ICS Monitoring Team: Your internet access is going to get suspended (VIRUS/WORM/TROJAN ALERT!!!)
Folks, if you receive the same e-mail message as below, please be careful. It’s got virus attached to it.
Once it arrives in your mail inbox, DELETE the message straight away. Don’t open the attachment.
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Olympic Torch Invitation Virus Hoax - Burning Hard Disc Hoax
I’ve just received an e-mail prompting me to ignore any e-mail messages that arrives with attachments called “Invitation” or “Postcard”. Supposedly, it is a new virus called the Olympic Torch virus that if opened, will destroy the hard drive of your computer.
Folks, this e-mail is just a HOAX!!!
Read here:
Filed under Scam Watch | Comments (3)Chain Letter: How to Drive Petrol Prices Down
Recently, I have been receiving e-mails on how to drive petrol prices down. There are a number of variations of the e-mail. The first one is about boycotting the big players like ESSO/MOBIL, SHELL, PROJET and opt for the so-called small players like CALTEX and PETRONAS. This way, we can make the big companies bleed, and thus bringing petrol prices down. This idea supposedly came from people from PETRONAS. They regard this idea as “price control”. This idea was also supported by somebody that goes by the name of Phillip Hollsworth (try google-ing this name, and you won’t even find a trace of this bugger).
The second e-mail variation is about boycotting petrol as a whole for a certain period of time.
Now in this article, I’ll explain to you why not in a million years these concepts will work. By the way, I’ll be using the words fuel and oil interchangeably.
Firstly, we need to understand that fuel is a necessity (need) and not a luxury (want). At this day of age, it is impossible to go through your day without encountering fuel or fuel-induced goods and services.
Filed under Economic & Finance News, Scam Watch | Comments (10)Stock Pump-and-Dump Schemes
This is another installment of the Scam Watch. This time, let’s have a look at one particular scam related to stocks. It’s called the Pump-and-Dump Scheme.
What’s a Pump-and-Dump scheme you ask?
Basically, what happens is that the organiser of a pump-and-dump scheme buys a large parcel of shares in a company or companies, then promote the company/companies to the public, claiming to have an insider information, stating that the share price will increase substantially soon. The public believes him/her and purchase the shares. The effect of higher demand will result into the share price being pushed higher. Then the organiser dumps his shares at an inflated price, making a substantial profit. The public then got stuck with the shares as the price declines well below the purchase price.
These scams can happen to either penny stocks (stocks of low price and easily manipulated by huge orders) or non-penny stocks but usually, penny stocks are the usual weapons of choice.
Filed under Scam Watch | Comment (0)Another E-mail Hoax : Friendster/Yahoo/Hotmail Account Deleted
Have you ever received e-mails like:
“There are too many users on Friendster/Yahoo/Hotmail. Forward this e-mail to at least 30 friends or else your Friendster/Yahoo/Hotmail account will be deleted.”
Is it true? If you think it is true, then HAHA to you.
First of all, if your account is to be deleted, you will be contacted directly by Friendster/Yahoo/Hotmail. They will not rely on chain letters to get their message through. They’ve got your details on their database.
Filed under Scam Watch | Comment (0)Bill Gates E-mail Hoax
Since the beginning of the internet era, we have come across a number of chain letters. Quite a number of people, I’m afraid, are naive enough to actually believe the contents of these e-mails. Yesterday, I received this e-mail from a good friend of mine:
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Dear Friends,
Pl ease do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.
When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (i f you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period.
For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two week! s, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.
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To make the e-mail more attractive, there are testimonials in the e-mail stating things like this is true, they’ve received USD200,000, a few has received USD10,000 and bla bla bla. And then at the bottom, there are a few people who said, “Try it out! You won’t lose anything! It’s worth a try.” They said that you will get a cheque from Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation.
Why Pyramid Schemes Don’t Work
First of all, for all pyramid schemes fans/believers out there, forgive me if you’re offended by this post. I’m just expressing what I feel and is based on my own limited research. If you’re still “investing” in pyramid schemes and will always be “investing” that way, then it’s your call. Your money, your own prerogative. I’m just writing here the reasons why I’m not interested in leaving my money in a pyramid scheme. Afterall, I am entitled to my opinion, no?
Basically what happens with a pyramid scheme is that you make one initial payment and you’ll get indefinite rewards. A pyramid scheme has a hierarchy. There will be people above you and people below you. When you join, the money you paid will be shared amongst people above you. When more people join below you, you’ll be getting a share of their money. This is their main source of income. I highly doubt that they actually invest in anything. Money will keep coming in as long as there are people joining.
Filed under Scam Watch | Comments (4)Get-Rich-Quick Schemes
Recently, media in
1. Absurdly high returns. I think it was like 20% per month or something which amounts to 240% per year. Guess what? They are guaranteed rate of returns! (Wow, these people can even beat the world’s best investors like Warren Buffett and George Soros.)
2. Your capital is guaranteed. (Remember, higher risk, higher returns. Capital guarantee means risk-free. Absurdly high returns with no risk? Bullocks!)
3. There was no prospectus whatsoever on the website. (Hmm….)
