Pope scam shows nothing is sacred, counterfeit postal money orders, phishing and more: Internet ScamBusters #123
Internet ScamBusters™
The #1 Publication on Internet Fraud
By Audri and Jim Lanford
Copyright © Audri and Jim Lanford
All rights reserved.
Issue #123
Hi Everyone,
Today we have an important issue for you with 4 ScamBusters Snippets:
- A New Pope Scam - Nothing is Sacred ;-)
- Alert: Beware of Counterfeit Postal Money Orders
- Phishing Quiz: Catch a Phish
- On the Very Light Side - Twinkies' 75th Birthday
But first, two quick announcements:
1. We're very pleased to have been chosen last week as Aunty Spam's Site of the Week.
Aunty Spam writes: "Always informative, helpful, and interesting, the information provided by ScamBusters is sure to help you to avoid becoming a victim of the countless Internet scam artists trying to relieve you of your money, personal identity information, or other resources or assets." Visit and check out the excellent material on Aunty Spam while you're there.
2. We're excited to tell you about the first new ebook of 2005 that our company is publishing, "Berry Growing Secrets: How To Grow Amazing Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries and Cranberries Easily, Quickly, and Without a Lot of Muss and Fuss."
If you have ever wanted to grow sweet, delicious berries -- whether you have plenty of space in your garden or just a couple of square feet on a balcony or rooftop -- we recommend you check out this book. Get the inside scoop as a Master Gardener reveals her lifelong secrets about growing exceptional berries. To find out more, check out the first promo and visit now:
==} http://scambusters.org/a/berries.html
OK, let's get started...
A New Pope Scam - Nothing is Sacred
Just as with the Tsunami and 9/11 scams, scammers were busy taking advantage of the death of Pope John Paul II, even before his body was laid to rest.
The most popular of the new Pope scams offered a free collection of books about Pope John Paul II. However, rather than delivering on the offer, the link in the email went to a page that apologized for "being out of the books" and instead offered free money-making secrets.
This scam is part of a larger trend where scammers use the news to get people to open email they'd normally delete. Scammers are also getting faster and faster at exploiting natural disasters, tragedies, and other historic events.
Alert: Beware of Counterfeit Postal Money Orders
We've written a lot about how fraudulent international money orders can look real, where even banks accept them as genuine. For example, see the first item here.
Many subscribers have written to tell us that we should advise people to insist on US Postal Money Orders as payment, since they believed these are always safe.
This is NOT true.
Foreign scammers are now counterfeiting US Postal Money Orders.
In fact, according to U.S. Postal Inspector Larry Dziomba, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bogus US Postal Money Orders have been sent from overseas in the past six months.
Tip: All US Postal Money Orders now have a watermark and an embedded security strip, similar to U.S. currency. Check any US Postal Money Order you receive very carefully and don't assume it's as safe as cash.
Phishing Quiz: Catch a Phish
The Washington Post created a phishing quiz. See how many of these 10 real emails you can correctly identify as legitimate or phishing scams -- we think you may be surprised at some of the answers:
==} http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/technology/articles/phishingtest.html
For more on avoiding phishing scams, visit now.
On the Very Light Side - Twinkies' 75th Birthday
This month, Twinkies celebrates its 75th birthday. This celebration has rekindled many of the Twinkies urban legends, such as:
- Twinkies have a shelf life of 50 to 100 years.
- Hostess hasn't produced any new Twinkies in years, and the Twinkies in stores now have been sitting in warehouses for years.
- Our personal favorite: That Twinkies have an incredibly long half-life, and could survive nuclear fallout. <g>
For more Twinkies urban legends, see the last item on this page.
That's it for today. Wishing you a great week.
