An article in the Coastal Federal Credit Union’s Beacon magazine [PDF] alerted me to an interesting scam involving gift cards.

In essence, the thief walks into a store where the gift cards are displayed openly. The thief makes note of the card numbers – either with a portable barcode scanner or a simple notepad – then returns the gift cards to the rack. At some point in the future (say, the day after Christmas) the thief calls the phone number to check the gift card’s balance. If there’s a balance on the card, the thief goes shopping online with the stolen card number, draining the card of its balance. They can only use the stolen number online because they don’t have the physical card, though with a mag stripe programmer a legit card could easily be reprogrammed with the stolen number.

This scam can be defeated by buying only gift cards that are held behind the counter. Also, gift cards with scratch-off PIN numbers are also relatively safe.

You can read more about the gift card scam at Scambusters.

I saw a “pulic” notice in the N&O’s classifieds today (link may not work as N&O web stuff is sometimes broken). It involves a minor change in the license for WRVA-FM 100.7, a.k.a. “The River.”

I generally don’t pay much attention to these things but this ad stood out its sheer length. Here’s the most interesting part (my emphasis):

The general partner of Capstar TX Limited Partnership is AMFM Shamrock Texas Inc., and its limited partner is Capstar Radio Operating Company. AMFM Shamrock Texas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capstar Radio Operating Company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AMFM Texas Broadcasting, L.P. The general partner of AMFM Texas Broadcasting, L.P. is AMFM Broadcasting, Inc., and its limited partner is AMFM Texas, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AMFM Broadcasting, Inc., which is wholly owned by AMFM Radio Group, Inc., which is wholly owned by AMFM Operating, Inc., which is wholly owned by Capstar Broadcasting Partners, Inc., which is wholly owned by AMFM Holdings, Inc., which is wholly owned by AMFM Inc., which is wholly owned by Clear Channel Communications.

Got that? Think the taxman does? Anyone still doubt that lawyers have ruined the entertainment industry?

For the next RDU Barcamp (which will be my first, as I have yet to participate in any), I thought it might be fun to teach a mock class on how to scam people. You know: pretend I’m a big-time con artist showing the ropes to wannabe Nigerian scammers. The class will include critiques of sample scam emails and suggest easy ways to get important information. The take-away from it all would be to educate my “students” in how not to get taken.

I might not wait for Barcamp but might package this as a TriLUG presentation for a slow night. I bet it would be a lot of fun!

Here’s another scam email, stealing the identity of a legitimate business in an effort to hoodwink folks out of their hard-earned money. This one’s been floating around since May.

Return-Path: angel2@t-email.hu
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:17:06 -0800
From: “Applied Metal Technology Ltd. ” angel2@t-email.hu
Subject: Payment Agent Needed (Earn $5500 + $500 Bonus Monthly )
Reply-to: appliedmetaltech.ltd@live.com
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Continue reading →

Remember the Bullet Motorsports scam I mentioned earlier? Seems there is a legitimate Bullet Motorsports Speedlab in Santa Ana, California that had its name and website copied by the scammers. The owner of the legitimate site popped up on a fraud-fighting message board to ask for advice. Thus, while the email claiming to be offering a job with BMS is a fraud, Bullet Motorsports Speedlab itself is legitimate.

Got this scam email today. I suppose it fools many people.

I’ve highlighted the interesting parts below.

From: “Bullet Motorsports Speedlab” Stratton_2492@arkansas.net
To: markt@ blah blah blah.net
Subject: part time job for you
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:22:53 -0400

BMS, Bullet Motorsports Speedlab, was originally founded to turn “ordinary” BMWs into the fastest race cars possible. BMS race cars have won numerous national championships over the past four years and BMS continues to promote club racing through its driver development program. From their intimate knowledge of the inner workings of BMWs, and countless hours of track time testing products in a high-stress environment, BMS technicians are highly skilled in tuning BMWs and Minis for street applications. There are many misconceptions in the aftermarket tuning industry. Our job is to separate the truth from the hype, for the benefit of our customers. Of course, tuning by itself is insufficient without full knowledge of servicing not only BMW components, but also the full range of aftermarket equipment from superchargers to stereos. There is nothing on your BMW or Mini that BMS can’t fix – or if you desire, improve.
Continue reading →

Got an email with the following alleged quote at the end:

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

— Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59), French social philosopher, author of “Democracy in America”

As he was a famous French historian, Tocqueville gets quoted (and misquoted) constantly (see this site for a prominent example). A Google search today lists 186 results, which isn’t much if this is indeed legitimate. Wikiquote says its unsourced.

My thought is that its bogus. Maybe I’ll track it down, too.