Looking for Victim of Blogshop Scam

Dear readers,

A producer from MediaCorp has approached us for help to search for a victim of blogshop scam for one of their programmes.

We believe the programme would help to enlighten/alert other Singaporeans and foreigners. Thus, if you were a victim of a blog shop scam, or you have a friend who has experienced it, do contact us with your name and contact number. We would forward your contact directly to Manoj, the producer.

Please do not type your contact details into this blog entry's comment.

Below is the email we have received.

Hello,

My name is Manoj and I am a producer at MediaCorp. I am currently working on the webisodes for an upcoming Channel 5 series.

Basically the webisodes aim to educate youth on internet based activities. One of the themes we are highlighting is blogshop scams.

As your website is established for being against online scams in Singapore, I was wondering if you could recommend someone whom we could feature in our webisode. The person should have been a victim of an online scam involving a blogshop.

I hope you would be keen on collaborating with us. If you are keen, please do contact me at [email removed to avoid sender from being spammed]

Looking forward to hearing a positive reply from you.

Manoj

Google Event - VIP

got a call from UNKNOWN calming that his from google company and said that i got chosen to be their VIP for tml event, oh well. of cause i entertain them ! HAHAHAHA. Sorry mdm how old are you? I'M 40! single or married? Married. Oh so you have a husband. SORRY I HAVE 3 HUSBANDS! Ohhh!!cool! YEA WHAT YOU WANT? oh actually we are giving you $70Cash and $200 Shopping voucher if you attend our event t
ml at 7pm, you dont need to pay anything. OH SO GOOD AH, OKAY LA! so you coming down with your lovely husband tml right? WHICH HUSBAND YOU WAN ME TO BRING DOWN TML?! ehhhh so mdm i'll see you tml 7pm is that okay? YOU HAVEN ANSWER ME! WHICH HUSBAND YOU WAN ME TO BRING DOWN? anyone will do, how old is your husband? 45YEARS OLD! okay later my manager will call you and send you a sms. SURE!! *didnt pick up any phone calls later on, jitao spam me 10 miss call, they sibei free, so i entertain them also HAHAHAHA*

A girl received a call from someone claiming to be from Google and invited her to their "event". It seemed like the unknown person did not even know of her age...

We have no idea what trick is unknown person is up to.

Janice Tan Fake Facebook Account

Another fake account by the name of "Janice Tan" (https://www.facebook.com/janice.tan.184007) has been exposed.

She seemed to be "flawless" for the past few months, adding guys to her list, updating her profile with statuses and "new" photo, appearing online in Facebook Chat sometimes. Her Facebook account just appeared like any other hot girl's account.

It was only until hours ago when she used another girl's photo, though without the head portion, she was being seen through.



"fell in rain and bump knee... paaiiinnnnn......"

The owner of the photo is called "Eve Lim", an ex model. The photo was taken years back.

When Eve approached her, she blocked Eve in Facebook straightaway, and also removed the photo. It was too late since we had already made a printscreen.

We have no idea what is her motive. The scammer seems to have created a few fake accounts...

Injury Extortion Scam at Johor Bahru Custom

We are not sure if this is absolutely a scam or insanity case.

We were informed of a middle aged lady who was presented at Johor Bahru custom. She would approach people and accuse them of banging into her that caused an injury on her arm. She would point to a mole and insist that it is an injury.

She would then follow her victim throughout the custom and make sure all the passers-by can hear her story.

We believe this could be a case of an indrect extortion. The lady could be expecting her target to respond offer her compensation instead. Of course, there is also a possibility that this lady is just insane.

People who happen to experience such incident should keep clam and ignore the lady completely although her continuous accusation might cause awkwardness for a long period of time.

Fake Comments from SEO Companies

Similar to many blog owners, we do experience frequent comment spams in our entries.


Some examples would be:

Hi there, awesome site. I thought the topics you posted on were very interesting. I tried to add your RSS to my feed reader and it a few. take a look at it, hopefully I can add you and follow...

(Hyperlink text)



I actually enjoyed reading through this posting.Many thanks...

(Hyperlink text)



Hi there, awesome site. I thought the topics you posted on were very interesting. I tried to add your RSS to my feed reader and it a few. take a look at it, hopefully I can add you and follow...

(Hyperlink text)



My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

(Hyperlink text)

Usually, these comment spams will not have any targeted type of blogs, except those blogs that are being ranked higher in Google that their bots are able to locate. Hence, most of the comments are inclusive of compliments that can be applied to any blog generally, and followed by hyper-linked keywords that the spammers want to target.

We have blogged about this some time back. This blog entry is, however, to highlight spams from SEO companies. SEO means Search Engine Optimization, which we label it, jokingly as, flirting with Google to get your website shown at the top of searches.

Business owners who own any website may consider engaging services from these rich SEO service providers, however, do weigh your reputation.

If part of the SEO company's tactic is to spam all blogs with such comment that includes your company website at the bottom, it will portray your business very negatively.

Think again if you are deciding to engage services from such spammers. Weigh the consequences.

On our side, Scams Singapore have to keep our comments moderation on so as to filter off such scam. We do not wish our visitors to click onto the URL on the fake comments accidentally. If you own a blog, do be responsible for your visitors as well.

Twitter Direct Message Scam

If you are an active Twitter user, you would have probably received direct message (DM) from a few of the people you are following.

hey this person is writing cruel things that are about you http://URL
hey this person is making up dreadful things that are about you http://URL
hey this user is writing offensive posts that are about you http://URL

These are similar to the previous Twitter DM scam. Please do not click on the URL at the back of the message.

Do warn your friend about it if you have received similar message from him/her.

In fact, we are quite surprised that such hoax is able to sustain for so long with more preys falling for the trick, causing an "explosive" effect.

Another Online Shopping Scam

We have seen a scam alert posted by Facebook user Joan Ter who is a victim of an online shopping scam.

Please beware of the scammer. As extracted from the Facebook post:

Hi All,

DO NOT buy anything from the seller holding bank account no. 073-27352-8.

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE ON YOUR FB PAGE TO PREVENT OTHERS TO FALL INTO HIS/HER TRAP !!! THANK YOU
...
This happen on myself on 02 Sept 12, I've ordered a luggage from Hong Gadget. Till now I still haven't received the item and I'm blocked from his/her FB right after payment was done. After few of my friends trying to help me to PM him/her, my friends was blocked as well and he/her change her FB name to Sumiko Gadget.

We spread the picture around and today we found out that he/her created another FB account to con buyers. I add Loewe Sim as friend after I suspect he/she is Hong/Sumiki Gadget coz all the pictures of the items are 100% similar from Hong/Sumiko Gadget. Immediately he blocked me. So I ask my friend (which is already in his new FB account) to purchase an item and ask for bank account number for payment.

And confirm that he is the same person who con me. I have already made a police report, I hope those who have conned by him/her will also make a police report and have this person nab!