Archive for March, 2007

SEC cracks down on stock scams

Friday, March 9th, 2007

SEC, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is now trying to put an end to the stock scams by closing down trade in 35 so-called Penny Stocks. Forbes, Lisa Lerer doesn’t have high hopes on this putting an end to stock spams:

The federal government made headlines on Thursday by cracking down on dozens of penny stocks whose prices had been manipulated by mass e-mailers.

But while the Securities and Exchange Commission made a splash by unveiling “Operation Spamalot”, it is unlikely to end spam. In the face of increased enforcement, warnings and federal laws, spam is not only continuing, but flourishing. And there’s no reason to think the SEC will be able to do anything to stop it.

Read on at:
forbes.com/home/security/2007/03/08/sec-spam-stock-tech-security-cx_ll_0308spam.html

Added: Here is the SEC press release:
www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-34.htm

RRGI press release schedule - stock scam

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

Stock scams have been a real pain during the passed years, but this one has a new angle. It looks like an internal memo that has been sent out to the wrong address by misstake. It didn’t make it quite through my server-side spam filters though, even if it didn’t gather enough spam points foor immediate deletion.

From: RRGI Consulting <Coverage@rrgi.prserv.net>
To: PreRelease [my primary e-mail address]
Date: 2007-mar-06 14:51
Subject: *****SPAM***** FW: RRGI press release schedule

The following is the schedule of releases thus far for RRGI for March-

Wednesday Mar. 7th: Announce corporate coverage initiated to 22 million investors.

Monday Mar. 12th: Announce Venturepoint Research report discussing contracts being signed by advertisers and the revenue generated from these contracts.

Monday Mar. 19th: Announce Private newsletter coverage. The Savvy Investor will feature the company in the March edition. The Savvy Investor is a well respected and followed outlet providing market information, financial analysis and major media tie-ins.

Monday March 26th: Announce March Edition Updates and Reiterate Spike TV series launch, new contracts and revenue projections.

This should get us started..I am sure there will be other information that will be added as well during this same period as well as after, such as new advertisers as deals are finalized.

Regards,
Steven

Nordic SMS Lottery - a scam

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Many thanks to Rashad Zeed Alali Aldaher who submitted this mail about the “Nordic SMS Lottery” allegedly sent by the Nordic Lottery payment Office, as a comment to the running thread about the very similar, and probably related Gotenborg SMS Lottery scam.

A few points worth mentioning:

  1. There is no such organisation as the Nordic Lottery payment Office.
  2. The phone number stated, +46- 704051742 is an unlisted prepaid mobile phone. the only reference that I can find to it is in the reports on similar lottery scams, reported on this site.
  3. The only legal lotteries of this scale conducted  in Sweden are indeed run by the government gambling monopolies, but the tax is always deducted from any winnings in advance.

At least, it is very clear what the scammers are after in this case. However, it is not at all certain that they are really based in Sweden. The number could very well be forward connected to any number throughouth the world.

Kungsgatan 112
S-90187 Umea,
Sweden
Name: Interbank payment service
Foreign Remittance Department:

Dear Rashad Zeed Alali Aldaher

You are welcome to the Nordic Lottery Payment Office an affiliate of
the Nordic SMS Lottery. I am pleased to be at your service and you
have been officially cleared for payment by the Verifications Department
at the headquarters of the Nordic SMS Lottery.

The original copy of your winning certificate, together with a covering
document (Money Laundering protection and Letter of Affidavit for
Claims) stating that the money was obtained
legally through the Nordic SMS Lottery is ready and has been sent
to the tax agency for processing

With regards to you collecting your money, it would be required for you
to either come over to Sweden to collect your money in person, office hours is
between 10 am and 4 pm monday to friday and on saturday 10 am to 2 pm,
you are also advised that you should notify us of your arrival, so we
will send our staff to come pick you at the airport, secondly on
arrival, you are required to pay a tax fee to the Tax Agency that would issue a tax clearance to
us and also issue an approval for the money to be given
to you, the tax fee is 13,775 Swedish Krona, you are advised to come with that
amount so you will pay to the Tax agency.

But if you are not able to come over to Sweden, then I would advise that
you contact the Tax Agency and find a way of send the money to
the them for the approval to be issued and we will collect the
tax clearance, then we will either make a bank transfer
of the money to you or we will send a bank cheque to you through a
courier company ( DHL or UPS ), but you will notify us of the best way
you would prefer the money been sent to you.

I know you would have prefer that the tax fee be deducted from the
amount you won, but your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance
policy, which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money
before it has been remitted to you. This means that no charges can be
deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your
prize is transferred to you, and secondly you are the only person that
is liable to receive the money and not until the approval is received
from the tax office, the money cannot be transferred or deducted.

This is in accordance with section 13(1) (n) of the national gambling
act as adopted in 1993 and amended on 3rd July 1996 by the
constitutional assembly. This is to protect winners and to avoid
misappropriation of funds
Also be reminded that the deadline for the claiming of winnings is
exactly two weeks after the receipt of this email. After this period,
your cash prize will be deemed to have been forfeited by you and will be
reused in the drawings of the next edition of the lottery.

I hope to hear from you soon.
Good luck and Congratulations once again.
Regards,
Mr. John Palsson
Head of Payment Office
+46- 704051742

Many thanks to Rashad Zeed Alali Aldaher who submitted this new lottery scam as a warning to others.

Certificate from the false UK National Lottery

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

In a comment to one of the posts on the UK National Lottery scam, Tahani has kindly contributed what you get when sending in £577 for registering your claim. It’s a very phony looking certificate, and then they want £1500 more for your claim to go through with the payment process.

So, if you register (and send in whatever amount the scammers want you to pay for registering for you winnings), and then get a certificate that looks false or altered, it probably is. And this is what Tahani’s certificate looks like (with Tahani’s remarks and comments):False certificate from the UK National Lottery programme

Thanks Tahani for sharing!

Friday, August 29th 2008 Nikke Lindqvist är så glad för att Jaiku finns.

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