My mate Dom was moaning to his ISP on Twitter. They sent him a private message so they could look into his account. Blimey! Thankfully, that was a pretty brazen and inept attempt at phishing. Anyone asking for all your card details like that should set the alarm bells ringing. Of course, phishers often target…
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Another day, another phone scam. Yesterday, I received a call from +442085044434 by someone trying to get me to “invest” in BitCoin and other Cryptocurrencies. I managed to drag the call out for 6 minutes – have a listen: The caller admits the trading and advice isn’t regulated. That they don’t need permission to make…
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*sigh* These scams are really common. And pretty easy to pull off. Renting an expensive sports car for a day is relatively cheap. Drive it to some fancy locations, wear a couple of rented designer clothes, perhaps pay for a pretty model to pose as your girlfriend, take a load of photos and you can…
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Yesterday, January 2nd, my wife received a billing alert from her phone provider. Luckily, she’s not with EE – because it’s a pretty convincing text. That domain name is specifically designed to include the day’s date. If you’re stood up on a crowded train, with your phone screen cracked, would you notice that a .…
Continue reading →Another day, another scam caller. Would you fall for this fraud? You’d probably realise that this was a (crap) text-to-voice system and that the tax authorities are more likely to send a letter than a phone call. But not everyone is so switched-on. If you’ve not had many dealings with HMRC, would you know how…
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Gmail is usually pretty good at stopping spam from reaching my inbox. When it slips up, it reminds me of just how terrifying the modern internet is. Early one morning, I received this email from someone I know (details redacted by me). It came from his email, it has his signature at the bottom. This…
Continue reading →Last week I was contacted by the BBC’s consumer affairs programme “You And Yours” for my expert opinion on a new type of mobile phone scam. Warning! I'll be on @BBCRadio4's You And Yours shortly.Please tune your wirelesses accordingly. pic.twitter.com/6F3ZSiWuIn — Terence Eden (@edent) April 11, 2016 Several people had contacted the show to say…
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There is a new API in town! HTML5 will (soon) let you make the user’s device vibrate. What fun! Obviously, it’s useful for triggering alerts, improved immersivness during gameplay, and all sorts of other fun things like sending Morse Code messages via vibration. At the moment, Chrome (and other Android browsers) ask for permission before…
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Just the look of those permissions is enough to break me out in a cold sweat! According to Lookout – the leading security solution for Android – it’s a payware scam. No doubt ready to send a barrage of Premium SMS to drain my phone’s credit. It’s quite upsetting that a company like Yahoo would…
Continue reading →Ah! Valkee! For the last few years I’ve been blogging about this “miracle cure” for depression – in 2011 I called Valkee a technology scam and last year Valkee’s website was found to be misleading the public. They claim that by sticking a light in your ear, you can cure both depression and cancer. These…
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