Scammers =/

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Recently I was lucky enough to win a really nice Canon Powershot SX110IS. I already owned a Canon 350D though, so decided to sell the PowerShot. I placed ads on both CapeAds and the local Gumtree. I’ve previously used both services successfully without any hassles, so wasn’t expecting any trouble.

Anyway, after a few days I got a reply from the Cape Ads; a lady in America wanted to buy the camera for a foster child of hers in Nigeria. Now as soon as I saw Nigeria, I became sceptical, no offense to Nigerians, but they are world renowned for scams but I thought hey, this might be legit. So anyway I replied and asked for some more details, went and got some quotes from DHL for shipping to Nigeria (R1000) and sent it back. A couple days later I got an email from the “Bank of America”, it had one or two legitimate things, the logo etc. But the email originated from some random address, and the reply email address was at the same domain. The link they had to the Bank of America was also stuffed up and didn’t work. The e-mail stated that this lady had made the transfer, but that the bank was holding the money until they had proof that I had posted the item, that is they wanted me to send them the tracking code of the item, and then they’d deposit the money into my account.

So, to me it looked pretty evident that this is a scam. And there was no way I was going to send off the package till the money was in my account. Since this incident, I have received 4 or 5 separate e-mails, all from people with western rather “posh” name. When I received the first e-mail I Googled the e-mail adders. It came up with a result of a guy who was also trying to sell something, he had received an email from “Paypal”, similar kind of setup to mine. Money’s been payed, send tracking code, money will be deposited, he was asking whether the e-mail looked legit or not, no certain replies, but I imagine it was a similar scam.

I’ve listed a bunch of e-mail addresses and names below here which I believe to be those belonging to scammers, if you happen to come here while searching for one of these addresses, well then maybe I’ve saved someone form being scammed.

Bottom line, if it has Nigeria being mentioned anywhere, it’s probable not safe.

So that was the first story. Got another reply, from Gumtree this time, a chap in Jo’burg was interested in buying the camera, he said he’d pay money in during the week, so later that week I checked my bank account, and there was a nice deposit to the total of R13,500. He was only supposed to deposit R2,600. He phoned me a couple times over the next few days pressing me to send the package, this I didn’t do, because the money still hadn’t cleared in my account. 5 days later The cheque bounced Along with this a nice R55 bank charge. I received the cheque, apparently the cheque book had been stolen, and the company canceled it.

I eventually got the camera sold with a nice in person encounter with a cold hard cash transfer :)

List of scam attemptees:

davidsnosh@gmail.com

Thanks a lot,i am presently on a business trip, and i am really and wanting to purchase this for my son in Nigeria as a chrismas gift, so i will offer you R3300 , including shipping and get back to me with your bank account details or pay fast, So that i can transfer the money to account.
thanks.

ponenbrian007@yahoo.com (Ponen Brian)

hi is deon do u stil have the canon pls cal me on 0795559760.thanks

anneahres@hotmail.com (Anne Ahres)

thank you for your mail.please I will like to tell you that am that am buying the item for my son in Africa as his birthday which is coming up soon,I would love to have to come to your home and to collect and pay cash, but the nature of my work will not permit me, so I need your help by sending it to him,am willing to pay R4000, including postage to (Nigeria), I need your bank details so that I can make payment by bank transfer immediately.

lindwat_12@yahoo.com (Linda Watson Abrahams) Telephone number: +447024036645

Hello seller,
Thank you for the mail,i will like this lovely item to my friend in west africa who work with the british reffineries company over and i want this lovely item to him as a birthday gift aslo i will like to offer you R4000for the item and the postage cost tosend it to him and i hope the item is in Good Working Condition and i want it to him well wrapped because i want ti to serve as gift for him ok….
Furthermore i will await your response with your full name and bank details so that i can pay for the item as soon as possible…
Thank….

rosesmithpowell@gmail.com (Lamp Ken)

Hi
i am interested in buying your item i just want to know if this item is still for sell,i want to present my pastor child who is currently studying in west Africa as a congratulatory gift,if you can mail to explain the actual condition presently and the actual price including shipping and insurance via USPS Global e-mail registration to west africa, as soon as possible,Your urgent response will be highly appreciated.Thanks and God bless

This was the e-mail I received from the “Bank of America”

Bank of America

Dear Gareth Cawood,

This is an automated generated email from Bank Of America to inform you that you have just received payment from our customer Rose Powell for an Junk mail item 110403144356 (Canon PowerShot SX110IS, 9MP ). This payment has just been sent, so you are to allow 24 hours after shipment details have been provided by you and verified before payment is transferred to your account.

Please view the transfer details below if accurate.

Below Are The Payment Details For This Transfer………………….. ..

Seller’s Junk id:***************

Name On Account: *****************

Bank Name: *****************
Account Number: *****************
Branch code:************
Bank Type: ****************
Bank Location:****************

Transfer moneyR4057.00.

Creditor’s Banking Information.

Buyer’s Junk Mail ID : rosesmithpowell@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Name On Account:Rose Powell

Account Number: 01783145
Creditor’s Bank Name: Bank Of America
Bank Branch: Georgia District: Bank Of America

Postage Information:

Name:Adeshina Olaitan
Address: 15,Ogunsami Street,
City: Itire/Surulere
State: Lagos
Postal Code: 23401
Country: Nigeria

Transfer Description

ABOUT THIS MESSAGE:

This payment has been approved and it is pending shipment details for the transfer. You are to send out the item that has been paid for by our client and send the shipment details to us in other for negotiations to be commenced with your bank and finally transfer the money to your account. If the shipment details is not received, payment will not be credited into your account.

Failure to send out the item and provide the bank with the shipment details will result to a complain file to Junk Mail against you as a suspected fraud. We have come to notice that some sellers after receiving payment, they do not send out the item or items that where paid for, and when this happens, customers come to hold the bank responsible and not the seller.

When the shipment details are received from you, we will start the verification process. Contacts will be made to the agency that shipment was done with. Some sellers provide fake shipment details. If it turns out that the shipment details are false, this automatically means the you are a scam and will be reported to the Authorities for an immediate arrest.

Send money to other Bank of America customers About Bank of America

Sending payment from a Bank Of America account to another Bank Of America account is easy and does not take any extra charges. For further information’s about local transfer between two accounts from our bank, you can visit the bank website at www.bankofamerica.com.

Bank of America Online Banking customer

Our customer service consultants are online 24 hours a day to reply to any question that you may have. For further enquires or any question regarding your payment or regarding where you are to send the shipment details to, you can contact our consultant at onlinedelivery@in.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thanks for using Bank Of America Online Payment.

We are looking forward to serving your online payment better in the future.

Sincerely,

Deb Walden
Executive Vice President
Bank Of America

—————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— ————-

Bank of America Investment Services, Inc is a registered
broker-dealer, member NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc.) and SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), and a nonbank subsidiary
of Bank of America, N.A.

Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender
© 2009 Bank of America Corporation.. All rights reserved.Equal Housing Lender

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About Bank of America

Details of possible scammers (from other people)

anitabaker.baker1@gmail.com
Buyer’s ID : nelly.brown29@yahoo.com
Name On Account: Nelly Brown
Account Number: 65357695884

Thanks for mail me back. Am Giggi by Name I’m Doctor here in south Africa But now i have already move down to California, I want you to know that am buying this item for my fiance who went to Africa to visit Resort. Because is going be are birthday Gift so I want it packed properly,So i will like you to know Am Offering you R7,200.00 for the item and R250 for the shipment Through FedEx Or Ups,and also I will like you to take Off the ad from the website you Post it so that Another People won’t take this item from my fiance so kindly Get Back to me with your Full Name and your PayPal Email or your Bank Details so that i can Commence on the Payment..

Regard.

Thanks for mail me back. Am Giggi by Name I’m Doctor here in south Africa But now i have already move down to California, I want you to know that am buying this item for my fiance who went to Africa to visit Resort. Because is going be are birthday Gift so I want it packed properly,So i will like you to know Am Offering you R7,200.00 for the item and R250 for the shipment Through FedEx Or Ups,and also I will like you to take Off the ad from the website you Post it so that Another People won’t take this item from my fiance so kindly Get Back to me with your Full Name and your PayPal Email or your Bank Details so that i can Commence on the Payment..

Regard.

Name On Account:Mr Daniel Mark

Account Number: 01783145

Creditor’s Bank Name: Bank Of America

Bank Branch: Georgia District: Bank Of America

Name:Barry Jame

Address:12,Ramoni Oke street ,

City: Itire surulere

State: Lagos

Postal Code: 23401

Country: Nigeria

So I was bored

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So I was bored this evening, and decided to rearrange all the keys on my keyboard so that it spells out a sentence. The first one that came to mind was “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. It was only after I had popped all the keys off my keyboard and started putting them back in order that I noticed several letters were repeated in that sentence :(

Anyway, so I got my roommate to google sentences which use all the letters in the English alphabet only once. He eventually found some, unfortunately none of them are very coherent, and are more just a selection of words, that, if used with the correct punctuation, could form an acceptable phrase or two.

What I was left with was “Blowzy night frumps vexd jack q”.

It’s fine to type this all without looking at the keyboard, but as soon as you start looking at the keyboard while you type, it starts to screw with your mind. It’s like that picture with different colours written out, but the colour’s of the words aren’t the same as the colour that the words say. For example the RED might be written in yellow. You are then required to read the colours of the word, and not the word itself, it stuffs you up.

Will post a pic later, when you see it some of the keys may look a bit funky ’cause they’re upside down, but that’s because the F and J keys have a groove in a different place to the rest of the keys, so that they are always in the right place. Being the keys that you generally base touch typing around.

Interestingly, with this setup, Y is the only letter that hasn’t moved.

Later:

I’ve also now noticed that ‘I’ is still in the same place.

img_1326-large

Disassembling a Seagate Free Agent Desk 1TB

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My Seagate external HDD got invaded by ants yesterday, so I decided to disassemble it to ensure that all the ants are out.

From the outside the HDD looks like it was designed to never be opened, which is partly true I guess, so I did a quick Google search but only turned up results for the older Black/Orange (Seagate Free Agent Desktop, if you are wanting to take one of these apart, click here) version, but none for my White/Silver version. Thus it was up to me to figure out how to open it.img_1325-large

The basis of the casing is that it all clips together. In the following picture you can see the “lid” removed with all its clips, and the top of the case without the lid. I started on a front corner, and then wedged a blunt flat head screwdriver in, and slowly worked my way along the edge unclipping the “lid”.img_1324-large img_1323-large

After that you must remove the 4 small philips screws, one in each corner. You can then remove the white plastic frame/side panel, by unclipping it from the base.img_1321-large

The metal casing then just slides vertically off the plastic “base”. There are 4 rubber stoppers, two on each side of the HDD, which prevent some shock from damaging the HDD. Beneath each stopper is a screw, holding the HDD in place. As you remove the stoppers, remove the screws as well.img_1319-large

Three of these you can pull off. For the fourth one, you must first remove the 3 screws visible in the next picture.img_1318-large

The metal panel on top of the HDD can then be lifted off. The HDD is now plain to see. It is a standard Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA HDD. The HDD is connected to the little circuit board via the SATA, and power connectors. You can simply lift the rear of the HDD, and pull it towards you, thus unplugging it.img_1316-large

You will now have the removed the HDD from the casing and should be able to access any part you are interested in.img_1315-large

This should all be possible without breaking anything. I did however unfortunately break a small join on the side/rim panel thing. It’s not visible however, and will only reveal itself on close inspection.

Doing what I did may void the warranty, but there were no stickers or anything, so they probably can’t figure out that I opened the case.

Audi Remote Control

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So, when I got my car (’96 Audi A4 B5) the remote control for the central locking didn’t work. We replaced the batteries and did a series of tests to try sort it out but nothing worked.

We took it in to the local Audi dealership who after a morning of having it returned it to us with a quote for R8000 (excl). We said thank you and I have used the key ever since.

It seems that something went wrong with the Infra-Red system my Audi used (I know from 1997 they switched to RF remotes) and the previous owner never bothered to fix it.

If your Audi came out before the IR remotes, this approach should still work, if it came out after the RF remotes, check here.

Now the Audi’s whole security system, the alarm, the pump for the central locking etc are all contained in one neat little box located in the boot under some panels. So although 90% of my box still worked (everything except the infrared circuitry) they would have to replace hte entire unit. Thus the huge cost. I’ve seen 2nd hand units advertised for about R3000, so it is just an expensive component.

So recently I got thinking, couldn’t we just try and install a conventional wireless system around the current system.

Because the infrared system was stuffed, we decided to go at it a different way, and use the signal that gets sent to the alarm system when you manually unlock the driver’s door.

This invloved taking the panelling off and finding the wires that go from the lock to the alarm system. 3 wires were found, a brown one (we think it’s some form of check to see if the door is open or closed) and the two important ones, a red & brown cable witch is shorted with the car’s earth when the key is used to lock the car, and a grey & white cable for unlocking.

To get at the security box in the car open the boot and remove the mats covering the side wall and bottom area off to the right of the boot. I had to remove a little storage box by just lifting it up and unclipping it. There are also two plastic caps which keep the mat in place, remove those, then you just need to use a bit of force to work the carpet out from behind the plastic fascia. You shouldn’t have to unscrew anything.img_0853-large img_0849-large img_0852-large

Once removed you should see a foam box to the right, lift the cover and a plastic box should be lying there. There are 3 wiring harnesses, the two outer ones can be pulled straight out, but the middle (power) one needs a screwdriver or something to unclip. There is also the air pipe which can just be pulled off. You can then quite easily remove the security box. This is just to make soldering easier.img_0848-large

Of the two outer plugs, one is smaller than the other. This is the one that takes signals from the lock in the driver’s door. You will find two wires that correspond to the two we found in the driver’s door. The grey & white and red & brown ones.img_0846-large

And voilà!

Connect these onto a remote control receiver and you’ve got yourself a new remote control.

Power for your receiver can be taken from the middle wiring harness. Check your polarity with a multimeter, but for me the brown cable was earth (which I used as the earth for the lock and unlock signal as well) and the red one next to it was positive. This gives you the necessary 12V.img_0847-large

I haven’t connected my remote control yet, as I’ve had to shop around for a decent one at a cheap price. I eventually found this on ebay for R240. At a local security shop they sold a 3 channel receiver (for garage doors) for R310 and a remote with two buttons is R150 rand. Those are code hopping ones, which are more secure than the ones I bought, and will work fine in a car.

note: When you use the key, turning it once turns off the alarm, and physically unlocks your door. That means that if you push your remote control once, it will turn off the alarm and NOT unlcok your front door. If you turn the key twice in succession it unlocks all the doors. Likewise, pushing the remote’s button twice will unlock all the doors.

If someone manages to hack the infrared section of the circuitry, you would not have this problem. I may get round to looking through it one day, but at the moment this works :)

When I get my remotes I will see if I can build a small circuit to send two signals instead of one, so I don’t have to push twice each time.

I have already soldered all the wires in place that I need to install my receiver, and have checked that they work by shorting them. I will repost once I have received my package and installed it.