“Dick Smith threat on scam” in The Australian [Archive]

Dick Smith

9th Oct 2020, 00:42

Deceiver

9th Oct 2020, 00:50

The Australian newspaper today has an article on page 2 about the scam that uses my name to promote bitcoin. I have never invested in bitcoin and I am concerned that people are losing their life savings due to this scam.

My lawyer has written to The Guardian to take action if the ads are not stopped. These ads do appear elsewhere, including PPRuNe, and I may need to take further action if they continue.

Here is the article.
Any fool who believes that rubbish was going to give it away to the next scam that came along anyway. It's just a pain that they're using your name to do it.

"A fool and his money are easily parted"

rjtjrt

9th Oct 2020, 00:55

The Australian newspaper today has an article on page 2 about the scam that uses my name to promote bitcoin. I have never invested in bitcoin and I am concerned that people are losing their life savings due to this scam.

My lawyer has written to The Guardian to take action if the ads are not stopped. These ads do appear elsewhere, including PPRuNe, and I may need to take further action if they continue.

Here is the article.

Good, go for it Dick. I am amazed that what we expect to be reputable organisations allow these ads on their platforms.

wheels_down

9th Oct 2020, 00:55

Dick these things pop up all over my feeds. Lisa Wilkinson, Kochie, Stefanovic are a few others i see.

tail wheel

9th Oct 2020, 00:56

Moved to the main Forum as a important warning about scam adverts here and elsewhere.

https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/record-losses-expected-as-scammers-target-australians

Deceiver. You underestimate the risk to Australians, particularly older Australians. I can also think of a few 'get rich quick schemes' that have consumed quite a few airline pilot's income and savings over the years, some with very sad results. From the ACCC web site:

Australians are set to lose a record amount to scams in 2019, with projections from losses reported to Scamwatch and other government agencies so far expected to exceed $532 million by the end of the year, surpassing half a billion dollars for the first time.

Buster Hyman

9th Oct 2020, 00:58

Dick, does that mean your "better performance in Bed" pills are a scam too? Asking for a friend....

CharlotteAnderson

9th Oct 2020, 01:49

Dick, does that mean your "better performance in Bed" pills are a scam too? Asking for a friend....

Quite the giggle I needed today, thank you! :D

George Glass

9th Oct 2020, 03:05

Irony of ironies.....
With Adblock fully enabled this thread wont open.
Sadly Pprune seems to now be nothing more than a vehicle for click bait.

truthinbeer

9th Oct 2020, 05:14

Irony of ironies.....
With Adblock fully enabled this thread wont open.
Sadly Pprune seems to now be nothing more than a vehicle for click bait.
Thread opens for me with Adblock fully enabled.

Pinky the pilot

9th Oct 2020, 05:38

Thread opens for me with Adblock fully enabled.

Likewise. And one of the main reasons I installed Adblock was to get rid of the most annoying ads on this site!

George Glass

9th Oct 2020, 05:57

Ok. Thanks . I’ll look at the settings.

Ken Borough

9th Oct 2020, 07:24

One cannot be too careful. My information was 'stolen' as a result of a hack at Service NSW. The palaver that I've to endure to secure my bank accounts etc is mind blowing. And to make matters worse, the hack took place six months ago but the guvmint have just advised those affected. :\

George Glass

9th Oct 2020, 08:00

On an iPad I can get the thread to open only if I click off the Privacy tab on AdBlock.
Not happy.
Who actually is the end user of PPrune ?

OvertHawk

9th Oct 2020, 08:03

I really do find it inexcusable that websites for newspapers and other supposedly reputable websites are able to shrug their shoulders and say that the ads that pop up on their websites are nothing to do with them when they are being paid to allow these ads to appear for their users.

OH

cattletruck

9th Oct 2020, 09:42

When having my accountant visit I was flabbergasted when his phone rang from a legitimate road toll company enquiring why he hadn't paid a bill, after which he proceeded to ask if they were scammers (knowing full well they weren't) and swear at them profusely then hang up. I asked him why he did what he did and his response was that the elderly and computer illiterate have a lot of difficulty distinguishing between whether these kinds of calls are legitimate or scams.

The truth is reputable companies have at their the means (money and resources) to not stoop to the same levels of engagement as lowly scammers however for reasons of greed they choose not to.

If scamming was not so cheap, i.e the adverts mentioned by the OP cost more than the value they returned, then they would quickly become history.

john_tullamarine

9th Oct 2020, 10:06

I haven't met Dick but, by all accounts, he is a worthy enthusiast in our Industry. That this nonsense, with his purported support of such schemes, keeps assailing us from every side of the advertising world is nothing short of disgraceful. As others have noted, he is not alone in his involuntary co-option. One can only wonder how much water has to go under the bridge before the relevant authorities lurch into delayed action to put some control over the advertising excesses.

Any fool who believes that rubbish was going to give it away to the next scam that came along anyway

Is it not the reasonable mark of a civilised system that those who are at risk of such entrapment be afforded some measure of protection ?

I can also think of a few 'get rich quick schemes' that have consumed quite a few airline pilot's income and savings over the years

A well-remembered misadventure in such daydreaming, based in Sydney and dating back to the early 90s, springs to mind. Many of our colleagues, being at a loss to reason, post-89, were relieved of their earnings by that unfortunate episode ....

601

9th Oct 2020, 12:30

One does not have to have a high profile as Mr Smith to be a victim of scammers. We had out landline number spoofed. Did not know about until an gentleman from central Vic rang our number to ask about a missed call from us.
After fielding calls over a few days - it was an Australia day long weekend - Telstra install come software to intercept calls to our number that originated overseas

This use by scammers of your number will not harm my public profile, that is if I had one, but is a nuisance as the amount of irate calls you get and the time you spend explaining that a long lost aunt has not fallen off her perch.

packapoo

9th Oct 2020, 21:04

FullOppositeRudder

10th Oct 2020, 07:56

Sorry Dick, but this ad has been appearing on my android phone at the completion of every Sudoku puzzle for at least the last three weeks!

olderairhead

10th Oct 2020, 23:15

Does anyone actually check the ads before they are approved to be posted here or is it just a money grab?

V-Jet

11th Oct 2020, 04:48

Hope it gets somewhere Dick.

If you had a cent from every ad that's appeared with your endorsement on my pages you'd have $928.63! Then comes Clive Palmer and Bill Gates - like you, they must also be making millions from Bitcoin promotions. I'm expecting to see Meghan Markle any day now, I would have thought the artist formerly known as Sussex Royal would have immediately grasped the lucrative potential of Bitcoin!

wheels_down

11th Oct 2020, 06:30

Does anyone actually check the ads before they are approved to be posted here or is it just a money grab?

They space is sold to a third party ad company who then rotates whatever content they want. I would be interested to see if these ad mobs actually sit there and approve each ad that comes in or its just an automated system.

If Dick changed his username we might not see it as...

This ad is based on:

Google's estimation of your interests
The time of day or your general location (such as your country or city)

tail wheel

11th Oct 2020, 23:50

The ads are purchased through Google Ads. The publishers included this web site say they have no control of the advert content that publish, despite legislation which holds the publisher liable.

Web site including this site understandably require advertising revenue to survive, but when blatant, criminal scam adverts are repetitiously published it demeans the site's honesty and integrity and is disrespectful to the site's supporters.

If Dick changed his username we might not see it as...

Dick is not an advocate for anonymous user names. :} And it is not possible to change user names. Also, I believe the Google sophisticated tracking system is IP address focused, not solely user name focused?

Pinky the pilot

12th Oct 2020, 07:02

Web site including this site understandably require advertising revenue to survive, but when blatant, criminal scam adverts are repetitiously published it demeans the site's honesty and integrity and is disrespectful to the site's supporters.

Wot Taily said; +1

T28B

14th Oct 2020, 21:37

I just got back into town, and will be forwarding my concerns 'up the chain' in hopes of getting attention on ads that are harmful to our userbase.
Dick, thanks for bringing this up. It's one the kinds of things have me grinding my teeth more of late.

lucille

24th Oct 2020, 00:09

And today, I now see these ads still being posted up on Pprune pages.

The questions are,

1) Who is paying for this advertising? At the very least, make public their names and physical addresses.
2) Why are they therefore not being held to account?
3) Are the owners of Pprune making any money out of them?
4) Is there no effort at quality control from whomever owns Pprune?

theheadmaster

24th Oct 2020, 21:43

I try to do the right thing by using google feedback ‘this ad is inappropriate’. I wish that google feedback had an option for ‘this ad is a possible scam’. I believe that Google should be more responsible for the advertising is takes money for.

tail wheel

24th Oct 2020, 23:02

Extract from the PPRuNe publisher:

But when we investigate this issue technically and legally and decide we *cannot* change this even if we want to, that's unfortunately the end of it. If we could do something, we would. But short of turning off all the ads, we can't, and we're not doing that.

I'm sorry. I have taken this as far as it can go. It is technically unfeasible to block all ads of any type.

If you see a particular ad that you dislike, please report it with a

Screen shot

AND

Link to the ad (you can get this without clicking it, by right clicking on the link and selecting COPY LINK LOCATION, then pasting it into your report)

I will report individual bad ads as they are reported to me. That's all we can do.

It's not google ads. It's a network of 3rd party ad servers.

A number of Moderators have expressed serious concerns regarding irrelevant and scam adverts on this web site. :mad:

Please report inappropriate and scam adverts in the manner indicated in the quote above.

Buster Hyman

24th Oct 2020, 23:41

Like this?

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1400x2000/d28a6aec_c19a_4493_a66f_3a7bcd11fe17_228bdbd5717510c9fcc9a44 44129b85b23c90dd7.png

CaptCloudbuster

25th Oct 2020, 00:55

I believe the Google sophisticated tracking system is IP address focused, not solely user name focused?

Maybe Dick could try using a VPN when using the inter webs to combat this??

Like this one. (https://nordvpn.com/country/australia/?vpn=brand&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9ZTU7sPO7AIVhgsrCh27PgP3EAAYASAAEgJO8fD_Bw E)

Al E. Vator

25th Oct 2020, 05:39

Not the world's biggest Dick Smith fan but that misappropriation of his name/image is just wrong.
I see it all the time in pop-up ads I ignore, as I know anybody with a public profile would usually not allow such amateurish portrayal of themselves.
If somebody tried using my image or alleged endorsements for personal gain without permission, I'd be mightily p!ssed.
It will be very difficult to pursue given firewalls/dark web/anonymity/foreign hosting portals etc but for somebody of Mr Smith's proven ability to chase and expose anonymous detractors, it would be rewarding to eliminate the unauthorised hijacking of his name.
Does the world a favour to get rid of internet leeches such as these and I hope Mr Smith is successful