File A Complaint Against Text Spammers

What really pisses me off about text spammers is that they send out their spam with no regard as to whether or not the recipient has to pay for the texts they receive. If you have a texting plan with your cellphone provider that allows a certain number of texts before you have to start paying for them, receiving text spam could cost you some money.

It doesn't matter how much it costs, it only matters that you have to spend your money because some jerk wants to either sell you something or is trying to swindle you in some way.

I have only today become aware that you can file an official complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against text spammers. Simply go to this link
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action
fill it out and include all communications you've had from this text spammer in a file that you can attach to your complaint. If you sent a reply to an email address provided in the original text and you received a reply back, copy and paste the email you received (including headers) in the file you're attaching.


Duane Browning

WaterWorks4U & Peter Goodgold

The are people out there that want us to believe that the water we drink is too acidic and that this is the cause of many or all of our health problems. These people can often be found selling water ionizers, which supposedly can save us from the health-damaging effects of acidic water. One man, Peter Goodgold, goes so far as to claim that there is only one disease: acidosis; and if we can prevent acidosis in our bodies, we will not get cancer or other diseases.


A pretty heavy claim, Pete. When I think of the centuries of time wasted in doing the research to find cures of cancer, AIDS, diabetes, etc when all we had to do was simply drink alkaline water, I just want to crawl into a bottle of rum and stay there until I die.


Peter is such an altruistic human being that he's even started a business to sell products that you can use to make your own alkaline water: WaterWorks4U.com and for a measly $2000 you too can find the miracle cure for all known diseases. Oh, sorry, Peter says that the only disease we have to fear is acidosis.


I could save you some serious money if you want to find a way to cure acidosis, but don't have the money to spend on Pete's super-spiffy ionizer. Here you go
  

Pete has a long history of selling stuff that makes you healthy and happy, besides water ionizers. He sells WildWaterfalls, too. Of the rocks he carves when he's making them, Pete said

"When I carve the rocks, they talk to me. They tell me where to cut...."

Whatever you say, man. Whatever you say. Most people would get put away in a mental hospital if they went around saying that rocks talked to them. But, who am I to judge?

Anyway,  the water ionizers appear to be Pete's main product, so let's deal with Pete's claims by offering-up some videos for you to watch. I am no scientist, but I'm a pretty sharp guy and I think I have the wherewithal to be able to discern between a scientist with a solid background in the field being discussed and a bullshit artist who's simply out to sell me something. I'm also smart enough to let the experts speak for themselves, rather than make a pathetic attempt to explain the science myself. 

These videos were posted on YouTube by people with scientific backgrounds (as opposed to Peter Goodgold, who has no scientific training that I am aware of) and contain a lot of scientific jargon. But, I think they can be understood by most people.

From AnswersInBooks

From SuperSoylent2

From lapkine77

Peter Goodgold or friends of his, responded to these videos by filing complaints under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as you can see here

and it was mentioned by lapkine77 in the video posted above, which is actually a remake of a previous video which was taken off YouTube, due to a Terms of Use complaint. But, I personally found the video so entertaining that I found a mirror of it and I include it here

I'd also like to post this video from AnswersInBooks, who posted this video about the current ongoings with the potential legal battle between himself and Pete Goodgold. He also gives me a nice shoutout near the end of the video

I think many people prefer videos rather than reading stuff, but if you have some free time, you can read the following webpages which debunk the pseudoscience of ionized water merchants here, here and here. In the description box of this latest video, AnswersInBooks also posted these links to articles he wrote with even more information at here and there.

But, what about the business practices of Peter Goodgold and WaterWorks4U? Not having done business with Peter & Co. doesn't allow me firsthand experience. However, others who have done business with Peter have posted reports of their experiences here.

Peter Goodgold used to have his own channel on YouTube where he featured his videos hawking his stuff, but that channel was taken down and if you go to the link where his channel used to be, you will see this message

Waterworks4U has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of our Community Guidelines.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Seems that Peter doesn't play well with others.

At least there is one bit of truly honest information available on the WaterWorks4U website and you can find it at the very bottom of his website in very, very small print. It says:

All information presented through this web site, or associated manufacturers, has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. These products are neither formulated nor prescribed for any medical condition; they are formulated for use as an important addition to the daily diet.

Uh, yeah. I guess these water ionizers aren't the Fountain of Youth, after all. Besides, if you take a look at Peter Goodgold himself, you'll notice that ionized water can't even cure male-pattern baldness, so how great can they be?


Peter Goodgold may be making some good money by selling this crap and preaching bad science and he may think that this entitles him to step on anyone who tries to educate people about Goodgold's spurious claims. I think that Grimlock the Dinobot could sum-up my response to Peter Goodgold, his company and the products he sells: 

"You wrong and you ugly, too."

Duane Browning 

Yet Another Text Spammer

I received this text message on my cellphone right after I had finished breakfast yesterday morning

From: noreply@o2.co.uk CongratulationsYou've been awarded 418,000 British Pounds by Telefonica O2. Send an Email to 4882@o2.co.uk for claims

So, I sent a reply from the email account I use for responding to text spam and I received this message the next day: 

From: "O2 Mobile" 4882@o2.co.uk
Ref: O2/1629/11
Dear winner,
I congratulate you on behalf of the management of Telefónica O2 UK Limited. This promotion is brought to you as a marketing strategy designed to create an awareness of the expansion of O2 network coverage to the North American region.
23 cell phone numbers were randomly selected worldwide via a computer draws system. Your number was selected from the 2nd category in the 1st draw, hence made you a silver award winner.
To facilitate the redemption of your award, kindly contact the Marketing Director with the following details:
First and Name:
Contact Address/Tel:
Email:
Age:
Occupation:
Winning Phone Number:
Amount won:
Send information to Email: market.dir@o2.co.uk
Upon receipt of the above information, the marketing director will verify the details to ensure you are the registered owner of the winning phone number. Once these formalities are concluded, your funds will be remitted to you. Be assured that your details are highly secured. It will neither be disclosed to third parties nor used for illegal activities.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1) Any falsification of your details will render you disqualified.
2) Friends or relatives are not eligible to receive award on your behalf.
3) To avoid multiple claims and impersonation you are expected to respect the integrity of the privileged information regarding your winnings, do not disclose to third parties until your prize money is received by you.
4) After you receive your award, you will be required to honor an invitation to join Telefónica O2 marketing team on TV for an interview regarding this promotion in North America.
Please advise how convenient this interview will be for you. Congratulations once more and thank you for being part of our expansion awareness program.
Best regards,
Promo Co-ordinators.
TELEFONICA O2 UK LIMITED
MARKETING DEPARTMENT
Office: 011 (44) 127 479 2353
Fax: 011 (44) 191 247 8151
260 Bath Road Slough Berkshire SL1 4DX
United Kingdom

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This electronic message contains information from Telefonica O2 UK ltd which may be privileged or confidential. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify us by email.

I would have figured that would have come out of Nigeria, China or someplace like that. But, no, it came from within the USA. A simple IP trace was all that I needed to do to discover this.

Obviously, this is a scam. So, I forwarded the message I received to O2's corporate offices in the United Kingdom for them to take whatever action they deem appropriate.

While the address given in the email is Telefonica's real address, the phone numbers don't match. The phone numbers are from Great Britain, but they are not Telefonica's. From another blogpost, I learned that if you call the numbers, somebody actually does answer the phone and they even give you a tracking number for whatever package they are supposedly sending you.

So, this isn't some slapped-together scam, these guys have a pretty convincing swindle going here and I think many people might be taken-in by them, due to their appearance of legitimacy. Due to the IP trace and the real British phone numbers, I came to the conclusion that this is actually a group of scammers working together with members on both sides of the Atlantic.

UPDATE: if you've received the first message, but the email address is different, please let me know by posting a reply to this blog. I'd like to update this blog with current information as it becomes available to me. A second post on this topic has been posted.


If you live in the United States, you may file a complaint against the sender of this text spam by going to this webpage
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action


Duane Browning

Beware of Jim Humble's "Miracle Mineral Supplement"

Once again, a product has entered the market and the people selling it are making claims that it is some sort of miracle cure that can treat anything from AIDS to cancer. The product I am writing about is the "Miracle Mineral Supplement", also known as the "Miracle Mineral Solution".

The originator of this particular product is a man named Jim Humble, who has no scientific background that I am aware of, yet makes claims for his product that are based upon testimonials, rather than scientific evidence.

For an explanation as to why this product may not be everything - or anything - that Mr Humble and his sycophants claim, watch this video:

This video was recorded by a person with a scientific background and gives a very detailed explanation as to what this product really is and how it can adversely affect your health.


Duane Browning

Another Text Spammer Found

Here is the typical spam message received from these text spammers

Need some quick cash? You can easily get $1200 wired into your bank account today! For info, just reply back the word "Pay", to cancel reply "STOP"

A search on some of the numbers being used or that had been used in the past shows that the spammer is using AT&T accounts. The following is as complete a list as I can make of all known phone numbers associated with these text spammers, listed in numerical order:

323-208-2212

408-203-3430

408-203-4306

408-427-7743

415-309-7479

415-408-1069 

415-408-1548 

415-408-8106

510-219-7087

510-316-7065

510-378-9423

612-454-9373

714-176-3827

714-251-2595 

714-276-3827

714-330-9748

714-519-1465

714-599-0894

714-625-1458

714-651-4683

714-651-7164

714-679-0140

714-679-1572

714-679-2176

714-679-2456

714-679-2867

714-679-4275

714-679-4969

714-679-7169

714-679-7490

714-697-5848

714-697-5850

714-697-5854

714-757-9209

714-869-4141 

818-519-6960

845-617-4891

909-287-4247

949-463-3715

949-463-5147

949-463-5162

949-463-5163

949-463-5447

949-463-5594 

949-463-5601

949-463-5608

949-463-6435 

949-463-6700

949-463-7436

949-463-7437

949-463-7505

949-466-7139

951-314-8998

Since these all appear to be AT&T numbers, you can use a web-based email account to send them a message directly. I suggest not using your regular email account. Instead, use a Yahoo or Hotmail account to voice your disagreement with their use of text messaging to spam your phone. Here is a list of the email addresses that you can use, corresponding to the order given above:

3232082212@txt.att.net

4082033430@txt.att.net

4082034306@txt.att.net

4084277743@txt.att.net

4153097479@txt.att.net

4154081069@txt.att.net

4154081548@txt.att.net

4154088106@txt.att.net

5102197087@txt.att.net

5103167065@txt.att.net

5103789423@txt.att.net

6124549373@txt.att.net

7141763827@txt.att.net

7142512595@txt.att.net

7142763827@txt.att.net

7143309748@txt.att.net

7145191465@txt.att.net

7145990894@txt.att.net

7146251458@txt.att.net

7146514683@txt.att.net

7146517164@txt.att.net

7146790140@txt.att.net

7146791572@txt.att.net

7146792176@txt.att.net

7146792456@txt.att.net

7146792867@txt.att.net

7146794275@txt.att.net

7146794969@txt.att.net

7146797169@txt.att.net

7146797490@txt.att.net

7146975848@txt.att.net

7146975850@txt.att.net

7146975854@txt.att.net

7147579209@txt.att.net

7148694141@txt.att.net

8185196960@txt.att.net

8456174891@txt.att.net

9092874247@txt.att.net

9494633715@txt.att.net

9494635147@txt.att.net

9494635162@txt.att.net

9494635163@txt.att.net

9494635447@txt.att.net

9494635594@txt.att.net

9494635601@txt.att.net

9494635608@txt.att.net

9494636435@txt.att.net

9494636700@txt.att.net

9494637436@txt.att.net

9494637437@txt.att.net

9494637505@txt.att.net

9494667139@txt.att.net

9513148998@txt.att.net

If you live in the United States, you may file a complaint against the sender of this text spam by going to this webpage
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action


I hope this helps.




Duane Browning

Unwelcome Phone Calls from Toll-Free Numbers

EveryCall.US has a list of the most-reported telemarketing calls on their website. Since I had some free time, I decided to do a bit of checking on the list to see who the companies are that these numbers belong.

Here we go:

800-684-8429    In Use since 1995 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722


800-669-0102    In Use since 2010 for a customer of AT&T


877-819-6042    In Use since 2005 for a customer of Sprint 800-795-1004


800-395-2274    In Use since 1997 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722


800-555-0433    In Use since 2003 for a customer of AT&T


800-733-1116    In Use since 2005 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722


800-959-1373    In Use since 1998 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722


800-900-1372    In Use since 2010 for a customer of TransNational (TNCI) 800-800-8400


800-848-9380    In Use since 1997 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722


800-395-2274    In Use since 1997 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722


800-331-0500    In Use since 2003 for a customer of ATT


800-754-0961    In Use since 2002 for a customer of AT&T


800-947-5096    In Use since 2002 for a customer of AT&T


877-874-5811    In Use since 2010 for a customer of Phone People aka Onebox 858-569-4444


877-825-3242    In Use since 2009 for a customer of Mpower Communications 702-310-7994


877-838-4347    In Use since 2001 for a customer of Verizon 800-483-3722




Duane Browning

Unwelcome Phone Calls from 888-729-1134?

Browsing through the various websites dedicated to fighting unwelcome telemarketing calls, I found complaints regarding the number 888-729-1134. The complaints seem to be about unauthorized charges on credit cards, which is pretty serious.

The number of reports on this number on 800notes, everycall, CallerFinder, PhoneOwner, and PostCallNotes got me curious about who these people are. So, I did a search at TollFreeNumbers to see what I could find out about these people and this is what I found:

888-729-1134 In Use since 2010 with TimeShift (aka Onebox) 323-817-3220

The phone number 323-817-3220 is the customer service number for OneBox, which is a company that describes itself thusly:

Onebox is owned and operated by j2 Global Communications (NASDAQ: JCOM), the makers of eFax®. Onebox provides a comprehensive suite of outsourced virtual phone, fax and email services for small businesses and individuals around the world. With nearly 60 stae-of-the-art features to choose from, Onebox is designed to make peoples' lives easier. 

The Onebox virtual PBX phone system enables small businesses to sound like a Fortune 500 company - without the dramatic associated expense. Onebox is your own virtual office assistant that puts you in control of all of your communication needs. It answers your calls with a professional greeting and forwards them to you wherever you are. Onebox also offers the finest in online fax services, voicemail to email, as well as audio/web conferencing.

We pride ourselves on offering five-star customer service and dedicated to our goal of saving your business time and money. Contact one of our representatives today to see what Onebox can do for you.

So, it seems that the people calling from 888-729-1134 recently bought their number from OneBox. Like any company, OneBox should have a customer service department and finding their contact information was easy on their website and this makes it convenient for people to contact them with any complaints they might have about a phone number registered through their company.

Corporate Headquarters

j2 Global Communications

6922 Hollywood Blvd.

Hollywood, CA 90028

323-860-9200 

Sales:

Call 888-OK-ONEBOX  (888-656-6326)

Email: sales@onebox.com

Customer Service:

In U.S., Call 866-761-8108

Outside of U.S., Call 323-817-3203

Email: support@onebox.com

For the sake of full disclosure, I do feel obligated to point-out that OneBox has been accused of corporate misbehavior itself and you can find links to articles discussing those accusations here. I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy of the accusations, but I felt it necessary to provide a link to them.


Duane Browning