ASb Back-up scam

It's christmas so I won't be spending long on thei spost but please be aware that the following e-mail is a scam designed to get your bank account details:

Dear ASB FastNet Customer,

We are currently performing a full customer database backup, to improve our security measures and reduce the number of inactive accounts. Please follow the link provided in this message and confirm your personal information.

https://.www.asb.co.nz/ 

Your account will be limited and eventually deleted if not confirmed within the next 24 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

© 2011 ASB Bank Limited. All Rights Reserved.

ASB Survey Scam

  1 minute for 5 Questions Survey . In return we will credit $40.00 to you !
       Please submit the survey form and allow 3 days in order to process it.

       To access the survey form, please download and complete survey              __    form attached to this email and open it in a web browser.
 

© 2009 ASB Bank Limited

Reasons to believe that this is a scam:

- Money for nothing

- The survey requires you to download a file, this file may contain malicious content. Normally if you were operating an online survey you would just provide a web link

- The credit will be designed as a legitimate reason to ask for your bank account details

- The survey isn't being promoted on any of ASB's web presences

NZ IRD Scam - Be Warned

This morning while doing a quick check of my spam folder I came across a scam e-mail from someone pretending to be New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department. They were telling me that I was owed a refund of over $1000 and all I had to do was click on a link and fill in a form.

The most terrifying thing about this scam is its potential to catch people out through its use of a legitimate looking link.
While the link appears to take you to www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax-individual/ (a legitimate website operated by the actual ird) the link itself will take you somewhere else entirely if you choose to click on it. In fact if you hover over it and inspect where it's going to send you it tells you the link will send you to
http://www.ingelam.cl/ingelam.php
This is a Chilean domain, not a New Zealand domain.
I have not visited it myself and would strongly advise you against visiting it yourself.
In the least dangerous scenario it will look like the official IRD site and ask you to submit personal details that will be used to steal your money or identity.
However it is also entirely possible that it will steal data more surreptitiously as well/instead through infecting your computer with malware that could track personal and financial details and send them to the scammer.

Reasons to believe it is a scam:
- It sends you to a site that differs from the one it says it is sending you to
- The IRD does not usually communicate via e-mail
- The IRD does not usually inform you that you are due a refund (although you can ask them to check to see if you are due for a refund for free by calling them)
- Our Tax year ends on March 31st, this e-mail was received in December
- The refund is specified in NZ dollars, I've never received anything from the IRD that has specified an amount in this fashion
- The e-mail is addressed to undisclosed recipients (meaning it was sent to a lot of people)
- There is no mention of a name or IRD number, these would be required in order to make a refund calculation

The E-mail Itself:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you
are eligible to receive a tax refund of 1,478.20 NZ Dollars. Please submit the tax refund
request and allow us 2-3 days in order to process it.

Click link below to submit your tax refund request.

www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax-individual/ 

Note : A refund can be delayed a variety of reasons, for example submitting invalid
records or applying after deadline. 

Best Regards
Inland Revenue - Te Tari Taake

Above Advertisement and Photo Shop - Potential Job Offer

Today I received an e-mail from Jeffrey Peterson of Above Advertisement and Photo Shop.

Jeffrey's message was vague and smelt a bit like a scam. Indeed the NZIPP warn that it could be just that.

Reasons to believe it could be a scam are:
- A representative of the company he eventually claims to be working on behalf of have contacted me to say it's a scam

- Limited details about the job itself, the advertising company, and the way they found me

- The advertising agency doesn't seem to exist or is not ranking well on google

- The supplied e-mail address comes from a g-mail account (you would expect @aboveadvert.com rather than @gmail.com)

- Poor grammar etc. (a instead of an, lack of capitalisation...)
- Failure to address you by name
- Follow up e-mail requests you to provide your name, company etc (they should already know this)
- A fundamental misunderstanding of what a client would mean when they request an 'international photographer'. International photographers have an international reputation, they aren't simply from another country

Now I'm not saying that this is definitely a scam as I don't know for sure. What I am saying is proceed with extreme caution if you proceed at all.

The NZIPP advise:
Don't be surprised if they "booked" a job, prepay for it and then contact you to say that they made an error and gave you too much, you refund some money and then find out that the original money was stolen

For those who are interested in the message here it is below.

Hello,


I am Jeffery Peterson. I work for a advertisement agency called above advertisement and photo shop.


We at above advertisement and photo shop have a few campaigns and we are currently looking for an international photographer who will take coverage of this campaign and photo shooting.


I saw your profile in one of the photographers site  and I think you would fit in for this campaign which I have on my books.


If you are interested, feel free to send me a message and ask me any questions regarding the potential job.


Regards,

Jeffery Peterson


Second E-mail:


Hello,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply and willingness to take up this project which upon i contacted you. I am also happy to answer your questions in

other to put you through on the follow up of this project.

1 . We are small scale company located here in UK though affiliated to other bigger scale ventures.

2.  We have this contract from our client Lebara UK to provide them with models and photographers. The models, their photo will be used for the new face of

 Lebara top up card and bill boards advertisement which will be published soon then the work of the photographer is to take charge of the shoot which will

take a little period of time which is a temporal employment with us and that is the reason why we have contacted you to take charge of the photo shooting

because actually we want to create relationship with international models and photographers for expansion.

3.The location for the shoot is here in London and the duration for the shoot is 10days which is from January 24th to February 4th 2012. My client will take

 care of all bills so u do not need to worry.

All you need to do now is to get back with me as soon as possible with the details below for proper registration with us to enable us commence and we will

keep you updated in no time.

STUDIO COMPANY NAME:

FIRST NAME:

LAST NAME:

ADDRESS:

CITY

COUNTRY

POSTAL CODE

PHONE NUMBER

EMAIL ADDRESS

Thank you very much and hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

Regards

Jeffery Peterson

If Jeffrey Peterson is out there anywhere and would like to counter these claims please feel free to contact me. Once you do this I will be happy to remove this post.

Comments are open to anyone so please feel free to add your voice below :)