Posts Tagged ‘scam?’

What does ‘entitlement’ look like, Chris Luxon?

Wow. A mortgage free apartment, but he claims ‘accommodation expenses’ (really a taxpayer-funded allowance) of $1,000 per week – on top of his $471,000 pa salary and other benefits, etc etc. The National Party CEO must be so used to the good life, eh? The Prime Minister will receive a $52,000 top-up to his $471,000 […]

Internet marketing cowboys will be with us always

The Atlantic has a must-read article on an internet marketing cowboy and [alleged] hustler and con-artist called Jesse Willms. It’s a longish read but a very good one. Reading about Willms, I saw some similarities in the story of motormouth Shaun Stenning, a figure in various failed internet marketing enterprises Geekversity, Twalk, Snipr, YouTube Traffic […]

Fishing for suckers

Just back from my school camp/tropical island holiday (ha!) and look what was on the fax machine: A new scam looking for victims… Fishy? Yup. Yellow Pages Group is warning its small business customers not to be sucked in by a scam that asks for their details so that they can be listed online. The […]

Sometimes Mail is soooo right. Junk.

I spotted this on a quick flick through my ‘Junk’ folder. ‘Mail thinks this is Junk Mail’. Er, … that’s fersure. What gives it away as fake, most of all, is that I’ve never actually entered that lottery. A small detail. – P

Gizmodo displays its journalism skills once more

News is that Gizmodo, who reportedly paid the finder of the lost/stolen iPhone4 prototype $5,000 for umm, ‘exclusive access‘ to the device (cough, — so they could photograph it and dismantle it and plaster images of it on the web) won’t be prosecuted for those activities.   District Attorney Announces Filing Decision on Misappropriation of […]

More inconvenient juxtaposition

While I am committed to the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ I must admit to a groan of dismay and recognition when I read this NZ Herald headline: Missing uni cash: priest quits job A priest working as a senior executive at the Auckland University of Technology has resigned after “accounting discrepancies” involving hundreds […]

Alan Hubbard – what the hell?

I’m not a raving fan of Alan Hubbard, but I don’t have an intelligent basis to be a detractor, really, either. This article from the NZ Herald’s Fran O’Sullivan What odds for a fair trial for Hubbard? makes some good points. Worth a read. – P

Dirty rotten liars posing as their opposites

Look at this page which an innocent Google image search result led me to last night: As well as a bogus scan with blinking displays and an imitation desktop window (displayed within the browser) — supposedly checking my computer for malware and viruses telling me the ‘alarming’ news that ‘Your computer is infected‘ the website […]

Bernard Whimp gets his name in lights … sort of

You may recall my posts ‘Low-ball share buyer Bernard Whimp in action‘ and ‘Bernard Whimp – another suck of the saveloy. No shame?‘ which catalog this unimpressive Christchurch businessman’s questionable, um,  ‘endeavours‘. The Financial Markets Authority announced today it has ordered Bernard Whimp and his associates  to “include a warning from the FMA at the beginning […]

What NOT to do with your ‘charisma’

Business Insider reports on the downfall of a charismatic figure who travelled the world … Hmm, that reminds me of …? Oops. Three to nine years prison. (Oh — and an internet ‘reputation‘ — beyond the reality TV show.) – P  

Bernard Whimp – another suck of the saveloy. No shame?

You may recall the general disregard in which low-ball share buyer Bernard Whimp is held by members of the local business community. My post earlier this year Low-ball share buyer Bernard Whimp in action was provoked by his [arguably] misleading offer to buy shares in big companies at a significant, some say unconscionable discount to […]

More reasons to research ‘investments’

Con artists taking advantage of Facebook … “With any startup company, early-stage investors that are putting their capital and their belief and trust into the company are exposing themselves to a great deal of loss,” said Walsh. “The workers who often get stock options should the company ever go public, are putting in their sweat […]

Black Hats as the ‘good guys’

For the most part, the people who attend Black Hat [Security Conference July 2011] are good guys who are there to learn how to keep our systems safe. As noted on ZDNet, Mac OS X security remains much better than that of Windows. Mac OS X 10.6.6 only included one security fix, while Microsoft’s February […]

Refunds are like kryptonite (Salty Droid)

This is from anti-scam campaigner The Salty Droid. It’s in relation to internet marketers by the name of Jimmy Davis & Dennis Karganilla … whose product he rather, um, colourfully describes in these terms: The 90 Day Challenge sapped victims for between $500 – $2000. It consisted of three main elements :: Recycled information available […]

The Stenning Tweebs try to roll with the punches

Ripples of disappointment continue to emanate from the Stenning performing troupe’s roadshow/sales tour through Asia, during which the smooth-talkers (!) apparently sold platforms/products offering quick-and-easy (‘just three clicks?’) internet riches. As the ‘refund movement‘ heats up against another Shaun Stenning-fronted ‘enterprise’ (spotted the pattern, anyone?) it looks like the gang, through Ian Naylor, is trying […]