No more Paid Ads for Adverbux

Recently, the former PTC/Offers Site, Adverbux, has moved out of the PTC industry. As you can see, they no longer accept PTC advertisers and no longer has this Paid ad feature in their system.

The site has now focused its efforts on Offers such as Paid to Sign Up, Paid to play flash games, and Manual Traffic Exchanges. While these offers are still going to earn you money, only the Flash games could really earn you a daily income. The Paid to Sign Up features offers some promising high pays but you have to make some extra effort before you can avail them (ie. Sign Up under a referrer on a particular site and click a number of ads), and it's going to take you from days to weeks. Sometimes, you may need to remind the sponsor for them to credit you, and sometimes you may need to fight for it. The Manual Traffic Exchange is still a neat feature for advertisers, unfortunately, it could become bounced hits in a few days.

The outcome for this move is still uncertain, and there's no telling whether it will work for the best or will pull Adverbux down, but only time will tell if it's going to work out. So far, the Alexa rating isn't going good for this site.

Paid by Cash-Hi for the fourth time

Today, I got my fourth payment from Cash-Hi. I have accumulated a total of 46 cents this time before I actually requested for a payout. Well what can I say? So far so good.

Payment Proof

Click on picture to enlarge

This site had paid me 4 times straight already. Sign up now, you can't go wrong with this one.

Sign Up

Phishing for Adwords

Over these past few weeks, spam emails seemed to have increased significantly. Probably because the lame fraudsters are not making enough money or maybe they are suffering from lack of attention lately. Perhaps, but these good for nothing fraudsters never run out of cheap tricks. And just recently, those Bolan****s from China had unleashed another Phishing scam through spam mails. Their target.. Adwords advertisers. And while we admire the Chinese for their ingenuity in handling businesses, we can't neglect the fact that some of them are losers, who can't do anything good except for making the Chinese reputation on the web look bad.

The spam email contents look like they are coming from the Google Adwords program. Although they include typos, many small business owners advertising on Google Adwords wonder if this phishing emails are real.

Using Uronlinebiz's screenshots, here are the four different ways how scammers target their victims..

Click on picture to enlarge

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From: adwords-noreply@google.com
Subject: Your AdWords Google Account is stoped

Date: March 25, 2008 8:06:15 AM EDT

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

Please sign in to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login , and update your billing information. [This link actually goes to a scam site in China.]

Your account will be reactivated as soon as you update your payment information. [Wrong, your account will get stolen, that's what they mean.]

Your ads will show immediately if you decide to pay for clicks via credit or debit card. If you decide to pay by direct debit, we may need to receive your signed debit authorization before your ads start running, depending on your location. [Note that you are paying scammers, not Google.]

If you choose bank transfer, your ads will show as soon as we receive your first payment. [B.S.]

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available. [Crap!]

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team [The Bolan**** team pretending to be Google.]

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From: reactivation@google.com
Subject: The Google AdWords Team request you to update your billing information [..so we could steal your account.]
Date: March 28, 2008 5:03:21 PM EDT

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

Your ads have stopped running because we were unable to process your billing information. We will reactivate you account after you update your billing information. In order to reactivate your account, please sign it to your account at http://adwordsgoogle.com/select/login [Chinese Scam Site], and update your billing information. Once your account is reactivated and your billing information has been processed, any your ads and campaigns can begin running immediately on Google. [This link also goes to a scam site in China.]

You will not be asked to submit your billing information every time you create a new ad or campaign. If your payment has been declined and you'd like to resubmit the same credit card information, you may also do so by clicking the Retry card button on your Billing Preferences page. After updating your credit card information (regardless of whether or not you use a different card), it can take up to 24 hours before your ads start running again. You also have the option of providing a backup credit card to help ensure that your ads run continuously in the case that your primary payment method fails. [Sounds like a Google agent wannabe.]

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team [The Scam Team pretending to be Google.]

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From: reactivation@google.com
Subject: Our programme terms have changed.
Date: April 4, 2008 2:57:16 PM EDT

Dear AdWords Customer,

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the Google AdWords programme for advertisers and users, we have updated our Terms and Conditions.

Please review the new Terms and Conditions below, then indicate your acceptance.

Yes, I accept the Terms and Conditions. [This includes a link to another phishing website.]

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

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How to avoid the Scam?

If you have a question about any emails like these, we suggest that you do not click on the link contained in these spam mails. Instead, log into your account the way you normally do. If there is really a problem with your billing or other information, you'll see it when you log into your account. Better yet, contact Google's support team and ask for confirmation, and never hesitate to report these fraudulent emails to Google.

CoinMachine's New Addon Script

One of the legitimate sites, CoinMachine.info, has recently incorporated a new addon script on their site. This new addon has changed the surfing experience for the better as you wouldn't need to open and close a new browser anymore.

What is does is open a frame on the same page. Advertisers could still get their view while the timer counts down because the users are still free to browse the advertiser's site. At the end of the count down timer, the surfer will still undergo a security check, in which the user is asked to select the correct answer among the choices inside the frame. If the surfer picks the correct answer, the frame will remain, but will have the option to either close the site or continue browsing. If the Close option is picked, the frame redirects the user to the CoinMachine site, where he could proceed on the next ad. So far, this feature has been implemented on the PTC section, but have not been implemented on the PTR (Pay to read) section yet. There have been no word from our good admin if there are plans to install this addon to both sections, but he's currently beta testing it if it suits the users' satisfaction.

So far, CoinMachine is the only PTC/PTR site running on aurora script that uses this feature. CoinMachine's admin, Josh Rodarte, seems to really care about his members and affiliates, evidenced by his dedication to this project. He endeavors to do everything he could to make our stay on the site a pleasant one.

No-minimum.com does pay!

No-Minimum is a PTC/PTR site owned by the MoneyMoneyGroup. The same group that owns Donkeymails. A legitimate site that is 2 yrs. old already. The administrator of this site is Guy Eisenga and Sebas Broekhof. Both are well known for their honesty.

I have joined this site for 2 mos. already and since I'm working alone, it kinda took me some time before I could finally reach my paypal cashout at $1. The payout procedure, however, didn't take a week, and in just few days time, I received my payment. Here's my payment proof..

Click on picture to enlarge

And thus proves that the MultiMoneyGroup, is indeed a legitimate business group.

What this Site Offers

• New Paid to Promote $0.65 per 1,000 Credits!
• Paid to Click
• Paid to Read e-mails
• Get Paid To Signup!
• No Minimum Payout on e-gold!
• Use our ManualSurf for more traffic!
• Low Payout for Paypal ($1.00)
• 6 Referral levels: 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, 1%

It uses the same classical incentive base system as with Donkeymails. The tried and true method proves to be very stable compared to the new generation PTC systems, meaning, this business has a higher survival rate, and has less chances of collapsing. The only drawback is the low income earning. However, if you are looking for cash, and at the same time, traffic, this is one of the sites that we could recommend.

Identity Theft Emails

Have you been a victim of Identity Theft? You may never know, someone on the Internet may already been impersonating you and has been using your identity to cover up their dirty schemes. You may wonder, how did they manage to obtain your information? I'll explain how..

Identity Thief by definition is a fraudulent act that involves stealing money or getting other benefits by pretending to be someone else. Of course, if you were the victim, you could suffer various consequences as you will be held responsible for the perpetrator's actions.

But how do these identity thieves manage to obtain your information? Well, unfortunately, there are a lot of ways, but I will be focusing on one major scheme commonly used by these idiots.. Spam Emails!

The Method

Most identity thieves steal identity through emails, but since it's difficult to email everyone one by one, they use robots to crawl the web, steal email addresses, and use robots to mail everyone automatically. Most email services had already device a way to get rid of such emails by filtering them, but sometimes, some of these manage to land on your Inbox. Eventually, some users who are not aware of it, may read it.. This is what it contains.. See example below..

Click on picture to enlarge

It usually contains.. the "wow, you win the online lottery" message. Other's even pretend to be lawyers and asks you to be the beneficiary of an inheritance. Other's still asks you to become a business associate. Whatever the scam message.. they always ask you to give them your Personal Information.

Note that there is no online lottery that is based on email addresses and is conducted automatically. If you haven't participated it, do not act so greedy of claiming the reward even if the prizes are tempting. Only a spam robot would steal email ads, and only a scammer would conduct such drawings, moreover, there is no prize.. unless, you can consider getting your identity stolen a prize.

As for the lawyer-beneficiary scheme, no one's stupid enough to just make you inherit a load of wealth. If someone dies, and has no kin, his/her fortune will usually be escheated to the treasury of a particular country, where the decease person left his/her wealth, of course, this depends on the law governing such cases, but by any means, do not act as the beneficiary when you don't even know the decease person. If you submit your information to claim such wealth, you'll surely inherit the crime of the identity thief.

Other methods include advertising your profile on forums, social networking sites, etc. Doing this will certainly make the thieve's work much easier.

Prevention

To prevent your identity stolen, as a golden rule, always never give your personal information to strangers or any unauthorized agent. Do not register your personal information on unregistered or unsecured sites, most especially on scam sites. Do not loiter your email ad on just any sites, this will help spam robots steal your account, and increases your chances of receiving the fraudulent email.

Waolina.com: Smuggler's den?

I was tired of reading repetitive spam emails of Viagra products lately, but another brand new thing caught my eye while I browse my spam email folder this morning. The new link was Waolina.com. A site that sells watches, necklaces, and other accessories. It looks like an ordinary site with a nice design, but the thing that sparked my curiosity was the way it advertises itself. Why through spam? Now, that's a mystery since we very much know that spamming is illegal.



So, with that said, I went on to check who was responsible of such site, and it gave me this result..

Domain Name: waolina.com

Status: ok

Registrar: XIN NET TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Whois Server: whois.paycenter.com.cn
Referral URL: http://www.xinnet.com

Expiration Date: 2009-05-16
Creation Date: 2008-05-16
Last Update Date: 2008-05-16

Name Servers:
ns1.uangeran.com
ns2.uangeran.com

Extended Info

IP Address: 222.186.12.93
IP Location: China
Website Status: active
Server Type: Apache/2.0.58 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.58 OpenSSL/0.9.7f PHP/4.4.7
Cache Date: 2008-05-18 17:23:48 MST

OK, no wonder this site contains cheap products, and special offers.. it's from Xinnet again, and they have been actually violating the Internet Law by propagating itself through an illegal procedure known as spamvertise. Now, if it's from Xinnet, it's certified scam, and that's enough reason for us to blacklist this site.