Month: December 2014

Within 24 hours I’ve seen reports of the BBC article on sextortion has been seen in Canada, America and Australia.  I really hope this means more and more people are warned and don’t fall for this scam.

I’ll be speaking at the iDate conference in Las Vegas on January 22nd.  It’s a huge event for the dating site industry and will give us an opportunity to meet with site owners and hopefully find ways to work with them on dealing with romance scams.  If you want to read more about the conference, […]

We’ve been working with the BBC on this for ages.  It all started with a message to me 6 months ago.  Good to see the finished result at last.  We should also be able to announce another big media article in the coming weeks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30544685 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30538819 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30532438

I’ve just had a call letting me know that there should be a big article on blackmail scams on the BBC tomorrow, starting at around 6am.  More news as and when it arrives.

How on earth can a person go to a site called SCAMsurvivors, click on a section on the forum called “refugee SCAMS”, see documents watermarked with “sent by SCAMMER” there and STILL write a post in the thread asking them to contact them believing they’re real?  The really scary thing is that it’s actually a […]

Beware of emails with a job title in the name.  mail.com allows free email addresses that have a job title in it.  @presidency.com, @consultant.com, @engineer.com, @diplomat.com and @contractor.com are some examples.  Any genuine person would use the email system of the company they work for, not a free email address.

Why?  Simple.  You kill one profile and they just make a new one.  You’ve gained nothing by doing it, and any reports/investigations on the scammer are now outdated.  Don’t do it.

When Christmas shopping, beware of the increased criminal activity.  Guard your credit card PIN, don’t leave your wallet or purse in an easy to pickpocket place, keep any presents you buy hidden in the boot of your car and watch out for credit card skimming.  After Christmas, remember that all those boxes you throw out […]

We’re not getting any kind of joy out of seeing your video, believe me.  What it does is give us the chance to report not only the video given but any others we find on that account.  YouTube has a “3 strikes and you’re out” policy, so if we can report more than one video […]

The key word here is “fee”.  Of course the other key words are “advance” and “fraud”.  Basically, it’s a fraud that tells you that you need to pay a fee in advance.  Makes perfect sense, right?  Need a loan?  Pay us the processing fees first, then you can have it.  Found true love?  Cough up […]