Recently a colleague called my attention to a scam circulating on Facebook, and likely elsewhere. If you read no further, figuring that the terms “scam” and “Facebook” are pretty much interchangeable in any case, I won’t take offence. If you do read on, I shall describe the Playjoltz scam.
I have no shortage of web and email-based scams to look into. As I glance at my email I see I have well over 300 items to look into in the special folder I keep for spam and scam emails. Just for say the past two weeks, I spot scams using names of these well-known corporations: Loblaws, Air Canada, PayPal, McDonald’s, and Amazon.
My colleague had me interested in the Playjoltz scam she spotted and I decided I’d look into it as it had many of the ingredients we typically see in such schemes.
This scam promised an alternative to Netflix, a service with essentially unlimited video and movie content, at a cost of, you guessed it, free! We know there is some resistance to ever-increasing subscription costs for Netflix, and recently that service had its first drop in subscriber count for North America, but no service is going to be able to deliver quality video content for free.
This scam relies on the tried and true fake news site (see screenshot) to hook in the gullible. Such sites have a look of authenticity, make liberal use of the word “free”, or other similar hooks, have a lengthy list of “testimonials”, and usually refer to expiration dates that are just a few days away. Check off all of those for this one.
Of course there are numerous red flags. Just look at the main headline for the supposed story trumpeting Playjoltz. In this case, besides grammatical problems, we see a large section of the page that hasn’t been translated from German (perhaps the scam recently ran in Austria). The biggest red flag of all isn’t obvious however. It is the domain name for the scam announcement: canada-tomorrow.com. Actually, this is a pretty decent domain name for a news site. Upon checking the registration, using a “whois” service, I found it had been registered only a few hours before I saw the site.
Such a recent registration is a hallmark for scam sites. Within a few days they typically become unusable as major service providers add them to domain block lists.
Let’s suppose for a moment that this scam really is viable, that you will indeed receive use of a service that is “faster, cleaner and with many more movies/series than Netflix” as the page claims. How do you sign up?
Well, therein lies the rub. One of the keywords on the page is “Canadian.” Yes, you need to prove you are Canadian and what better proof than a credit card! It is right there. Sign-up condition #4: “Enter your name and credit card details to check that you really live in Canada (your card will not be charged because the subscription is 100% FREE, it’s only to check that you really are in Canada).”
Nothing really screams “FREE” as much as a credit card number. And even though the service is “FREE” surely the fact that the CVV (card verification value) is also demanded doesn’t mean an actual charge will be incurred!
Interestingly, once you fall for this scam, and presumably after you notice a charge on your credit card statement, and perhaps being too embarrassed to phone the credit card issuer for a reversal, if you look into the Playjoltz name, you will likely run across a site with the promising name of refund-helper.com.
Yes, you guessed it. Refund-helper will help you get your money back from the PlayJoltz (this time written with two capital letters) scam. “We might have a direct contact that will help process the refund of your money. If you want we can help get your money back for a fee of 5 EUR. You only pay once we actually manage to get your money back you have been charged from PlayJoltz.com back into your account. That’s no cure, no pay!”
And just how will Refund-helper do this? Again, you guessed it, they need your credit card number! Not sure about this? Again, there are lots of testimonials to help you make that decision, now!
There is an actual playjoltz.com domain, appearing to operate from Cyprus and dating from 2016. It presents as a site specializing in online games. However, a reference stating that “All games are compatible with the latest Microsoft operating systems – Windows Vista and Windows 7” should set off alarm bells.
Scams such as the one I’ve just described exist only because they actually make money. Don’t become part of the ecosystem that sustains them.
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