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Hey guys just to let you all know that we have now integrated our blog onto our website -

You can now read it here -
http://www.thatsnonsense.com/blog

Hope to see you there :)

Same Rumours, Different Day

The only thing more perplexing than the reasons why Facebook hoaxers constantly conjure up silly time wasting rumours to spread across the social networking site is the curious viral success their unoriginal drivel seems to enjoy. It seems the same moronic, illogical nonsense circulates every few weeks across sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, only slightly repackaged, which apparently is enough to fool everyone. All over again.


Take, for example, such a classic like the rumours purporting a soon-to-be-introduced charge for using Facebook, of which several hundred variants have circulated over the years, the most recent being in the last few days. Common sense would, or should, immediately dismiss these rumours as fabricated garbage since you needn’t require a business degree to figure out Facebooks business model, which relies almost entirely on marketing the information it gains from its epic user base, would fail if a mandatory charge was introduced, especially with 101 other free-to-use social networking sites lurking around the corner looking to grab Facebooks global number 2 spot. If that isn’t enough, the first several rumours purporting a charge for Facebook have all inevitably proven untrue, with their proposed dates having been and gone some time ago. Yet new messages are born, preaching the same nonsense but with different words and different dates, and the social networking collective tremble in fear once again because hey… didn’t we mention? … different words and different dates!


Its official. signal at 12:20 it even passed on tv. Facebook will start charging this summer.If you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message if not your count will be deleted. p.s, this is serious the icon turns blue, So please put this as your status!

 This latest version claims Facebook will start charging in the summer, but if you copy and paste a message to your status, your account will be remain free. An insult to intelligence, but this latest variation has fooled many, many thousands.


It begs the question – why are we so slow to pick up on digital nonsense? If someone told you that brussel sprouts do actually make you stronger, we’d engage the brain and realise that it wasn’t really true. If you weren’t particularly smart, you’d eat lots of sprouts and soon come to the same conclusion. In the real world, such a rumour, or myth even, is easy to dismiss, but we’re failing with the digital counterparts, on both accounts – we’re not engaging the brain, and we’re not learning from the past. We are blindly circulating the same regurgitated rubbish over and over, panicked and bewildered, muttering extremities yet not mulling it over even long enough to realise we’re actually making fools out of ourselves and the crap we’re circulating is essentially saying - without a hint of sarcasm, mockery or cynicism - “Eating sprouts will make you as strong as Popeye.”.

 They really won’t.

New Viral SPAM Messages Hit Facebook

Facebook users should be aware of a slew of viral messages circulating the social networking site as a result of a gaping security flaw on Facebook’s behalf concerning their platform on the iPhone.

Scammers have managed to concoct a way of fooling Facebook users into pasting JavaScript code into their URL address bar that causes them not only to post messages onto the walls of their Facebook contacts, but such messages contain extra options at the end of the post which are fully customisable by the scammer.

Avid Facebook users will be aware that at the end of messages posted on their walls are the familiar options such as  “Like”, “Comment” or “See Friendship”. What makes these viral scam posts different and more dangerous is that an extra option is appended as well, that – from what we can see – can virtually say anything, meaning such posts look much more legitimate, and this factor is certainly what is making such posts incredibly successful at circulating the social networking site. See the image below -

The posts are varying, but the extra option at the end of the posted message will direct users either to external websites or to Facebook Pages that contain a variety of scams. Most prolifically, these scams are requesting Facebook users copy and paste a handful of lines of JavaScript code into their URL address bar which is extremely dangerous and also causes the Facebook user to post the same message to all their Facebook friends, thus helping the scam messages propagate virally.

At this time, the security flaw is only effecting iPhone users since all offending posts have derived from an iPhone user, yet with more and more Facebook users turning to their friends to social network, this is still potentially effecting millions of users. Scammers have already used a diverse array of messages, including these –

OMG! Its unbeliveable now you can get to know who views your facebook profile.. i can see my top profile visitors and i am so shocked that my EX is still creeping my profile every hour. click below

Facebook now has a dislike button! Click Enable Dislike Button to turn on the new feature!

F**k you fa**ot. Go kill yourself. Vote for Nicole Santos. I hate you and the only way to remove all these posts is by disabling this below.

Please do your part in PREVENTING SPAM by VERIFYING YOUR ACCOUNT. Click VERIFY MY ACCOUNT right next to the comment below to begin the verification process....

What is more concerning perhaps is that these messages started circulating more than a week ago, yet identical threats exploiting the same flaw continue to circulate - apparently unhindered - around Facebook fooling its users into potentially dangerous situations. And it doesn’t look like stopping either, since we imagine the next message exploiting the flaw will be released by the scammers shortly, if it hasn’t already.

This must be particularly embarrassing for Facebook since it coincides with their announcement of much more stringent security procedures to reduce scams that circulate the site.

That’s another D’oh, Facebook.

Facebook Facing Wave of Facebook Chat Attacks

The popular social networking site Facebook, which is always finding itself the target for many scammers and hoaxers has been facing a surge of attacks recently targeted at its Instant chat feature that comes integrated within the website.

Facebook users have been complaining about malicious links that are circulating automatically throughout the Chat facility that direct unwitting users to application installation pages. Such Facebook applications are typically survey scams where victims are told to complete surveys, which when completed make money for the scammers.

The surge of attacks using the Chat facility has led to many people leaving the blame on “self-generating viruses” (see here for our article on that warning), worms and Koobface threats, when in reality the blame is on the rogue self-propagating Facebook applications.

The links that are circulating through Chat are bundled with some curious message that is designed to bait victims into clicking the link. Once clicked, users are taken to a page like the one below.

As you can see from the permissions page on this application installation page, the Facebook application wants access to your Facebook Chat facility. It needs this so it can pass the same message that fooled you onto your Facebook contacts.

Additionally once the application installs, users are typically urged to complete a survey to see or receive whatever the original Chat message promised.

The messages circulating throughout chat are different, but some popular ones include –

"OMG: This girl killed herself after her FATHER posted this message on her wall"

(again!)

"It will make you reevaluate what you put on your wall after seeing this"

"hey lol check out this girl,she i cant believe this video"

"omg hahah have u seen this photo u got tagged in LOL"

Other similar derivatives are also used, all of them designed to lure curiosity from the potential victim.

Worth noting is the links bundled with these messages nearly always use the Bit.Ly shortcut method, which hides the true URL address.

Facebook does its best to delete such applications and usually does so within hours of them popping up, meaning many of these messages end up pointing to dead links where the application used to be, but the open nature of Facebooks application development platform means that new rogue applications are literally popping up everyday.

Always be wary of links sent to you through wall postings, comments or through Facebook chat, especially if that link and message seems suspicious or out of character with the sender, or if the link is disguised with a URL shortener such as Bit.Ly. Never install Facebook applications that appear after clicking on such links, and if you have, you should visit this page that contains instructions on how to remove rogue Facebook applications.

Facebook Fight Back Against Likejacking Scams

Last week our blog post was about clickjacking (also dubbed likejacking scams) so we won’t go into much detail about how the scams to say, other than to say it is the recently prolific scam of hiding Facebook Like buttons underneath images in a bid to trick online viewers into clicking and inadvertently liking external pages.

However Facebook has actually stopped such scams in their tracks by replacing their one-click Like button with a new version that requires users to confirm their “Like” before the action is posted on the Facebook users newsfeed.

The update, which has already been implemented, prevents the one-click nature of the Like button by replacing it with a three step process. Firstly an Internet user clicks the Like button displayed on a website, and the word Confirm appears. Upon clicking Confirm a pop-up appears giving information about the webpage the user is about to Like. The user then has the opportunity to confirm the “Like” action, or cancel it altogether.

Of course this means Facebook clickjacking scams, which rely on a user inadvertently clicking a Like button and hence “liking “ a page, become almost impossible since users will have to confirm a pop-up to complete the “liking” process, giving potential victims a chance to cancel the action once they realise they have been duped.

Whilst clickjacking is a broader term that is not specific to Facebook, this action may mean we have seen the last of Facebook clickjacking (likejacking) scams.

The move is also going to give Facebook some rare positive feedback from privacy and security experts, amidst all the current controversy the social networking giant is facing, specifically the imminent move to begin sharing the contact details of Facebook users with third party Facebook application developers.

Facebook Clickjacking Attacks

In a nutshell…

Clickjacking, in its most broadest sense, is a type of attack that involves hiding certain functions within a webpage that activate when a victim clicks on them – the victim is under the impression that their clicking action will perform a completely different function, unaware that the hidden script is present and has the ability to perform a completely unwanted action.

Facebook clickjacking attacks are one of the most prevalent, and are most commonly designed to get Facebook users to unwittingly "like" external websites which in turn spreads such websites to that Facebook users contact list.

Facebook clickjacking attacks are also dubbed "likejacking" since it utilises the "like" feature on Facebook.

How it works…

For anyone familiar with Facebook and how it operates, they will also be familiar with the ability to "Like" information such as comments, videos and status updates. When a Facebook "likes" something, it appears on their Facebook Wall that they "liked" it, which in turn will appear in the newsfeed of many of their contacts.
A recent addition to the "Like" feature is that website developers can add a button to their own websites that allow Facebook users to "Like" the website by clicking that button, meaning Facebook users do not have to be within the Facebook environment to use this feature.

This has led to scammers essentially hiding the Facebook "Like" button on their websites and then tricking users to clicking on the area of the webpage that contains the hidden button, so what essentially happens is that the user inadvertently “likes” a website by clicking on an area of a webpage. The user is unaware that they have "liked" a webpage and that this action has been published on their Facebook Wall and on the newsfeed of many of their contacts.

The clickjacking is designed to bait people into "liking" a page so that a page can propagate between Facebook users since Facebook contacts who have seen that their Facebook “friend” has “liked” a page are likely to visit the same page and fall for the same trap.

Popular Examples

The most prolific example of a clickjacking attack is where Facebook users are baited with a non-existent video. They are taken to a page which replicates a typical video sharing site. Users are clearly baited to click the Play icon in the middle of the video screen, and this is where the hidden Facebook "Like" button will be located. Clicking the Play button will cause the user to “like” the webpage.
Some sites try and replicate YouTube. Some use a logo displaying TouTube, FouTube or FBTube.

Other popular examples include requesting users to "prove their human" by clicking certain areas of a webpage in a certain order. The Facebook "Like" button is simply hidden in one of these areas.
Survey Scams

2011 has seen a significant increase in clickjacking attacks that are employed to help survey scammers. Facebook survey scams have previously used various tactics to help spread including rogue Facebook applications, forcing a user to "like" and "share" an external website or forcing them to join a Facebook group. Clickjacking is the latest tactic survey scammers are using to help them spread their malicious links.

Survey scams are when scammers trick victims into completing surveys on the false assertion the victim will receive/achieve something in return. Once a victim completes a survey, the scammer gets money. More information on Facebook survey scams can be seen here.

Victim?

If you are the victim of a clickjacking attack, the first thing you need to do is remove the offending “like” post that your Facebook account has just produced. Go to your profile and hover over the post. Click the "x" on the top right and then click Remove. This will stop your Facebook contacts from falling in the same trap.

For most clickjacking accounts on Facebook, this is all you need to do, since many clickjacking accounts do not involve any malicious payload.

If you feel you may have downloaded something onto your computer through the attack, run an up-to-date virus scam to check for threats.

Avoiding Clickjacking Attacks

The easiest way to avoid such attacks is to be careful on what links you click on Facebook and to always be wary of suspicious links and websites. If a link is offering you something that you think does not exist or is too good to be true, then it probably is.

There are other more dynamic ways to avoid clickjacking accounts as well, such as downloading and using the Firefox web browser to visit websites. Firefox has an optional downloadable NoScript plugin with disables any type of hidden script which can be utilised by clickjacking scammers. This plugin can be used to disable all types of embedded script on sites that you do not trust.

Additionally, always make sure you use the most recent version of your Internet browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome)

Nutritional/Dietary Supplement Scams

A quick guide to buying nutritional supplements online, and why users should always be wary when purchasing self improvement supplements online

The age of medicine is always quickly changing, and one of the main talking points regarding health and fitness over the past years is the use of nutritional supplements. With the peoples dream of living for as long as possible, nurturing a healthy diet and otherwise natural healthy lifestyle is no longer considered sufficient with the introduction and increasing popularity of additional supplements one may not otherwise take.

The subject of nutritional supplements is one that still draws considerable controversy, both from the medical and retail communities, yet it seems that dietary enhancements are becoming more popular and increasingly accepted in today's world.

However, like anything that draws controversy and increases in popularity, there are people out there who take advantage of the situation.

Beware of the Acai Berries!

One such popular supplement is commonly known as the Acai Berry which is notoriously sold online as a dietary enhancement that purports to improve health, sexual virility and help with weight loss. However there is no credible evidence to back up these claims and many websites and multi level marketing plans selling Acai Berry based products have been shown to be both misleading and fraudulent. There are a significant number of complaints regarding these Acai schemes that vary from over charging credit cards, consumers getting unwittingly involved with Ponzi schemes and poor products or placebos being sent to customers. These attributes have in many cases become synonymous in the online self-improvement scam industry, with a surge of thousands of sites purporting to sell "miracle dietary cures", only for the victim to find out that the claims made by the websites were simply false or misleading, both grossly exaggerating the benefits of using the product and the downfalls of not using it.

Such sites selling supplements like these would be known to use many other misleading tactics, such as using trademarked logos of legitimate news outlets and magazines in an attempt to feign endorsement. Additionally scam sites would hide expensive monthly charges under the facade of a "free trial" and automatically sign up victims to multiple subscriptions making it harder for victims to cancel and avoid further charges.

This has led to many supplement based websites also being attacked and shut down for breach of many non-supplement FTC guidelines, including updated FTC guidelines regarding the use of both customer testimonials and celebrity endorsements. Such sites would use faked unverifiable customer testimonials that purported atypical and uncharacteristic results, and also employed fake celebrity endorsements. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and her resident medical expert Dr. Oz were notoriously unwittingly linked to these scams, which led to them filing suit against a number of these sites. Such sites claimed the celebrity duo endorsed their products, which was untrue.

You can read more about Acai Berry Scams on our site here.

MLMs and Pyramid Schemes

Additionally websites or multi level marketing plans that sell a wider range of supplements have also attracted noteworthy criticism, on many fronts, which has led to specific FTC guidelines outlining the retail and advertisements of such supplements sold by sites and MLMs in the USA.
One such controversy that has drawn fierce criticism is often poor advice given by sites and affiliates regarding the sales of such items in order to sell supplements, which is often prioritised over giving sound advice to potential customers. One drawback, especially concerning MLMs that sell supplements, is the innate nature of an MLM structure that pressures its affiliates into selling as many of these supplements as possible with little regard to whether the end user really requires such a product.
Such affiliate based selling techniques are also often criticised for not checking their affiliates knowledge or experience of nutritional supplements when providing advice and selling such commodities. There is little legal ground or legislation concerning this area since these supplements are not considered [prescription] drugs, even though poor advice regarding supplements can still be considered potentially dangerous.

Even larger MLMs like USANA and Vitamark that focus on the sales of nutritional supplements have drawn their share of criticism and disapproval. USANA had found themselves in court for misleading their affiliates regarding potential earnings, a popular trademark of shady MLM schemes. The legal MLM Pre Paid Legal found themselves in trouble with the SEC for similar reasons.

Nutritional advice, like medical advice, is always best coming from someone who is qualified in the field. Whilst in many cases websites or affiliates of MLMs that sell supplements might be knowledgeable in the area, there is no guarantee, and any advice is likely to be biased to selling their products.

Our recommendation is always to get advice from either your doctor or a qualified nutritionist, and if you do purchase such products online, proceed with caution and remember that the person selling you the item is just that – a salesman, not a qualified nutritionist and any advice offered should not necessarily be taken as correct.

Advance 419 Fraud Still Lives

Advance 419 Fraud is one of the oldest and infamous Internet crimes that still manages to operate online. Many consider this type of crime (also called Nigerian fraud) one of the easiest to spot - after all, how many people reading this are going to respond to a Nigerian banker who has just informed you that you are the beneficiary of millions of US dollars from a recently deceased businessman abroad. Not many, since that is what we know now to be the classic 419 trap.

But like all crimes, 419 fraud has evolved and has sparked many variants that may follow the same template, but are a lot harder to dismiss as fake.

One of these is the 419 romantic scam, or Nigerian romance scam, that baits victims with the promise of friendship and relationships, as opposed to the more traditional cash reward. While many still consider this type of scam relatively notorious, this week it has proved to be very much live and well after it was revealed that a woman from the UK was scammed for a huge £80,000 by an Internet crook who pretended to be a soldier.

Kate Roberts was taken by the scammer - who was later traced back to 419 capital Nigeria – over a period of many months, where the scammer requested many cash payouts, for a “telephone line” and “release documents” to travel back to the UK. What made this con much more convincing than many others is that it included telephone calls from many different “characters” in this fictional play that the cyber criminals created.

What is more, is that the cash payouts were to be paid via online wire transfer service Western Union, a massive red flag when it comes to cyber crime.

As always, be on the lookout for 419 scammers on every corner of the Internet. Romance scams like this can be started through unsolicited email, social networking sites or dating sites. Never hand over money to people you have never met online, and always be very wary of requests of payment via Western Union.

Related articles from our site –

Nigerian Romance Scams


Western Union Scams

The Most Popular Facebook Applications that Never Existed

Everyone who uses Facebook will know about Facebook applications, and the majority of Facebook users may recognise or even tried to install certain applications that purported to offer certain, shall we say, intriguing services. Here is our list of applications that many a person claimed they created, but never actually existed.

The Profile Stalker Application – this is the application that claimed it could tell a Facebook user who exactly was viewing their profile the most, i.e. who was stalking you. Of course, third party developers do not have access to this information, and displaying this information would be in violation of Facebook’s privacy conditions, so no application has ever been able to tell anybody who looks at their profile or how often they do so. Most of the applications were scams, and many others just picked several random names from the Facebook user’s friends list and claimed these were the Facebook user’s top stalkers. Untrue, however.

The Facebook Dislike Button – many Facebook users will be aware of the various online campaigns to get Facebook to add a Dislike button to allow users to dislike posts or comments made by other Facebook users. This led to a plethora of applications (and groups) that claimed to “officially” offer the Facebook Dislike button. Of course none ever did since third party applications cannot alter Facebook’s source code and any official adding of the feature would not depend on users installing an application. To this day there are no plans to add such a feature, and no application can include it.

Viewing Private Profiles Application – need we confirm that you cannot install applications that allow you to view otherwise private profiles and information? Apparently we do, since these applications are the most prolific. The only way to view profiles is to become friends with those profiles. There is no other way, short of becoming an exceptional programmer and hacking Facebook. No application can, will or has even been able to view private profiles, so do not even bother, or you’ll find yourself the victim of a rather obvious scam.

See Who Blocked/Deleted You – much like the applications that claim you can see who stalks your profile, it is also against the privacy terms of Facebook to see who blocked or deleted your account. Facebook does not notify you if someone deletes you, so if one day you were friends with someone and could access their profile, and the next day you’re not friends and cannot access their profile, you’ve probably done something to tick the other person off, because you have been “defriended.” You don’t need an application to tell you that, which is just as well, because they can’t anyway.

Change Your Facebook Theme – just like the dislike button, no application can alter Facebook including the theme (or account type, if you fell for the Facebook Gold hoax) so any application claiming it will change your theme or revert you back to an old layout was just lying. If Facebook do decide to change their theme, you won’t have to run a Facebook App to get it.

Also worth a mention are the applications that claim to tell you your first status, display your first picture, or applications that claim to tell you who you have had the most interaction with.

These applications have never existed. If you fell for any of them, then back luck because you were duped.  Can you think of any others? Feel free to post them below.

Facebook Instant Personalisation - Invasion of Privacy?

It's 2011, and we trust you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This is our first post of 2011 and for it we will be re-visiting a hoax that spread through Facebook virally back in 2010 but has reappeared this year.


If anyone has heard of Facebook’s Instant Personalisation, it’s a feature Facebook launched last year that allows select external websites to obtain basic information about a Facebook user before they visit that site. This is so when a Facebook user visits such a site, it is instantly personalised for them – meaning it will display their name and profile picture.


Whilst the movement caused minor controversy from hardcore privacy activists, the feature really wasn’t that controversial since the information given and displayed on these sites was only very basic information available to anybody, regardless if they were a friend or not.


However like any change Facebook makes regarding the sharing of information, alarmist messages like the one below began to circulate between Facebook friends warning users in an overly alarmist way, implying this was some sort of massive invasion of privacy.


ATTENTION ALL FB USERS----VERY IMPORTANT For those of you that didnt see this per CNN news....facebook will be allowing our profile pics on the web..please do this now.... GO TO Account, Click on Privacy Settings >>Applications and Websites>> UNCLICK Instant Personalization...and PLEASE TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS!!!

However these over-the-top messages, which were designed to panic Facebook users, were loosely based on truth, since Facebook users are automatically opted out of the Instant Personalisation feature. The feature, now available on 7 sites partnered with Facebook (including Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes and TripAdvisor) has only the ability to share information that you have already made public with everyone, and since you have to explicitly opt-IN to the service, there is no need to pass on the many deceptive messages floating around Facebook about Instant Personalisation.

You’ve Won the Christmas Lottery … Not.

Like many millions of other email users out there, you’re probably familiar some way or another with 419 Nigerian fraud. You’ve probably seen a Nigerian email in one of its many different variants filter through to your email inbox or junk mail folder. 419 Nigerian fraud, or Advance Fee Fraud, most prolifically takes on the classic wealthy businessman variation, which promises several million dollars dumped into your bank account from some deceased businessmans banker or solicitor in Africa, providing your pay some sort of fee upfront, of course.

Not all 419 Nigerian fraud is that easy to spot however, and one particular variation that comes increasingly popular during the run up to Christmas is the 419 Christmas lottery scam. For the unaware and uninformed, receiving an email confirming you’ve won hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars is the perfect way to catch someone’s attention. After all, 5.6 million USD might just come in handy over the festive period!

These types of scams prey on people who need money, and  the Christmas period provides many such people who may be willing to believe stories they normally wouldn’t do any other time of the year.

So this is why we will see a surplus of apparent Christmas lotteries and sweepstakes filling our inboxes, trying to dupe people into biting.

Remember, even if the initial email asking you to “confirm” your winnings doesn’t mention fees or charges, follow up emails certainly will, and can range from courier fees, security clearance fees, handling fees, release fees and even bribes!

Examples this December include the Coca-Cola Zero Lottery and the Nigerian Xmas Lottery sweepstake.

Remember this – you cannot win lotteries you have not entered, and no credible lottery notifies its winners via email, much less requires upfront fees to collect winnings.

For our full article on advance fee 419 fraud and its many variants and methods of spotting it, click here.

Facebook Launches New Profile – Viral Rumours Soon to Follow

Facebook have recently announced the imminent launch of the new profile page, meaning your profile page is going to be restructured and ergo is going to look very different indeed.

New features will incorporate recently tagged photos of yourself appearing at the top of the profile page, a featured friends element allowing you to select your important friends (many potential arguments there, then) and more information about your hobbies, work etc. (sharing even more information with Facebook? They must enjoy irritating the hell out of privacy activists)

We’re telling you about this imminent change [-all users should have new profiles by the new year-] because every time Facebook does make any sort of change, hoaxers see this as some sort of starting whistle to spread as much illogical tripe as possible to see how far and deep their alarmist lies can spread across a network comprised largely of people far too familiar with their Copy & Paste keyboard shortcuts. (It’s Control + C and V for the sceptics)

So this post is a pre-emptive warning that soon the old favorites are likely to make an inevitable return, such as…

-Facebook groups, pages and applications that claim it can get your old profile back, providing you invite people to join, of course. Like all changes Facebook make, once their finalised, there is no reverting back.

-Viral messages stating Facebook has been hacked because of some sort of irrelevant and obscure feature some hoaxer has discovered. Remember the assertion your account could be hacked because your own name appeared on your list of friends? Prepare for the next viral “Facebook has been hacked” panic.

-Similar to the above point, we expect a new round of “Facebook hackers” to miraculously appear, magically comprising Facebook accounts based on the illogical pseudo-jargon garbage the hoaxers dream up.

-Facebook are planning on charging for upgrades. You really have to admire this rumours ability to simply refuse to lay down and die. Always popping up every few months, likely prompting Facebook’s message on their homepage that it will always be free. We expect to see a timely return of this classic at some point.

So Facebook are already altering many of its users to the new profile layout.

We can’t wait.

Think of any more rumours likely to follow? Feel free to comment below.

Facebook Cartoon Profile Pics Have NOTHING to do with Pedophillia !!

It rarely seems a month passes by without some sort of specious claims about pedophiles running riot on social networking sites, and this December is certainly no exception with yet another viral rumour hitting the Facebook.

It all started in November when messages started to appear in Greece and Cyprus requested people to change their Facebook profile pictures to their favorite cartoon characters. The messages didn’t enjoy much success, and seemed doomed to a quick demise.

That was until early December when the messages were picked up, translated into English and were altered into saying the changing of profile pictures to cartoon characters was a way of saying "No to child abuse", and the cartoon character you opted for should be an old favorite from that respective Facebook users own childhood.

The move seemed popular, and enjoyed even more success than the “Post Your Bra Color” and the “Doppelganger Pic” viral campaigns. Even though the movement did not seem to be attached to any official charity of group, many people were happy to change their profile pictures for a day, or even a week.

But as the saying goes, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the bunch, and this is certainly true as to the unfortunate path this story has ended up taking. Only a few days after the messages and cartoon pictures went global did the sick and vile rumours of pedophile involvement begin to surface, and surface they certainly did.

Almost instantaneously did various rumours appear claiming the whole idea of cartoon profile pictures was created by social networking deviants who owned and operated dangerous groups designed to steal your children and rob their photos. Yet again the illogical rumours led you to believe that pedophiles invented the idea of cartoon profile pictures in order to be accepted as friends to your children.

Yet again the rumours made no sense, offered no evidence and defied even the most basic principles of common sense.

And yet again people passed the rumours on in their thousands.

This includes rumours like -

ATTENTION! Just reported that the group that started the post about changing your profile picture to a cartoon character is actually a pedophiles group that is doing this because its easier to get accepted friend requests! Please re-post.

and

CHANGEYOUPRFILE PIC BACK TO NORMAL!! this cartoon thing has been set up by pedos using a registered charity thing to entice kids. Apparently on the 6th of december you will be kicked of fb if u hv cartoon pics. the more folk that put up the cartoon pics the harder it is for the police ...to catch the sickos!!!

Suffice to say, the rumours were not true AT ALL, and if you feel like changing your profile picture to an old favorite cartoon, whether it be to support child abuse awareness or simply to revisit nostalgia-town, feel free to do so in the comfort and safety of knowing you’re not allowing, supporting or endorsing any paedophilic related activity.

If you want more on the subject, here is our original post on Facebook pedophiles.

Casino Gambling System Scams

We'll warn you, if you're not interested in Math, probabilities or gambling, the following blog post is likely to bore you to death.

One of the longest running, controversial and popular fallacies in the world is the belief, support and use of betting systems apparently designed to improve or guarantee winnings from casino games such as roulette and craps. Such systems purport to overcome the casino odds by using various strategies, some simple and some complex to allow the user of such systems to “beat the casino”

Of course anyone familiar with casinos will know that people playing games such as roulette, blackjack and craps will statistically lose out over a long enough period because everyone playing such games are subject to the “house odds” - meaning that the chances of success are always very slightly in favour of the house (the casino) so that any betting spree long enough would statistically favour the house. For example the green zero in roulette or the player acting first in blackjack gives the casino a very slight advantage.
Such betting systems claim to not only overcome the house edge but virtually guarantee the person using it a profit, regardless of how long the betting spree goes on for.

Casino betting systems are advertised in a variety of ways, including many unethical methods of which the seasoned Internet user would be familiar with including SPAM email, malware attacks, spyware pop-ups and advertisements on equally unethical websites. Victims may be directed to websites or baited through email correspondence by people running the casino system scams. The people promoting such systems may either be under the false belief the system works, or may just be after your money, much like a get-rich-quick scam.

Many different varieties of systems have emerged over the decades, most of which pre date the Internet by many years. In fact most “brand new systems” flogged on the Internet daily are not brand new at all, rather one of many different thousands of systems that have been tried, tested and ultimately failed many years prior.

Varieties of systems include the "gambler fallacy" systems which somehow implement the age old fallacy that an event that has not occurred in some time is more likely to occur in the imminent future, for example a roulette wheel resulting in 3 red numbers in a row will more likely show a black number next. Of course this is not true, and anyone reading that previous sentence will realise this, but many systems disguise this error in logic by overtly complex equations and fancy hype.

Another type of system is the "bet big win small" systems such as the Martingale system which sees a player double his stake after every loss, so his first victory will cover his previous losses plus his original stake back, hence the small win. This system has proved incredibly popular since it maximises a players chances of winning in the short term, but like all "bet big win small" systems, the profit will only be small and the amount potentially lost will be much larger, meaning anyone using this system will eventually suffer a big loss and hence are at no more of a mathematical advantage that anyone using any other system. The probability of losing with the Martingale system is often underestimated by even experienced gamblers.
Another similar system involves betting low amounts on the majority of possible outcomes meaning the chance of victory will always be on the players side, who shall receive small profits. This is popular in roulette, where for example a player can place bets on 32 out of the 37 possible outcomes, meaning they are likely to win a small amount, but may suffer a huge loss. Like the Martingale, this may be a good short term solution, but players using such a system will eventually suffer a huge loss and be subject to the same mathematical probabilities as anybody else over the long term. Many betting systems stem from this short term solution to blind victims into thinking that the chances of winning can be on their side.

Even to this day many gamblers swear by and defend various betting systems, but the fact is that no one system will or can ever work, because of the core mathematics involved with gambling. No matter how the system is dressed up, or presented to the victim, or how complex the people behind the scam are willing to get, casino games are subject to simple, fundamental probabilities that no one can change. Betting systems that sell ultimate betting strategies are selling regurgitated information that will make no one more or less likely to become rich from a casino. Games such as roulette, blackjack and craps will always be in favour of the house over the long term, and in the words of Albert Einstein - "No one can possibly win at roulette unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn't looking".

Your Get-Rich-Quick Scam Quick Checklist

Get-Rich-Quick scams take many variants, and if you're looking to make an extra buck online, be wary of schemes that match the following points -

- Extra discount pop-ups when you try and leave the page? They make you think you're getting a special deal when you're not.

- Large red fonts, yellow highlight and long winded sales letters? Get-Rich-Quick scammers are not great web designers, so the website or sales letter will usually look the same, a borrowed template, with outsourced graphics at the top.

- Rags to Riches story? Get-Rich-Quick scammers love rags to riches stories to help the victim relate to them. They are never true.

- Limited Offers, Limited Time or Limited Copies? It is always limited somehow with Get-Rich-Quick scams, because they want you to act hastily.

- UpSelling? Extremely infuriating is when the sales letter gets you to buy the system which will "make you a fortune" only to find out that you need to buy other upgrades if you really want to "make money."

- Tacky "Proof of Earnings" Pics or Vids? These are either fake or as a result of selling useless get-rich-quick information to other victims. Rest assured they are not a result of the "ultimate program" they are trying to flog to you.

- Secret Hush Hush Tips? Tips for making money online are endless, but there are no guaranteed groundbreaking techniques that will make anyone who tries them rich.

- Posting Links? If it involves the ambigious "posting links" then run away fast. There is no such thing as posting links and getting paid. This is an extremely vague way of describing affiliate marketing, which involves selling other peoples products through your referral link. Its certainly not as simple as posting links and getting paid!

- Fast cars and big houses? Get-Rich-Quick scams are notorious for painting the victim the picture of what it would be like to be rich, and this includes pictures of fast cars and big houses, no bills and no boss. They do this to lure the victim into the program by making them really want the program to work.

- Get-Rich-Quick? Yes thats right, get-rich-quick scams promise you will get rich quickly! There are no shortcuts to making money online fast. The cyber goldrush is over, and if you want to make real money online now, you have to work just as hard, or even harder than you would normally have to in the real world, and it doesn't happen over a few days! Sorry!

10 Tips for Shopping Safely Online

The amounts of shops and services accepting payment online is increasing dramatically, meaning there is an extremely wide range of products available at the click of a mouse. It is no surprise that scammers have flocked to the retail side of the Internet looking to steal your money, but if you follow some easy safety procedures, using your credit or debit card online can be just as safe as using it in your local shop.


10. Never wire money through Western Union or MoneyGram!

Run away at the mention of either of these services. They are not designed to be used by online businesses, and are prolifically used by scammers because of their lack of security.



9. Never buy from new websites.

Scam websites popup every month or so, and rarely last more than a several months. That is why you should try and avoid new websites selling goods, unless you have a good enough reason to trust that site.



8. Only enter your card information on a secure server

If you’re worried that sounds too technical, you needn’t be. Look at the start of the web address. https:// means secure. No “s” means not secure (just http://). Never enter your card details on a domain without the “s”.



7. Never buy from a site with poor spelling and grammar

Scam websites often originate from places like China or Russia. Be on the look out for poor grammar, syntax and spelling. Even if the website is legit, do you want to be buying from an unprofessional seller?



6. Don’t buy from websites with poor contact details

Essentially, always look out for a postal address, and do not trust websites that used free web based email addresses like Hotmail or Yahoo.



5. Don’t buy from poorly designed websites

Look for company branding, and good design. Scammers quickly set up website templates meaning there may be design and development flaws, and the site will often look tacky.



4. Don’t buy from sites if the prices are too good

Because most scam websites won’t actually sell anything, they will of course bait their victims with extremely low prices. Ask yourself if the prices are too good to be true. If they are, you may be getting scammed.



3. Have up-to-date Antivirus and Spyware Removal Software

Spyware steals your personal details like card information, so even if you are buying from a legit site, spyware can still put your privacy at risk. Run up-to-date antivirus software to make sure your computer is clean.



2. Don’t send your bank account, routing number or social security information

For readers in the UK, this means sort code and national insurance number. Online retailers don’t need this information so if they ask for it, you should shy away.



1. Novice shoppers should stick with the famous brands

If you’re new to the whole e-commerce scene, it is best to stick with reputable sites, and by this we mean –
Manufacturer websites, such as the official Sony, Dell or Samsung websites.
Shop websites, such as the official PCWorld, Walmart or Debenhams websites.
Other famous sites, such as Amazon.com or Buy.com.

Another bonus to sticking with sites like this is that the prices will always be competitive and there is plenty of buyer protection!


Those are our top tips to shopping safely online, and if you follow them, you should not find yourself falling foul to any Internet scams. This is a condensed version of our full article which can be read here.

Auction Listing Agent Scams

Ever came across a scheme purporting to teach you how to become a Certified Auction Listing Agent? They are work-at-home scams. Read on for more information.

Certified Auction Listing Agent scams work as follows –

They get the victim hooked on promises of profitable work-at-home opportunities. Some use long winded sales pages full of the usual garble about how someone became financially free and does not have to worry about bills and can go on long vacations etc. Others ask the victim to enter their ZIP code so the site can `search for jobs in their area` and are then forwarded to a long winded sales page full of the same drivel (regardless of the ZIP code entered. The `opportunities` are identical. The ZIP code does not even need to be entered)

The sales page will give the usual get-rich drivel of how nice it is to be rich and will usually include a rag to riches story of how many people have become successful using the so called system. The sales page will also go on to explain that these people are becoming rich by selling items on auction sites like EBay on behalf of other companies, usually Fortune 500 companies or other reputable businesses. These companies will apparently give the member large commissions for each item sold meaning members could potentially earn up to $75-$100 an hour!

Of course members can find out all the secrets to this money making techniques by paying the site operators a sign up fee and usually on going monthly fees.

Of course, like all get-rich-quick scams, the sales page is nothing more than deception and outright lies.
There are no Fortune 500 companies looking for people to sell their items on EBay. That is pure fabrication. Victims who sign up to become a "Certified Auction Listing Agent" are typically sent several things, including

- Information on setting up an EBay account and a PayPal account, which can freely be found on the Internet on numerous sites, for free.

- Tips on using EBay. Again, this information can be freely found many other places online.
- Fake certificates implying that the victim is certified to sell items on EBay. The certificates are fake and are not required to use EBay.

So in reality, members are actually paying [usually] extortionate fees on how to use EBay which anyone could do for free anywhere else, meaning essentially all the information is completely useless, and the vast majority of members will simply be unable to recuperate the initial sign up and monthly fees which are often in the hundreds of dollars.

Popular scams of this nature include Jennifer Johnson and HomeJobPlacement.org, or Elizabeth Jackson and workathomepositionplacement.org.

We strongly recommend avoiding sites of this nature as they are blatant scams designed to get as much money from their victims as possible.

You Can’t Track Forwarded Email, Really!

Chain emails designed to simply waste people’s time are perhaps one of the most annoying types out there, simply because of the complete pointlessness to it. The creator of these emails had no financial or political motivation for it, rather just wanted to waste as many peoples time as possible.

One classic chain email that fits this description is the chain email that claims that forwarding it to so many people will result in some sort of action being taken, typically in the form of a prize or reward going to the person who forwarded the email. Some deviations claim that failing to forward it on will result in some action being taken.

It is one of the classic chain emails that have been circulating for over 10 years and is so effective because like many chain emails of this nature, it tricks the victim into sending it to multiple contacts and the victim has no way of knowing they are being tricked until after they sent the email and their promised reward doesn’t land on their doorstep a few days later.

Of course the victim could perform due diligence and research the email to confirm it is a ruse. There are many sites like ours that archive the most popular chain emails like this and dismiss them for the time wasting hoaxes that they are.

One of the early popular variants of this type of hoax is one veteran email users may very well be aware of and that is the rumour that former CEO of Microsoft Bill Gates was sharing his wealth with lucky email users who had to forward a specific email onto a certain amount of contacts. Some variants claimed it was because they were tracking an email tracing program. Some claimed Mr. Gates and Microsoft were working with companies like AOL and even Disney. Some variants even came equipped with arbitrary amounts of money and even pictures of people receiving checks. What they did have in common however is that they were all fake. Every single one of them.

Another popular example of this hoax is the chain email that claims that failing to forward a message onto a certain amount of contacts will result in that contact being removed from a specific service. Most Internet companies have had their own version of this hoax, including MSN, Yahoo, Live Communities, AOL, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The hoax will always assert that failing to forward a message onto at least so many contacts will result in the reader’s account being terminated. The typical excuse the message lends to justify this seemingly strange ultimatum is that the respective service is trying to clear up unused accounts and forwarding the message proves your account is still active. Of course services like the ones mentioned have more accurate and less intrusive methods of detecting inactive accounts, and of course all emails matching this description are again absurd hoaxes.

The reality is, you cannot track forwarded email. It is technically impossible to send an email and track who sends it, when they sent it, where they sent it, and who they sent it to. It simply cannot be done, even by an Internet giant like AOL or Microsoft. Additionally, even if it were possible, it would be considered by many, specifically privacy advocacy groups, to be a gross invasion of privacy.

Companies do not give away free prizes for forwarding emails. Companies do not remove people from their service for not forwarding emails.

This means that any email that comes into your cyber mailbox claiming it needs to be forwarded on so that some action can be taken you will know straight away that the email is a silly, time wasting ruse, and you can delete it from your inbox and save everyone on your contact list some time.

Facebook Pedophiles - Real Threats or Viral Hoaxes?

Facebook, inevitably, has become one of the most prolific platforms for not only genuine threats but also viral hoaxes as well. This means that when the unavoidable rumours start to spread across the social networking site, it can be hard to determine where they are true, false, or a little of both. It is made increasingly difficult by viral hoaxers starting false rumours about true topics, but changing key details to make their rumours extremely alarmist and urgent, meaning unaware and uninformed Facebook users are more likely to pass that hoax on.

One particular type of hoax, with endless variants is the currently prolific Facebook pedophile rumours which seem to continually spread across the social site panicking children and parents alike. Is there any truth to all of these Facebook pedophiles, or is it someones sick idea of a joke?

The answer isn't a simple Yes or No.

The sad fact is that sex offenders have and do use Facebook, and there have been reported incidents where such offenders have met their victims online, like in the incident in 2009 in the UK where sex offender Peter Chapman met and killed a girl he met on Facebook. This is a stark reminder that even a famous site which promotes the sharing of friends and other innocent activities is used as a platform for sick individuals to use to recruit victims.

But do real life incidents like these mean we should or need to pay any credence to viral rumours warning of random groups or people who apparently prey on children?

The many different types and variations of warnings that caution people against apparent pedophile threats on Facebook are in their thousands, and millions of Facebook user has seen some type of these warnings at some point during their activies on Facebook. The fact is however, that to our knowledge, literally none of these viral rumours have ever actually related to a real or genuine threat, because in nearly all cases, the rumour was both senseless and illogical.

Take for example the most common type of Facebook warning, that advises people not to add or speak to a certain Facebook profile, because that person is actually a pedophile looking for victims. For those who are familiar with the evolution of social networking hoaxes like this, you'll know that it actually is a spin-off to the early "hacker warnings" that plagued Yahoo, AOL and MSN messenger users over a decade ago. These warnings would caution people against adding certain contacts for fear that they will "hack your computer", "delete your files" and other pseudo-jargon nonsense.
In reality, these newer pedophile warnings suffer the same logical flaws as their hacker predecessors, in that if there was any real truth behind the message, then it is likely, if not inevitable that such offending accounts would be shut down by the respective service, and any continuing messages warning of such a threat would thus be immediately outdated. Pedophile rumours have the additional flaw that if they were true, presumably the person or persons who first suspected the profile in question would not only report the offending profile to Facebook, but also to the police.

Lets take a look at one popular pedophile message that did the rounds in 2010.

ATTENTION...To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex. His name is Thierry Mairot. Please copy and paste this onto your wall and warn all ur friends! Please everyone Moms and Dads ...repost an...d get him off of Facebook! Parents, Grandparents Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! EVEN if you have NO kids

This rumour warned of alledged pedophile Thierry Mairot who tried to talk to children about sex on Facebook. It became extremely popular in late 2010 and at the height of its popularity our site ThatsNonsense.com was getting several thousands hits regarding the hoax every single day.

But looking at the message logically, the message would have the reader believe that the person who created the message either -
a. knew the profile belonged to a sex offender, but decided not to report the account to either Facebook or the police, rather employ a viral rumour to warn others about him.
b. Did report the account to Facebook and the police, who decided not to pursue the complaint and left the profile free to continue to recruit children.

Both assumptions are rather unlikely, since anyone who is aware of a sex offender recuiting children on the Internet would report it to the police, and the police would always investigate straight away, since the allegation is extremely serious. However for the warning to be valid, the reader would have to assume that the profile Thierry Mairot was still active, so would have to believe the far fetched theories we outlined above. Of course looking logically at the message, we have to conclude it is a hoax, the creator never reported the account to the police because there never was such an offending account. The above viral message has seen many different variations, usually the only significant detail ever being changed is the name of the supposed pedophile. Additionally, the messages are never backed up with any credible evidence or source.

Other Facebook rumours relating to Facebook pedophiles include warnings of certain Facebook groups run by pedophiles in an attempt to either recruit victims or steal photos of children. One such popular example includes -

ATTENTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!do not join the group that runs currently on facebook with the title 'becoming a father or mother was the greatest gift of my life' This isa group created by pedophiles whose aim is to access yourphotos!!!!!!!!!!!! Please rotate this post to all Your Friends on Facebook.

Not only does this face the same flaw as the example discussed earlier, in that any genuine group run by pedophiles would be reported and inevitably shut down, this specific rumour also gives itself away in that joining a group doesn't put your photos at risk, like the message implies.

Additionally, messages warning of groups like this beg the question of how the creator of the message actually found out about the groupand it's intentions.

To summarise, it is critical for Facebook users, especially children, to take extreme caution on the Internet and Facebook. There are real threats out there, and practising simple procedures such as always being alert, never adding friends who you do not know to your Facebook profile and never meeting strangers from the Internet should be enough to make sure you stay safe on Facebook. However passing on these vicious, baseless rumours only serves to waste peoples time, diluting a serious issue, and possibly ruining the lives of the people who share the names "outed" in the hoax messages.

Pedophiles on Facebook are a real threat, but viral rumours about them will always be unfounded hoaxes.

Welcome to the ThatsNonsense.com Blog

Hello and welcome to our blog.

This is brand spanking new blog for our anti-scam website ThatsNonsense.com.

If you have never visited our site before, you can do by clicking here.

If you're unfamilliar with us, ThatsNonsense.com launched in August 2009 with a relatively small site providing information on the most popular type of scams out there. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest sites online pertaining to cyber scams and hoaxes.

We have launched this blog in an effort to keep our readers updated and informed more regularly on this popular blogging platform. We also have a monthly newsletter which you can sign up for by clicking here.

We hope this blog will help keep people safe online, and also provide an entertaining and informative read for all that choose to follow us.

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ThatsNonsense.com