PurpleCar

GOOGLE EARTH IS FREE. Do not pay for any service that claims you need to subscribe!

Why am I telling you this?

Because I just received this email at my YAHOO account (not my Google account, which was Hint #1):

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Extraordinary Changes, Fascinating Sights for Google Earth 2010

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I clicked through, not especially paying attention to the warning signs (not from google.com or anything resembling Google, hard sell, generic services, etc.). I clicked through until I got to the page that asked for money. That’s when I woke up. I tried to close the page and lo and behold, the 30% off offer of $58.97 for a 3 year subscription suddenly has a pop-down window that changes the offer to 50% off! Spam, spam, spam. And they almost got my money. I was thinking, well, that’s super cheap, only 7 bucks (US) a year for google earth?

Seriously, don’t check email when you’re tired.

While there is a pro version of Google Earth (for industry people, not you or me), this scam tries to imply that the entire product is PAY, which is not, the most common Google Earth is free. Don’t pay for services unless you really know what you and your company are doing.

Let your friends know about this scam, ASAP.

Stay safe, people, and hang on to your money!

-Christine Cavalier, PurpleCar

Tags: abuse, bill, do I have to pay to use google earth?, earth, email, google, google earth, is google earth free?, money, pay, scam, subscriptions

Just received the email below at my Yahoo account today.  If you get it, don’t reply to it.  It’s fake.  It isn’t from Yahoo.  Yahoo already HAS your username and password, they don’t need you to verify it.  They also know your IP address, which will tell them from which country you are.  And I don’t think it matters much how old you are — they will have you click a Terms of Service agreement that says you are over 13 or whatever if they want.  They also don’t need any help from users to make “more space” for new ones.  They just buy more servers.

Some poor sucker is going to respond to this and then the spammers will have all sorts of new ways to send out porn, fake viagra offers, you-name-it.  If you are that poor sucker, don’t worry.  Just go and change your password NOW.

“VERIFY YOUR YAHOO EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW
Dear Yahoo Email Account Owner,
This message is from uniminuto.yahoo messaging center to all yahoo email account
owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are
deleting all unused yahoo email account to create more space for new accounts.
To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will
know that it’s a present used account.

CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
Email Username : ………. …..
Email Password : …………….
Date of Birth : ……………..
Country or Territory : ……….

Warning!!!
Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving
this warning will lose his or her account permanently.Thank you for using yahoo !
Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

Thanks,
Yahoo mail Team”

Tags: abuse, email, new yahoo phishing scam, phishing, scam, verify account, yahoo