Archive for the ‘Scams’ Category

“Chase Away Debt” Relief Scams

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

debt spam exampleI received a disturbing email today from Jill West today with an address of Alvera@aybyra.com. I first thought it was from Chase because the logo was so similar but then I scrolled down the page and the MSNBC logo was on there to make it look reputable. The email just looks plain legit if you are one to just click on logo’s that look like the real thing. When you examine the email more closely it has some characters at the bottom that do not make sense and then when I mouse over the click-able Chase-like logo ad it sends me to a page that is hosted at vczzmt.com. A site that sounds nothing like true Debt Consolidation. I would not click any link with that type of mouse over.

Chase Bank will most likely be disturbed by this email. This is clearly copyright infringement using Chase’s logo and MSNBC’s logo for inappropriate use. The logo looks so close to Chase to confuse people and is highly misleading. Making this our phishing scam of the week. Comment your phishing scams you have dealt with but NO links please.

Chase has nothing to do wi

KFC Oprah Coupon Ripoff Alert

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

KFC, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken where you can have a heart attack just by walking inside the place recently launched grilled chicken.  With Oprah’s help they gave away a coupon on her show that was supposed to be downloaded from her website.  Not only was the coupon not downloadable from her site but they directed you to the unthinKFC.com site where you actually had to download software to use the coupon.  Yes, you had to download an .exe file from this coupon website probably the worst of spyware for your computer.  I downloaded the .exe file knowing that I might could trust what was on Oprah’s show.  Keep in mind this is the first time I have willingly fell for a spyware download in years.

Now the software is running and the printer gave me my coupon.  I look it over and notice that it says managers choice on the 2 pieces of chicken you get in this two-piece mean coupon.  That comes as something I had assumed since they could run out of one part but of course you will not be getting a breast like they picture in the ad.  I quickly erased anything having to do with that couponprinter.exe file after I printed the coupon.  It has to be printed before tonite at midnight but can be used up until May 19th excluding Mother’s Day.  Mother’s Day is one of the biggest days for the KFC restaurant chain.

As my mouth was watering in the drive-thru up at KFC for those two pieces of grilled chicken, two sides, and a biscuit everything quickly came to an end.  The drive-thru lady told me that they were out of Grilled Chicken and it would be 20 minutes before they could cook it.  I asked if you can possibly get Chicken breasts with this deal and she said no.  So they were out of the goods they bragged about on the coupons and I am sure white meat is not included in the managers choice.

It is a shame that the Oprah show would send her viewers to a site that asked for a download of an executable file to someones computer for one thing.  The risk of that is far greater than the cost of a free KFC meal deal and KFC could not even hold up to their bargain at 9:30pm when it is not their peak time.  This is a scam worse than any I have actually fell for in quite some time!