Firstly this e-mail is not from SARS.. it is a scam.
Secondly, and I have said this before in other scam reviews.. that you should NEVER click on links in e-mails when money is involved… EVER!
Thirdly, why would SARS send you an e-mail telling you that you are entitled for a refund but you have to fill out forms first? Every refund I’ve received from SARS has gone straight into my bank account…remember…they have your details already.

Here is the e-mail that was received.

————–

Tax Refund Notification
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 18,582.50 ZAR. Please submit the tax refund request and allow 2-3 days in order to process it.
Click here to submit you tax refund request
Note : A refund can be delayed a variety of reasons, for example submitting invalid records or applying after deadline.
Yours Sincerely
South African Revenue Service.

——————-

Keep your eyes open, and remember… NEVER click on links in e-mails when money is involved!

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

Firstly, the e-mail does NOT come from your bank… this is an internet scam playing on your emotions and your fear about your banking security.

Here is what the e-mail says.

———————————
“Dear Customer,

During our security research, we observed that our new 2010 Security Certificate Portfolio Launch was not successfully configured for your online account , you can complete this section with online security page below for  the program security software to  be automatically Launched for you online  or  you can also visit your nearest branch for this special security program. Note:  this program is designed to protect you from any online Phishing attacks and unauthorized access to your online account

Please Click Below and follow the steps.

http://standardbank-security/logon.htm
 

Standard Bank  Internet Banking Team.

Standard Bank email disclaimer and confidentiality note
Please go to site/homepage/emaildisclaimer.html to read our email disclaimer and confidentiality note. Kindly email disclaimer@standardbank.co.za (no content or subject line necessary) if you cannot view that page and we will email our email disclaimer and confidentiality note to you.”
————————————

So let’s look at a the problems with this e-mail.

1/ The e-mail comes from “STANDARD BANK IB SUPPORT” …. But wait a minute, if you actually look at the e-mail address and not just the name, the e-mail comes from secretshopper@aboutface.com. Does that really sounds like a Standard Bank e-mail address to you???

2/ The first paragraph is a load of rubbish, do you really think your bank would EVER send you an e-mail telling you to login to their webpage because they failed to update your account correctly??? Of course not! What would happen is the next time you logged into your internet banking account, there would be a big warning message that would pop up that would tell you to please complete your details again (or something to that effect)… Let me just say that again… AFTER you logged into your account…. on your OWN accord, not because some silly e-mail told you to do so.

3/ The last line of paragraph 1 is the real slap in the face, they tell you that is to protect you from online Phishing, when in fact this IS a phishing attack!

4/ They then ask you to click on the below link. Now for safety reasons, I have not made the link above work on this website or I would be helping these criminals. Although this link LOOKS like it is going to take you to a Standard Bank website it doesn’t. This is a simple HTML link reference that has the actual web address camouflaged. Let me demonstrate, hover your mouse over this link yourbank.whatever (now look at the bottom left of your web browser, you should see the address that you would go to if you clicked on this link), this would take you straight back to http://www.reviewsaboutanything.com/ if you clicked on it, but it’s really easy as you can see to have the link say something and redirect you somewhere else. Now if you have received this scam e-mail  and you did hover your mouse over the link it would be pointing to a completely different website, one that has NOTHING to do with your bank at all!

5/ Let’s assume that in point 4 above, you didn’t hover your mouse over the link, and you just clicked on it. This would take you to a website that looks EXACTLY like your banks website. This can be achieved by a web programmer with 1 weeks experience, in under 5minutes. But what should you be looking for on your internet banking website is the address at the top of your browser, is that the address of your banks website? In this case, NO!, so get the hell out of there!. The second thing to look  for is if there is a padlock icon indicating that this website is a secure website and that your data is encrypted, which there isn’t in this scam.

6/ These scam artists got even more clever for FNB customers out there. Although my e-mail above was one supposedly from Standard Bank, this scam has been used for pretty much all the banks in world. However, FNB clients think they can’t be caught with this one since you receive a One Time Password (OTP) from your bank to your cell phone before you can log on. What happens here is that you connect to the criminals website, you type in your details, and they FORWARD all that information to your banks REAL website. Your bank then sends you your OTP to your cell phone which you then type into the criminals website!!! Take a wild guess what they do with it, yip, they FORWARD it to your real banks website as well, which means they are now logged into your internet banking website, and your browser says “the page cannot be displayed”. Right now your money is no longer under your control and you have no idea about any of this.

7/ How nice of the criminals to put the e-mail disclaimer at the bottom of their e-mail… this is just to make it look more authentic so you don’t suspect that there is anything wrong.

So, how to protect yourself?
1/ NEVER EVER EVER, click on a link in an e-mail that will take you to ‘your banks website’. I don’t care WHAT that e-mail says. You all know how to go to your banks websites directly without clicking on a link in an e-mail.

2/ ALWAYS look at the address at the top of your browser to make sure you are actually on your banks website.

3/ Read the security documents on your banks websites to find all the methods to double and triple checking that you are using your banks website. Just because it looks right,  doesn’t make it right!

I hope this helps you all out, and that none of you get scammed with this!

I have for the last week been plagued by incessant calls from the following number. Mostly between 2 and 4 am! Damnation! When you answer, the call is cut.
So, being extremely fed up I checked it out on the web. Lo and behold, there is a plethora of angry people out there that have the same thing happen to them. Further research led me to find a group on facebook called “1 000 000 people against 087 373 7765″
This is a forum where people that join and try determine what we all have in common and why this number keeps bothering us.

So…if you are plagued by the following number….check out the group on fb…

Cheers for now

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

Here is another Fifa scam….They tell you that you have won $1000000 (says with his pinky near his mouth) and then rip you on the claims process!!! Not an old concept but watch out for it nonetheless!

marco.marco@inwind.it
show details 02:40 (3 hours ago)

FIFA-Strasse 20,
P.O. Box 8044 Zurich,
Switzerland

Ref: FIFA/SA/2820X2/10

We happily announce to you the draw of the South Africa 2010 FiFa World Cup
Lottery Promotions held on the 8th of June 2010 of which you emerged a winner.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$1000,000.00 (One
Million United States Dollars) To file your claims, please contact our agent
in
Africa Nigeria where FiFa has assigned the International Payment Centre.

Mr Fred Samuel
Email:fifapromo309@yahoo.co.id
+2347062446210

Ms.Toju Yemi
Online coordinator
Copyright ©1994 – 2010 FIFA. All rights reserved
sponsored by Fifa Corporation and UN.

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

I had commented on another post on this site, that The Matrix was the reason I bought a DVD player, and Avatar would be the reason I got a Blue ray player, well… my wife ordered my copy of Avatar on blue ray last weekend, and I promptly went to fetch it at 8:00am this morning. Needless to say, tonight I will be watching Avatar in full HD on my PS3.

Apparently this is just the first release of Avatar, and according to James Cameron, there will be another release later this year that will be a box set with over an hour of extra scenes and behind the scenes footage.

Avatar has already overtaken Titanic as the number 1 grossing movie in history, and now that Avatar is available on Blue-ray and DVD, with more to come later this year, it’s certainly going to be making the gap between number 1 and number 2 much greater….let’s not forget however that Titanic is due for a re-release in 3D… My money is still on Avatar breaking all records.

City: All

Country: All

To all dog lovers…

My other half and I just recently got our dream dog. An Alaskan Malamute.
Having spent time with them in the Arctic… I fell in love with their great nature, strength and endurance. As they offer so much in the way of companionship both domestically and for the outdoors type of person. This was the dog for us!
Hence, knowing what we wanted, as both of us having had experience with the breed, we approached many a breeder here in SA. But none stood out more than Johan Mostert from Tomarctus SA Alaskan Malamutes.
Kusa registered as a breeder, we got our puppy Kai from him.
Check out his website. It will tell you about the breed and his breeding programme.
If you love Mallie’s…this is the website for you…
Cheers for now!

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

Long story – short. What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN
number on the back of the card. Don’t give it to them. Instead, tell them
you’ll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The
real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they
already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the
scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you’re receiving a credit.
However, by the time you get your statement you’ll see charges for purchases
you didn’t make, and by then it’s almost too late and/or more difficult to
actually file a fraud report.

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

What I didn’t really “get” about the guitar was that it is in fact an instrument. Not merely an ornamental space age design coat hanger type thing. Then, during 2006 I started travelling alot and realised that I was losing alot of practice time as a result. I needed a guitar with travebility!!(There is nothing more stressful than going to Sierra Leone carrying a Les Paul around)

So on returning home, I remembered this strange thing I saw at the shop and went there. They had about 3 in stock and one of them was the nylon version. I went for the steel string acoustic!

As I picked it up I was amazed at how light it was. My first thought was…”Its a Toy!” That was only untill I plugged it in and played it.

It did not quite sound like a Taylor or a Martin…but through the headphones sounded pretty damn close!! I fell in love with it immediately!
I played it in the shop for about 2 hours realising the potential this instrument had as a performance Guitar. Great sound, no feedback, great reverbs and compact!

Another one of its many great features is that I find its playabiliy to be superb. It’s even, balanced and the intonation is amazing.

This guitar has subsequently travelled to about 30 African countries with me. It has taken well to different climates and humidity levels without any dramatic set up’s necessary.

I have used it both live and in the studio. It has become one of my favourites and I cant do without it anymore.

To sum up, the Yamaha Silent Guitar is a unique and superb instrument. It’s design won’t appeal to everybody, but as a mate of mine pointed out… Every guitarist needs to practice late at night once in a while…:)

Take Care
Chat soon

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

Silver Orange Bistro has a country style and is situated on a family owned farm. The bistro is a small thatched house that seats between 60 – 70 people in three separate rooms. There is also a small patio outside which hosts a few tables, and one could always book a table in the garden under an umbrella if the weather was nice.

The Silver Orange Bistro has won many awards over the last few years, including ‘Top 100 Restaurants Dine’ and ‘Diners Club Gold Award’ just to mention 2 of their 5 accolades since their establishment in 2004.

The food is fantastic, 10 out of 10, and the presentation deserves a score higher than 10!
I would have to say that this is most definitely in the top 5 restaurants I have ever been to, worldwide!

Prices are very reasonable, and out of my top 5 restaurants, this is the cheapest. The total bill for my wife and I, which included 2 starters, 2 mains, 1 desert, 1 bottle of wine and 4 other drinks including Don Pedro’s was just over R500

Then again, don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself .

Website: http://www.silverorangebistro.co.za

City: Hartbessport

Country: South Africa

The Sunday we arrived in Bangalore and had already prearranged a taxi (from the hotel one of us was staying at) to fetch us from the airport. This went without a problem, and the driver was waiting for us on the other side of baggage claim with a board with our names on it. The driving to the hotel was an experience on its own, but that is another story for another review.

Once at the hotel, I needed to get to the office I was working at in Bangalore, so called the front desk to ask for a taxi, 15 minutes later the taxi from Meru was there and they took me to office, although they got totally lost and had to stop for directions 6 times to ask the locals on the side of the road where the Cisco buildings were, I reached my destination.

The rest of the week however, was a totally different story. I would be finished work between 7pm – 8pm and on the first day, I naturally assumed I could just call a taxi and it would be there within a few moments. Monday I called the Meru taxi company in Bangalore and asked for a taxi to fetch me from the Cisco offices and take me back to the hotel, I was informed that the wait for a taxi would be 3 hours!!! Long story short, I called the hotel and had one of their drivers fetch me, and only had to wait 25 minutes for collection.

Tuesday, was a public holiday in India, and I knew a little better this time to order in advance, so I called Meru Taxi’s 2 hours before I needed collection, and they were able to assist. When the taxi driver dropped me off at the hotel, I asked if it would be possible for him to fetch me again at 10pm that evening. He assured me that this would be no problem, and he gave me his mobile number and said I should call him at 9:30pm to find out the exact time he would arrive. He explained that the traffic in Bangalore is so bad that he would either be there between 9:45 and 10:15 so calling him would be best to find out the exact time. 9:30pm, I call the cab driver and ask where he is, I was informed that he was now at the airport and that he can’t fetch me….end of story…he was just not willing to come all the way back for the fare. So I called Meru Taxi’s call centre and tried to book another taxi, I was informed that between 12:30 – 1:30 AM was the earliest a taxi could be there…. Yet again I used the Hotels private driver.

So to cut a long story short, Wednesday I had a similar problem and was informed a taxi would take 4 hours to arrive, so I booked my return trip at the same time, which arrived 2 hours late!!! Thursday I booked the taxi in the morning (9am) for collection at 8pm, he made it one time, but was unable to get another lift later that evening. Due to this, the rest of my trip I just used the hotel’s driver.

So in conclusion… If you need to get around in Bangalore, good luck with using the taxi service of Meru Taxi’s! Rather stay at a hotel that will charge you 5 times as much as the Taxi company, but will give you piece of mind, and will be able to get you from A to B in a sufficient time frame.

City: Bangalore

Country: India