Justin Bieber did NOT Die in a Car Crash

Outline
Message circulating via social media claims that popular young singing star Justin Bieber has died in a car accident.
Brief Analysis  
The claims in the message are false. Justin Bieber is alive and well. This message is just one more in a long line of hoaxes that have falsely claimed that a celebrity has died. Before passing on any message that claims that a famous person has died, it is a good idea to check the claim via a reliable news source. Also be aware that links in some such death hoaxes lead to malware or survey scam websites.
Justin Bieber died in a single vehicle crash on Route 80 between Morristown and Roswell. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics responding to the vehicle accident and was identified by photo ID found on his body.
Detailed Analysis
According to messages that are circulating rapidly via social media websites, young singing superstar Justin Bieber has died in a single vehicle car crash. The reports claim that Justin was pronounced dead at the scene and identified via photoID on his body.
However, the claims in the message are false. His legions of young fans will be glad to know that Justin is alive and well. In fact Justin is just the latest victim in a long, sorry, series of celebrity death hoaxes.
Many of these false death rumours originate from several tasteless “prank” websites that allow users to create fake news stories detailing the supposed death of various celebrities. Users can generally pick from several “news” templates, add the name of their chosen celebrity and then attempt to fool their friends by sharing the bogus story. One such template is the “car accident” story used in this hoax. Other versions falsely claim that the targeted celebrity has died in a snow boarding accident or fell to his or her death from a cliff while filming in New Zealand.
Before passing on any message that claims that a famous – or infamous – person has died, it is always wise to check the story via a reputable news source. If a well-known person does die, the news is sure to be widely reported by the main-stream media, so a quick search of a news source such as Google News should quickly reveal if the claims in a message are true or false.
Users should also be aware that some of these false celebrity death messages may contain links that lead to survey scams or malware websites.

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Red Cross Tsunami Scam Email

Summary:
Unsolicited email claiming to be from Red Cross International, the Netherlands, asks recipients to donate money to tsunami victims by arranging a money transfer.



Status:
False

Example:(Received form scammers, January 2005)

Subject: PLEASE HELP TSUNAMI VICTIMS, HELP TSUNAMI VICTIMS HELP TSUNAMI VICTIMS, HELP TSUNAMI VICTIMS.
THE RED CROSS INTERNATIONAL AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS ZONE (B) HEREBY APPEALLING TO YOU FRIENDS,PUBLIC,FAMILIES AND COMPANIES, TO HELP US WITH ONLINE FUND RAISING TO ENABLE US TREAT OVER 1.5 MILLION CHILDREN AFFECTED WITH QUAKE/TSUNAMI DESASTER ACROSS ASIA.VISIT WWW.CNN.COM/TSUNAMI TO SEE WHY YOUR HELP/MONEY IS HIGHLY NEEDED.
HELP THE NEEDY,POOR AND SICK,NO AMOUNT IS SMALL FOR GOD LOVES A CHEERFULL GIVER. IN ORDER TO EXPEDITE THE SENDING OF THE RELIEF FUNDS TO THE NEEDY URGENTLY, YOU ARE ADVISED TO SEND US YOUR DONATION/CONTRIBUTION IN HOLLAND BY EXPRESS MONEYGRAM TRANSFER SERVICES ( http://www.moneygram.com ) OR WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER ( http://www.westernunion.com ) THROUGH THE NAME OF OUR FINANCIAL OFFICERS MRS ( LILIAN DAVID ) AND MR ( ROBERT JOHN ) RESPECTIVELY.
YOU ARE ADVISED TO RESPOND BACK TO US THROUGH THIS EMAIL ADDRESS AND PROVIDE US WITH THE TRANSFER DETAILS INCLUDING YOUR CONTACT ADDRESS ON OUR OFFICIAL E-MAIL ADDRESS: [REMOVED]
N.B,DONATORS FROM 100 TO 4500 EUROS WILL ONLY HAVE THEIR NAMES APPEARED IN OUR RELIEF MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES WHILE THOSE DONATIONS ABOVE ( 5000 EUROS) TO ANY AMOUNT WILL HAVE A SPACE FOR THEIR FOTOS,NAMES AND BUSINESS ADVERTS IN OUR MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES AS DOES IN THE PAST YEARS.FOR THE LATER (VIP)S PLEASE SEND US YOUR FOTOS AND BUSINESS DETAILS.
WE AWAITS YOUR URGENT RESPONSE AND THANKS FOR YOUR CO-OPERATIONS AND GENEROSITY TO MANKIND.
YOURS SINCERELY,
JANZEN HALL
RELIEF COORDINATOR.

Commentary:
The rather crude scam email above pretends to be from the International Red Cross and asks for donations to assist victims of Asia’s devastating tsunami. The Red Cross does not send unsolicited requests for donations via email. Furthermore, the Red Cross does not collect donations in the manner described in the message. Official Red Cross websites do allow visitors to donate money via secure online forms. However, the organization does not expect the contributor to arrange the transaction via email and then wire the money via a transfer service. Any “donations” sent as a response to the email above would go directly to the scammers perpetrating this unforgivable fraud.
Unfortunately, the tsunami disaster has provided a perfect background for the unscrupulous to launch a variety of Internet and email based scams. The example above is only one of many tsunami related scam emails. Some are classic Nigerian scams modified to use the Tsunami as a cover story. Others ask for donations and point recipients to fake websites designed to resemble the websites of real charitable organizations. Still others may contain viruses or other malicious content.
Be very wary of any unsolicited emails that ask for donations for Tsunami victims. Do not click on donation links provided in these emails as they may lead to fake websites. Do not open attachments that arrive with these emails, as they may contain viruses. If you wish to donate money online, go directly to the charity’s official website.

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Survey Scam - Change Facebook to Black

Outline

Messages being sent out across Facebook invite users to click a link to change their Facebook profile to black or another color.


Brief Analysis
The messages are scams designed to trick users into spamming their friends and participating in bogus online surveys. Users are enticed into installing rogue Facebook apps or browser extensions before being taken to third-party "survey" sites. The apps do not work as claimed and users will not be able to change their Facebook colors regardless of how many surveys they participate in. If you encounter one of these bogus messages, do not click on any links that it contains. And delete it from your Timeline.



Example

Detailed Analysis

This message, which claims that users can "get the new Black Facebook" by clicking a link, is currently rocketing rapidly around Facebook. However, the claims are bogus and are intended to trick users into interacting with suspect survey pages and spamming their friends on the scammer's behalf.

Clicking the link takes the user to a rogue Facebook app or browser extension that promises the ability to change the color of your Facebook at will. There are several versions of the messages being distributed. The version I tested and am discussing here opens the following "Change your Facebook Color" page:



Clicking the "Change Your Color" button takes users to a browser extension page where they are asked to install a "Color Changer" app. If they comply, users will receive a message stating that the app has been successfully added to their browser and is ready to go. However, the users are also advised that, before they can proceed with any color changes, they must first complete an online survey by clicking a link.

Some of the "survey" pages ask users to provide personal information including name, address and contact details, ostensibly to allow them to go in the draw for a prize. Others invite them to download dubious toolbars, games or software. Still others will claim that users must provide their mobile phone number - thereby subscribing to absurdly expensive text messaging services - in order to get the results of a survey or go in the running for a prize.
No matter how many surveys they complete, or what services they subscribe to, they will still be told that they have not yet completed a survey and therefore cannot use the "color changer'. In fact, the app does not work as described and will never provide the ability to change your Facebook colour.

Meanwhile, the same bogus promotion will be posted by the app to your Facebook Timeline and will also be sent out to all of your friends.
The scammers who create these bogus promotions will earn commissions via suspect affiliate marketing schemes each and every time a victim completes an offer or participates in a survey. Victims may also be faced with large phone bills for unwanted mobile phone services and, because they have provided name and contact details, they may be inundated with unwanted promotional emails, phone calls and junk mail.

There have been several variations of these color change survey scams, including one that claimed that users could switch Facebook to pink. Be wary of any Facebook messages that claim that you can change the color of your Facebook profile. If you encounter such a message, do not click on any links that it contains. To helps stop its spread, delete the bogus message. If you have already installed the rogue app or browser extension, you should remove it as quickly as possible.

It should be noted that there are quite legitimate browser extensions that allow you to change the appearance of your social media pages in various ways. Typically, these extensions are available via your browser's web or app store. However, any message that claims that you must participate in a survey before an app will work is sure to be bogus and should be avoided.

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Survey Scam - 'Malfunctioning Online Store Giving Free iPads'

Outline
Message distributed on Facebook claims that an online store is malfunctioning because they forgot to include a payment page and customers are therefore receiving free iPads as a result.



Brief Analysis
The claims in the message are lies designed to trick Facebook users into clicking a link. The link leads to a fake Facebook Event page that instructs uses to click another link and participate in various surveys as a prerequisite for getting their free iPad. No matter how many surveys they fill out, users will never receive the promised iPad.



Example
Guys this online store is malfunctioning. They forgot to insert there payment page. I ordered an Ipad and was never asked to pay!
This is the second time I place an order.


Detailed Analysis
Fake iPAd Giveaway Event Page
This message, which is currently being spammed out to Facebook Walls all over the network, claims that users can get hold of a free iPad by following a link in the post. According to the message, a particular online store has malfunctioned so that those who order an iPad on the site will have it sent to them free of charge. Supposedly, the site “forgot" to include a payment page. Not surprisingly, the claims in the message are utter nonsense.

Those who fall for the ruse and click the link will be taken to a fake webpage designed to look like a real Facebook "Events" Page.  The page come complete with Facebook colour scheme and layout and is salted with a selection of obviously fake comments from equally fake users who claim that they have already received their free iPad.

The "malfunctioning store" claim is not again mentioned.  Instead, the fake site displays the following message:

    To participate in our iPad-3 quality test please Click here.

    All participants will receive a free iPad-3 after sign up. Participants will be required to submit a final product review after two weeks of optimal product use.

    Participant must be 18 years or older.



But, those who do click the link are taken to yet another third party website where they are told they must complete one or more surveys before being eligible for the free iPad sign up. However, no matter how many surveys users complete, they will never get access to the illusive "sign-up" page.

Of course, the iPad "quality test" mentioned does not exist and users will never receive a free iPad as promised.

Meanwhile, those tricked into participating in the bogus surveys, may have inadvertently subscribed to expensive SMS "services" charged at several dollars per text. Or they may have given their personal and contact details when signing up to dodgy online “offers”. All in the vain hope of getting their free iPad or winning another prize.

The people who set up these scams earn a commission via a dubious affiliate marketing system each and every time someone completes an "offer" or "survey". While affiliate marketing is a legitimate method of conducting business online, some participants are more than willing to use reprehensible and underhand tactics to increase profits, including the offer of non-existent gifts or prizes via Facebook survey scams.
If you see one of these bogus messages, just delete it and do not follow any links that it may contain.

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‘Switch to Pink Facebook’ Survey Scam

Outline
Message appearing on Facebook claims that users can switch the colour of their profile from blue to pink by clicking a link.
Brief Analysis
The message is a survey scam designed to trick users into spamming their friends and providing personal information via various third-party surveys or offers. Users are told that they must complete a survey as a means of verification. However, no matter how many surveys users complete, they will never receive the promised pink profile.
 

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Internet Dating Scams

There are a great many quite legitimate dating service websites that allow members to establish online relationships. Often, these online friendships blossom into genuine long-term relationships. An increasing number of people have found life-partners via relationships started online.

Sadly however, scammers have managed to effectively exploit this trend to further their own nefarious ends. Many people around the world have been duped into sending money to Internet fraudsters posing as would-be girlfriends or boyfriends.


A typical Internet dating scam goes like this:

1. A person registers at an online dating service and creates a profile. The profile will include information, and possibly a photograph, of the person along with a way for interested people to make contact.
   
2. In due course, a scammer contacts the person posing as someone interested in exploring a possible romantic relationship.
   
3. The victim responds and the pair begins corresponding regularly. They may soon bypass the dating service contact system and start communicating directly, usually via email.
   
4. Over time, the scammer will slowly earn the trust of the victim. He or she may discuss family, jobs and other details designed to make the correspondent seem like a real person who is genuinely interested in the victim. Photographs may be exchanged. However, the "person" that the victim thinks he or she is corresponding with, is likely to be purely an invention of the scammer. Photographs may not even show the real sender. The victim's apparent love interest may look completely different to the person in the photograph and, in reality, may not even be the same gender.
   
5. After the scammer has established the illusion of a genuine and meaningful relationship, he or she will begin asking the victim for money. For example. the scammer may claim that he or she wants to meet in person and ask the victim to send money for an airfare so that a meeting can take place. Or the scammer may claim that there has been a family medical emergency and request financial assistance. The scammer may use a variety of excuses to entice the victim to send funds.
   
6. If the victim complies and sends money, he or she will probably receive further such requests. With his or her judgement clouded by a burgeoning love for the scammer's imaginary character, he or she may continue to send money.
   
7. Finally, the victim will come to realize that he or she has been duped, perhaps after waiting fruitlessly at the airport for a "lover" who, will, of course, never arrive.
   
8. Meanwhile, the scammer pockets the money and moves on to the next victim. In fact, the scammer may be stringing along several victims simultaneously.

In many cases, the victim will not only have lost out financially, but will also be left broken-hearted and thoroughly disillusioned. These scammers tend to prey on victims that may be especially lonely, shy or isolated and therefore more vulnerable.

There are a number of variations on the same basic scam. In some cases the scammers may be the one to create a profile on a dating site and wait for a potential victim to contact them. Typically, the profile will include a photograph of a very attractive young woman who will have no trouble attracting would-be suitors.

In other cases, the scammers may simply send out random unsolicited emails professing a desire to begin a relationship in the hope that some gullible recipients will favourably respond. Alternatively, they may strike up a conversation with a potential victim via an Internet chat room.

In some variations of the scam, the fraudsters may not ask for money directly. Instead, they may ask their victim to cash money orders or cheques and wire them the proceeds. The money orders or cheques will turn out to be fake or stolen and the victim will be left out of pocket and possibly held responsible for receiving stolen funds. The scammers may also try to trick victims into revealing sensitive information such as credit card numbers.

If you begin corresponding with a person with a view to a possible romantic relationship, remain cautious even if the relationship seems to be progressing very well. These scammers are very skilled at building trust and know how to make vulnerable victims fall in love with them. Regardless of the strength of your feelings towards a correspondent, you should view any requests for money as highly suspicious. Internet dating scammers often used the same names, family details and cover stories in multiple dating scams. Therefore, you may be able to expose a scam by conducting Internet searches on the names used by the scammers or key phrases from their emails.

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The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

t might seem incredible that anyone might believe that icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, could ever be for sale. But back in 1925, six people were convinced it was, and put in their bids for it with one of history’s great con men, Victor Lustig.
In reality, what seems impossible to us now was actually more likely then. The Tower had only been built in 1889 for the Paris Exposition and had never been planned as a permanent fixture in Paris. By 1925 it was in a shameful state, the cost of its upkeep crippling to the city, so the idea of selling it didn’t seem too outlandish.

Who Was Victor Lustig?

Victor Lustig was one of nature’s con men, with a silver tongue, a convincing manner, and some ideas that, although illegal, had a touch of genius. Born in Bohemia in 1890, he first made money on transatlantic liners peddling a so-called “money-making machine” to the rich and gullible, who would give him literal fortunes – thousands of dollars – for the device, which gave out after producing $200, by which time Lustig was far away.But selling the Eiffel Tower was undoubtedly his finest hour, especially the way he approached it. Setting himself up as a fairly anonymous government official high up in the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, he summoned six important scrap metal merchants to a meeting at one of the top hotels in Paris, where he explained that the city could not afford to maintain the Eiffel Tower and so wanted to sell it for scrap – although everything had to be kept utterly secret to avoid a public outcry.
Lustig even gave the merchants a full tour of the Tower, enabling them to see it all at first hand, before inviting their bids the following day – and reminding them that secrecy was, of course, vital. But, from early in the meeting, he’d homed in on the man he knew would make the perfect target, the insecure scrap dealer, Andre Poisson.

The Con Man’s Trick: A Study

When Poisson’s wife voiced her astonishment as to the need not only for secrecy but also for speed – just a single day to offer bids – Lustig unleashed his secret weapon, the piece that made the con so perfect. He arranged another brief meeting with Poisson and said something that made it all believable.When Lustig told Poisson his meagre government salary didn’t let him live the way he wanted, suddenly he made himself absolutely plausible. Without coming out and saying so, he’d shown that, like so many officials, he was really seeking a bribe. That touch made it all real, and erased all the doubts of Poisson and his wife.
So Lustig not only took Poisson’s money for the Eiffel Tower, he also collected a handy bribe on top, and left for Vienna quite quickly. Embarrassed, Poisson could never bring himself to go to the police, luckily for Lustig, who returned to the city a month later and attempted the same trick with six more scrap metal merchants. This time, however, the police were informed, and Lustig just managed to escape.

Lustig’s Other Cons

Victor Lustig worked all over, including America, where he conned the arch-gangster Al Capone out of $5000 – a remarkable and daring feat, given the man’s deadly reputation. Eventually arrested in the US in 1934 for counterfeiting, he escaped, was re-arrested and died in jail in 1947.

What Do You Think?

Do you think Victor Lustig had remarkable persuasive powers to convince six good businessmen that Paris might really sell the Eiffel Tower? Did the idea of wanting a bribe really make him seem more believable? What did he appeal to in the businessmen – greed, profit, the idea of status, or a mixture of the three?

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