For no reason

Comment spam in Wordpress

…other than a try-out and also the current anti-spam plugins miss the odd bit of comment spam, I’ve now switched off TanTanNoodles’ Spam filter and am giving WP-SpamFree another try plus another plugin, AVH.  I’ve left Akismet running regardless.

WP-SpamFree

This now promises a lot, so it’s worth another shot.  Two years ago when I tried it, it had interactions with various other plugins, so I dropped it.  Since that time, the whole WordPress code has improved tremendously, as anyone who now uses it will know.  Visit plugin site

AVH First Defense Against Spam

Mailwasher Pro

This is a new one for me.  It uses the external databases of known spammers and their IP addresses as a blocking filter.  This is similar to anti-spam email programs like Mailwasher Pro that I use, so it seems to be “a good thing”.  This feature is optional, but it’s the most attractive part, IMHO.

It uses either or both of these two services for which an API key is needed. The key is free in each case.

• Stop Forum Spam. http://www.stopforumspam.com
• Project Honey Pot. http://www.projecthoneypot.org

Now it’s a case of “wait and see”.   Visit plugin site

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Map of Waledac infections

I had about half the usual quantity of spam this morning.

Maybe this is a consequence of Microsoft’s action against a huge list of domains which have been thought to be controlling thousands of computers in a botnet?  Dubbed Waledac, the botnet is thought to have  chucked out 1.5 billion spams from ~90k computers controlled by 277 domains.  They reckoned in 18 days last December ~650 million spams went to Hotmail alone….

Microsoft called the technical and legal action Operation b49.

See a news items:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8537771.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8537741.stm

Most ‘experts’ reckon it’s a small reprieve (as do I), but it’s better than nothing.  As it’s said,

Do Nothing, and Nothing Will Happen

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Introduction

Spring, last year, was when I first stumbled upon Pacific WebWorks (PWW) and their nefarious schemes.  That was when I happened upon Google Treasure Chest, one of their many scams.

This then ballooned into a miasma of a web of crime which frankly astonished me.

Then, across the globe, many people fought against the scammers and there have been some small victories when the (mainly USA) authorities have used the law against them.

But as many scribes (e.g. Paul Schlegel) pointed out (e.g. here), it would, and it has all returned.

Okay Subject Please!

I’ve been trawling through the old posts on this website to see how the websites have changed.  True, Google Treasure Chest has sunk to the bottom of the ocean, but many of the old websites are still around.  They, the suck-in sites for the real ‘products’, divide, broadly, into two camps:

• Fake blog sites
• Fake News sites

Most of the fake blogs are gone, but most of the fake news sites are still around!  What has happened is with some very quick coding, all the pointers go to new, non-google type sites.  You can tell that the coding was quick because Google is still there in the hyperlink descriptions!!!

Example

Initial information on a fake News Site from @Not Kevin is here.  He said;

Clicked on the link to Easy Google Profit from this fake news story: http://www.businessgazette.net/finance/article-3910/ and about 6 different sites are loaded through some javascript thing including yoursearchprofits.com seofromhome.com bsadn.pantherssl.com and a few others.

Business Gazette

This is the fake news website here: http://www.businessgazette.net/finance/article-3910/  A screen-dump is shown on the right.
Hover your mouse over the ads or the links in the “Business Gazette” page.  They are all the same and they all point to http://www.businessgazette.net/google/ – Notice the word “GOOGLE” !!! Compared to previously, the links are now slimmed down to one!

Now click the link and it redirects to a really annoying, automatically starting  audio from someone called Ivan Fienney at this website: http://www.ivanblogsecrets.com/campaigns/rgah/IF_1_new.php?linkid=212144&subid=50519&subid2=65513   This link shows all the affiliate IDs etc.

However, if you strip them out, the page will still load from this address, http://www.ivanblogsecrets.com/campaigns/rgah/IF_1_new.php, or  if you type in or click http://www.ivanblogsecrets.com

Ivan the Terrible

If you listen to the smarmy voice, he’ll claim that it’s a real established business, is NOT MLM, is not a Pyramid scheme etc etc.  That’s him on the left.

Q. Where do his links go?

A. They go to something called a “Instant Wealth Program”.  You’ll find that the linking URL is http://212144.msicourse.com/

Q. So who could it be?

A. It’s that slimeball Robert Allen, famed for his spam, famed for his bankrupty, famed for real-estate dodgy deals.

Now Ivan Fienney, if you can stand the audio, claims that it’s not real estate or a scam, and yet, as I made plain last year, in Robert Allen’s own claims he DOES use real estate in one of his “plans”!

If you listen to Ivan until the 8:00 mark, you’ll find that the whole “plan” actually is “posting links on Google”.  Well what a surprise, I’m sure!

And there we have it.  The “Instant Wealth Scheme” is the old, old “make money with Google” scheme again.  Good ol’ Bobby Allen.  Aaah.

Robert Allen – Multiple Streams of Income

The quaintly entitled website, http://212144.msicourse.com/, is indeed Robert Allen.  He’s hidden it’s WHOIS details using Moniker Privacy Services.  However, check out the screen-dump below and right (as well as Ivan’s above).

Multiple Streams of Income

He claims various things, like “as seen on TV” (the Aussie one I saw was investigative journalism where he refused to speak and the reporters were bundled out of the room!) or NY Times.  Maybe they are all investigative reports into his scam activities? Maybe they’re all a figment of ol’ Bobby’s fevered imagination?  Who knows?

But what I do know is that one of his merit badges is from “The Reader’s Digest” – who’ve just gone bust!!!  See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8520243.stm Nice one, Bobby.

Also notice that his website uses the famed “countdown timer”, a tactic abrasively commented upon in recent USA court cases against scammers.  If, like me, you’ve been on the page too long, it’ll helpfully prompt you when “time runs out” – and then gives you a whole extra ten minutes to make up your mind.  Gosh.  It’ll even do it again – with another 10 minutes!

I think I’ll pass on all that, if you don’t mind.

Prosper Inc

Robert Allen proudly states that he uses Prosper Inc for his “services”.  They, of course, are from Utah, see their contacts page here: http://www.prosperlearning.com/contact.html

Erroneous statement deleted.  Too many prospers but all info gratefully accepted.. (SP)

Now see the following few examples of complaints and worries:

• http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=3433
• http://www.friendsinbusiness.com/board1/index.cgi/noframes/read/158176
• http://saundrak.wordpress.com/
• http://www.justanswer.com/questions/1o1xu-i-have-had-dealings-with-prosper-inc-and-hsbc-where-loans
• http://www.ripoffreport.com/internet-marketing-companies/pmgmentoring-com-pro/pmgmentoring-com-prosperlearn-3d4ea.htm

Further Information

Last year’s post on Robert Allen is here.   Robert G Allen, Grants, and a Credit Card Slimeball.    From all of this, you can probably tell that he’s not on my Xmas Card list!  To confirm this, see various links which expose ol’ Bobby for what he was, and still is!

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/Corrupt-Companies/PMG/robert-g-allen-pmg-marketing-g-MBD25.htm – from 2003!
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Discuss:Is_robert_g_allen_a_scam – from last week, 2010!!!
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/129834.html
• http://www.reviewopedia.com/robert-g-allen.htm
• http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=13153 – from 2006!!
• http://www.scamreview.co.uk/robert_allen.html

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