I’m very proud of this new interactive game.
With my good friends Tom, Yao, David and Vin, we have created an interactive experience that allows you to play Three Disk Monte exactly as it is played on the streets.
Even if you manage to beat the game, can you beat the grifters?
Click below to find out!
A few months ago, I fielded several emails and callers from people worried that a Westfield Win A Gift Card promotion on facebook was a scam.
Cynical marketing ploy? Yes
Shameless attempt to cash in social networking? Of course
Do I like asking questions and then answering them? Certainly.
Scam? No.
It was a genuine marketing promotion.
Over the past few days, 40,000 facebook users have fallen victim to an Ikea Gift Card Scam. And this time, it really is a scam.
Step 1) You are asked to join a facebook fan group allowing you to Win a $1000 Ikea gift card. The design is flashy and professional.
A few commentators have jumped on the fear mongering band wagon (In my mind, the fear mongering band wagon is a black panel van with flames on the side and a skull on the bonnet) claiming that the anyone who signed on will end up the identity theft.
However, I’m not sure this is case.
If you put the pieces together (which come conveniently flat packed with allen key included) it becomes clear that the creator of the group mostly receives kick backs from the companies above for signing on new recruits.
These types of affiliate programs are all over the net and they are not illegal.
What is illegal, however, is to promise a gift voucher that you don’t deliver.
If you haven’t been by Scambusting! lately you’re missing out. Lots of great information and entertaining videos recently. I am very happy to see members posting materials as well.
Be sure to visit Nicholas J Johnson’s blog. A couple of postings from his blog are available on Scambusting, but you should read all his past postings. Nicholas is a magician and “Honest Con” from Australia. He is very talented and well-informed.
We are a small group right now, so why not invite some friends to join? There is some great information to share. A little something for everyone.
Thanks
Bill Nuvo
We had plenty of callers ringing to complain about a scratch card in a major newspaper on the weekend. Everyone who scratches, wins. The catch is you need to text or call a $20 premium number to find out you only won a free ring tone. One caller managed to get his money back by complaining.
An Indian man has been wandering the streets of Melbourne claiming he can read fortunes. He’d write a prediction on a small piece of paper and then ask victims what their favourite flower and number was. He always got it right leading to several women giving him $20 and $50 notes. To find out how he did it, talk to this man or head over to the Melbourne Magic Festival.
Plenty of callers has been infected by a worm attached to a facebook message. The email claimed that their facebook password had been changed. It was also asked “how can you tell what is a real page and what is a hoax page. The key is to look at every between the http:// and the next / . The address reads from right to left. So scam.facebook.com would be a real site as it falls under the facebook.com domain. facebook.scam.com would be a fake site as it falls under the scam.com domain.
Finally, serial swindle Wayne Charters is behind bars after being found guilty of five counts of obtaining money by deception. He married a Rosebud woman and then convinced her to sell all her assets so they could move overseas together. He claimed to be an ASIO spy trying to escape the organisation. He got out of sleeping with her by claiming that he ‘didn’t believe in sex before marriage’ and ‘had a bad back.’
If you’ve got a scam question for the show, email me at sleightofhand@conman.com.au.
Imagine if, right now, Phishing became legal worldwide. Any individual, organisation or government could legally try to gain access to your personal information using faux websites, fake emails and other social engineering techniques.
Would we see a rise in phishing?
I’d wager not. The main barrier in the way of phishers is not the law. The law does nothing and can do nothing to stop them.
The police in the victim’s country does not have the power to press charges against aa scammer thousands of kilometres away.
The police in the scammer’s country usually have better things to do then hunt down non-violent criminals who, behind locked doors, are swindling foreign nationals.
The problem is too big and the solutions too hard.
If the police and government are not going to protect you, you need to protect yourself.
No one else is going to.
The other, far more dangerous Phish.
This week on statewide drive with Kathy Bedford we discussed:
Casino Conjuring: The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation spent $25,000 being Las Vegas magician Barron Stringfellow (best. name. ever.) to Australia to teach investigators how to spot a cheat.
A good investment of taxpayer money?
UPS Scam: A caller asked whether an email from UPS was really a scam (it was) and another called wondering why we get more scam emails this time of year. (the answer: we all need to cash after Christmas)
Twitter: We discussed the various frauds associated the social networking site and how to avoid getting swindled while tweeting.
Is the openness and anonymity of tweeter a breeding ground for swindlers?
Climate Change Government: Scamwatch warns us to be on the look out for fake offers of grants to fix climate change.
io9, perhaps the nerdiest website on the internet, has reported on new technology that allows neuro-scientists to spot art forgeries.
Scientists can use the unique way in which our brain creates and reads information to tell which paintings are real and which are forgeries.
You can read the whole science heavy geek fest here.
It might be a fake…but who cares?
Remember those old porn dialers?
Back in the dark ages when everyone had dial up modems and burnt witches at the stake, con artists would distribute ‘free porn’ on the internet through dialer programs.
To access the porn, you’d download a program that rang a specific number using your modem.
While the porn was free, the phone number your modem was calling was a premium, high toll number and you ended up getting stung on your phone bill.
That swindle is dead since no one but nannas uses a dial up modem any more. (and nannas don’t download porn, what with being dead from the waist down)
However, the new millenium version hits the Smartphone.
Owners of Iphones who jailbreak their handset, overriding the Apple controls, are being hit with offers of “Free Porn Via Java”.
They download the free, non-approved, application which, then sends a text message to a premium text service.
You end up signed on for a premium account, with no chance of ever being able to unsubscribe because, in most cases, people aren’t even aware the text has been sent.
I’m being interviewed by the Magic Newswire this week, a highly popular podcast for magicians.
I’ll be talking about stories from the road, the Real Hustle and the use of magic methods in scams and scams in magic.
Check out this recent interview with Bryan Brushwood talking about his video series Scam School.
