Regional Office for Central Africa
International Monetary Fund
Telephone: +229 6815 8955
Email: mark_allen@consultant.com

Provide the following information for verification;

Name

Address

Tel/Fax

Occupation

A scanned copy of any valid ID or International Passport

We do request your coperation and advise that information are kept confidential.

Sincerely Yours,

Mrs Monica Lenz
IMF EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Public Relation Officer On Financial Matters;IMF


CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
This transmission may contain confidential information protected by State or Federal law. The information is intended only for use consistent with the stated business discussed in this transmission.If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or the taking of any action based on the contents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission ;Note that you are among the list of Beneficiaries approved for payment.Notify the sender
immediately.Your cooperation is appreciated.

AMERICA NOW TIP #2

Theresa Payton, founder of Fortalice, LLC. serves on the expert panel as a Cyber Expert for America Now! News (http://www.americanownews.com/story/16190165/theresa-payton). Here are some highlights from her second segment:

America Now! Tip #2: How to Avoid Unsafe Websites

We have been warned to stay away from fake websites and sites known for infecting computers. But how can you tell just by looking at it that the site is just not safe?

Our tipster, Theresa Payton shares her tips for spotting shady sites...

3 Tips to Avoid Surfing Unsafe Sites:

1. Don't click on links in emails, go to the site yourself by typing it in or using a search engine

2. Before clicking on a site that you have never visited before do some research in a search engine first. Try the website name + "scam" to see what pops up

3. You can use tools to help you with safe surfing. One free and easy tool is McAfee's site: http://www.siteadvisor.com and type the site name for their opinion

AMERICA NOW TIP #1

Theresa Payton, founder of Fortalice, LLC. (www.fortalicesolutions.com), has been invited by America Now news to serve as an expert authority for cyber security. Visit her section at http://www.americanownews.com/story/16190165/theresa-payton to check out the most current advice on threats in the Cyber world and ask questions of your own!

Notes taken from Theresa Payton's first America Now! segment

Tip #1: TP on Speedy, Strong Passwords

We all have too many passwords to remember, don't we? And experts tell us to make them hard to guess. Well, if we make the too hard, we ourselves will not remember them. But don't fear...our tipster, Theresa Payton shares her tips for speedy, strong passwords...

Strong passwords use upper case and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.

Try these tips to create a tough one to guess (but easy to remember!):

1. Create a Phrase

2. Choose the first letter of each word

3. Replace some letters with special characters

For Example:

"I LOVE TO WATCH THE SUPER BOWL!" = I<32wtSB!

Just remember, never repeat the exact password twice across accounts so add some flair to make them different, but still easy to remember.

Another example: (for your frequent flier account)- use only something about travel you would know

"Lost my luggage in LA"

TEXTING BEHIND THE WHEEL A DEADLY HABIT

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Also featured in WBTV's segment Protecting Your Cyberturf featuring Theresa Payton and Kristen Miranda.

TEXTING BEHIND THE WHEEL A DEADLY HABIT
Recently a young man died after receiving and sending texts causing him to slam into a truck in front of him and triggering a major highway incident. This habit of reading, responding to, or writing texts is a dangerous practice. But now the Government wants to get involved and tell you what you can and cannot do behind the wheel of your car.
How many times lately have you seen someone driving too slow, too fast, or even running a red light and you caught them texting behind the wheel? Well the National Transportation Safety Board has said enough is enough. They are proposing that texting and talking on a cell phone be illegal for all drivers across all 50 states. But is this going to extremes? Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, gives us the rundown on what might happen.

IT’S HARMLESS AND I DRIVE FINE:
According to a test conducted by Car and Driver magazine and other studies, no you don’t!

• Car and Driver tested drivers reading texts and sending texts. They used a simulation of another car with brake lights to time how long it took them to react.
• Next, they asked the subjects to drink alcohol until they hit .08 BAC and then asked them to drive and react to the same brake light test.

(Don’t worry, the tests were done on a long strip without other cars!)

• When do you think they drove better? When they had the .08 BAC!
• We know that drinking and driving is dangerous, many establishments encourage you to take a cab instead of driving. Now we know that texting while driving is actually more unsafe!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
The NTSB has drafted a new set of rules about cell phone use by drivers of a moving car

• The NTSB cannot mandate any guidelines. The States can ignore the NTSB guidelines, adopt some, or adopt all of the guidelines

• Research from Virginia Tech showed that even hands free phone headsets do not eliminate the distractions presented when talking on the phone while driving

NTSB has said, “No call, no text, no update is worth a human life.”

• They may make allowances for on board systems like OnStar or cell phone based GPS systems
• If you are for or against the ban, you can leave comments for the NTSB or direct them to the Governor’s office of the state that you live in.

WORD OF THE WEEK: Zoo. Sometimes researchers will create their own computer viruses to test them in a controlled lab to see what the viruses do. Because they cage in these viruses to make sure they don’t accidentally get out on the internet, they call it a zoo!
WEB RESOURCES:
You can follow the plans at the National Transportation Safety Board at:
http://www.ntsb.gov/
The Governor’s State Highway Association tracks laws, by state, regarding talking or texting on cell phones at:
http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html
You can view the Car and Driver magazine’s test results and watch a video at:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/texting-while-driving-how-dangerous-is-it

CYBERBULLYING APP ATROCITY

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Also covered in WBTV's segment Protecting Your Cyberturf featuring Theresa Payton and Kristen Miranda.

CYBERBULLYING APP ATROCITY

3 million. That’s the number of times an “ugly meter” app has been downloaded to smart phones so far and it’s alarming children advocates that are trying to fight cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has disastrous consequences. Kids end up depressed, with low esteem, and some have even taken their own lives in despair. No good can come from this meter.

This has become a popular app in the Apple store and it’s called UGLY METER. The latest version of the app even has a “Bully Mode” to help you come up with mean things to say and make it even easier to post photos with mean comments on the web. Cyber expert Theresa Payton has an alert for all our viewers.


HOW IT WORKS:
1. download the app
2. run photos through it
3. the software uses facial details in the photo and the program rates the face on an ugly meter on a scale of 0 to 10
4. the software then adds a nasty taunt to the photo which you can post together on the web

We highly recommend you check all your home computers and smart phones to make sure your family is not using this app.


WORD OF THE WEEK:
BITCOIN: It’s a play on words. It’s coins in the digital word. The “bit” is it is digital currency. The coin can represent money or something of value like points or badges in a game. It enables fast payments between people in any location. Similar idea to PayPal except there is no central organization managing the payments. It provides sender and receiver some anonymity. It’s popular with gamers. Use with caution.

RESOURCES:
Web site of the creator of the Ugly App Meter: http://www.dappergentlemen.com/uglymeter/index.html

Parent and Teacher resources to help combat cyberbullying:

Stop Cyberbullying: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/

Fortalice LLC tracks cyberbullying and other internet issues: www.FortaliceSolutions.com
Cyberbullying Research Center: http://www.cyberbullying.us/

Girl related cyberbullying: http://www.awaythrough.com/

DIGITAL REALLY DOES MEAN FOREVER WITH TWITTER

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Material also covered in WBTV's segment Protecting Your Cyberturf featuring Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton.

DIGITAL REALLY DOES MEAN FOREVER WITH TWITTER

It’s hard to remember life before Twitter but there may come a day when Twitter is not the “it” thing anymore. But did you know that your tweets will have an afterlife? That’s right, the U.S. Government is collecting every single tweet, from comments about the first cup of java on a Monday morning to Tsunami information to the protests in Egypt, every tweet has been collected for preservation.

We say this all the time - digital is forever but that saying has gone to a new level! The Library of Congress collects information that might be vital to our Nation’s history. That mission extends to digital data but they usually don’t collect everything digital and hold it forever...except for tweets! Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains.

WHAT WE KNOW:
The Library of Congress said they are not collecting “private” tweets which might mean the direct message function but they are collecting all tweets, regardless of topic, and storing them forever.

We told you previously the National Archives was collecting tweets and storing them but their focus was much more limited.

So the question is, what will the future do with the tweets of today? Care to retract any tweets?

WORD OF THE WEEK:
NETCATION: It’s a mashup of two words: internet and vacation. We all probably need more of this, a vacation from not just work but the internet too. So you might see someone on Facebook or Twitter say, “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I took a netcation”.

RESOURCES:
Twitter’s privacy policy:
https://twitter.com/privacy/previous/version_2

To share ideas and comments about Twitter being archived and other topics go to this page at the National Archives website: http://www.archives.gov/social-media/policies/idea-forum-comment-policy.html

See what the Library of Congress said on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/#!/librarycongress/status/12169442690

EVERYONE’S A PEEPING TOM WITH THE NEW FACEBOOK GLITCH

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Also featured in the WBTV segment Protecting Your Cyberturf with Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton.

EVERYONE’S A PEEPING TOM WITH THE NEW FACEBOOK GLITCH

We have talked to you before about how “digital is forever” and to assume that your personal conversations could be exposed, but many of us still expect a reasonable amount of privacy if we take the time to turn on privacy settings. But that’s evidently not good enough. Even Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook learned that there is no such thing as private or personal on Facebook. A small glitch temporaily allowed people to see photos, regardless of the privacy setting. Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains what happened.

The good news is that Facebook seems to have fixed the issue. The bad news is, people had a false sense of security that if they locked down their privacy settings to share photos only with friends that they had that assurance and the glitch proved there are no 100% assurances.

Here is what Facebook had to say about the incident:
"The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user's most recently uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos...Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed."

HOW IT WORKED:
Facebook offers a user community reporting system where you can report inappropriate content. By making this feature available, they accidentally allowed this feature to bypass privacy settings.

WHO WAS IMPACTED?
Everyone was temporarily impacted. Even the founder, Mark Zuckerburg, had photos of his girlfriend and puppy exposed.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF:
Follow the Grandmom rule: If you don’t want Grandmom to see it, don’t post photos online

If you need to share photos, consider using a photo sharing site and then deleting the photos after you are done. Remember, digital is forever so they are still around even if you cannot see them.

WORD OF THE WEEK:
SCHEMER: Pronounced Scheme-er, this is a new Google product. It’s based on the concept of organizing activities into “schemes”. They have various schemes already set up that you can choose or you can submit your own. Then you can share information with others. It’s sort of a Location Check in Service (like GoWalla or Foursquare) except it is activity based.
It’s not available in Charlotte yet! You can request to be on a wait list at http://www.schemer.com/welcome
RESOURCES:
To keep up with the latest Facebook privacy settings go to:
https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

To stay ahead of the scams out there, track Facecrooks on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/Facecrooks

SCAM ALERT #2

From: "Eddie Hamm" <eddiehamm@rocketmail.com>
Date: December 8, 2011 9:36:40 AM EST
Subject: Order Inquiry

Dear Sales,
Good day to you. I would like to place an order for the below listed items from your establishment to our location in TX , USA .

# Fargo 44230 Color Ribbon - YMCKO - 250 prints
# Fargo 86200 Color Ribbon - YMCKO - 500 prints
# C6578DN Inkjet Cartridge (Tri-Colour)
# C1823D Inkjet Cartridge (Tri-Colour)

Looking forward for the quick response , so that i can get back to you with the qtys needed. and also let me know know the acceptable credit cards for the payment

Thank you
Eddie Hamm
Sales Manager
3319 Thrash Trail
Mineola, TX 75773

NOTE: REPLY TO ( eddiehamm@rocketmail.com )

SCAM ALERT: Information about Your Late Relation/Family Member- Final Notice

One of the most recent phishing scams we've stumbled upon...

Information about Your Late Relation/Family Member- Final Notice

Ref: Information about Your late Relation/Family member

This is my second but final attempt to reach you in view of this subject matter.

I am Geoffrey Bell,an Conveyancer , Investment adviser/sole executor to your late relation.There is an Estate(Cash deposit in account with SNS

Bank and some landed Properties) belonging to your Late family member I will like to discuss with you; He is related to you going by the linage,

surname and country of origin.

Once I receive your information and endorse same appropriately,I shall provide you with all the privileged information/legal documents relating

to the deceased and also will give you guidelines on how to realize this goal without the breach of the law. I would respectfully request that you

treat the content of this letter as privileged and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this correspondence. Contact me

immediately for more information and to begin the legal process of redeeming your lawful entitlement before the bank is compelled by law to hand

over the money to the government.

Kind Regards,

Geoffrey Bell

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bell & Co. Solicitors ® is a trade mark of Bell & Co. Solicitors and and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority © copyright 2011. Authorized and regulated by the

Solicitors Regulation Authority. limited liability partnership, registered in England (OC321279).Bell & Co incorporating Liddingtons is a trading name of Gowen & Stevens LLP.

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Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device