TechQuest

Old but tricky phishing scam now targets PayPal users, Phishing scams occur every once in a while and users have started to get used to them; nevertheless, there are some cases when such an attack may prove to be pretty dangerous.

The most recently reported PayPal phishing scam attempts to steal PayPal credentials by using the same traditional method: an email message that informs users that their account information must be updated, the provided link redirecting them to a fake website asking for the mentioned data. Since a lot of users have received the phishing email, Ryan K., Community Manager of Yahoo Mail, came up front and revealed some of the tricky elements of the scam, which could keep you on the safe side.

Even if the email message includes the official PayPal logo, which is actually an old trick used by phishers, you’re advised to go further and analyze the message deeper if you’re still in doubt if it’s a fake or not. “The greeting gives it all away. PayPal will ALWAYS address you formally by the name registered to your account. So if you have a personal account it will be your name, and if you have a business account it will reference your business name,” the Yahoo official explained.

“Once you get past the greeting, you can also look for mistakes in the copy. There is an extra period at the end of a paragraph. In the other sample there is a missing return space between paragraphs. These are small things, but a lot of scammers seem to miss them,” he added.

These are common elements that could be seen in most phishing attacks launched these days and, even if phishers seem to migrate to more advanced techniques, there are still a number of methods to check the credibility of a suspicious email that arrives in your inbox.

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I got to know of this business opportunity through a newspaper advertisement written working from your comfort of your home.Details given in the ads is only earnings ranging SGD500 - SGD5000 and a website link.So after reading their ads, i am very interested.

So i copied their website link and browse the content, the website refused to reveal anything related to the business model. To fulfill my curiosity, i leave my contact details so they can contact me. After that i continued with my blogging, about 2 hours later, a lady called me regarding this Business Opportunity.

I asked the person that called me, what is this company about and what they selling. She can’t me give any answers.

After getting in touch with the people from QSTR, they sent me a free online manual which would only appear for a limited period of time. The online manual did not reveal much on the operations of the company. It only featured heaps of testimonials from people who have benefited from the programme.

Upon expiration of the online manual, the lady gave me two packages to choose from. S$25 for an online gold manual and video download, and a S$60 for DVD and an offline gold manual. She refused to reveal anything related to the business model.

I felt very sneaky about this and find something wrong about this. So i started to google about this QSTR Business Opportunity and found this blog.

If you sign for he S$25 package. You will get online manual, the online gold manual contains information on the current world and the future trend of businesses. After watching the videos and going through the manual, there is a questionnaire to fill up.

When the package expires, an online Skype interview was arranged among myself, the introducer (the person who pasted the flyer) and a mentor. The entire interview lasted for 2 hours.

QSTR is a home-based business. It is a network marketing company, marketing products from Herbalife. I didn’t choose to take up this opportunity however, because it requires one to buy the products and consume them. I was asked to buy and eat the pills without knowing the ingredients and effects. And I would need to also buy the pills every month to sustain the account.

If you don’t believe QSTR a.k.a. Herbalife is a scam, click here

Herbalife has been implicated in making false medical claims and also being a pyramid scheme. Mark Hughes (President & CEO) was fined USD850,000. Go here to read about Mark Hughes

Herbalife products have also been implicated with side effects. The FDA has received many complaints from consumers. Herbalife has also been sued and settled out of court. Click here to read about Herbalife products.

Just for your reference. http://www.qstrhome.com/cn/

What do you think? Is it a scam? Comment your thoughts about this.

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Written by Garry Conn on March 23rd, 2008

It is one thing to make money with private ad sales, but it is another thing to do so by accepting ads onto my blog that promote services that are total scams and fraud। With my private ad sales increasing as well as the requests to take full advantage of the advertisement programs being offered on my blog, I now know that I need to be very careful and selective with who I accept into my program.

Today I invested some time into following the links of all my private advertiser’s sites. There was one advertiser who caught my eye in particular. The advertiser was promoting a site called, LiveBizwebcast. This is a website that is part of Jeffrey Lant’s huge live webcast affiliate marketing scam. It is a lure to drive people into their live webcast where Jeffrey Lant and a few select people assigned to his scam team attempt to rob people out of over $1200 dollars of their hard earned money.

When I visited the site that is patched into the huge network hosted by Jeffrey Lant, I could quickly see right through him. His purpose is simple: Collect as much money for as many people as possible. Quickly after logging in, I was addressed live on the webcast by Jeffrey Lant and quickly I was pushed into his product order page. I played the game as if I were just a regular visitor and for the hell of it, I decided to let him walk me through his little scam process from start to finish.

Immediately I was asked by Jeffrey Lant, “Do you want to make money online?” Sure! I replied. “My next webcast starts in one hour, stick around and watch the entire show and you will be giving 50,000 free web site visitors to your web site of choice!”, say Lant. “All you have to do is watch my show from start to finish, you don’t even have to buy anything. This is my gift to you just for watching the show”.

Fine whatever, so as I was doing maintenance on a few of my own sites, I had the show opened up and minimized in a separate window. After 30 minutes of listening to this little pathetic looking troll with eyeglasses, he then directed everyone back to the main lobby. There was a about 60 people including myself logged in and listening to his show.

Moving back to the main lobby, quickly him and his top sales associate, Jim Carpenter, were working aggressively towards closing sales of their $1200 dollar product. The sad thing is that a few people were actually buying. I feel so terrible for those folks that wasted their money. Then Lant asked me what my intentions were. I told him that I have given him my valued time; however, at this time I am not interested in purchasing your product. I am however, still interested in the bonus you offered me for watching the show.

Immediately after that, all hell broke loose. He called me names, and told everyone in the room, “here is an example of a person who has zero skills or intelligence in the business, he’s just a guy that want to rob me and score his free gift”, said Lant. “It doesn’t work that way Garry Conn. I give out the free bonuses to the people that buy the product! These are the people that deserve my gifts!”, continued Jeffrey Lant.

He further continued with his trollish rampage by saying, “You have been very uncooperative and quite honestly a pain in my ass for the last 90 minutes you have been logged in. I am done speaking with you and as far as your time is concerned, everyone invests their time into something!”

So, you know, Jeffrey Lant is right about one thing, people do invest their time into things. I have chosen to invest my time into calling him out and placing a warning message for people who read and or will pass through my blog in the future. Do not buy anything from Jeffrey Lant. He is a scam artist, he is rude, he is a troll and he is only concerned with taking money from people who are too ignorant to see the big picture of his operation.

Here is a complete list of domain names that YOU WILL NEED to watch out for. He has an empire of domain names that all link to his main scam artists central. Here is the list below:

20IncomeStreams.com
AllAboutWebcasts.com
BoldBizBoom.com
BroadcastPlatform.com
BroadcastTutors.com
CleverWaysToProfit.com
CreativeCashOutlet.com
EasyBizCentral.com
FastFuriousFreedom.com
FunOnlineProfit.com
futureprosperityzone.com
GearUpForProfit.com
HomeBizChitChat.com
HomeBizCurrents.com
HomeBizHope.com
HomeBizInfluence.com
HomeBizInvasion.com
HomeOfficeWebcaster.com
InteractiveLearningCenter.com
InteractiveWealthMakers.com
InternetMarketWeb.com
IntrepidCash.com
LIVEGlobalBusiness.com
LiveSeminarRentals.com
LiveWebcastBiz.com
LoveThisHomeBiz.com
NavigateYourFuture.com
ProfitApproach.com
ProfitBroadcast.com
ProfitLocomotion.com
RunningForGold.com
SeminarAdvantageOnline.com
SimpleSuccessTools.com
SmartBizStars.com
SuccessBiz101.com
SureThingSuccess.com
TheBestBizVenture.com
TheLiveTalkingWebsite.com
TheSalesClosers.com
TheSmartBizPlace.com
TheSmartChoiceNow.com
TheWebcastSite.com
TrafficProfitFun.com
VastWealthSystem.com
VideoVision101.com
VirtualWebcasts.com
WealthExpressMax.com
WealthWays101.com
WealthyVoyage.com
WebcastAdvice.com
WebcastAvenue.com
WebcastBroadcast.com
WebcastCircle.com
WebcastCreations.com
WebcastForProfit.com
WebcastFortunes.com
WebcastHappiness.com
WebcastHelp.com
webcastsource.com
WellFoundedBiz.com
WiseWayToCash.com
WiseWealthFormula.com
YourCommunityChoice.com

If you see any of these web sites being advertised, back away. These sites lead to terrible things. I invested 90 minutes of my time to sit there as a John Doe undercover to witness first hand the process of Jeffrey Lant. If you buy anything from Jeffrey Lant, you are buying into a scam and you will have wasted your time and most importantly your money.

Written by Garry Conn on March 23rd, 2008

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