Blog Comment Spam Scam

If you own a blog, whether it is hosted on free Blogger or WordPress, or even on your own webhost, you will somehow receive comments on your blog post. Depending on the popularity of your blog, you may receive more.

Generally, having many comments mean your blog is interesting or popular, however, if most of the comments are actually nonsense, your blog will look rather ugly.

What do we mean by comments which are nonsense or spammy (we mean "spam" in an act-cute way)?

Some blog comments may sound logical but they are simply general comments that can be applied to almost all blogs. Examples would be:

1. Comments that thank or praise you for your contents and they definitely will not mention which part is good because they are being automatically generated.
2. Comments that tell you your blog is good but has problem when being displayed on certain internet browser.
3. Comments that ask you for your RSS URL when it is already being shown clearly on top of your blog.
4. Comments that advise you to include RSS so that visitors can get updates easier when you already have RSS for your blog.

Some comments may also be lengthy but the contents are on certain topics that are totally irrelevant to your blog entry or even your entire blog. Other comments are obviously spams that contain only links to other websites.

Regardless of the type of spam comment, they will contain at least an URL of the website that the spammer (scammer) owns. The URL can be included as part of the comment or at the bottom of it, or simply on the "website" column allowed by your blog. Most of the time, the "name" of the comment owner will be the product or website's name, and sometimes, but rarely, is a human's name.

Take a look at the following blog comment:

Hello, Neat post. There's an issue together with your website in internet explorer, may check this? IE nonetheless is the marketplace leader and a large section of other folks will leave out your excellent writing due to this problem.

The spam blog comments are obviously scams.

Most of the scam comments are automatically generated by software. Most of them are also randomly generated using certain sets of words.

What do we mean by sets of words?

For example, The first set of words can be "He, She, It, Luckie", second set "is, is indeed, has" and third set "a dog, dog, a puppy, puppy". When the software spins the sets of words and creates a spun sentence or paragraph, it can turn out to be a combination of the sets of words, for examples, "It is indeed dog", "She has dog" or "He is a puppy". Generally, the sentences do make sense but may not be in perfect English. We have already been living in the internet life where most people do not type in proper English anyway - this includes our blog (We will try our best to do it better though!).

The scam blog comments are created for free advertisement and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes.

If you were to approve the scam comments to appear on your website, your visitors may click on the URL included or you may even click on it yourself to see what is it all about - this will create extra traffic for the scammers' websites. As for SEO, search engine's spiders and bots may misunderstand that the scammers' websites are popular because their URLs are appearing on other websites - this is also the reason why the scammers would want to spin the contents of the scam comment to make them look differently.

Some very hardworking kiddy scammers would do the spamming manually because those software to do it do cost some high monthly subscription fees.

By the way, there are also some scam comments that actually do not include an URL or they would simply add "google.com" or "yahoo.com" as their URLs. This is just a trick for you to approve the comments, thinking there is no harm. Eventually, the scammers are just trying their luck that your blog's system would add their IP or email address to the whitelist, so that their future scam blog comments may be automatically accepted depending on your system. Therefore, we would advise you to do manual moderation of comments for your blog instead of allowing whitelist.

We should not allow scammers to have their ways. Let's be alert and block these scammers.

Facebook LIKE IT Scams

For various reasons, many people have been trying hard to get more subscribers on their Facebook. This is why many scams have appeared in Facebook and most of them do not even require any programming or hacking tactic.

One of the most common Facebook scams is to get people to LIKE certain image in order to "make things happen". There are scams that say if you like the image, your Facebook profile will change colour there from the original blue one, while some say if you LIKE it, special things will appear or the image will move.

The reason why scammers would want more people to LIKE their images is so that the victims' friends would see the same post in their news feed, so that they can fall into the trick (LIKE it) too. This chain effect can spread extremely fast.

The latest Facebook LIKE IT scam is about the change of notification icon into a "heart". This scammer (We are not sure if he's the originator) would even prevent people from commenting on his post so that nobody can expose him straight away. Next, he added comments that whoever subscribes to his profile would get 200 new friends requests. This is definitely tempting to Facebook users who wish to become more popular by having more friends.

This scammer's name is Phillip Johnson with the URL of https://www.facebook.com/PjayalwaysStrappeg and he has created many scams to make himself popular.

Media Scams - Bersih 3.0

Even with the rise of the Internet, mainstream media still dominates the news market. Most people in all countries would follow news on the TV because of its convenience and supposed-to-be accuracy. The news reports would release latest news from the government as well, which is essential. People who depend on online news would likely face over-feeding of information from different sources and have the problem of differentiating the truthfulness of reports.

However, in some countries, the media is well controlled by the government such that news can be covered up to make the government look good. News may also tend to be biased against opposition parties. The World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders is one way to judge the accuracy of the press in all countries.

One of the worst presses in the world currently is Syria's, where the government prevents foreign reporters to enter the country and its state controlled media has been broadcasting about how the government is well-liked by its citizens when many parts of the country are having regular protest against the government. Many houses have been destroyed by the government in the name of warring against "terrorists" who have taken up arms after their peaceful protests have been cracked down deadly by the government.

There are endless ways that state controlled media can be propaganda or be used to cover up flaws of the government. For example, when two politicians from the ruling and opposition parties are at loggerheads, the newspaper can use an uglier photo of the opposition politician so that he or she would look bad, painting a bad image over him. If video recording is included, the news on TV can put the argument of the ruling party's politician last so as to create an impression that he or she is the final winner. When there is a chaos caused by public transport operators' lack of preparation, state media can start filming when situations are better controlled or filming can be done at places that look neater. When high ranking government officers are involved in crimes and are being sacked immediately before trial, the media can focus on the word "ex officer" to make the government look better.

Recently, Astro (in Malaysia) has censored news from BBC and Al-Jazeera on the footage of Bersih 3.0. Malaysian Police said 25,000 had attended the demonstration but rally organisers said 250,000 protested.


Original Astro Broadcast of BBC News


Original BBC news with Astro Broadcast of BBC News

"You can clearly see that it was edited if you look at the rolling text. The broadcast was about 5-7 minutes behind schedule, so they had time to remove parts."

From Sarawak Report:

We revealed that viewers in Malaysia saw 30 seconds less of the report than people watching the same news bulletin across the rest of the world.

These crucial seconds included a scene of a police officer apparently shooting at peaceful civilians and also statements by demonstrators explaining why they had taken to the streets to protest at election rigging.

The removal of these sequences could be judged to have introduced a bias away from the more even-handed and objective approach of the original report, in an attempt to show the police and the government in a better light.

However, as the resulting discussion has revealed, this form of “self-censorship’ by press and broadcast licence holders is commonplace in Malaysia. In order to keep their licences, organisations have to abide by a ‘Content Code’ laid down by the BN regime.

From The Malaysian Insider:

Following the election watchdog’s last July 9 rally, censors had blacked out parts of an article in The Economist, which had called Putrajaya’s handling of the event overzealous.

The article titled “Taken to the cleaners — an overzealous government response to an opposition rally” had chronicled the chaos on July 9 when police fired chemicals to disperse tens of thousands who had gathered to demand electoral reforms.

Among the parts blacked out were mentions of the heavy-handedness by the police and accusations that the government had withdrawn its offer for protesters to use a stadium for the rally.

The Home Ministry had also used black ink to blot out portions of the article that mentioned the death of one protester and the alleged bombardment of chemicals into the compound of the Tung Shin Hospital.

More news on Bersih 3.0 video doctored can be found at CNA
and Free Malaysia Today.

There are also some videos that show very nasty stuffs...






State controlled media is a "double edged sword". When being used in a good way, it helps to keep the country more stable. However, it is also a deadly weapon used by autocratic rulers all over the world to control the minds of their citizens.

Nevertheless, the emerging of the Internet has not only provided sources to alternate voices, but also helped to tune down the propaganda from governments in order to avoid losing more credibility.

It is always good to rely on a few different sources of news from the Internet. Do read the comments posted by visitors and analyse the information before making your own judgement.

Online Friendship Scam - Weblink Sign-up

More scammers are using social networking site to scam or solicit customers. After exposing two profiles (Chi Chi Yamaguchi and Natalia Miyo Minako) who are taking advantage of the newage media to pretend making friends with online users, we have come across another one by the name of Nathalie Lee.

"Nathalie Lee" is hot from the oven! We mean "she" is a new scammer who has appeared since late April 2012.

Their common practice is to create accounts in Tagged.com (recently merged with Hi5.com), which allows ease of making new friends, before gathering their new friends to their Facebook accounts where they do the mass spamming of their "weblinks".

We first interacted with Nathalie Lee in her Tagged.com account at http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5966885377. She appears to be a Thai and there are many photos of her taken in Singapore.

hello there can i add you in FB yahoo or msn to easy to chat?

or you can add me there.''heres my email lee_nathalie@ymail.com see you there

and have good day <3

Next, she started sending a message to invite us to add her in Facebook, Yahoo Messenger and MSN. Our experience tells us that majority of Thais would use MSN rather than Yahoo Messenger and her Yahoo email has aroused our suspicious.

24/4/2012 4:46:30 AM scams-singapore: hi
24/4/2012 4:46:42 AM nathalie: hello
24/4/2012 4:46:56 AM scams-singapore: how are you?
24/4/2012 4:47:26 AM nathalie: im fine
24/4/2012 4:47:42 AM scams-singapore: where are you from?
24/4/2012 4:47:48 AM nathalie: thai
24/4/2012 4:47:52 AM scams-singapore: mmm
24/4/2012 4:47:55 AM scams-singapore: in singapore now?
24/4/2012 4:48:33 AM nathalie: yes for vacation
24/4/2012 4:48:41 AM nathalie: hmmm do you have FB?
24/4/2012 4:49:05 AM scams-singapore: yes
24/4/2012 4:50:47 AM scams-singapore: http://facebook.com/scams-singapore
24/4/2012 4:50:51 AM scams-singapore: who do you come over with?
24/4/2012 4:55:28 AM nathalie: done
24/4/2012 4:58:17 AM scams-singapore: okay
24/4/2012 4:58:23 AM scams-singapore: when are you leaving singapore?

We tried to prompt her for more information but she stopped replying after adding us in Facebook.

Nevertheless, we managed to find our answer in her Facebook profile at https://www.facebook.com/nathaliedee101. We could see that her Facebook account started at around 23 April 2012.

Visiting her photo album, we could see that she was quite hardworking to upload quite a number of photos. There was an album "walking SG alone :)" that had caught our attention as it was pretty weird for a foreign girl to walk around Singapore alone and yet able to take so many photos of herself. How many girls would carry a tripod stand overseas to take self photos?

Haisss So hot in here Y_Y) i cant sLeep... tsk .
anyone ONLINE im online on my WEBLINK.. you can see me there now...
if interested just message me ....

Edrian Abdulla: Thank you for inviting me there. your so hot baby ^^
April 24 at 3:03am

Nathalie Lee: lolz its ok ed :)
April 24 at 3:03am

Edrian Abdulla: i thought your a cam model sorry,, i was wrong please forgive me darling. yah your rite its all free to see you there and it safe
April 24 at 3:04am

Nathalie Lee: its ok for me FOR THOSE who dont believe in me its ok,, im not forcing them to see me and know much better
April 24 at 3:05am

Edrian Abdulla: just dont mind it ok im here for you darling i will comfort you forever please dont share your weblink to other only me
April 24 at 3:06am

Nathalie Lee: wahahahahaha.... i dont think so,, can we chat on my weblink now ed im to lazy to reply u here
April 24 at 3:07am

Edrian Abdulla: ok darling .
April 24 at 3:07am

On her wall, we could find a status that sounded very similar to what Chi Chi Yamaguchi and Natalia Miyo Minako had been posting. Nathalie Lee tried to allure visitors by hinting that she was hot and she mentioned about her "weblink". A "guy" by the name of Edrian Abdulla commented on the status and mentioned that the weblink was safe. It was pretty funny that he also apologised for mistaking Edrian Abdulla as a cam model because she was indeed a cam model and that was not a "mistake". The mistake should be him apologising in order to create the impression that Nathalie Lee was a real person and not a fake or cam model.

We explored Edrian Abdulla's Facebook profile. His first update was at April 24 at 2:58am, just a few minutes before commenting on Nathalie Lee's status. We believed his Facebook account was just created and it was just a dumby account for the sake of promoting Nathalie Lee.

We explored Nathalie Lee's information page on her Facebook profile and saw the weblink at cam4free05.jimdo.com.

I'm originally 22. Lily is the name and writing is my game. I have an intense passion for writing.I belt out to rocking songs at the top of my lungs. I don't know what I would do without my family & friends. I have a fascination for vampires that usually drives me insane. I read books that can take my imagination on a roller coaster ride.

I love interesting people and unique stuff. I adore everything wild and free.I proudly wear my tattoos.I take photos like my life depends on it. Do not judge me and I in turn will not judge you. I will not lower myself to the status of a hypocrite of that you can be assured. Some consider me deadly when I'm armed with my camera. I loathe people that apply their personalities like toothpaste.

This time round, we picked up our courage to visit the weblink.

www.jimdo.com is a website that provides free webhost services with limited features compared to their premium accounts. The scammer with the username "cam4free05" is simply using the free service.

The profile name was "Lily Han", which was different from Nathalie Lee.

There were links to other websites such as Adult Friendfinder, OnCam4U and Streamate. For all we know, Adult Friendfinder is a friends-making website that allows free sign-up. However, you may have to pay in order to upgrade to their premium member, otherwise, you may not be able to communicate with the female members, which is redundant.

Using Adult Friendfinder, the scammer will earn through "affiliation", which means that he/she will make money from the website's company if you were to sign up. The bonus would be large if you were to upgrade your account. For female member sign-up, the scammer would make higher commission.

Create a FREE Account Now!

Signing up is absolutely free, you will NOT be charged for your membership. We will only verify that your credit card is valid. You will NEVER be charged, unless you are entering any clearly marked paid area of the site.

The page also mentioned about verifying of credit card, which is definitely not safe to do so.


To conclude, we are not able to identify if Nathalie Lee is using her real photos. However, we are 100% sure that she is not there to make friends with you or provide any free webcam show service. If you are genuine in making friends online, do skip such profile.

Housing, Property, Real Estate Agent Scams - "No Commission" Scam

Recently, an irresponsible advertisement posted online by a real estate agent (also known as property agent or housing agent) has caused a stir within among agents in the industry. This is because all the housing agents have felt the danger of their "ricebowl" being destroyed by the black sheep in the market.

Why Pay COMMISSION???
Buyers DO NOT need to pay COMMISSION!!!!!

This very unethical and irresponsible advertisement is misleading property buyers because they have to pay agent fee if they were to engage any real estate agent. A real estate agent's main job for the buyers is to educate them on their affordability, source for desired houses within budget, negotiate with the sellers or their agents, settle the documentations and give appropriate guidelines as when needed. All these require time and effort.

The superior of this real estate agent has been notified and has instructed the agent to take down the advertisement.

In the market practice, sellers of HDB flats would have to pay housing agents 2% of the selling price as commission; buyers would have to pay 1% to their housing agents.

A few years back before CEA was established, unethical housing agents used to use this tactic to lure direct buyers to contact them. If the buyers were interested in the houses, the agents would make the buyers accept them as their housing agents in order to earn another 1% of commission from the buyers. Buyers would have to pay the unethical agents since they did not know the exact procedure. Even if the buyers were not interested in the houses, the unethical housing agents would sweet-talk the buyers to entrust them as their housing agents to find other flats.

When a housing agent was representing both buyer and seller of the flat, the housing agent could get 3% of commission in total from both sides. However, it became complicated due to conflicts since the housing agent of the seller was supposed to push the selling price up while the housing agent representing the buyer had to push the selling price down.

Hence, a new law is imposed such that an agent is not allowed to represent both the buyer and seller in a transaction.

However, some property agents would continue to use such tactic to attract buyers without an agent representing them. The unethical agents could easily get their friends or team-mates to represent the buyers as to earn the extra 1% of commission even if they needed to split the amount.

It is best that you can find a real estate agent who can represent you and act in the best of your interest. We do know of some trustworthy agents born in Singapore. If you are in need of advice or help regarding buying, selling or renting of any residential or commercial property, we would be glad to share their contacts with you voluntarily - we will not even claim any cent from the agents.

The Most Disgusting Theft Method

Two Chilean nationals, Octavio Guillermo Silva Arancibia, 63, and Marisol Del Carmen Godoy Vivanco, 51, were caught for stealing $27,000 from three victims in Singapore. They were each jailed two years on three charges of theft.

Their plot was to throw faeces on their victims to distract them before pretending to approach and help the troubled victims. The two thieves would then make use of the chance to steal money from the victims who had just gotten money from the banks.

For details of the crime, do read AsiaOne website.

We would like to remind everyone that regardless of the amount you have withdrawn from the bank or ATM machine, do take extra precaution of the money. When anything weird happens, do think about the money you are holding first.

Impersonate Scam Targeting Model Naomi Liu

For various purposes, scammers have been creating fake profiles on social networking websites such as Facebook and Tagged. Scammers targeting Singapore residents do not only impersonate foreign models, but our local ones as well.

Popular Singapore model Naomi Liu is someone who has been facing problems of her photos being misused by others to impersonate her. We are not surprised since she has been publishing her daily attractive photos online to share with her fans. The model with extremely sweet looks and hot figure indeed has caught the attention of many guys, including scammers.

Below are just a few of the fake Facebook profiles who have not only used her photos, but also using her name, trying to impersonate her totally. We are not sure of the purposes of the scammers though.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000604819095

We would say the first scammer is the cleverest out of them since he or she has actually placed Naomi's blog URL inside the profile information page, which will further mislead visitors that it is the real Naomi's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001956496247

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002610048449


It is rather difficult to identify some fake social network profiles if you are unfamiliar with the existence of models. In the cases of the fake Naomi Liu's profiles mentioned above, there are in fact not many obvious clues that can identify them as scam. Unless you know the real Naomi's Facebook profile, you should not blame yourself even if you fall for the tricks.

What we can do in order to prevent being scammed is to exercise extra care and not being blinded by the hot photos of social networking profiles in your friends list. Models are usually being pestered by their wishful fans and do not have much time for you. If any hot model in your contact list tries to hook up with you, you better not say "yes" to any request.

Meanwhile, please help Naomi to file report in Facebook to report the fake profiles.