Day: 9 April 2007

Simply bad ebay scams

I've posted my old SPV M600  to ebay for the 4th ti now. Everytime I post it up, some scam artist tries to  con me out of my phone. Well I'm fed up of readying the phishing emails and so wanted to post them for others to read. So Ebay sent me this a while ago.

Dear Italic_dj

The results of the following listings have been cancelled due to bidding activity that took place without the account owner's authorisation:

160103815659 Orange SPV M600 + 2GB SD CARD Boxed and Used

We have temporarily suspended the bidding account and we are working with the account owner to prevent any additional unauthorised activity. Since the account owner did not initiate these bids, fees resulting from the listings in question have been credited to your account.

Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to automatically relist these items for you. Instead, to relist these items you will need to start from the beginning of the listing process, either through the Sell Your Item process or through your third party listing service. We know that this is an inconvenience and we apologise for the negative impact it may cause you. We are working on tools to allow you to relist your items without starting from the beginning, but they are not available at this time.

So the first email I got from the con-artist was this.

Hello, I am very sorry i have not been able to get back to you till now, i have taken such time because of the easter period. Just want to let you know that payment will be sent on monday or first thing on tuesday morning
Best Regards.
argentium149@verizonmail.com

Then this crafted email from the con-artist to look like it came from ebay

Dear Ian Forrester

Failure to do as we have indicated in this email will lead to your suspension on eBay due to concerns we have for the safety and integrity of the eBay community.

“Abusing eBay” of the eBay User Agreement states, in part:

“…we may limit, suspend, or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our website, remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Site if we think that they are creating problems, possible legal liabilities, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies.”

This email is to inform you that you can now proceed with the transaction between you and Chris Marshall (argentium149) the buyer of your ebay item 160103815659. The transaction was initially cancelled because we noticed that someone else accessed the account and some transactions where made with the account without the owner's concept, which was complained to us by the account owner. This has been resolved and now, we are at the point of completely restoring the account back to the owner. You are expected to send out the item tomorrow because payment has just been sent by the buyer through paypal, your payment is currently placed on HOLD by us. As soon as the buyer confirms to us that he has received the shipment details from you and that everything is ok, your payment will be credited into your paypal account. Failure to send out the item tomorrow will lead to your suspension on ebay. Make sure the item is sent out tomorrow and the shipment details sent to the buyer for confirmation.

Then the conformation email from the con-artist himself

Hello There,

Just want to let you know that i have resolved all problems with ebay and that i have just sent payment for the ebay item I have also added a extra amount of money so as to cover the shipping cost of the phone to my son. I bought the phone for my son as gift. This is address where the phone should be sent to.

Name :- Okwuchukwu Ugochi
Address :- 1 Ojo Street, Off Babalola Bus-Stop
City :- Mushin
State :- Lagos
Country :- Nigeria
Postal Code :- 23401

I have also attached a copy of the confirmation email that paypal sent to me confirming payment, they have asked me to contact you for the shipment details. I want the phone sent to my son via royalmail international signed for delivery(Recorded). Let me have the royalmail reference number when it has been sent so i can contact ebay and paypal to let them.

Regards.
Chris.

And just incase I wasn't certain a fake email from PayPal.com

You've Received Payment for an eBay item!

Dear Ian Forrester,

Chris Marshall just sent you a payment of £300.00 GBP for an eBay item.

Chris Marshall is a verified buyer.
Payment Details Buyer's User ID: argentium149.
Buyer: Chris Marshall
Amount: £250.00 GBP
Postage & Packing: £50.00 GBP
Postal Insurance: £00.00 GBP
Total Amount: £300.00 GBP

Item Information
eBay User ID: argentium149

Delivery Information
Address: Okwuchukwu Ugochi
1 ojo street,off Babalola Bustop
Mushin,Lagos
Nigeria
23401
Address Status:  Confirmed

Message:

This payment has been placed on Hold. We have asked the buyer to contact you for the shipment tracking/reference number, as soon as the buyer confirms to us that the item has been sent, your account will be credited immediately. This is the New Paypal antifraud rule, this is done in order to secure both buyers and sellers. The item should be sent out within 24 hours and the shipment details sent to the buyer.

So as you can see this is so obviously a con/scam. I didn't even need to look at the headers for the emails or check my Paypal account. The English was a mess in places, account details wrong and worst still it had all the hallmarks of a scam. That level of urgency, the tail for which to follow. I'm so fed up with scammer like this I think I might post them up here everytime to convine scammers that I'm serious about taking action.

You've been warned scammers!

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Apple TV hacks are making the box more attractive

Apple Store

Since Apple talked about the Apple TV or iTV I've been listening, but was deeply disappointed with the final product. When I was over in San Francisco I did pop into the Apple store to check out the Apple TV which I heard just launched recently. But at 299 dollars or 165 pounds I decided it was too much for essentially a iTunes extender.

That was before I came back to the UK, I started reading about the hacking which has been going on already. AppleTV hacks seems to be leading the way right now, and there certainly making the machine much more attractive to someone like me.

You can now play non-itunes videos via VLC, SSH, Apache, Asterisk and other services on the box. Joost is working on it (which even the Xbox couldn't do) and yeah a last a RSS reader.

The backdoor claim is a little worrying but actually think this is a repair script or something. Theres also lots of talk that the Apple TV isn't that powerful and can't play back 720p H.264 content let alone 1080p content. Now this may not sound like the end of the world, but actually for future proofing and remember Apple are selling this as a HD device. This could be bad news. I already own a couple of 1080p Xvids which simply won't play on my xbox right now but would play on a Xbox 360 and Playstation3.

So yeah, I'm considering the Apple TV for my replacement to the Xbox Media Centre if it can do most of the things XBMC can do. Such as stream straight from YouTube, connect to shoutcast, play all media, read from SMB and other file systems. Someone elses been thinking the same thing.

While in Columbus, we happened to pass through the Apple store, and I got my first look at the AppleTV. A slick piece of kit, to be sure, and one you'll be able to read all about at Ars Technica shortly, but not quite suited to my needs.  I want to be able to watch DivX files on my TV; it's the only way to keep up with TV from back home, and legally, too (thanks, Auntie Beeb!). Apple's beautiful little box can't help me out, but give my wife a used XBox, and 20 minutes later an XBMC media center is the solution to my needs.  Plus, it can stream BBC Radio 4 to boot! Sure, you can always open up and hack an AppleTV, but you do so at the cost of your warranty.  With secondhand hardware that's cheap, that's not a concern.

The arrival of our XBox 360 meant that our first XBox could be repurposed as the living-room media server. Now I don't need to keep plugging my PowerBook into the bedroom TV set, and Elle can pipe her music collection from her PC to her heart's content. It's not the sort of thing I'd suggest for my parents or anyone else of a technophobic nature, but if the AppleTV won't do what you want or if you prefer rolling your own, pop down to your local used video game emporium and see what's lurking in their stockroom. Apple TV certainly has its uses, but the original Xbox is easier to hack, cheaper, and has much more support from the hacking community right now than Apple TV. If you've not looked into XBMC, it's absolutely worth it. Depending on your needs, it may be a far superior option to Apple TV, or any of the other PC-to-TV devices out there today. 

Some people are looking at it slightly differently. Apple TV on Xbox anyone? And more here. Oh and theres a nice discussion about maybe porting XBMC to the mac.

 

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