GrayScales - Scams, Viruses & More

I'm not positive that this is a scam, but I do question the results. I've started a preliminary investigation into this due to an SPAM email I received. The spammers really provide a lot of fodder to fuel the writer's fires. Yeah for spammers! Especially, since they're the only ones that can send email anymore.

The website at http://www.nqpo.org sells a device called the "Fuel Saver". For only $89.95 you can increase fuel mileage by 27%+. This claim, I believe, falls into the category of "to good to be true". Why wouldn't manufacturers spend this little amount of money to allow their vehicles to meet Federal emissions and fuel economy goals?

Here's more fuel for this fire: they cite "The achievements of the Fuel Saver is so noteworthy to the environmental community, that Commercial News has featured it as their cover story in their June, 2000 edition." Doing a search on Google for "Commercial News" yielded no results. If this were a valid claim, do you not think they'd actually show you a picture of the cover? And what did the article, if it exists, really say?

For further investigation of claims of fuel economy and emissions reductions, I'd suggest folks look at the EPA's list of reports at http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/reports.htm on "Gas Saving and Emission Reduction Devices Evaluation". Their is no indication of a fuel savings device called the "Fuel Saver". If the device has another name that matches one of their reports, wouldn't you think they'd link you right to it. I would if I were selling such a device. Checking similar names for devices yielded no indication of a device that improved fuel economy or emissions.

As further investigation, I submitted a request for more information from a company that they claimed did the testing, California Environmental Engineering. Here's what I asked them "On the following website, http://www.nqpo.org/test.asp, you are credited with conducting testing on a Fuel Saver device sold by this company: " On January 21, 2000 and February 15, 2000, California Environmental Engineering, A recognized EPA Testing laboratory, tested Fuel Saver, obtaining the following results:" They also identify EPA as stating that their device improves fuel economy and mileage. Do you and can you verify the results of this testing? I'm reporting for a scam reporting site and find it unbelievable that manufacturers would not spend $89.95 to improve fuel economy." I'll let you know if they respond.

There's a lot of good stuff on the Internet, but it is a case of buyer beware and conducting some due diligence.

Yes, VeriSign has made it to the ranks of being a SCAMMER! VeriSign's COM NET Registry (VCNR) manages relationships with more than 100 ICANN-accredited Registrars who submit over 100 million domain name transactions daily. They have a lot of power in this role and now they're abusing it. According to this article on news.com.com, VeriSign Redirects error pages, "On Monday, VeriSign began to redirect domain lookups for misspelled or nonexistent names to its own site, a process that has confused Internet e-mail utilities and drawn angry denunciations of the company's business practices from frustrated network administrators. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company enjoys a government-granted monopoly as the master database administrator for .com and .net." As opposed to a user going "Opps, made a typo, gotta fix that", they're now going to be subjected to Verisign's advertising. They're way out of line here! The search engine links to sites that appear to only be sponsored. In VeriSign's words, "Sponsored Results are links to web sites directly related to your search. These listings are sponsored by companies that pay to have a link to their site appear in the results for the specific search term you entered." I did not find any link on this so-called search engine, that would let me know how to get in this directory.

How can I trust an organization that sells secure certificates, when they are hijaacking the Internet? It's been a rather scummy way for some Internet Marketeer's to redirect traffic. They buy domains names that are common mispellings of high traffic sites. But at least they're buying the names, not using any monopolistic power to take advantage of Internet users.

What can we do? Don't buy from VeriSign. Need a secure certificate go to Thawte.com or some other 3rd party verification company.

Here's one you might get in your email. This is nothing more than an attempt to get your bank account information, violate your privacy and steal your money. Suckers that fall for this almost deserve it, but many do every year. Think about it, they don't know you from Adam, but they want to give you 30% of $15.5M. Of course they want you to lie about your identity by presenting yourself as a relative of the deceased person. So if you have a criminal mind and are stupid, have at it! Here's an example of what you'll receive. Note that the from email address is from Italy, the scammer asks you to reply to a French Yahoo account... more than likely a forged email header.

Boy this one is really nasty! Not only is it an attempt to gain access to Ebay user accounts it also attempts to infect your computer with the VBS/Redlof@M virus. To get this one you have to click the link in an email from support@ebay.com. Here's what it'll look like:

Dear eBay ® valued member,

Due to concerns we have for the safety and integrity of the eBay
community we have issued this warning.

Per the User Agreement, Section 9, we may immediately issue a
warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership
and refuse to provide our services to you if we believe that your actions
may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or us. We may also
take these actions if we are unable to verify or authenticate any
information you provide to us.Please update your records by September 10th !

Please follow the link below
and update your account information.
http://signin.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn&ssPageName

Regards,
eBay Service Department

The problem is that the sigin.ebay.com link really goes to http://www.ebayupdate.us. You'll be presented with a login form that looks like Ebay's. Here's the kicker... before you even give up your eBay User ID and Password, these scammers also attempt to install the VBS/Redlof@M virus. If you virus program is not up-to-date, you might get caught. This worm exploits a Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability to infect .HTM documents and configure email clients to include an infected document along with each message that is sent out.

Next step, reporting this to eBay's abuse department.

This is such a crock! I received an email from the Settlement Administrator at gardencitygroup.com (apparently not affiliated with Register.com their domain is registered with Network Solutions) informing me of a Final Class Action Lawsuit Approval regarding a case against Register.com. If you get such a notice it is safe to open. The file is an Adobe PDF.

The gist of this lawsuit is that a Michael Zurakov filed suit against Register.com because they linked newly registered domains to a "Coming Soon" page. This page supposedly linked to other services that Register.com promoted. The claims were upheld for "breach of contract and deceptive trade practices".

To me this seems like a thinly diguised method of advertising Register.com's current domain registration site. The settlement? You get $5.00 off the costs of Register.com's services. Whoopee Doo! Register.com currently charges $35.00 a year for their domain registrations. Give me a break. I'm a reseller for GoDaddy.com and currently have domains priced at $8.75 per year at the highest price point! ( http://domainnamescheaper.com Shameless Plug!)

While you might find Register.com's class action settlement amusing, don't waste your time reading it or honoring their settlement. BTW, Mr. Zurakov got $12,500.00 for settling this suit and the attorneys could get up to $642,500.00 for their fees. Maybe Register.com does need to keep their pricing high to pay their legal fees?