Duane's Blog

Text Spammer Contacted Me

2012-02-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

I received the following message from 202-680-0444:

"Need help with bills? You have been pre-qualified to get a No credit check payday loan up to $1000 right NOW on ur phone! www.MyCashCall.net (reply-stop)"

After discovering that the number is a cellphone registered to Verizon Wireless, I called their toll-free number 800-922-0204 to file a complaint. My cellular number is on the National Do Not Call Registry and violations can result in civil liability.

While the operator was courteous, his only advice to me was to call my own carrier - CREDOMobile - and try to have them block the number. I then told him that my number is on the National Do Not Call Registry. I further informed him that since I had reported a possible violation of the Registry and that one of their customers may be abusing the service of Verizon Wireless by sending unsolicited text messages, it was now incumbent upon them to investigate. In short, the burden had passed from me to them.

While I have an unlimited texting plan, the same is not always true of others who have been textspammed, so these messages are costing people money. Why should the victim have to go through all the trouble of contacting their cellphone carrier to try to get the number blocked, when a far easier solution is for the offender's cellphone carrier to investigate and take action?

Anyway, this particular spammer seems to be rather new and there aren't a lot of complaints filed online against him yet. He seems to be advertising various websites that offer payday loans.

Websites being advertised include, but are not limited to:

www.CHKadvance.com

www.MyCashCall.net

www.speedy-advance.com

These websites are all registered by Domains By Proxy, LLC through Go Daddy. My guess is that they registered them like that to prevent angry letters from arriving at their home or office, as well as pissed-off people calling them on the phone.

The route I took seems to be the one that offers the best chance for success: call Verizon Wireless to file an official complaint against this number.

Duane Browning

I Love My New Android

2011-10-23T18:04:00.001-07:00

So far, I am pretty satisfied with this smartphone & I'm glad I chose it over the Blackberry offered by CREDO Mobile.

One problem is that its battery power doesn't last as long as my old phone, which could go for 2 days without having to charge it
I've had to recharge the Android at least twice within 24 hours.

I'll be blogging from my Android in the future, so my posts will be much shorter than in the past. Naturally, it would be different if a new scam becomes known to me.

One thing I am very pleased about is how quickly it charges. So, I can completely recharge my phone after I get off from my day job and have a fully-charged phone for my night job and vice versa.

No "Ancient Aliens" Required

2011-06-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

I've been hearing about the so-called "ancient aliens" for most of my life. I have to admit that I was very curious about them as a young man, but gave it little thought when I grew-up. Somehow, it didn't seem very logical that aliens would even bother to come here when we were relatively primitive and give us all kinds of help, but not to return when we really might have needed them during the years of the Cold War when the United States and its allies were on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

Not to mention those times in human history when we faced devastating epidemics like bubonic plague, smallpox, influenza and others which threatened to wipe-out our entire species.

The History Channel has often been one of my favorites because I've always liked to learn new things. Unfortunately, they have often given airtime to pseudoscience as if it were on par with real science and this is the case with their recent "documentary" on aliens who supposedly came to Earth during ancient times.

Lacking the time to do an in-depth debunking of this documentary myself, I found some one who has done a recent set of videos debunking the documentary on YouTube.

SuperSoylent has a channel on YouTube where he posts videos debunking pseudoscience claims of all kinds and he posted these two videos today. Please check out his channel and subscribe if you have an account there.

If you own or are thinking about buying books, tapes, DVDs any of the crap marketed by the evangelists of the Ancient Alien hoax, it could save you a lot of time and money to watch both of these videos in their entirety.

Duane Browning

Recycle Soap Slivers

2011-06-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

I've seen numerous articles on recycling soap slivers. I have to admit that there are a lot of ideas out there that would never have occurred to me, but I believe that many of them are too time-consuming or are just inadvisable.

The idea of making soap-on-a-rope or placing slivers into a fabric pouch in order to continue using them may see like an economical way to get the most of your old slivers. But, the pouch itself could turn into a breeding ground for bacteria which manage to survive long enough to develop immunity to the anti-baterials in the soaps. It's better to just use them up as quickly as possible.

Another idea is to meltdown old slivers and make a new bar out of them. While this may attract people in the Do It Yourself crowd, I doubt if most people have this kind of patience or want to stockpile slivers until they have enough to make a whole bar.

Two ways that I have found to get the most of my slivers are quick, easy and really don't require much effort.

First, you can use them to help keep your toilet bowl clean:

put the sliver in a place where it can dry-out completely;
take your sliver of soap and break it into very small pieces, about the size of a fingernail clipping;
place the pieces in your toilet tank shortly before you go to bed that night or just as you are about the leave the house for the day, this will allow the time for the pieces to begin to dissolve in the water;
when you get home, flush the toilet and the incoming water will be cloudy with dissolved soap and you simply take your toilet brush and scrub the inside of your bowl.

The beauty of this idea is that you're not using caustic chemicals to clean and disinfect your toilet bowl. If your soap already is anti-bacterial, that part is taken care of for you. Plus, you're not spending the extra money to buy toilet cleaners.

A second idea is to use your old slivers to make an extra bottle of cleaner:

put the sliver in a place where it can dry-out completely;
once dry, break it into very small pieces or you can use a mortar and pestle (or some other tool, like a spoon) to powderize it;
place the pieces into an old soap bottle or any other type of bottle that has a spout;
add water, shake the bottle to mix the pieces so they will dissolve and not clump-together;
set the bottle aside for the soap to dissolve

I like this way better, since I can use it for all sorts of things, from cleaning my toilet bowl to trash cans.

Duane Browning

Filing Complaints With Domain Registrants

2011-06-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

As of today, these are the page views for my posts about GIFT50.COM and GETMY100.COM

GIFT50.COM Spammer/Telemarketer

2,613 Pageviews

GETMY100.COM Telemarketer/Spammer

521 Pageviews

That's a lot of pageviews for posts that aren't very old. I have more views for my post about GIFT50 than for all my other blogposts combined. While I have GoogleAds and I have made a little bit of money from the ads on those posts, I've decided that this can't go on forever. There has been no noticeable decrease in pageviews for these posts, despite my inclusion of contact information on where people can file complaints.

So, let's get started in filing complaints against them with the companies they bought their websites from in the first place.

GIFT50.COM is owned by the same person who owns MONEY500.COM, MONEY600.COM, LAPTOP55.COM and over 100 other domains.

Registration Service Provided By: Namecheap.com
Contact: support@namecheap.com
Visit: http://namecheap.com

Domain name: gift50.com
Registrant Contact:

Nick Brown ()

Fax:
244 5th avenue
ste 282j
new york, NY 10001
US
Administrative Contact:

Nick Brown ()
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 5th avenue
ste 282j
new york, NY 10001
US
Technical Contact:

Nick Brown ()
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 5th avenue
ste 282j
new york, NY 10001
US
Status: Locked
Name Servers:
dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com
dns3.name-services.com
dns4.name-services.com
dns5.name-services.com

Creation date: 02 Feb 2011 22:33:00
Expiration date: 02 Feb 2012 17:33:00

If you want to file complaints against this guy, send your email to support@namecheap.com. Tell them that you received the message via text message on your cellphone and include the complete text message that you received. If you received more than one text message, tell them that too and also mention if you have to pay for any texts you receive on your cellphone plan.

Given that over 2000 people read my original blogpost on this guy, I think Namecheap might have cancelled his website if they had received that many complaints in the two months since I posted it.

GETMY100.COM is registered by Domains By Proxy, Inc and this service is for people who don't want others to know who owns the website. However, Domains By Proxy does have its own website where you can file complaints.

Simply go to https://www.domainsbyproxy.com/Default.aspx and click "File A Claim". Mention that you received the message via cellphone text, so there are no email headers to forward to them.

Duane Browning

Peter Popoff, Back from the Dead

2011-05-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

As some one who puts little faith in the supernatural, I don't believe in zombies or that people can come back from the dead. But, if they could, I think Peter Popoff could count as some one back from the grave.

Okay, not the literal grave, but certainly a figurative one. Reading the Wikipedia article on this guy, I have to admit that I am amazed at his resilience and ability to make a comeback in circumstances that would have forced most other people into obscurity never to be seen or heard from again.

Popoff was once a superstar TV evangelist who preached to crowds of thousands. At his height in 1987, he reportedly took in $4.3 million dollars a month. He certainly had his critics before his eventual downfall at the hands of James Randi, groups such as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) - now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) - used to hand-out flyers explaining how Popoff could accomplish one of his most impressive "miracles": accurately and publicly calling-out the exact home addresses and physical ailments of individual members of the crowd, without apparently using any sort of reference materials like index cards. Natually, Popoff denied it and referred to the flyers as "tools of the devil".

But, in 1987, noted skeptic of the paranormal James Randi revealed publicly how Peter Popoff performed this feat. After an investigation that took months and being able to listen-in with a radio scanner, James Randi was able to hear Popoff's wife reading-out the information to her husband. This information had been gotten from members of the crowd who had been asked to fill-out "Prayer Cards" when they entered. Peter heard his wife via a radio receiver that he had in his ear. As the best way to get this information to as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time, James Randi contacted his friend Johnny Carson and appeared on the Tonight Show. When James Randi played the recording for Johnny's audience, it was the end of Peter Popoff's career, at least temporarily. You can see part of this Tonight Show episode in this Inside Edition report on Popoff in 2007.

Popoff declared bankruptcy in 1987 and most people might have thought that they would never hear from him again. However, Peter was not the kind of guy to give-up and go get a real job. He started over from scratch.

Popoff could no longer preach in public auditoriums like he used to, but he could take his ~~scam~~ message to an audience that may not be aware of his previous fall from grace. So, he bought airtime on television stations around the USA and eventually in other countries. Small TV stations could be convinced to sell him airtime, especially in the late night and early morning hours, which were typically the times when few advertisers bought commercial time, so these parts of the day were seldom moneymakers for the stations. If Popoff wanted to put some money into their bank accounts, who would refuse it? Even cable networks could be convinced to sell him time, as they need money as much as anyone.

Working hard and painting himself as a crusader for spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in parts of the world that had little exposure to Christianity - such as Africa, the Middle East and China - Popoff reinvented himself and came back as strong as ever. He lives in a luxury mansion in California and drives an expensive car, so Peter's got the Good Life going-on. His website features a video uploaded by his son Nickolas on his Vimeo channel and you can see how many people click on that site on a daily basis by the number of views his video gets,since the video plays automatically when you go to the site. When the video was upload back in March, it got anywhere from zero to 2 views a day. But, over the past two months, the number of views ranges from about 140 to a high of nearly 1200,on average getting about 400 views a day. The only other video on that channel, which I did not see linked on his website, gets less than 40 views a day. Neither video has comments on its Vimeo page and no one has clicked "Like" on either of them.

So, anywhere from 140 to 1200 people visit his website on a given day. It's impossible to know which of them are his followers or which are his critics, but that doesn't matter.

Attempts have been made since then to try to put Peter out of business again, but success has been mixed and limited in scope.

About two years ago, YouTube user dprjones went on a self-appointed campaign against Popoff with this video

His basic idea was to get everyone to send away for Popoff's Miracle Spring Water (visit the website to find-out what this is) and to get on his mailing list, with some people even putting other people on that list. The basic premise was that with a lot of people getting mail from Popoff, it would cost him money to send it out on a regular basis. More people on the list meant more postage costs, after all. It seems that dprjones believed that if Popoff spent too much money on mailings, with not enough coming in to cover it, Popoff might be hurt financially or even go out of business again.

To say the least, this was a pipe dream. If you live in a mansion, drive an expensive car and buy airtime on TV and cable stations all around the world, you can easily afford a few thousand mailings that yield no cash returns. It was a good try and it yielded some interesting video replies, but two years later, Popoff is still going as strong as ever.

Popoff preaches what is known as the Prosperity Gospel, which is essentially that people who put their faith in God will have their financial needs taken care of and even be raised from abject poverty to wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Even moreso, Popoff claims that God can heal the sick through him and this certainly appeals to the sick and crippled around the USA where healthcare is expensive and often beyond reach for the nation's poorest. So, they'll give Popoff some of their money and hope that they have enough faith that God wil reward them with restored health and bestowed wealth. Most of these victims, when they realize that they gave their money to Popoff and got nothing in return are often too ashamed to speak-out publicly.

After dprjones started his campaign against Popoff, a list of all TV stations around the world that broadcast his infomercials was circulated and people were encouraged to contact these stations and ask them to remove Popoff from their schedules. I'm not sure if that worked, but Popoff stopped broadcasting on numerous stations in the USA, Canada and Australia. However, he still has them being broadcast in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Some of the people who contacted these station received a negative response. Specifically, that Popoff was paying for the airtime and they were not going to refuse to sell it to him. If people gave him money, that was their business and the station was simply involved in a business transaction.

I'm not the type to tilt at windmills, but if you want to take a shot at it yourself I'll provide a list of my own right here. The stations listed here are all listed on Peter Popoff's own website. I'm only providing contact information. If you want to start your own campaign against Peter Popoff, be my guest. Please remember that in order to ensure that your email passes through their spam filters, please put the name of the program or topic of your inquiry in the Subject Line of your email. Do not leave the Subject Line of your email blank.

AUSTRALIA
Imparja TV
Showtimes: MON-FRI 5:30am (AUS)

Imparja Television (ABN 78 009 630 120)
PO Box 52
Alice Springs NT 0871
Complaint form (pdf) further information about complaining to Imparja under the Free TV Code of Practice
Telephone: (08) 8950 1411
Email: imparja@imparja.com.au

CANADA

VISIONTV

Showtimes: SUN 11:30pm (EST), 11:30pm (EST); MON-SUN 4:00am (EST), 4:00am (PST)

VISION TV

Liberty Market Building

171 East Liberty Street

Suite 230

Toronto, Ontario

M6K 3P6

Phone: (416) 368-3194

TTY/TDD: 416 216-6311

Fax: (416) 368-9774

General Email (For general enquiries about VisionTV) visiontv@visiontv.ca

Audience Email (For questions or comments about television programs) audience@visiontv.ca

Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/visiontv

Grace Television Network

Showtimes: MON-SUN 1:30pm (EST), 1:30pm (PST)

GRACE TV
89 St Paul Street

St Catharines, ON

L2R 3M3

In Canada

PO Box 932 St Catharines, ON, L2R 6Z4, Canada

In USA

PO Box 490, Niagara Falls, NY, 14304, USA

Email: info@gracetelevision.net

Phone: +1.905.346.4828

Fax: 905 346 0160

Twitter: http://twitter.com/gracetv

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gracetelevision

Facebook: Peter Youngren http://www.facebook.com/peterjyoungren

Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/gracetv/sets/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/gracetelevision

Blip.tv: Encounter http://encountershow.blip.tv/

Joytv 10

Showtimes: MON-FRI 1:00am (EST), Local (PST)

5668 192 Street, Suite 204

Surrey, BC

V3S 2V7

Canada

Phone: 604-576-6880

Toll Free: 1-866-669-8810

Fax: 604-576-6895

Email: audience@Joytv10.ca

Head Office

171 East Liberty Street, Suite 230

Toronto, ON

M6K 3P6

Canada

Phone: 416-368-3194

TTY/TDD: 416 216-6311

Fax: 416-368-9774

Joytv 11, S-VOX Head Office

171 East Liberty Street, Suite 230

Toronto, Ontario

M6K 3P6

Phone Toll Free: 1-866-669-8810 (Audience and Sales Inquiries)

Phone Direct: 416-368-3194

TTY/TDD: 416-216-6311

Fax: 416-368-9774

Email audience@Joytv11.ca

Twitter http://twitter.com/Joytv

NEW ZEALAND

TVNZ
(listed as NZTV on Popoff's website)
Showtimes: SUN 7:00am (NZ)
Contact them at this link

UNITED KINGDOM

BELIEVE
Showtimes: MON-SUN 9:00pm (GMT)

Believe TV
14 - 16 Thames Road
Barking, Essex IG11 0HN
tel: 0208 594 3434
mobile: 07903 799 995
email: info@believe-tv.com
Contact form http://www.vpa-tv.org/contact-us.php
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122033304486323
Twitter http://twitter.com/vpaministry
TalkGod http://www.talkgod.tv/Talk_God
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/mediavpa
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/47197703@N03/

WORD UK
Showtimes: MON-FRI 5:00pm (GMT) & FRI 1:00am (GMT)

The Word Network
20733 W. Ten Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075
Phone (248) 357-4566
Contact form http://www.thewordnetwork.org/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=48
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Word-Network/70171160847
Twitter http://twitter.com/thewordnetwork

WONDERFUL
Showtimes: MON-FRI 3:30pm (GMT)
P.O BOX 3140. London
W11 1TN
Tel.: ++ 44 (0)7949968298
info@wonderful-tv.com

Spain:
Wonderful Network, Madrid
Telephone: ++ 34 91 518 211
info@wonderful-tv.com

USA
WONDERFUL MEDIA LLC. NY.
Telephone: +1 917 7218062407
info@wonderful-tv.com

NY: 001 917 806 2407

LONDON: 0044 79 499 68298

FAITH
Showtimes: MON-FRI 9:00am (GMT)
info@faithchannel.com

UNITED STATES

Black Entertainment Television (BET)
11:30pm (EST), Midnight (PST); WED 5:00am (EST), 5:00am (PST)
Contact form https://bet.wufoo.com/forms/contact-us-betcom-management/

BET Networks
1235 W Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20018-1211
Telephone: 202-608-2000

BET Interactive
General Inquiries
1235 W Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20018-1211
Telephone: 202-608-2000 or 212-258-1000

Travel Channel
MON-FRI 5:30am (EST), 2:30am (PST)
Contact form http://www.travelchannel.com/About/Viewer_Relations

WORD
MON-FRI 9:00am (EST), 6:00am (PST); THUR 7:00pm (EST), 4:00pm (PST)

The Word Network
20733 W. Ten Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075
Phone (248) 357-4566
Contact form http://www.thewordnetwork.org/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=48

WADL Detroit
THUR 5:30am (EST), 5:30am (PST)
Contact form http://www.wadldetroit.com/index.php?option=com_rsform&Itemid=50

KDFI Dallas
WED 11:00pm (EST), Local (PST)
Contact form http://www.watchmy27.com/subindex/about_us/contact_us

That's all the contact information I could find on the broadcasting companies that sell airtime to Peter Popoff. The names of the networks and channels come from Popoff's own website, I visited the respective channels' websites to gather whatever information I could to post here.

Bear in mind that Peter Popoff has rebounded from being disgraced on national television to rise back almost to the same level he was at before his fall in 1987, so he is a survivor. He didn't come back from near-oblivion by being a stupid person, so don't underestimate his ability to stick-around.

Also, remember that Peter Popoff pays for the airtime he gets on these channels and networks. They don't give it to him for free. By asking these people to discontinue selling airtime to Popoff, you are asking them to give-up serious amounts of money.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't complain, but I would like you to keep in-mind the realities of the situation.

Duane Browning

Paypal Phishing Scam Attempt

2011-05-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of people who sometimes buy things on eBay, I have a Paypal account. I seldom use it for anything else, though such instances do come-up every so often.

I have received numerous phishing scam letters addressed to me, often sent to the Yahoo account I once used a long time ago, but seldom do anymore. The reason is that my eBay user name is the same as the Yahoo account name on that email address. So, a scammer attaches the eBay user name to @yahoo.com and they send me a phish letter. I guess a lot of people use the same user name on both accounts, but I don't. I use my regular email address - which has a different user name entirely - for both accounts. The spare address is simply kept in the event that my primary one goes down or gets hacked and I need to send an email to everyone to inform them of this. If the primary goes down, I have all my contacts in the address book of the spare account and I'd simply send them an email telling them what happened and to call me on my cellphone to verify my identity. Most people I correspond with on the Internet don't have my cellphone number, only people who really know me have it.

Recently, I received an email in the spare account from what is obviously a phishing attempt and here it is:

PayPal Account Review Department

From: "PayPal" accounts@intl2.pp2.com
To: undisclosed-recipients
Message contains attachments
1 File (19KB)
VerifyAccount.htmlVerifyAccount.html

Dear Valued User,

Our system has detected unusual charges to a credit card linked to your PayPal account.

Access to your account was limited for the following reason:

We have established that someone tried to access your PayPal account without
your permission. To ensure greater security, we have limited access to your account. We have sent

you an attachment which contains all the necessary steps in order to restore your account access.

Please download and open it in your browser.

(The locator for this reason is PP-244-692-109)

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this
is a security measure intended to protect you and your account. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Thank you,
PayPal Account Review Department

Most people might now notice the slight spelling error in the letter. In the USA we spell "apologize" with a "z", while in the United Kingdom, it's spelled "apologise", with an "s". It's a common enough spelling error that an American can make a mistake like that, but you'd think that a American company like Paypal would have caught something like that. This makes me think that whoever sent the email learned UK English, with its spelling differences, rather than USA English.

If you open the attachment, which is usually not a good idea, it's an html document that looks al the world like a real Paypal account and the page even shows that you are logged-in to your account. Rather well put-together, I must admit. However, since I was not logged-in to my Paypal account and I use an entirely different account for it, there is no way that opening the attachment could have logged me into Paypal when I opened the attachment.

The first thing they want is your personal information. This is the first step toward identity theft. I have removed the script code that was on the original file I received.

Personal Information Profile
Make sure you enter the information accurately, and according to the formats required.Fill in all the required fields.

Card Holder Name

Date of Birth

Next, they want your credit card information

Credit/Debit Card Profile
Enter card information as accurately as possible.For card number, enter numbers only please, no dashes or spaces.

Card Number:

Expiration Date:

Card Verification Number:

PIN

In all the time I have had my account with Paypal, they have never asked for the PIN for my credit card. That's because they would never need it. The only reason some one would ask for it is if they planned to make a new card for themselves, so they can remove money from your account at an ATM machine closer to where they live. With daily limits on how much you can withdraw on a daily basis, it may take a few days for them to drain the account with cash withdrawals. But, they could make all kinds of store purchases in just a few hours and suck your account dry and even go over your account's limits. If they do that, you're stuck with having to fight overlimit fees, as well as all the cash withdrawals and purchases they made.

Even if you catch-on and realize that you've given your banking details to scammers and cancel your credit card, they still have your name and date of birth. Even with temporary access to your credit card information, they could acquire your Social Security Number, home address, telephone/fax numbers, etc. and go into full-scale identity theft and open new accounts in your name, which you could find yourself having to contest for a long time to come.

While attempting to see where the "Save Profile" link at the bottom goes, I was stymied. I entered all kinds of bogus card numbers - all 1s or all 9s - along with fake PINs, etc but the "Save Profile" button would let me go any further. Either it doesn't work or there's some sort of built-in software that prevents pranking. It may even be able to automatically verify if a card number is valid or not. I'm not an authority on this sort of thing, so I couldn't tell you.

Getting back to the email, I did an IP trace and discovered that the email had a Polish IP as its source. If this email had been sent from the USA, it would have traced to an American IP, since Paypal is an American company.

Once I figured that I had learned all that I could, I forwarded the email with headers to Paypal's abuse address - spoof@paypal.com - and will leave the rest to them.

Here are a few tips:

1) One reason people get Paypal phishing letters is because a lot of people use the same user names for their primary email address and their eBay accounts. So, if you shop on eBay or any other online retailer, use a different name for each. I sometimes get Paypal or eBay phishing letters at my regular email address, but that's only because some one signed-up for eBay with that user name.

2) While this attachment was html, a lot of scammers send zip files, which can seriously hurt your computer. Don't open attachments, even an html attachment can cause problems. But, scammers realize that a lot of people won't download zip files to their computers, in fear of viruses or hacking attempts. But, more people will open and trust an html files, which can simply be opened in their browsers, so these are better for scammers to use, as they will have a larger number of victims trusting it.

3) If you get an email claiming to be from eBay, Paypal, any other online retailer, your bank or credit card company that tells you about "problems with your account": don't open any attachments or click on any link in the message. Simply open a new browser, log-in to your account and check it out for yourself. If everything seems okay in your account, forward the email to the appropriate company. Most banks, credit card companies and online retailers have contact information for people to report this sort of thing. Keep the address in you Address Book and bookmark any links to webpages where they tell you to report fraud attempts.

If you ever get an email claiming to be from one of the types of companies I mentioned above and want to see from where the email originated, do an IP trace. There are two websites I use for this:

IP-address.com is a pretty good one and is very easy to use. In the email you receive, click of whatever link allows you to view the full headers. In Yahoo Mail, it would be at the bottom of the message and says "Full Headers". Click that and then the headers will appear at the top of the message. Look for the part that says "X-Originating-IP"and copy and paste the number in the search box at IP-address.com. The search results will tell you from which country the message had originally been sent.
You can also try Geobytes, though I've had a few problems when I've compared results I've gotten from it and what I received at IP-address, when the results didn't match. With Geobytes, you copy and paste the complete headers in the search box. I used this one exclusively before I discovered IP-address.com and that's when I discovered the discrepency which doesn't happen all the time, but it happened enough that I made the switch.
Bear in mind that some scammers will send emails while using a proxy, which will make an IP trace much less reliable.

Duane Browning

Cycling Gloves

2011-05-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

One thing that most people who ride a bicycle regularly need are cycling gloves. Unless, you want absolutely nothing between your hands and the ground if/when you crash, gloves are your best protection.

There are a lot of things that make finding the right set of gloves problematic:

Cost: a good set of gloves specifically made for cycling can cost anywhere from ten to fifty dollars. Finding gloves for less than $20 is pretty hard, at least in Honolulu. It might be easier in other prts of the US. While professional cyclists can afford to incur such costs, John Q. Citizen might balk at spending that much cash all at once for something they might wear only once or twice a week. Even people who commute to work by bicycle might not want to spend more than ten bucks on something that they'll only be wearing for a half hour out of the day.

Granted, if they do fall off their bike and injure their hands, the medical bills may make the price of gloves look cheap by comparison.

For people without a lot of cash who still want to wear gloves when they ride, some will buy a pair of gardening gloves and cutoff the fingers. Other will buy the really cheap ones with the fishnet-like appearance, which are the type of cycling gloves I truly loathe.

Appearance: a lot of cyclists want their gloves to look nice. You know, with matching color schemes and (I think) stupid stuff like that. I guess it makes a difference if you're out riding to socialize and meet new people. For me, it really doesn't matter. I just want the gloves to keep skin from getting ripped off my hands in the event I crash. I don't ask for much in this regard. One thing I really hate are gloves with spaces between the fabric that allow sunlight to pass-through. It could be from those cheapo fishnet gloves or the ones that leave a space near the wrist part where the velcro strap is located. For some reason, some people who make cycling gloves think that it's a good idea to leave a space there. Maybe they don't realize that allows sunlight through, which allows that part of the hand to get tanned and it looks like you've got liver spots or something. The fishnet ones are just gross in that your hands look like leopard skin, which is not only wrong, it's idiotic. Maybe they make the net gloves because it's cheaper material, but there are certainly other alternatives out there.

Washable: Since perspiration and rainwater will run down your arm to your hands when you ride, your gloves can get smelly. The smell sticks to your hands and people might think you've been sticking your hands into the trash at McDonalds or something. You want gloves you can wash. While leather gives good protection, all leather gloves will absorb water in the wash and get all warped. So, an all-fabric glove works best.

What I want out of cycling gloves is really simple. I don't need anything dumb, like a little extra bit of fabric on the thumb to wipe away perspiration (I actually found a set of gloves where this is a "feature") or stripes or even nifty colors. I don't need Lycra materials, as they are rather fragile and I sure don't need a little reflective material on the gloves, since I add my reflective material to the bike frame, where it will do the most good. While Lycra is a breathable fabric, you already have hole in the fingers and the glove only goes to your wrists. Besides, Lycra won't do you any good if you crash.

Cycling gloves made for the daily rider, like bike messengers, should be made of sturdy material. Canvas or denim might work fine and you'll be able to mend them with a needle and thread if they get torn. The Velcro strap should be longer than typical, going over to the other side of the hand to make them more adjustable. The palm should have some sort of padding, maybe with a bit of treadlike material. No gelpacks to come out of a tear and reflective strips are not needed.

Here's the closest thing I could find to my needs

These Reflective Cycling Gloves - Padded Fingerless Gloves in Synthetic Leather are sold by Aero Tech Designs, a company that sells cycling apparel in Coraopolis, PA and here isthe link so you can buy a pair. The gloves are all-fabric, with synthetic suede for the palm. A pair of these costs $9.95 before shipping costs are added, so I advise buying 2 or 3 pairs, so you'll always have clean gloves to wear. It has some reflective material, which I don't put much stock in anyway, but the palm has a sandpaper-like feel to it, which gives good traction on the handlebars. You can wash them without the gloves getting warped and the fabric is mend-able in the event of tears or the stitching coming loose. The colors are plain, not gaudy and the overall quality of the material is good and it will last a long time, as long as you don't get into a really bad accident. The best part about these gloves is that they don't have that little space that lets sunlight in, so you don't get a weird tan on your hands.

In my opinion, this is the perfect set of gloves for people who ride their bikes on a daily basis.

Duane Browning

My Review of BikeBrightz

2011-05-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.bikebrightz.com

Having seen an ad for this product on Facebook, I had a look at their website to see what is offered. After considering the four choices of colors - red, blue, green and amber - I settled on ordering a set of the amber lights.

I placed my order on December 29, the order shipped on the 30th and I received them on January 4th. Not a bad shipping time from Ohio to Honolulu.

Each light is packaged with two batteries included, a pad to protect your bike's paint finish and two zip ties to fasten them to your bicycle. The zip ties are the standard non-releasable ones that you can find anywhere. BikeBrightz also sells releasable zip ties, two each for $1. For something that you are likely to be putting on and taking off your bike on a regular basis, if you ride at night frequently like I do, it can be inconvenient to have to order more zip ties from BikeBrightz when your releasbale zip ties wearout. You can order a pack of releasable zip ties through Amazon [1] [2] [3], from TieWraps here or CableTiesPlus or you can try you local hardware or computer store. It is a good idea for BikeBrightz to offer them in the first place, though. If people bought a set and then had them stolen or were afraid of that happening, people either might not buy them in the first place or would buy them and then they'd get stolen, which may cause them to give-up on the product. So, BikeBrightz does a great service by offering them for sale and letting people know that such things exist. However, if you're going to go through a few of these every week or so, it's a good idea to buy them in bulk, so you don't have to worry.

The lights are easy to install. You just have to pick a spot to mount them, line-up the cushion pad on the light and zip tie them in-place. Standard places to mount them would be directly underneath the top tube, on the down tube facing toward the front wheel, underneath the chainstay on the opposite side from the chain or on the seat stay facing forward. I chose the down tube and chainstay as the places to mount my lights. When placing it on my down tube, I chose a spot as low as possible to better illuminate the ground under my front wheel.

I have to say that I was very impressed by the amount of light produced. While riding at night, the added protection of the extra light gave me a heightened sense of personal safety and cars seemed to be more aware of me than usual.

I have an old bike that I use to ride to my night job and I have taken great steps to make it better for night riding by adding reflective tape to various parts of my frame, along with the standard front and rear lights. BikeBrightz has essentially completed the work I started-out by giving it a halo of light on the ground around the bike itself. If I repainted my whole bike in a reflective color, that would be the only way I could make it better than it is now for night riding or riding in inclement weather. Most cyclists settle for the front and rear lights and possibly a bright color jacket. Not me. I want the best illumination I can get my hands on.

Speaking of inclement weather: we've been having a bit of rain here in Hawaii for the past few weeks and I was concerned that the BikeBrightz might have a problem with water getting in. Their Customer Service department advised me to put electrical tape over the battery compartment, which is a good way to provide the extra protection for the only part of the light that might be vulnerable to rain, as the rest of the light is well-built and sturdy. Adding a silicon sheath, for example, might seem like a good idea, but it would just be one more thing to have to wrap around the fixture when you're zip tying it to your bike.

There are four colors to choose from and I chose amber for what I think are good reasons. While the other colors - red, blue and green - are nice and look cool, I didn't really consider them when I make my choice. Here's why:

Red and green could get confused with the traffic lights. While it might get people's attention at night, people may have a problem telling you apart from traffic signal lights in the dark. I never assume that car drivers are intelligent or aware enough to tell the difference between me and something else, since I've known too many people who were doing everything the law required and still got hit by a car.

Blue is a color that most cops would have a problem with being placed on a bike as a lighting system. Under Hawaii laws, only police cars can have blue lights on them. So, buying the blue BikeBrightz could get you cited.

Amber is a color most often associated with caution or emergency lights. This is why construction crews use them at night, instead of any other color. It's the color of traffic signals, too, but they warn you of the coming light change to red, so most people tend to slow down when they see it. So, I chose amber because it's the light color that tells car drivers to slow down and/or be careful, which is what a cyclist wants.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that BikeBrightz shouldn't sell other colored lights. I do think that selling blue lights is a mistake, since cops may cite some people for having them on the road. But, red and green are good choices, even if I don't prefer them.

The lights offer different settings for display: steady light and blinking at slow, medium or fast speeds. I'll normally use steady lights in good weather, with the blinkers on during bad weather, but a blinking amber light is good at any time, so it doesn't matter.

At a regular price of $19.99, but on sale now at $9.99, they are a much better alternative than other more expensive lighting systems that are more difficult to install or remove. I wanted to buy the Dow Low Glow for my Xtracycle, but the costs involved and the sheer bulk of the system discouraged me. You can take the BikeBrightz lights off your bike and simply keep them in a purse, pocket or backpack. So, it's not only cheaper than Down Low Glow, it's also more convenient. Plus the BikeBrightz uses standard AAA batteries, which you can buy at any convenience store.

The only bad thing I have to say is that BikeBrightz is not yet sold in bike stores. You can only order them though the website, which limits their availability to the general cycling community. If it wasn't for their ad on Facebook, I would never have heard of their product. Luckily, I did see the ad and I hope to see more of these out on the road in the future.

I'll be showing-off my BikeBrightz to my friends and to local stores over the next few weeks. Out of concern for my friends' safety on-the-road and to help a small company with a damn good idea. If it all works-out, bike stores in Honolulu may be stocking BikeBrightz in the near future.

Duane Browning

Recycling Old Bicycle Tubes

2011-05-03T01:09:00.001-07:00

I've heard of a lot of ways people used old bike tubes, some of them unexpected. Here in Hawaii, some ukulele players wrap old tubes around their instruments to protect them. Others use them as spare tie-downs for when they carry cargo. Some people even make jewelry out of them.

But, I discovered a use for them that, while new to me, was already old news to others: using them as tape for their handlebars.

I spoke to a friend from the Philippines about this after I made my little discovery and he told me that people in the poorer sections of that country have been doing this for a long time. While Americans spend anywhere from $20 and up for a pack of handlebar tape, people in the slums of Manila only have to reach for a discarded bicycle tube to cover their handlebars. So, the USA can put a man on the Moon, but we seemed to have missed the part of using old tubes this way.

Old bike tubes aren't the only thing I've seen used to cover handlebars. Downtown, bike messengers have been seen using ordinary duct tape or electrical tape, while some even leave their bars without any covering at all. While handlebar tape can be helpful, dropping $20+ whenever you need new ones can seem to be an unnecessary expense, especially if you ride everyday, in all kinds of weather, and you go through tape on a fairly regular basis. I've bought a brand new roll and within a week, it had already started to fall apart, due to riding my bike for nearly eight hours a day, five days a week, sometimes in pouring rain.

I had thought about going the duct tape route myself, before a chance encounter made me realize how I had been throwing my money away for years. I forget who it was, but one of the other messengers had wrapped his handlebars with an old bicycle tube. I didn't realize it at the time, but after yet another two rolls of tape fell apart on me, I decided to give it a try.

One thing I learned a long time ago was that the handlebar plug makes a big difference in keeping the tape on your bars. The one brand I'd learned was best for me are theBontrager plugs that come with their brand of tape. Unlike other plugs, which have no traction of their own and rely on the bulk of the tape on the inside of the bar ends to keep them in-place, Bontrager plugs actually have some traction of their own, as seen in the picture below. I'd like to apologize for the picture quality in this blog. It's due to my owning a cheap cellphone with a crappy camera.

The ridges are wide enough to rub against the inside of the handlebar, so it actaully plays a part in holding the tape on. if you don't have any of these, you can ask a staff member at your local bike shop if they have any extras laying-around. Bontrager is a pretty popular brand at bike shops in Honolulu and there's a chance that they've done some work on bikes that included installing new handlebar tape. I've taken my bike in for scheduled maintenance and they sometimes change the handlebar tape as a little extra something nice they do for you, only charging you for the handlebar tape, but not the labor.

Okay, now that we have the end plug, we need a discarded tube. First thing you do with the tube is cut-off the valve.

With that done, you need to start rolling the tape around the bars. Since the tube has no adhesive of its own, you'll need to rely on electrical tape. Most of the glue backing on handlebar tape is rather worthless anyway and I think it's good for maybe one application when you put it on. After a few days riding in the rain, the glue is pretty much gone.

So, you start by wrapping the tape over one end of the tube and around the handlebar, so it is held securely.

Once you get started, just keep wrapping the tube around the handlebar, just like regular tape. If you're wrapping the side where your brake lever is, use a piece of another tube - like, the one you just took off -and wrap it around the lever. This provides better protection for the brackets that hold the lever on and you save a little bit of tube to wrap your bars with, especially if the tube might not be as long as you'd like.

Then, just keep wrapping the tube around your handlebar until you get to the end. Wrap a bit of electrical tape completely around the bar end, with the slack part of the tube sticking-out.

Then, just tuck-in the loose end and cap it with the handlebar plug.

Now, your handlebars have a new set of "tape", which only cost you an old bike tube, some electrical tape and a few minutes of your time. If you look closely at the right side of the picture below, you'll notice that I also used an old tube to cover my top bar, which is also good to protect it and is much less expensive than buying a top tube cover.

There are advantages of using bike tubes over regular bar tape or electrical tape or duct tape:

1)they provide better traction so your hands don't slip off the bars in wet weather;

2) being made out of rubber, the tubes last much longer than tape made of cloth or cork;

3) a tube is more resistant to weather conditions, such as rain; and

4)costs much less, since old tubes are easily gotten from your own discards or from bike shops who throw them out with the regular trash;

Certainly, using a bike tube for handlebar tape is a bit different than using regular tape, since it feels very different. My hands had to get used to the total lack of cushioning that regular tape had provided, but tubes don't. Tubes aren't very soft, after all. You're also pretty much stuck with the color black, since tubes rarely come in other colors, so color-coordination is not much of an issue anymore. But, black does go with everything anyway, right?

The most common reaction I got from people who saw my handlebars after I put the tubes on went from "What is that?" to "Why didn't I think of doing that myself?".

If I could remember how much I've spent on handlebar tape over the years, I'd probably kick myself for not thinking of this sooner.

Duane Browning

Recycling Old Bicycle Tires

2011-05-03T01:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much luck in finding anyone who recycles old bicycle tires. There are some companies that accept them for recycling, but are probably not convenient for most people to use. Simply dumping them in a landfill partially negates the otherwise environmentally-friendly nature of bike riding.

I contacted TerraCycle on Twitter and asked about bicycle tire recycling and was told that they had tried partnering with bicycle companies on this issue, but had not much luck. However, they did send me the link to some one who does recycle old bike tires and uses them to make things like belts and bracelets. His link is www.rebicyclist.com and he has a shop on Etsy.

Signing-up on this site, which is a marketplace for handmade products of all types, I not only found his store, but other people's:

Here is a picture of a finished belt from Spiritjug's store, so you can see what they look like

You can also buy them at:

UncommonGoods
FlowerPedal here, here, here and you can buy a buckle for them.
TyreBelt (in United Kingdom)

But, if you'd like to take a crack at it yourself, there are online tutorials for making belts from old bike tires. You can find those tutorials here and a better article is here.

I think that old mountain bike tires would probably make better belt material than road tires, due to their thickness and durability. Plus, they look way cooler.

I have some old tires that I've been hanging onto in the hopes of finding a recycler close-by, but I've had no luck in that regard. I may try my hand at making a belt or two. If you really wanted to find a way to offset the environmental impact of discarding your tires in the landfill, you now have a choice between making them into something useful or you could buy a belt from one of the Etsy shops I've listed above.

If offsets can work for greenhouse gas emissions, I think they can work for bicycle tires, too.

I was never very good at shop class in school and I don't have the necessary tools to cut and shape the belts properly. Personally, I have no idea how many cyclists and other people would either buy or make these things. But, it could fill a niche for people who want to be "trendy". After all, just ten years ago, who would have thought that fixed gear bicycles would become as popular as they are now?

Just a thought.

Duane Browning

Pedalite Products from Walmart

2011-05-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

If you ride at night, you'd know that visibility is always a concern. The more visible you are, the better your chances of not getting hit by a car.

I'm a devoted fan of BikeBrightz, but there are other products out there that can increase your nighttime visibility and safety. Like BikeBrightz, they are not well-known and are not available in Honolulu bike shops. To me, this is very unfortunate, since people could have been saved from death or injury if they had these parts or accessories at the time of the accident. But, that's why I have this blog: to make you aware of bicycling-related products you might not have otherwise heard of until now.

Today, I'd like to tell you about Pedalite, a company that sells an interesting collection of products that can greatly increase your nighttime visibility and safety. They have several products to sell and I'm going to give descriptions, pictures, links where you can purchase them as well as my own thoughts.

First up for discussion are Pedalite battery-free 360 degree visibility pedal lights. While most of us settle for the reflective strips that are installed on our pedals by their respective manufacturer, Pedalite actually has lights inside the pedals ("Pedalite", get it? Pedal light? Pretty clever, wouldn't you say?) and they are not dependent on batteries. Instead, their lights are powered by the action of pedaling itself. So, you simply turn them on by pedaling your bike and the lights continue to flash for a few minutes even after you stop, which is good for those times when you have to stop at a stoplight or a crosswalk. The company says that they give-off light in a 360-degree arch and can be seen at a distance, so they sound like a good investment. Here's what they look like with and without toeclips.

Since they don't require batteries, you won't run out of power while you're riding-around at night in the pouring rain. So, these are a good idea for people who do a lot of night riding.

Other Pedalite products really don't look like they'd get a lot of buyers, in my opinion. For example, the Anklelite

and the Baglite

both look like they'd be a good buy for people who do a lot of night riding or for people who are about to leave home and it starts to rain (I hate when that happens) or whatever. But, people tend to like things kept as simple as possible and wearing the Baglite would make some people feel more like a mountain climber than a cyclist. The Ankelites are okay for cyclists, joggers and walkers, but I wonder how many people might stop using them if they get chafing problems with the Anklelites rubbing against their ankles. Besides, unless you're going out just to ride your bike and then go home, where you might not mind them so much, a lot of people commute to work/school by bike and may not want to carry the extra stuff around with them, unless they can store them someplace. I wouldn't take either one of them with me to my day job, even though I sometimes get caught out late and have to ride home in the dark, since it'd be just one more thing I'd have to carry-around. But, at my night job, I leave home when it's dark and the sun usually isn't out yet when I'm going home and I have a place to keep my things during my shift. So, Anklelites and Baglites would work well for me. However, these products are solar-powered, so I may have a problem getting them charged-up between rides.

Pedalite Products don't seem to be available in Honolulu bike stores or other retail outlets. The company does have its own online store where you can buy them directly http://www.shopcreator.com/mall/departmentpage.cfm/PedaliteLtd

But, you can also buy them online from Walmart and they are actually cheaper if you go that route and you'll have the choice of choosing to have your order delivered to your home or to your nearest Walmart location. Here are the links to their respective pages at Walmart's online store:

Pedalite 360-Degree Visibility Pedals

Pedalite Toe Clips

Pedalite Baglites

Pedalite Anklelites

While the prices for these products may seem high, compared with similar products out there, I still think at least the pedals would be a good investment for increasing your night riding safety. The more light you have, the safer you are out there on the road.

Duane Browning

RainyDayBiking.com

2011-05-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

One thing that irritates many of us who have to ride our bikes in the rain is the spray of rainwater and mud that flies up onto our backs. Even with fenders, there is still something that gets kicked-up by your wheels that could still hit anyone riding too close in back of you.

I'd like to give a mention to Rainy Day Biking. This company doesn't have a big inventory, but what they do have is very interesting.

They offer several types of reflective mud flap extensions for your bike fenders.

I can certainly see how these would appeal to many of us, as we have all come off a bike ride with road mud on our backs and sometimes also our fronts. Sometimes, we try to find the perfect fender that would protect us from this, but we just can't see to always find it.

While a front fender gives some protection, you still have the problem of mud and water hitting your feet, downtube and even your face! A rear fender will eliminate a lot of the back wheel kicking-up crap onto your back or whomever may be riding behind you. But, adding these extensions to your fenders gives even better protection from these unfortunate incidents. Yeah, they may look a bit dorky, but they'll seem a lot less so than your being covered front and back with whatever you rode over on your bike on the way to work or school.

Let's face it: a even the best cycling raingear out there won't protect you from getting mud on you, front and back, like these will.

I'd certainly recommend these to bicycle commuters, especially to children.

Duane Browning

GETMY100.COM Telemarketer/Spammer

2011-05-01T01:48:00.000-07:00

(This blogpost has been extensively rewritten to include new information about this spammer and how to report them to the appropriate agencies)

I found-out about GETMY100.COM from a reply to a previous blogpost and decided to have a look at the site. Not much there, aside from links to their Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, a link to their Unsubscribe page and a Contact link with a mailing address.

Doing a WHOIS search yields no results about the owners' identity, other than the IP number of 64.150.191.149 and that the server is based in the USA. A number of rather questionable sites are also linked to GETMY100's server.

I figured that the mailing address would either be a fake location - possibly a vacant lot somewhere - or a virtual office. My second guess seems to be the correct one. The address of 442 Court Street in Elko, Nevada turns-up as an office address for several law firms. Virtual offices are a good way for certain types of companies to save money. They can have their mail delivered there for later pickup or to be ignored, they can rent a meeting room for perspective clients and lots of other things that a company would otherwise have to pay exorbitant monthly rents for, in addition to staffing fees. With a virtual office, a lawyer or whatever can work out of their home and outsource a lot of their work to temps. This address is available for renting a virtual office and it costs $50 a month, so this isn't going to bankrupt these guys, unless they are complete morons and total failures as telemarketers.

A virtual office is also a good way for a spammer to provide an address where complaints can be mailed and promptly ignored. It's also very difficult to serve legal papers (like lawsuits or criminal complaints) when you don't even know the name of the person you're serving, especially since a WHOIS search doesn't reveal the name of the domain's owner.

These guys are pretty sneaky. There's no telling if the mailing address is really one they use of if they just provide it to give people an address to mail stuff, even if they'll never receive the envelope. You could be mailing a letter to these guys and some poor secretary will receive it without the slightest idea of who is supposed to get it. There is a mail forwarding service that uses this address, so it's possible that they still might get letters. Then, there's this little tidbit from their Privacy page

SMS Service. This Site may make available a service either directly or through third parties that will result in you receiving messages on your wireless device via short message service ("SMS Service"). By using this site you understand that your provider's charges apply to all SMS sent and received by you, and that these charges are billed by your mobile service provider. You are responsible for payment of these charges. You represent that you are 18 years of age and the owner or authorized user of the wireless device on which messages will be received, and that you are authorized to approve the applicable charges.

You may opt out of the SMS Service by replying with the keyword "STOP" to the SMS received. You can also unsubscribe directly from this Site using the unsubscribe link. This process only impacts the delivery messages from this site and will not unsubscribe you from other SMS programs to which you may have subscribed.

So, even if you reply to their textspam with STOP, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE or whatever it really won't stop you from getting spammed again. If they primary company - in this case GETMY100 - takes you off their spam list, it will not affect your being listed on spam lists owned by other people working on their behalf. Even if you are on a government Do Not Call list, simply giving them your phone number is enough for them to justify spamming you or sharing your number with other people who will spam you. So, if you get textspammed and go to their website to unsubscribe, they now have your number to do with as they wish. Oh sure, they can't spam you, but it won't stop whoever they give your number to from doing it, especially since they now know that your number is valid.

So, unsubscribing doesn't appear to make any difference, one way or another.

I did find an interesting Facebook posting by some one who actually claims to have first created the GETMY100 website. The message was posted on Facebook about a year ago and I have no idea if this person is really the individual behind all this or her Facebook page got hacked and the post created without her knowledge or permission. So, please be aware that this person could have been the victim of hacking and her account taken-over. If she has nothing to do with GETMY100, it is interesting how she hasn't contacted Facebook and attempted to get her profile back. Even if her account was only temporarily hacked, I wonder why she hasn't gone back through her posts and deleted it by now? This gets even stranger when you realize that GETMY100 has its office in Elko, while the woman who created the post lives in Baltimore, Maryland. I reproduce the post here:

Topic: Everyone says we're in a recession...You can choose NOT to participate in it!

Displaying the only post.

Renee Twine Guerassio
There is a program that your neighbor is using that's helping them pay off their 30 year mortgage in only 9.8 years and saving over $151,000 in unnecessary interest. Making them "true" homeowners instead of homebuyers in a fraction of the time!

They are accomplishing this:

► Without refinancing their current mortgage

► Without changing their current mortgage payment

► Without changing their current lifestyle

Due to the overwhelming response to this amazing program we have set up an online video portal where you can see a presentation and learn how this service may be beneficial to YOU and your family. http://www.getmy100.com/

Renee Guerassio
Independant Associate
Direct: 410-893-1086

Everyone says were in a recession...
You can choose NOT to participate in it!

Get $100 FREE GAS OR $100 FREE GROCERIES just for watching a video that shows you how to beat this recession and answering one question correctly!

Go to www.GetMy100.com and use PROMO CODE: 833722Q to claim your certificate!

This same woman's face appears on a profile at CAFEMOM and was used to respond to this post. The profile hasn't been accessed since 2009, but you can view all the comments the profile has posted here. The website GETMY100 was pending deletion in March 2010 and was registered again in March 2011, but the identity of the new owner is unknown to anyone but the people they bought it from. I only included Ms. Guerrassio's posts and links in the event that some one contacts me to ask about them. In the event that she has nothing to do with GETMY100's current activities, I request that no one contact her about it in order to prevent an innocent person from being harassed.

In the event that some one forwards this blog's link to her: I strongly advise Ms Guerrassio to log-in to her Facebook and CafeMom accounts and remove all of those posts.

I also found GETMY100 listed in the tags of a blogpost here [1] [2] [3], but you have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see them. You can find a contact email address on this link, for all the good it will do.

Here is as complete a list as I can find of all numbers associated with GETMY100.COM. Bear in mind that these numbers may have been spoofed, so calling them back won't make much difference.

Phone Numbers Associated With GIFTMY100.COM

201-238-8338

208-340-4825

209-221-9097

213-400-2531

214-796-1738

216-533-1723

225-223-0102

269-537-2029

305-903-2169
310-349-6385

310-736-0903
323-203-2350

323-304-1626

360-529-1851

386-627-6730

408-384-2109

412-228-1758

412-736-6154
480-231-0627

503-508-9702

503-881-4546

562-253-4989
619-339-8604

619-719-8033

626-379-8707

631-204-7548
650-390-7140
678-468-4155

702-321-1454

702-324-4741

702-324-6120

702-460-4356

707-508-9139

774-266-1148

805-309-5602

818-620-5441

989-906-4697

Go to the Federal Trade Commission website to file a complaint. be sure to include the mailing address given on the GETMY100 website in your complaint: 442 Court Street, Elko,NV 89801.

Since the mailing address is in Elko, NV, you can contact

Make sure to inform them all of the mailing address given on the website.

GETMY100.COM is registered by Domains By Proxy, Inc and this service is for people who don't want others to know who owns a website. However, Domains By Proxy does have its own website where you can file complaints. I am not sure about how quickly - if at all - the company would respond to complaints, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Simply go to https://www.domainsbyproxy.com/Default.aspx and click "File A Claim". Mention that you received the message via cellphone text, so there are no email headers to forward to them.

I cannot say for certain what, if anything, would come of complaints to any of these agencies, but it never hurts to try.

There are a number of toll-free numbers associated with GETMY100. They either had them in the texts that were sent out for people to call or were included in textspam unrelated to GETMY100. The toll-free numbers are

800-803-9251
877-553-7042

Free free to call them from a convenient public payphone to voice your displeasure over being textspammed.

Duane Browning

Grameen Foundation Imposter Scam

2011-04-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

Years ago, I interviewed Muhammad Yunus after hearing about his work providing micro-loans for people in developing countries. His work began in Bangladesh with the founding of Grameen Bank and his example led to the founding of the Grameen Foundation in the United States, whose purpose is to follow Dr. Yunus' example by extending micro-loans to people in the Developing World. Other organizations have also created programs to extend microcredit to impoverished people, such as Kiva.

On April 11, 2011 I received this email, claiming to originate from the Grameen Foundation:
Flag this messag

AID NOTIFICATION
From: "Grameen Foundation" gcortes@itoiz.com.ar
To: undisclosed-recipients
Grameen Foundation'Head Office.
1101 15th St. NW, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20005'
Toll Free: 1-888-764-3872
Fax: 1 202-628-3880
www.grameenfoundation.org

The Grameen Foundation would like to inform you that you have been chosen by the board of directors as one of the final recipients of a cash Grant/Donation for your own personal, educational, and business development in order to reduce the poverty rate in your Community. The Grameen Foundation was established 1976 by Professor Muhammad Yunus which stand as an individual organization conceived with the objective of human growth, educational, and community development.
To celebrate the new year 35th anniversary program, Grameen Foundation is giving out a yearly donation of 950,000.00 (Nine Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds) to 10 lucky recipients by which At least 15% of the awarded funds should be used by you to develop a part of your environment. This is a yearly program which is a measure of universal development strategy. You are to contact Rosanna Ramos-Velita, Treasurer(www.grameenfoundation@qatar.io) with your PIN Number (GF.101) in order to redeem your Grant and get more information.
On behalf of the inventor of this great foundation Professor Muhammad Yunus and we the Board of directors of the Grameen Foundation kindly accept our warmest congratulations as you proceed with your project of changes.

Paul Maritz
Chair, Grameen Foundation.

Remembering my interview with Dr Yunus, I immediately recognized the name of the Foundation. I also knew right away that this was a scam. The Grameen Foundation is also aware of this scam, as you can see from this report on their website. The personal finance magazine from India MoneyLife also has an article on this scam.

Apparently, the scammers were feeling some heat from all the attention they were getting, which must have been considerable. Copies of the original scam letter were posted at 419Eater and TheScamBaiter forums, which must have sent a few scambaiters off to deal with the scammer.

Apparently, the heat was a bit too much for the scammer to take or their email account got shutdown and they changed their contact email address. Eight days after sending me the first letter, they sent a second

Aid Notification.
From: "Grameen Foundation" grant@grameenfoundation.org
To: undisclosed-recipients
Grameen Foundation'Head Office.
1101 15th St. NW, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20005'
Toll Free: 1-888-764-3872
Fax: 1 202-628-3880
www.grameenfoundation.org
The Grameen Foundation would like to inform you that you have been chosen
by the board of directors as one of the final recipients of a cash
Grant/Donation for your own personal, educational, and business
development in order to reduce the poverty rate in your Community. The
Grameen Foundation was established 1976 by Professor Muhammad Yunus which
stand as an individual organization conceived with the objective of human
growth, educational, and community development.
To celebrate the new year 35th anniversary program, Grameen Foundation is
giving out a yearly donation of 950,000.00 (Nine Hundred And Fifty
Thousand Great Britain Pounds) to 10 lucky recipients by which At least
15% of the awarded funds should be used by you to develop a part of your
environment. This is a yearly program which is a measure of universal
development strategy. You are to contact Rosanna Ramos-Velita,
Treasurer(www.grameenfoundation1@bitscn.net) with your PIN Number (GF.101)
in order to redeem your Grant and get more information.
On behalf of the inventor of this great foundation Professor Muhammad
Yunus and we the Board of directors of the Grameen Foundation kindly
accept our warmest congratulations as you proceed with your project of
changes.
Paul Maritz
Chair, Grameen Foundation.

The scammer apparently got smarter after sending out the first email. Notice how the sender's email address was changed from gcortes@itoiz.com.ar (an email address based in Argentina) to grant@grameenfoundation.org, in order to appear to actually have been sent from Grameen's offices. Also, the words in the original Subject line were all capitalized (typical for scam letters), but were typed normally in the second.

Knowing that scammers utilize more than one email address while conducting their scams, I sent a reply to the email from one of my extra accounts to see what sort of reply I would get. I received this

You Are Welcome To The Grameen Foundation‏.

From: "Grameen Foundation" www.grameenfoundation1@bitscn.net
To:

Grameen Foundation'Head Office.
1101 15th St. NW, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20005'
Toll Free: 1-888-764-3872
Fax: 1 202-628-3880
www.grameenfoundation.org
Good day to you’ I am Rosanna Ramos-Velita, Treasurer. At Grameen Foundation, our goal is simple – we want to see poor people, especially the poorest and those living in harder to reach areas, have access to micro-finance and technology and as a result of access to these services, move themselves out of poverty. We envision a world where the poor have broken the generational chain of poverty and lead lives of respect, dignity and opportunity. Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit organization which was founded in 1997 by friends of Grameen Bank to help micro-finance practitioners and spread the Grameen philosophy worldwide. We are a leader in the fight against poverty in Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, Middle East/North Africa, and the Americas. Our cutting-edge programs and resources have helped millions of poor people, mostly women and children, improve their lives.Grant Donation has been given out in different institution from various social standard for years’ which was awarded by the foundation in their favour and the development of their precise community.
Note that your country is not the only country that is benefiting from this donation. Beneficiaries have been chosen from countries from all continents. The idea of this donation is that within ten years from now, there will be notable richness among many unusual people around the world. This will give many people the opportunity to get their lives to a stage where they had always wanted also note that beneficiaries email addresses were selected randomly from over 100,000 internet websites and a shop's cash invoice around your area in which you might have purchased something from).
Based on the random selection exercise of internet websites and millions of supermarket cash invoices worldwide, you were selected among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of £950,000.00 (Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds) as charity donations/aid.
Alliance & Leicester Bank Plc UK
Carlton Park, Narborough
Leicester, LE19 0AL
Phone: +4470457 96435 and +4470111 96845
Website: www.alliance-leicester.co.uk
Email: webstephen@alliance-leicestter.co.uk
Your Grant has been forwarded to our payment bank for immediate release to you. You are required to contact our payment bank with your valid information (NAME, ADDRESS, OCCUPATION, AGE, SEX, and PHONE NUMBER) to the above address for qualification documentation and official processing of your claims.
Congratulation and God bless.
Rosanna Ramos-Velita, Treasurer' Grameen Foundation

If you didn't notice it, the scammer is using the name of a legitimate bank as a cover. That is the real website for the bank in the United Kingdom. However, notice that in the contact email address, there is an extra T added to the name "Leicester", so it is spelled "Leicestter". If a real bank was involved in a scam, it could cost them their license, so I don't think that Alliance Leicester has any involvement in this whatsoever. I sent a quick note to the reply address and received this

Thanks for Contacting The Alliance Leicester Bank plc®‏‏‏‏‏‏.

From: "Alliance Leicester Bank Plc" webstephen@alliance-leicestter.co.uk
To:

Alliance & Leicester
Alliance Leicester Bank plc® Transferring To The Santander Group
Customer Service Center
Carlton Park, Narborough
Leicester, LE19 0AL
.Enquiry for customer in the UK ? Call 0844 800 9000
Complaint? Call 0844 561 9790
.Enquiry for customers out side UK ? +4470457 96435
Complaint? Call +4470111 96845
ONWARD TRANSFER- £950,000.00 (Nine ight Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds)

Qualification Numbers (L-222-6747)
This is to acknowledge the receipt of the order from the Grameen Foundation, in respect with the provision act of decree 114 of the 1999 constitution; I am directed to inform you that your payment verification and confirmations is correct. Therefore, we are happy to inform you that arrangements have been concluded to effect your payment immediately and we also thank you for contacting the Alliance & Leicester Bank in receipt of your email containing your contacts/personal information for processing of your Grameen Foundation Grant claims of £950,000.00 (Nine Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds).
In view to this development you are here by invited to our bank head office in (Leicester UK) to claim your funds and get it registered with the (Bank of England) at the bellow address.
Alliance & Leicester Bank Plc UK
Carlton Park, Narborough
Leicester, LE19 0AL
Phone: ++4470457 96435 and +4470111 96845
Website: www.alliance-leicester.co.uk
Email: webstephen@alliance-leicestter.co.uk
PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU ARE TO CHANGE YOUR PASS WORD TO YOUR MAIL BOX IN ORDER TO SAFE GUILD THE PROCESS OF THIS TRANSACTION.
Your prompt response to this mail is highly needed to avoid delay in concluding this transaction.

Yours faithfully,
Mr.Webster Stephen,
Customers Care Department
Alliance Leicester Bank (U.K) ®
Alliance & Leicester is now part of the Santander Group, one of the world's largest banks.

The individual who created alliance-leicestter.co.uk may be a resident of the United Kingdom, according to the website registration

Domain name:   alliance-leicestter.co.uk
   Registrant:   michael baxter
   Registrant type:   UK Individual
   Registrant's address:   27 little london   Towcester   01   NN12 8UP   United Kingdom
   Registrar:   Melbourne IT t/a Internet Names Worldwide [Tag = MELBOURNE-IT]   URL: http://www.melbourneit.com.au/contacts
   Relevant dates:   Registered on: 09-Oct-2010   Renewal date: 09-Oct-2012   Last updated: 09-Oct-2010
   Registration status:   Registered until renewal date.
   Name servers:   ns1.officelive.com   ns2.officelive.com

This could create serious legal problems for this person, if the registration information is accurate. Going back to the second scam letter I received, I decided to do a WHOIS search on bitscn.net

Domain name: bitscn.net
Registrant Contact:   Whois Privacy Protection Service   Whois Agent    +86.05922577888 fax: +86.05922577111   No. 61 Wanghai Road, Xiamen Software Park   xiamen fujian 361008   china
Administrative Contact:   Whois Agent    +86.05922577888 fax: +86.05922577111   No. 61 Wanghai Road, Xiamen Software Park   xiamen fujian 361008   china
Technical Contact:   Whois Agent    +86.05922577888 fax: +86.05922577111   No. 61 Wanghai Road, Xiamen Software Park   xiamen fujian 361008   china
Billing Contact:   Whois Agent    +86.05922577888 fax: +86.05922577111   No. 61 Wanghai Road, Xiamen Software Park   xiamen fujian 361008   china
DNS:ns1.4everdns.comns2.4everdns.com
Created: 2006-04-07Expires: 2012-04-07

This China-based site provides email services powered by Microsoft Live. Scammers operating out of China has used Microsoft services in the past, as did the scammer offering the Hawaiian Electric job I wrote about months ago. BITSCN does show-up on a list of sites not to be trusted, according to McAfee. The first email address from domain qatar.io is similar to this. However, the IP address for BITSCN is from China, while QATAR.IO is from San Diego, California. The QATAR.IO address was shutdown either by the scammer or by the domain itself, so I doubt if QATAR.IO is an accessory to the scam.

As far as IP addresses being used by the scammers,

The first scam letter came from Monte Grande, Argentina;
The second scam letter came from Galdar, Spain;
The third (received after my reply) came from Lagos, Nigeria;
The fourth (claiming to come from Alliance-Leicester) also came from Lagos, Nigeria

I suspect that the first two letters were sent by members of a gang, possibly using proxies, while the leaders of the gang are based out of Nigeria.

Duane Browning

Smog Art Gallery Job Offer Scam

2011-04-15T01:50:00.000-07:00

This is just a recycled version of the Justin Art Gallery scam I wrote about earlier.

This time, it's the "Smog Art Gallery" (I love this name) and they've posted ads all over the place, except in Hawaii. I guess the fact that several people wrote to me and expressed their gratitude for the previous post made the scammer realize that posting in Hawaii was simply a bad idea, unless they wanted to have themselves exposed as frauds.

I was bored last night and did a search for "We are looking for individuals (Male/Female) Start Making $1,300 Weekday P/T" and found several ads [1] [2] [3] and other places too numerous to mention.

Links 2 and 3 featured the name "Marcus Reese" and link 3 included a phone number 206-666-4849, which is a cellphone, of course.

To see if the Justin Art Gallery scam was alive and well, I sent an email about the "job" and received this reply

Re: Reply to your Classified Ad #4283971
From: "Marcus Reese" marcusreese67@yahoo.com
To: me

Smog Int'l
63 CM Recto,Manila
Philippines.
Reflecting Natures Beauty!
http://www.smogartgalary.com/

Hello,
Thanks for getting back to me regarding the Delivery Position.However, I am Marcus Reese a Branch Manager of Smog Art Galary and I have been given the task of setting up Smog Art Galary in the United States to further expand and also meet the high demands of our numerous customers in the United States.More so, I will be arriving on the 25th of April 2011 and you can have the Delivery Application below filled out and sent to me by email so we can have it added to the company's data base.More so, the start of date as a Delivery Agent will be on the 27th of April 2011 and you are to work from Mondays through Fridays while you take the weekend off.Your weekly pay will be $1,300.You can also call me on my cell phone +639159275768......dial as typed

Introduction to Smog Art Galary

Smog Art Galary Furniture was established by Samuel Moore and Olivarez Grante in 2001. Originally setting up their workshop in an unassuming Recto side street the pair lovingly created quirky, brightly colored bookcases, charming cupboards and chests made from bits and pieces reclaimed from skips or foraged from the tip. A style developed that was reminiscent of early Australian or depression furniture crafted from need and ingenuity. They honed their skill, with Molly the dog standing sentinel and usually one or two small children scrambling in the wood shavings.

They catered to a very local clientele, trading directly from the side door around which the first makeshift ‘shop front’ evolved. From here the business has grown to incorporate a large Molino Street frontage. The “two men” swinging above the door remain a recognizable part of the landscape. Gone however are the days when Samuel and Olivarez would lock up shop and amble around the corner to the Black Cat for lunch. Nowadays, although the boys have staff, they still make all custom furniture in Manila themselves and we are all far too busy to down tools for too long. Well… you must however understand that the morning and afternoon tea tradition stands firm . If you happen to be passing the workshop door around the hours of 10 or 4 you may just catch a few ‘pearls’ emanating about anything from why Molly retrieves sandpaper from the bin, or the cultural implications of reality TV to (very vocally) the outcome of the cricket!

Challenges we face

The audience for exhibitions of contemporary art and furniture has increased widely during the last 5 years as general awareness and interest in contemporary art has developed both in the Philippines and abroad, thus making us one of the world's Interactive Art Gallery and now we are face with a challenge of keeping up with our numerous clients in the United States as they sometimes prefer making payments by cashier's check or money order, that's why we are in search of Representatives in the United States that will act as an aid between us and our numerous customers in the United States.We would be happy to receive your resume if you are interested in working for Smog Art Galary as one of our Representative in the United States.More so, Vacancy for the position of a Driver/Delivery Personnel is now available for an Immediate Appointment with a weekly pay of $1,300

Nevertheless, the Van will be provided by the Gallery before your 1st Assignment.More so, you are also to act as Smog Art Galary Payment Representative by receiving payment from our customers in the United States in Cashier's Check ,money order or bank draft.

JOB DESCRIPTION:
You will be making deliveries of our Art Collections bought by our customers to different locations with a Van that will be provided to you.More so, you are to receive the payment for each art works purchased as our Delivery/Payment Representative and have it sent to our Accounts Officer and I hope you can handle this....
BENEFIT IS AS FOLLOWS:
* The averagely income is about $5,200 Monthly depending on your Efficiency.
* No form of investments from you....
* This job takes only 4-6 hours per day....
* You do not pay any form of taxes as it will be paid by the Gallery.
* Weekends will be your days off
* Good Retirement Plan and Health Assurance
Kindly Have the Delivery Application filled out and sent back to me if you are interested in working for Smog Art Galary as our Delivery and Payment Representative so we can have it added to the company's date base. you can find out more about Smog Art Galary at http://www.smogartgalary.com/

Best Regards,
Marcus Reese
Smog Int'l
63 CM Recto,Manila
Philippines.
Reflecting Natures Beauty!
http://www.smogartgalary.com/

Delivery Application:
Contact Details:
First Name:
Last Name:
License Class:
Address Line:
City:
State:
Zip code:
Telephone:
Mobile:
Email:
2 Years Employment History (Most recent first)
Employer's name and any further details that may aid your application
Employer’s Full Name (1):
Start Date (1):
End Date (1):
Start Date (2):
End Date (2):
Employer’s Full Name (2):
Start Date (1):
End Date (1):

I visited the website via the link they gave and there really is a site. Not a well-designed one, but a site nonetheless. A definite improvement over the Justin Art Gallery scam, even if these morons don't know how to spell "gallery" correctly. I think that these are the same people who ran the first scam I wrote about, since they are using the same phone number.

But, much of the old scam is apparent in the new one 1) placing Want Ads anywhere and everywhere, 2) lack of identifiable information in the actual ad itself, beyond a name and cellphone number and 3) requesting copious amounts of information to be sent via email.

I did a WHOIS search to discover the owner of their website. One might think that the site would be registered in the Philippines, since the "galary" is supposed to be there? Right?

Nope. Wrong. It's registered in the United States of America.

Registrant:
Patricia Markie
98 Thompson Road
Avon, CT 06001 US
Phone: (646) 673-7229
Email mercury3t@yahoo.com

So, there are a few differences between this scam and the first, but not many. The scammers have also been active posting fake ads offering to sell a house in Manhattan while using the same phone number. They also ran a fake job offer scam under the name "Duncan Art Gallery".

As for the Philippines-based phone number, it is a mobile phone registered with Global Telecom. I went to their website in an attempt to report this number's connection to possible illegal activities in the United States and I was promptly disconnected from the chat server when I told them why I was contacting them. I'm not sure if it was deliberate or just a malfunctioning server.

So, there you go: the latest update on this group of scammers from the Philippines.

Duane Browning

GIFT50.COM Spammer/Telemarketer

2011-04-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

(This blogpost has been extensively rewritten to include new information about this spammer and how to report them to the appropriate agencies)

*******UPDATE FOR 11 SEPTEMBER 2011*******

The website GIFT50.COM is now dead.

*******IMPORTANT UPDATE*******

It has recently been discovered that the registered owner of gift50.com, Nick Brown, is the official contact for a company called Best World Media (bestworldmedia.com).

This corporation is a lead generation company. They harvest customer information and sell it to their clients.

If you want to fight back against this textspammer, you may report them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the New York Better Business Bureau.

If you want to contact Nick Brown directly, here is the contact information given on the website:

BestWorldMedia.com
244 Fifth avenue
Suite 292
New York, NY 10010

PHONE: (646) 338-8558

E-MAIL: nick.brown@bestworldmedia.com

*******IMPORTANT UPDATE*******

If you receive a text message that tells you to claim your "free Walmart gift card" at GIFT50.com and you actually try going to that site, you will be redirected to this address
http://track.brandnewprizes.com/SplashPage.aspx?g=827b5f1edb144c97a95fa974fb054569&nm=014havx2mqx0&s=gift50&se=04 (this link is now dead and only a line of text is displayed saying "You have requested a non-existent page.")
Here is one version of the spam texts being received

Congratulations! You've been choosen to recieve a $1,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card! Use appoval code: Giveme visit:GIFT50.COM

I really don't know if you really get a gift card or you just have your name added to a list to be sold to other marketing companies, so I can't be any kind of judge on the veracity of the spammers' claims. I sent an email to Walmart to see if this activity is something they have sanctioned. This is the response I received from Walmart's Corporate Offices:

Thank you for your message.
Dear Duane,
Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding a potential telemarketing scam. Walmart does not call or solicit customers to offer shopping cards, shopping sprees, or membership discounts in return for bank account, credit card, or personal information; nor would we solicit the customers with these incentives for them to take surveys. Also, Walmart currently does not employ mystery shoppers and any company that claims to be affiliated with Walmart for this type of program may be part of a telemarketing scam. Some telemarketers and internet ad companies use the Walmart name to engage the interest of the customer.
You may report the solicitation to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov or at 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). The FTC maintains a telemarketing complaint database called the "Consumer Sentinel" which is available to hundreds of law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The more concerns the FTC receives and logs, the more likely it is that some law enforcement agencies will get involved.
Customers should also report the solicitation to the Consumer Fraud Division of the Attorney General's office in their state or to the Better Business Bureau. The contact information for these organizations is located in the front of your local phone book.
Sincerely,

Walmart Customer Care

GIFT50.COM (dead) is was (LOL!) owned by the same person who ~~owns~~ owned MONEY500.COM (ownership apparently transferred), MONEY600.COM (dead), LAPTOP55.COM (dead) and over 100 other domains.

Registration Service Provided By: Namecheap.com
Contact: support@namecheap.com
Visit: http://namecheap.com

Domain name: gift50.com
Registrant Contact:

Nick Brown ()

Fax:
244 5th avenue
ste 282j
new york, NY 10001
US
Administrative Contact:

Nick Brown ()
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 5th avenue
ste 282j
new york, NY 10001
US
Technical Contact:

Nick Brown ()
+1.6463388558 (appears to be a cellphone, registered to T-Mobile)
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 5th avenue
ste 282j
new york, NY 10001
US
Status: Locked
Name Servers:
dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com
dns3.name-services.com
dns4.name-services.com
dns5.name-services.com

Creation date: 02 Feb 2011 22:33:00
Expiration date: 02 Feb 2012 17:33:00

Current status of domains known to have been registered to this person

AidTest.info (unsubscribe page displays)

bestworldmedia.com (active)

Gift90.com (active)

giftcard2.com (active)

Money600.com (dead)

outsidecathin.info (unsubscribe page displays)

ViewMyNewsCore.com (dead)

AidPeril.info (unsubscribe page displays)

ScatHin.info (unsubscribe page displays)

BareAid.info (unsubscribe page displays)

EastAid.info (unsubscribe page displays)

AquiVed.info (unsubscribe page displays)

MONEY500.COM (active)

LAPTOP55.COM (dead)

If you want to file complaints against this guy, send your email to support@namecheap.com. Tell them that you received the message via text message on your cellphone and include the complete text message that you received. If you received more than one text message, tell them that too and also mention if you have to pay for any texts you receive on your cellphone plan.

The (646) 338-8558 phone number given has been called by some one who read this blogpost (see comments section) and the people answering claimed to have no knowledge of GIFT50.COM, so I advise against calling them, as an innocent party may be involved. The owner of the website may have either entered a false number in their registration or has since changed their number to avoid complaints from people angry over being textspammed.

I found this link and this one mentioning that GIFT50.COM was slated for deletion on October 29, 2009 so, this website was purchased or renewed by the current owner in the past two years.

Phone numbers associated with GIFT50.COM

202-403-1171

203-736-7859

205-835-7576

207-299-3922

207-629-7627

210-324-9517

213-210-4098

213-447-9721

216-776-8628

218-535-5039

240-237-0891

251-253-2246

269-282-2617

281-954-1565

310-736-0903

319-671-2457

323-203-6170

325-513-9367

334-333-9575

337-784-1012

401-440-3856

404-429-6733

404-431-3279

404-452-0259

404-791-6913

407-486-6455

409-273-2891

419-378-4595

469-563-4512

480-274-3055

501-266-4125

503-836-2154

505-307-8276

507-841-8659

509-494-4402

513-435-4781

518-536-4148

520-238-2876

615-649-2642

615-681-6505

619-587-4426

641-232-0019

646-248-2717

701-403-2104

702-292-9294

703-314-4402

704-961-8439

803-217-0351

806-471-1293

813-720-5028

832-331-1612

860-634-1798

860-771-0749

860-830-4781

913-426-3107

917-261-0006

Several toll-free numbers appear to be linked to these textspammers:

866-571-8731

866-898-6147

877-774-5339

888-408-1754

Since the above search result indicates a possible link between these toll-free numbers and the text spammer, it is a temptation to call these numbers from a convenient payphone (to avoid the people answering from getting your home number and adding it to their database) to make a complaint about being spammed on your cellphone. If enough people were to call, it would cost them some money and they might stop, depending on if their scam was making them more money than it was costing. If I was a mean person, I'd be sorely tempted to call each of these numbers from a payphone, several times a day to complain. If I was a particularly nasty person, I'd call them several times an hour, every hour of my waking day, everyday of the week, for a whole month to get my point across.

But, that would be exceptionally cruel of me to do and would probably cost them a lot of money.

To continue...

The link I gave in the first paragraph is from BRANDNEWPRIZES.COM and is registered to:

I Marketing Survey Stop
Robert Celsi
100 Congress Avenue
Suite 2000
Austin, Texas,78701
Telephone: 866-852-1603
Email IMarketingSurveyStop@yahoo.ca

Domains known to be registered to this person

Freenewprizes.com

Wincoolgifts.com

Freenewgifts.com

Socialsurveygiveaways.com

WinCoolRewards.com

GIFTDELIVERYNOTICE.COM

DAILYDEALDELIGHTS.COM

Socialsurveygiveaways.com

WinCoolRewards.com

WinfreeNewPrizes.com

If you want to complain about this website to their domain service,

Registration Service Provided By: DYNAMIC DOLPHIN, INC, Contact: +1.7208723477

From I Marketing Survey Stop's website, I collected this contact information, which matches the above information from their website registration, except for the email address and no telephone number is included:

iMarketingSurveyStop.com

ATTN: CUSTOMER CARE

I Marketing Survey Stop

100 Congress AvenueSuite 2000

Austin TX

Email: Support@iMarketingSurveyStop.com

The address 100 Congress Avenue #2000 may be a virtual office for this company, since several other businesses claim this address as their own, mostly law firms. I personally sent a complaint email to both email addresses given for I Marketing Survey Stop and did not receive a reply or even an acknowledgement that my message had been received.

So, since GIFT50.COM links to his website, you can call him on his toll-free number to voice your displeasure over being spammed on your cellphone. You can also contact him via his website at this link to make a complaint about being spammed, though I strongly advise that you not enter your regular email address in the form, to prevent it from possibly being placed into their own mailing list.

The owner of BRANDNEWPRIZES is a full participant in this venture and not a purely innocent party. If you read the Official Gift Offer Rules for redemption of the Free $1,000 Walmart Gift Card, you'll see that you must participate in surveys for a period of time in order to claim your "free gift card". Compare this to what Walmart actually says in their reply to me

...nor would we solicit the customers with these incentives for them to take surveys.

So, I would suggest that you should follow Walmart's advice in handling these text spam messages.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Walmart for their speedy reply to my message and to my readers who have notified me of new phone numbers associated with this spammer.

Duane Browning

At Least He Stopped Using SMS

2011-04-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

Our buddy, Basil Al-Haddad is now known as Geoffrey Owen and he has decided to stop using text messaging and use emails, like most of the other scammers out there.

The advantage to his using email, instead of SMS is that recipients no longer are forced to read his messages and those people who have limits on the number of texts we can send or receive before they have to pay for them no longer will lose money because some lazy jerk is running a scam. He's also stopped using O2 email and is now using Microsoft Live.

This is his new email address geowen@live.co.uk

This is the email he's been sending out lately:

Hello,

I am quite aware of the impact strange e-mails like mine do have onpersons especially when they are unsolicited for, I must therefore apologize for intruding.

However, I am getting in touch with you as regards the assets of a client (deceased) who you share the same family name. He served as a contractor for Jiyeh Power Station Lebanon until the power station was bombed by the Israeli air force during the Israel-Lebanon conflict in2006 (leading to his death).

I am Geoffrey Owen. I work as an investment adviser for an assets management firm. It is our responsibility to locate the family of the deceased and pass on the assets by intestate succession. I advise you to contact me ASAP seeing that the assets are about to be confiscated to the Her Majesty Treasury if nobody comes forward for it.

I patiently await your response. I can be reached at 011 (44) 787 2282424 or +(44) 787 228 2424 for further discussion

I appeal for your tolerance if my message is contrary to your moral ethics. Thank you.

Yours Faithfully,

Geoffrey Owen.

He really seems to like those two phone numbers, which are the same one he used in the text spam period.

Thus, our friend joins the legions of scammers who litter our inboxes with their scam letters. This, of course, can easily be ignored, as opposed to the text spamming.

Duane Browning

Yet Another Text Spammer (Part Two)

2011-04-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the original post on the topic of this text spammer.

Until recently, the email address where you were supposed to send your personal information - market.dir@o2.co.uk - did not respond to inquiries. Only the original contact email - 4882@o2.co.uk - replied to any questions.

However, that has changed with a name and a new phone number added to this story. Several days ago, a friend sent an email to market.dir@o2.co.uk with a question regarding sending his details and received a reply from a person using the name Basil Al-Haddad. "Basil" also gave a new phone number by which he could be contacted:
011 (44) 787-228-2424 which is also a number from the United Kingdom.

Basil Al-Haddad

Marketing Director

TELEFONICA O2 UK LIMITED

260 Bath Road Slough Berkshire SL1 4DX

England, United Kingdom.

Phone: 011 (44) 787-228 -2424

Email: market.dir@o2.co.uk

According to information I received, this new number is a cellphone. If this number is correct, you can SMS this person via one of these addresses

07872282424@mmail.co.uk
07872282424@o2.co.uk
07872282424@mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk

Due to my ignorance of dialing phone numbers in the UK, these addresses may not be entirely accurate. So, be careful.

Once again, an IP trace was done and surprisingly the result was the same as the email received from 4882@o2.co.uk in that the IP was out of the USA. So, my initial assumption of a ringleader being in the UK was incorrect. Either that or they are using a proxy, but I had always thought that a proxy would give a different IP every time you used it.

Examining the headers of both emails, I found this in the first

Return-Path: info3@telefonicamail.net

and this in the second

Return-Path: veunit@telefonicamail.net

I didn't think much of it, at first. But, curiosity got hold of me and I did a WHOIS on telefonicamail.net and received this result

WHOIS information for telefonicamail.net :[Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
[Redirected to whois.melbourneit.com]
[Querying whois.melbourneit.com]
[whois.melbourneit.com]
Domain Name.......... telefonicamail.net
Creation Date........ 2010-04-29
Registration Date.... 2010-04-29
Expiry Date.......... 2011-04-29
Organisation Name.... John Russell
Organisation Address. PO Box 61359
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Sunnyvale
Organisation Address. 94088
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US
Admin Name........... Admin PrivateRegContact
Admin Address........ PO Box 61359
Admin Address........ registered post accepted only
Admin Address........ Sunnyvale
Admin Address........ 94088
Admin Address........ CA
Admin Address........ US
Admin Email.......... contact@myprivateregistration.com
Admin Phone.......... +1.5105952002
Admin Fax............
Tech Name............ TECH PrivateRegContact
Tech Address......... PO Box 61359
Tech Address......... registered post accepted only
Tech Address......... Sunnyvale
Tech Address......... 94088
Tech Address......... CA
Tech Address......... US
Tech Email........... contact@myprivateregistration.com
Tech Phone........... +1.5105952002
Tech Fax.............
Name Server.......... ns1.officelive.com
Name Server.......... ns2.officelive.com

Doing a reverse WHOIS reveals that "John Russell" owns hundreds of other domains. However, it would cost me a lot of money to find-out which domains they are and I do not care about it that much to spend money on this. So, it seems that "John Russell" is behind this whole thing.

Other email addresses used in the past with this scam:

veunit@o2.co.uk
inquiry@o2.co.uk
query1@o2.co.uk
info@o2mobile-uk.com

I'm sure that I could find more addresses, if I was inclined to keep looking.

Apparently, the scam got started in Nigeria with these text messages being sent out randomly with all correspondences being done by email. The addition of real telephone/fax numbers shows that it is possible they have confederates in the UK working as part of the scam.

Duane Browning

File A Complaint Against Text Spammers

2011-03-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

What really pisses me off about text spammers is that they send out their spam with no regard as to whether or not the recipient has to pay for the texts they receive. If you have a texting plan with your cellphone provider that allows a certain number of texts before you have to start paying for them, receiving text spam could cost you some money.

It doesn't matter how much it costs, it only matters that you have to spend your money because some jerk wants to either sell you something or is trying to swindle you in some way.

I have only today become aware that you can file an official complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against text spammers. Simply go to this link
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action
fill it out and include all communications you've had from this text spammer in a file that you can attach to your complaint. If you sent a reply to an email address provided in the original text and you received a reply back, copy and paste the email you received (including headers) in the file you're attaching.

Duane Browning

WaterWorks4U & Peter Goodgold

2011-03-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

The are people out there that want us to believe that the water we drink is too acidic and that this is the cause of many or all of our health problems. These people can often be found selling water ionizers, which supposedly can save us from the health-damaging effects of acidic water. One man, Peter Goodgold, goes so far as to claim that there is only one disease: acidosis; and if we can prevent acidosis in our bodies, we will not get cancer or other diseases.

A pretty heavy claim, Pete. When I think of the centuries of time wasted in doing the research to find cures of cancer, AIDS, diabetes, etc when all we had to do was simply drink alkaline water, I just want to crawl into a bottle of rum and stay there until I die.

Peter is such an altruistic human being that he's even started a business to sell products that you can use to make your own alkaline water: WaterWorks4U.com and for a measly $2000 you too can find the miracle cure for all known diseases. Oh, sorry, Peter says that the only disease we have to fear is acidosis.

I could save you some serious money if you want to find a way to cure acidosis, but don't have the money to spend on Pete's super-spiffy ionizer. Here you go

Pete has a long history of selling stuff that makes you healthy and happy, besides water ionizers. He sells WildWaterfalls, too. Of the rocks he carves when he's making them, Pete said

"When I carve the rocks, they talk to me. They tell me where to cut...."

Whatever you say, man. Whatever you say. Most people would get put away in a mental hospital if they went around saying that rocks talked to them. But, who am I to judge?

Anyway, the water ionizers appear to be Pete's main product, so let's deal with Pete's claims by offering-up some videos for you to watch. I am no scientist, but I'm a pretty sharp guy and I think I have the wherewithal to be able to discern between a scientist with a solid background in the field being discussed and a bullshit artist who's simply out to sell me something. I'm also smart enough to let the experts speak for themselves, rather than make a pathetic attempt to explain the science myself.

These videos were posted on YouTube by people with scientific backgrounds (as opposed to Peter Goodgold, who has no scientific training that I am aware of) and contain a lot of scientific jargon. But, I think they can be understood by most people.

From AnswersInBooks

From SuperSoylent2

From lapkine77

Peter Goodgold or friends of his, responded to these videos by filing complaints under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as you can see here

and it was mentioned by lapkine77 in the video posted above, which is actually a remake of a previous video which was taken off YouTube, due to a Terms of Use complaint. But, I personally found the video so entertaining that I found a mirror of it and I include it here

I'd also like to post this video from AnswersInBooks, who posted this video about the current ongoings with the potential legal battle between himself and Pete Goodgold. He also gives me a nice shoutout near the end of the video

I think many people prefer videos rather than reading stuff, but if you have some free time, you can read the following webpages which debunk the pseudoscience of ionized water merchants here, here and here. In the description box of this latest video, AnswersInBooks also posted these links to articles he wrote with even more information at here and there.

But, what about the business practices of Peter Goodgold and WaterWorks4U? Not having done business with Peter & Co. doesn't allow me firsthand experience. However, others who have done business with Peter have posted reports of their experiences here.

Peter Goodgold used to have his own channel on YouTube where he featured his videos hawking his stuff, but that channel was taken down and if you go to the link where his channel used to be, you will see this message

Waterworks4U has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of our Community Guidelines.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Seems that Peter doesn't play well with others.

At least there is one bit of truly honest information available on the WaterWorks4U website and you can find it at the very bottom of his website in very, very small print. It says:

All information presented through this web site, or associated manufacturers, has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. These products are neither formulated nor prescribed for any medical condition; they are formulated for use as an important addition to the daily diet.

Uh, yeah. I guess these water ionizers aren't the Fountain of Youth, after all. Besides, if you take a look at Peter Goodgold himself, you'll notice that ionized water can't even cure male-pattern baldness, so how great can they be?

Peter Goodgold may be making some good money by selling this crap and preaching bad science and he may think that this entitles him to step on anyone who tries to educate people about Goodgold's spurious claims. I think that Grimlock the Dinobot could sum-up my response to Peter Goodgold, his company and the products he sells:

"You wrong and you ugly, too."

Duane Browning

Yet Another Text Spammer

2011-03-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

I received this text message on my cellphone right after I had finished breakfast yesterday morning

From: noreply@o2.co.uk CongratulationsYou've been awarded 418,000 British Pounds by Telefonica O2. Send an Email to 4882@o2.co.uk for claims

So, I sent a reply from the email account I use for responding to text spam and I received this message the next day:

From: "O2 Mobile" 4882@o2.co.uk
Ref: O2/1629/11
Dear winner,
I congratulate you on behalf of the management of Telefónica O2 UK Limited. This promotion is brought to you as a marketing strategy designed to create an awareness of the expansion of O2 network coverage to the North American region.
23 cell phone numbers were randomly selected worldwide via a computer draws system. Your number was selected from the 2nd category in the 1st draw, hence made you a silver award winner.
To facilitate the redemption of your award, kindly contact the Marketing Director with the following details:
First and Name:
Contact Address/Tel:
Email:
Age:
Occupation:
Winning Phone Number:
Amount won:
Send information to Email: market.dir@o2.co.uk
Upon receipt of the above information, the marketing director will verify the details to ensure you are the registered owner of the winning phone number. Once these formalities are concluded, your funds will be remitted to you. Be assured that your details are highly secured. It will neither be disclosed to third parties nor used for illegal activities.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1) Any falsification of your details will render you disqualified.
2) Friends or relatives are not eligible to receive award on your behalf.
3) To avoid multiple claims and impersonation you are expected to respect the integrity of the privileged information regarding your winnings, do not disclose to third parties until your prize money is received by you.
4) After you receive your award, you will be required to honor an invitation to join Telefónica O2 marketing team on TV for an interview regarding this promotion in North America.
Please advise how convenient this interview will be for you. Congratulations once more and thank you for being part of our expansion awareness program.
Best regards,
Promo Co-ordinators.
TELEFONICA O2 UK LIMITED
MARKETING DEPARTMENT
Office: 011 (44) 127 479 2353
Fax: 011 (44) 191 247 8151
260 Bath Road Slough Berkshire SL1 4DX
United Kingdom

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This electronic message contains information from Telefonica O2 UK ltd which may be privileged or confidential. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify us by email.

I would have figured that would have come out of Nigeria, China or someplace like that. But, no, it came from within the USA. A simple IP trace was all that I needed to do to discover this.

Obviously, this is a scam. So, I forwarded the message I received to O2's corporate offices in the United Kingdom for them to take whatever action they deem appropriate.

While the address given in the email is Telefonica's real address, the phone numbers don't match. The phone numbers are from Great Britain, but they are not Telefonica's. From another blogpost, I learned that if you call the numbers, somebody actually does answer the phone and they even give you a tracking number for whatever package they are supposedly sending you.

So, this isn't some slapped-together scam, these guys have a pretty convincing swindle going here and I think many people might be taken-in by them, due to their appearance of legitimacy. Due to the IP trace and the real British phone numbers, I came to the conclusion that this is actually a group of scammers working together with members on both sides of the Atlantic.

UPDATE: if you've received the first message, but the email address is different, please let me know by posting a reply to this blog. I'd like to update this blog with current information as it becomes available to me. A second post on this topic has been posted.

If you live in the United States, you may file a complaint against the sender of this text spam by going to this webpage
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action

Duane Browning

Beware of Jim Humble's "Miracle Mineral Supplement"

2011-03-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

Once again, a product has entered the market and the people selling it are making claims that it is some sort of miracle cure that can treat anything from AIDS to cancer. The product I am writing about is the "Miracle Mineral Supplement", also known as the "Miracle Mineral Solution".

The originator of this particular product is a man named Jim Humble, who has no scientific background that I am aware of, yet makes claims for his product that are based upon testimonials, rather than scientific evidence.

For an explanation as to why this product may not be everything - or anything - that Mr Humble and his sycophants claim, watch this video:

This video was recorded by a person with a scientific background and gives a very detailed explanation as to what this product really is and how it can adversely affect your health.

Duane Browning

Another Text Spammer Found

2011-01-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here is the typical spam message received from these text spammers

Need some quick cash? You can easily get $1200 wired into your bank account today! For info, just reply back the word "Pay", to cancel reply "STOP"

A search on some of the numbers being used or that had been used in the past shows that the spammer is using AT&T accounts. The following is as complete a list as I can make of all known phone numbers associated with these text spammers, listed in numerical order:

323-208-2212

408-203-3430

408-203-4306

408-427-7743

415-309-7479

415-408-1069

415-408-1548

415-408-8106

510-219-7087

510-316-7065

510-378-9423

612-454-9373

714-176-3827

714-251-2595

714-276-3827

714-330-9748

714-519-1465

714-599-0894

714-625-1458

714-651-4683

714-651-7164

714-679-0140

714-679-1572

714-679-2176

714-679-2456

714-679-2867

714-679-4275

714-679-4969

714-679-7169

714-679-7490

714-697-5848

714-697-5850

714-697-5854

714-757-9209

714-869-4141

818-519-6960

845-617-4891

909-287-4247

949-463-3715

949-463-5147

949-463-5162

949-463-5163

949-463-5447

949-463-5594

949-463-5601

949-463-5608

949-463-6435

949-463-6700

949-463-7436

949-463-7437

949-463-7505

949-466-7139

951-314-8998

Since these all appear to be AT&T numbers, you can use a web-based email account to send them a message directly. I suggest not using your regular email account. Instead, use a Yahoo or Hotmail account to voice your disagreement with their use of text messaging to spam your phone. Here is a list of the email addresses that you can use, corresponding to the order given above:

3232082212@txt.att.net

4082033430@txt.att.net

4082034306@txt.att.net

4084277743@txt.att.net

4153097479@txt.att.net

4154081069@txt.att.net

4154081548@txt.att.net

4154088106@txt.att.net

5102197087@txt.att.net

5103167065@txt.att.net

5103789423@txt.att.net

6124549373@txt.att.net

7141763827@txt.att.net

7142512595@txt.att.net

7142763827@txt.att.net

7143309748@txt.att.net

7145191465@txt.att.net

7145990894@txt.att.net

7146251458@txt.att.net

7146514683@txt.att.net

7146517164@txt.att.net

7146790140@txt.att.net

7146791572@txt.att.net

7146792176@txt.att.net

7146792456@txt.att.net

7146792867@txt.att.net

7146794275@txt.att.net

7146794969@txt.att.net

7146797169@txt.att.net

7146797490@txt.att.net

7146975848@txt.att.net

7146975850@txt.att.net

7146975854@txt.att.net

7147579209@txt.att.net

7148694141@txt.att.net

8185196960@txt.att.net

8456174891@txt.att.net

9092874247@txt.att.net

9494633715@txt.att.net

9494635147@txt.att.net

9494635162@txt.att.net

9494635163@txt.att.net

9494635447@txt.att.net

9494635594@txt.att.net

9494635601@txt.att.net

9494635608@txt.att.net

9494636435@txt.att.net

9494636700@txt.att.net

9494637436@txt.att.net

9494637437@txt.att.net

9494637505@txt.att.net

9494667139@txt.att.net

9513148998@txt.att.net

If you live in the United States, you may file a complaint against the sender of this text spam by going to this webpage
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action

I hope this helps.

Duane Browning

Unwelcome Phone Calls from Toll-Free Numbers

2010-12-25T19:41:00.000-08:00

EveryCall.US has a list of the most-reported telemarketing calls on their website. Since I had some free time, I decided to do a bit of checking on the list to see who the companies are that these numbers belong.

Here we go:

800-684-8429    In Use since 1995 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

800-669-0102    In Use since 2010 for a customer of AT&T

877-819-6042    In Use since 2005 for a customer of Sprint 800-795-1004

800-395-2274    In Use since 1997 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

800-555-0433    In Use since 2003 for a customer of AT&T

800-733-1116    In Use since 2005 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

800-959-1373    In Use since 1998 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

800-900-1372    In Use since 2010 for a customer of TransNational (TNCI) 800-800-8400

800-848-9380    In Use since 1997 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

800-395-2274    In Use since 1997 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

800-331-0500    In Use since 2003 for a customer of ATT

800-754-0961    In Use since 2002 for a customer of AT&T

800-947-5096    In Use since 2002 for a customer of AT&T

877-874-5811    In Use since 2010 for a customer of Phone People aka Onebox 858-569-4444

877-825-3242    In Use since 2009 for a customer of Mpower Communications 702-310-7994

877-838-4347    In Use since 2001 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722

Duane Browning