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New scam: Surveyspro Customer Service Evaluator

Posted by Rick on in Scams 41 Comments

New scam: Surveyspro Customer Service Evaluator

This one took me a few minutes to identify. There is little information about it on the net let, but the pieces didn’t quite jive right.

First odd thing was an envelope mailed to me. The return address said:

P.O. BOX 300 STATION M
TORONTO ON M6S 4X2

No company information or anything. Upon opening it is a check for $2,408.18 drawn upon the Greensboro Postal Credit Union in North Carolina.

Included is a letter “explaining” how it all works. Essentially they want a mystery shopper to shop various locations. This sounds fairly legit, although I do not recall signing up for any mystery shopper things. The key tip off to me was the part where it says to send a Western Union payment to a fake relative.

The second key tip off is the “pay” for doing this – $200! This is far more then most mystery shopping jobs usually pay.

The phone number for the “Assigned Training Coordinator” 650-993-1549 shows up as a San Francisco number. Who is for the website listed: esurveyspro.com shows a Romanian address.

Registrant:
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072 Romania

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ESURVEYSPRO.COM
Created on: 15-Apr-06
Expires on: 15-Apr-19
Last Updated on: 28-Jan-10
Administrative Contact: Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
+40.213192553 Fax —

Technical Contact:
Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania +40.213192553 Fax —

Domain servers in listed order: NS1.ESURVEYSPRO.COM NS2.ESURVEYSPRO.COM

Registrant:
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ESURVEYSPRO.COM
Created on: 15-Apr-06
Expires on: 15-Apr-19
Last Updated on: 28-Jan-10

Administrative Contact:
Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
+40.213192553 Fax —

Technical Contact:
Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
+40.213192553 Fax —

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.ESURVEYSPRO.COM
NS2.ESURVEYSPRO.COM

As a final piece of the puzzle Greensboro Postal Credit Union says (in big red letters):

SCAM ALERT!!
IF YOU RECEIVE A GREENSBORO POSTAL CREDIT UNION CASHIER’S CHECK- – DO NOT CASH THIS CHECK. It Is Counterfeit. If you received this check by US Mail, contact the USPS Postal Inspection Service immediately.


How to report Internet Fraud

Posted by Rick on in Scams, Security, Technology How To's 3 Comments

How to report Internet Fraud

Internet Fraud is on a rise. As more and more people get online around the world, more viruses are created to steal information, and more people see the anonymity of the Internet as a good way to steal, fraud rates will continue to rise.

Common fraudulent acts range from using stolen Paypal accounts to pay for eBay or Craigslist products. Sending people fake checks for significant amounts of money over the selling price and asking for the extra back, or the common “Nigerian 419  Scam,” where you’re contacted (usually via email) for help moving large amounts of money from another country. But they quickly ask you to send a couple of thousand dollars as a “transfer fee” and none of the money is ever seen again.

The first step in reporting fraud is to gather your evidence. Good portions of such reports go unanswered and forgotten because of the lack of evidence. Providing ample and accurate proof will greatly increase the chances of action being taken by Law Enforcement. When reporting fraud and scams, use this template to provide your evidence. Keep in mind that some online forms may not have room for all this info, but it’s good to compile it before submitting.

Name: Address:

Phone Number:

Email:

Other Contact info: (IM ID, Forum Name)

Scammer’s Name:

Address:

Phone Number:

Email:

Other Contact info: AIM or Yahoo IM ID, Forum Names, AKA names. Also include any other email addresses, phone numbers or physical addresses known. Essentially any way used to contact you should be cataloged here.

Nature of Fraud/Scam:  Give a brief description, i.e. “Was contacted by person to…”

Estimated Value Lost: Use a range for actual goods, or the sell price of the goods. Otherwise use the actual cash value.

Timeline Description: This is the important section. Provide a day-by-day, hour-by-hour account of the transaction and what went wrong. Cut and Paste Chat Logs, Screenshots (if possible,) and all emails. Be sure to present everything in chronological order as it happened.

Links to evidence: Provide links to forum posts, screenshots of emails and IM logs, etc.

There are several places you can report fraud to depending on where in the world you are.

Online Fraud Complaint Forms:

In the United States:

The Internet Crime Complaint Center: <a href=”http://www.ic3.gov”>http://www.ic3.gov</a>

National Fraud Information Center <a href=”http://www.fraud.org/info/contactnfic.htm”>http://www.fraud.org/info/contactnfic.htm</a>

In Canada:

Royal Canadian Mounted Police:

<a href=”https://www.recol.ca/intro.aspx?lang=en”>https://www.recol.ca/intro.aspx?lang=en</a>

Other Countries: Please look in comments below, or post if you know your countries web page.

Once you’ve filled out the online forms, it’s a good idea to directly contact any of the below Law Enforcement Agencies. All of these agencies (except maybe City and County Police Departments) have an electronic crime agency who will take your information. In some cases you may be referred to another person, or group. Expect to get a bit of run around but do not take it personally. Remember to be polite and patient when explaining the nature of the fraud.

Local FBI Office: http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm

Local Attorney General: http://www.naag.org/

Local U.S. Secret Service Electronics Crime Division: https://www.treasury.gov/services/report-fwa/Pages/ReportFWA.aspx

Local State Police: http://www.statetroopersdirectory.com/

Local County Police Department: Varies, search Google for your County Name, Police Department and Electronic Crimes Division

Local City Police Department: Use the same search term above

If someone scammed you out side of your country, the Federal Trade Commission has a special site for these complaints. https://www.econsumer.gov/pls/econsumer/wimsnery2$com.main?p_lang_seq=1

A lot of scams involve Paypal due to the ease of setting up accounts or stealing the information from others. Their claims page is located at: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_comres_flow&trans_id=

Phone: 1-888-221-1161×8232 ; or 402-935-2050

If a company or business scammed you there are a couple of good places to report them to.

Better Business Bureau

FTC Complaint Center

Also be sure to report them to your and their Attorney General’s Office.

The United Postal Service is especially tough on scammers and fraud via Mail. If you sent a Money Order via mail, or goods and didn’t get anything in return they want to hear from you. Their online form is located at: http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx

The Postal Service is very tough on fraud and scamming. To help them out it’s always a good idea to use Delivery Confirmation when sending large amounts of money, checks, or even expensive goods.

UPS has an online claim section too, https://www.ups.com/myups/login?returnto=https%3a//wwwapps.ups.com/webClaims/create%3floc%3den_US%26report_type%3d1&reasonCode=-1&appid=CLAIMS

Reporting fraud and scams is time consuming, but every bit helps. If you’re short on time at least submit reports to the first two links. Remember, the scammers aren’t going to stop if they get away with it. All it’s going to take is one or two to get caught as warnings to the rest.

How To: Check Apple Warranty Status via ARD

Posted by Rick on in Apple, Technology How To's 6 Comments

How To: Check Apple Warranty Status via ARD

Here is an awesome little script by Scott Russell of the University of Notre Dame. Using the “send Unix command” in Apple Remote Desktop, it can pull the system’s serial number, send the information to Apple’s Warranty Website and then tell you if the machine is under warranty.

#!/bin/bash

# warranty.sh
# Description: looks up Apple warranty info for this computer, or one
specified by serial number on the command-line

# Written by: Scott Russell, IT Support Engineer, University of Notre
Dame
# Created on: Sat Jan 5 16:20:54 EST 2008
# Last Modified: Thu Sep 25 09:29:11 EDT 2008

###############
## GLOBALS ##
###############

WarrantyTempFile="/tmp/warranty.txt"
PlistFile="/Library/Preferences/edu.ND.DSSBranding"

if [[ $# == 0 ]] ; then
SerialNumber=`system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Serial Number"
| awk -F': ' {'print $2'} 2>/dev/null`
else
SerialNumber="${1}"
fi

[[ -n "${SerialNumber}" ]] && WarrantyInfo=`curl -k -s
"https://selfsolve.apple.com/Warranty.do?serialNumber=${SerialNumber}&countr
y=USA&fullCountryName=United%20States" | awk '{gsub(/","/,"n");print}' |
awk '{gsub(/":"/,":");print}' > ${WarrantyTempFile}`

#################
## FUNCTIONS ##
#################

GetWarrantyValue()
{
grep -w "${1}" ${WarrantyTempFile} | awk -F ':' {'print $2'}
}

###################
## APPLICATION ##
###################

echo "$(date) ... Checking warranty status"
InvalidSerial=`grep "serial number provided is invalid"
"${WarrantyTempFile}"`
#echo "InvalidSerial == ${InvalidSerial}"

if [[ -e "${WarrantyTempFile}" && -z "${InvalidSerial}" ]] ; then
echo " Serial Number == ${SerialNumber}"

PurchaseDate=`GetWarrantyValue PURCHASE_DATE`
echo " PurchaseDate == ${PurchaseDate}"

WarrantyExpires=`GetWarrantyValue COVERAGE_DATE`
echo " WarrantyExpires == ${WarrantyExpires}"

ProductDescription=`GetWarrantyValue PROD_DESCR`
echo " ProductDescription == ${ProductDescription}"
else
[[ -z "${SerialNumber}" ]] && echo " No serial number was found."
[[ -n "${InvalidSerial}" ]] && echo " Warranty information was
not found for ${SerialNumber}."
fi

exit 0

How to: Use the web to check copyright

Posted by Rick on in DRM, Internet, Technology How To's 0 Comment

How to: Use the web to check copyright

With the size of the Internet a lot a files, thoughts, musings, writings, paintings, pictures, etc, get “accidently” made available for those who have not paid for them. Students copy and paste whole sections of documents for their own papers, and less scrupulous individuals copy for their own reasons. A lot of companies have gotten around this by instigating DRM protection schemes, despite protests by consumers. The worst part though is that for those of us who provide content on the web, it’s actually pretty hard to keep that information secure.

Plagiarized text files are one of the easiest to find. Tools like Google are actually very useful here, but have the potential to come up with way too many hits. There are a lot of pay-per-use or subscription tools available on the market that will search for plagiarism, but Reprint Writers has put a great tool online that searches better then Google does. Unfortunately it only searches Yahoo so it may miss some hits.

On the other hand there are times when one does need to publish materials online and may not be the original author, or the original author may not be readily apparent or available. The Library Copyright Digital Slider tool could be very useful. Geared towards Librarians, it is extremely useful in identifying works that may have become public domain.

If the publication in question is a book it should be copyrighted via the Library of Congress. Some of that information is online via this link . Unfortunately, a good portion of this information is still offline, but it is being added slowly but surely. The provided link also has information about how to contribute to this project.

More recently web photography has really taken off. A lot of people with cheap digital cameras are posting pictures left and right, and just as quickly those pictures are being pulled from services such as Flickr and used by others.

Idee, Inc has a new tool that is in beta called Tineye. It actually goes out on the web and searches for pictures. Pictures that it’s seen before (and it’s constantly searching,) are given a unique identifier based on pixels in the graphic. Tineye scours the web for any picture that comes close, including those that were photoshopped or other wise altered.

In this day age copyright is an important concern for everyone involved. Using the above tools will make it easier to identify such cases and take appropriate action. Doing so will also help keep the unintentional infringements from happening.