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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Scam Email: Fanbox.com

Fanbox.com, formerly known as sms.ac, is one of the most annoying and sleaziest spams and misrepresentations going right now.

When you sign up for FanBox, it asks for your permission to email everyone in your address book. After you give them your password (DON'T do it!) it will start spamming everyone in your contact list / address book.  It will send them these stupid ":____ asked you a question" spams.

We've received them here; and verified that the senders had no intention of sending them to us, or "asking" a question. They felt victimized.

Here is the one I received this morning, obviously from someone I know - who likely fell victim to it.

P.S. DON'T CLICK ON ANY LINKS BELOW, they are there just to show you what they look like and I don't want you falling victim to this scam!

From: {name of my friend} [fbNOREPLY@yourfanbox.com]
Received: from [208.69.101.171 helo=smtp171.sms.ac]
To:   {me}
Subject: {name of my friend} shared some photos with you

{name of my friend} shared a new photo slideshow with you View now
http://profile.fanbox.com/DeveloperOptin/BlogROME.aspx?vet=146&mlid=91144420&vlsid=31700&dt=081311&cid=31700&evt=708316703&src=BLOGROMESOCUSTOMTEXT&encemail=Iqknz%2f0G3SFW2CwCgByrpc5jPun6o6yFrpZestLSRCLT1ExbYh%2bq%2fQ%3d%3d&ptid=1584{name of my friend}'s time spent in this site helps fight Children Blood Disorders.To reduce unwanted emails: if you don't respond to (click) emails from any person, all further emails to you from that person are automatically blocked for 24 hours.

To ensure you don't miss anything from {name of my friend} please check your feed
 or inbox
 regularly.This message was intended for {my email address} and was sent as a notification, invitation or reminder (digital goods subject to change in reminders) of an event initiated by {my friend's name} using a third-party or platform application and may contain promotional materials and/or services for sale including digital goods received.To control messages sent to or from you, your contacts and/or FanBox, click here
http://profile.fanbox.com/ApplicationManager/ROMEBlogSettings.aspx?cid=31700&em=Iqknz%2f0G3SFW2CwCgByrpc5jPun6o6yFrpZestLSRCLT1ExbYh%2bq%2fQ%3d%3d&vet=146&mlid=91144420&dt=081311&ptid=1584&aec=-1&tec=-1&pid=31700&sendid=221470708.Our offices are located at: FanBox - 113 West G Street, STE 510, San Diego, CA 92101, USA

11 comments:

  1. This seems to be spreading through facebook. I just received another one, that seems to be an artist I am connected to on Facebook.

    From: [Name of Artist] (fbNOREPLY@yourfanbox.com)
    Subject: [Name of Artist] shared some photos with you

    [Name of Artist] shared a new photo slideshow with you View now [Name of Artist]'s time spent in this site helps animal rescue.

    To reduce unwanted emails: if you don't respond to (click) emails from any person, all further emails to you from that person are automatically blocked for 24 hours.

    To ensure you don't miss anything from [Name of Artist] please check your feed or inbox regularly.

    This message was intended for [my email address] and was sent as a notification, invitation or reminder (digital goods subject to change in reminders) of an event initiated by [Name of Artist] using a third-party or platform application and may contain promotional materials and/or services for sale including digital goods received.

    To control messages sent to or from you, your contacts and/or FanBox, click here.
    Our offices are located at: FanBox - 113 West G Street, STE 510, San Diego, CA 92101, USA

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just got an email about the shared photos, from someone I am no longer in contact with, so instead of openning it, I googled it and found this. Thanks for the info, I will pass it on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was fanbox user since more than1 year and at the beginning all was good and I earned and received some money just blogging. Now the things are changed, they put a new feature called IPL, you use IPL that is a credit that fanbox gives to you to invest in their products. To use this IPL you must pay the fees every months, for 4 months, when you can make a cash out of your earnings you must give back the ipl used, and at the end you will never ever earn and you loose the money you paied for the fees. People who earn are personal from fanbox that are there to show people that is possible to earn and deceive the person.
    It's a loosing game,

    ReplyDelete
  4. fanbox.com made me believe I was making money with them, and to cash out i needed to wait 90 days .they were charging me a fee of about 250.00.for what they call (IPL) fees.on 04/29/2013 i have 1,424.00.and only 34.76 to cash out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. July 4, 2013 9:37 PM

    In January 2013 I received first email from FanBox with message that third party (name of my friend) referred me to the FanBox and I 'earned' certain amount of money, but I owed the same time $ 6.28 (IPL) as a fee. I just ignored this email like you ignore any other spam, which we receiving every day. I new that I never used this site and never participated in any of their activities. Next month I received another email where they reporting that charging me late fee and + amount for another month and again... Today I received the new one where they informed me that my unpaid due is $68. and added other false info. Signed up as Jessica Martinez. I am wonder why that scams after such long years of activities are still operating and authorities couldn't prevent that decives to the public and cut them ones and for ever?

    ReplyDelete
  6. It is because, unfortunately, most authorities do not have the resources to pursue these, and the scammers know it. They keep their scam amounts low enough to stay under the radar and then work to make these small amounts cumulatively add up to something. And it usually does.

    Fake buyer scammers go for amounts under $5000 per person and that usually stays under the radar as well, but we hear more often about dating scammers getting caught because they go for larger amounts - hundreds of thousands of dollars from a single person, often draining people of their entire savings account. Then the authorities get involved.

    It's exactly why I started this blog and the facebook page - the number of people getting scammed at these "under the radar" amounts is heart-breaking. And nothing seems to be able to be done. It's not much but the only thing I could think of to fight back was to begin using the internet to expose them more so that more people would be warned before they lost any money. I figure the more people that are educated on how to recognize these scams, the fewer the victims and the harder it will be for scammers to succeed.

    It makes a dent. I get emails from people everyday on how this blog or the facebook page warned them off a scam. At least it makes a dent.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Similarly, Ms Martinez emailed me to say I owe $86 dollars...can they come after someone for this money?
      Does anyone know how to delete them?

      Delete
  7. I get these spams too, but the spooky thing is I am getting them (supposedly) from my girlfriend who passed away almost 2 years ago. I use gmail, and no matter what I do, I cannot make a filter to get rid of spam that brings back sad memories. I got the first spam when she was still alive, so I clicked on the link thinking my gf had sent pics, but the only pictures were of cats of all things. Anyone know a way to filter these spams from gmail?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would definitely write to gmail (or whoever hosts her email account). It sounds like her account was not shut down and a spammer now has control of it and is using it to send out emails? If so, I'd call and have them shut her account down.

    As for clicking on the link, your own system probably now has a virus and you need to get a virus/malware scanner and scam your system and try and remove it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If your email service has a feature that prevents images from being displayed, use it. Even if you do not respond to a FanBox spam, if an active image is displayed in your email, a "ping" is detected...they know the message has been opened, this is an active account, spam again and again.

    ReplyDelete
  10. In fact, it is persuading you to validate your account, requiring you to send your credit card number as well as its security number. I emailed the one Marie Asford questioning the manner of validation but did not reply.

    ReplyDelete