Posts Tagged ‘ scam ’

Watch what you Click: Black Friday Shopping Scam

November 24th, 2009. By AbiK

Online customers have inadvertantly signed up for loyalty programs like this one Retailers are on to me. And others of my ilk who avoid shopping malls on Black Friday like H1N1. While you used to have to drive bumper-to-bumper and play kamikaze-style musical chairs to snag a parking space—all for the reward of standing in long checkout lines and eating something “a la king” with a side of onion rings—now you can just tap your keyboard and click away (”Shipping address same as billing address?” Why, it sure is!) and still get the same deals as those loonies who actually drive to get them. Completely hassle-free! Or is it?

Unfortunately, some of the more popular sites that folks find themselves on—such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers.com, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com—have had this little pop-up window every now and then that has you thinking you’re that lucky customer today! You (yes YOU!) can reap your reward—a coupon or that special cash-back deal—if you just click and enter your email address right there!

And it looks so sincere—after all, it appears to be a nice little “thank you for your purchase” from the company’s website you’re on, right? Well, it’s not.

The pop-up ad is actually from a third-party—and most likely from one of 3 companies: Affinion,

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Tags: Affinia, Buy.com, Internet Shopping, Orbitz, Priceline, scam, Vertrue, Webloyalty
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce | No Comments »

FBI delivery guy detained in Nigeria…needs your help

July 21st, 2009. By AbiK

nigeriascam FBI delivery guy detained in Nigeria...needs your help So that’s basically what landed in my friend’s email inbox last week. I’d just blogged about Consumer Fraud scams and here was this gem. Seems if my friend forks over $500 (via Moneygram or Western Union) these kind folks will ensure he gets $5.8 million that’s just sitting there being detained at a Nigerian airport. Sounds like an email scam to me…

An email scam happens when something like this gets plopped in your inbox—I’m including the whole thing so you see how it works (my comments are in [brackets] ):

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET [sounds important!]

Dear Esteem Beneficiary, [shouldn't that be "Esteemed"?]

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Tags: Consumer Fraud, scam
Posted in Emerging Issues | No Comments »