It must cost some serious money to advertise on YouTube. I'm seeing ads for all sorts of things and one of them was Duvamis. Howver, I never thought I'd see an advertisement for an app you can download for free so you can read the Bible more often.
But, it's true
Hey, it's not like you can go to the Google Play store and download an app that sends you Bible verses everyday!
Oh, wait. You can and they are some of the most popular free downloads.
So, why go through all the trouble and expense of advertising a product that is already available?
I was immediately suspicious when I heard the narrator's voice: the exact same person narrating the video for the malware-infected app from Phenotrack!
I have no way to know if dailybible.me has malware in their app, too. But, given Phenotrack's known track record of not approving or outright deleting comments that even mention the malware, it wouldn't surprise me if dailybible.me had similar issues and they also wouldn't allow anyone to mention it on their comments sections.
My suspicions only deepened when I learned that dailybible.me is an anonymously-registered website, just like phenotrack.com and both sites use the same servers.
But, why were these apps even made?
Well, if the goal was the distribute malware and steal information off people's computers, they've found good targets.
People who believe in the paranormal would really love a one-stop location to keep up on stuff like that and Phenotrack would seem like a dream come true. Bible readers (usually evangelical Protestants) could be quite likely to want an app that helps them read the Bible more. While they might already have such an app on their phone, they might still give dailybible a try to see if they like it better.
Given Phenotrack's past behavior and the obvious link between the two, I advise against downloading the app from dailybible.meuntil all issues are settled.
Better yet, just ignore them entirely. There are plenty of free apps already available that aren't infected with malware.
I kept seeing this video featured on YouTube "The Megalodon Is Real" and decided to finally watch it, even though I already knew that megalodon is real because of all the fossil evidence. I figured that this video had been put up by some idiot who thinks that megalodons are still swimming around out there. Here is the video
Anyone with computer access can go straight to the Wikipedia article and learn that scientists have known for a long time about megalodon and know much about its ecology, lifecycle and its most likely causes of extinction. Yet, this fucking clown seems to want people to believe megalodon is still out there, though likely swimming in deep water.
For anyone who thinks this: megalodon preferred warm water and deep ocean depths would be too cold for it to survive in, plus there wouldn't be enough food for an animal that size to survive for very long. True, sperm whales do hunt in deep water for species giant squid, but if megalodon is still out there, it would result in severe competition for food between the two and there is no evidence of that.
The narrator goes on to claim that YouTube videos about UFOs that he had bookmarked were mysteriously deleted after a takedown order. Funny, but I have no problem finding videos about UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, etc. Odd that his favorites all get deleted, but I haven't noticed any such purging.
I'm not saying that it didn't happen, just that there's no evidence. It wouldn't be the first time that someone advertised a product and claimed the government didn't want such information available to the public.
Anyway, the video above serves primarily as an advertisement for a free app offered at PHENOTRACK.COM and claims to give real-time updates on reported paranormal activities around the world, such as UFO sightings. You may be thinking, "Well, there's no harm in that.", but there is the very real possibility of harm and this entire "offer" of a free app may be nothing more than a cover story for underhanded activities by the people behind PHENOTRACK.
First of all, the voice on the video reminded me very much of the narrator of the Duvamis video I blogged about earlier and the general style of the video is about the same. Duvamis seemed to be rather strange, but nothing seemed nefarious and there was nothing to download.
Third and most important: several people have reported that when they tried to download the app, their antivirus software detected information theft software - specifically ApplicUnwnt.win32.AdWare.FunWe
b.DA@1 - which attempted to infiltrate their computer.
A video reporting this was posted on YouTube and you can view it here
The narrator mentions that when he posted a comment on PHENOTRACK's website, informing them of the malware, they deleted his comment!
So, PHENOTRACK is hiding the identities of the people behind the site and they deleted one comment (that we know about) warning about malware in the app.
Seems very suspicious to me and I advise everyone to steer clear of these guys.
UPDATE: I decided to personally try to post a comment to their video where I mention the alleged malware in their download. My exact quote was
people have reported that your app contains malware. Have you fixed that yet?
All comments on the video are subject to approval by the account-holder. I was not surprised to discover that my comment was not approved.
Subject: HELP WANTED - REVIEWERS NEEDED - GET UP TO $75 PER
Since I haven't heard from them before, I decided to see what's going-on and whether this is just another scam.
Well, they don't appear to be a deliberate fraud. But, the company's online reputation is rather tainted and I would advise against anyone signing-up for a membership.
First, I tried to do an IP trace of the email itself and discovered that the IP cannot be traced to its point of origin. Looks like someone is trying to hide.
Second, researching the company itself, I learned that their website can be found at vindale.com and their contact information is
Vindale Research
243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 541
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: 1-855-VINDALE (846-3253)
Fax: 1-866-841-3898
The given address does not appear to be their physical address, but seems to be a mailbox at the UPS Store there. So, the "suite number" is actually their mailbox number. So, if you ever wanted to have legal documents served on them for some reason, you'd be out of luck.
Vindale is making use of social networking sites and you can visit them on Facebook and Twitter.
Vindale Research is a subsidiary by SayForExample, Inc.which also is the parent company of Paid Samples (website PaidSamples.com is offline) Survey 4 Profit (website Survey4Profit.com) and is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, though the BBB has a review of the company and has given them a C+ rating. I found it rather disturbing that there have so far been 22 complaints filed against SayForExample, Inc in the last year.
However, a fairly balanced review that presents both the good and bad points of signing-up for Vindale Research can be found here. He did a particularly good job of examining how the company works and explains it very well. I read this on his review which totally convinced me to have nothing to do with these people
The catch, if it can be called that, lies in the “evaluation surveys” (more about that later). Here the company signs-up members for a number of product trials and then later on passes a part of its own commissions to these members. This is followed by the dispatching of some stock surveys, which gives off the impression that you’re giving out useful feedback.
Although this tactic is entirely legal, there’s no denying about its deceptiveness as it doesn’t conform to accepted market research methods. Similarly, the payouts advertised by the company are also smartly inflated.
For instance, as a member you might be offered a 10-day trial run at an internet dating site. Say you are charged $30 by the dating site for the given trial period and at the end of it, Vindale Research remunerates you $45. Now although you end up being paid only $15, the company says it paid you $45.
Vindale Research is not an outright scam. But, I don't like how they do business and will never sign-up for a membership.
Doing a reverse lookup revealed the number given as registered to a customer of cellular provider Windstream, a company formerly known as Paetec. Getting through to a real person at customer service was a bit difficult, but eventually I spoke to someone who asked me to send my complaint to abuse@hostedsolutions.com
and I paused only long enough to post this information on my blog.
The reported goal of the spammer is to get you to call the number, then you'll be told that your credit card has been blocked. You will then be directed to enter your card number to unblock it. Of course, it's just a phishing scam and the scammers are just trying to steal your credit card information.
Many in the West have long viewed Mother Theresa as a selfless advocate for the poor and wretched of the world. However, the Truth is that Mother Theresa was demonstrably a self-serving religious fanatic to did little to nothing to reduce suffering anywhere.
Here are two documentaries on YouTube that you can watch and come to your own conclusions
A truly damning expose of Mother Theresa's hypocrisy was "Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict" by Aroup Chatterjee. However, that book is difficult to obtain, even from Amazon.com, but it is available online and you can read it here. Mr Hitchens also responded to a criticism of his book in this letter to the editor in The New York Review of Books.
On the other side of this, the Vatican has already fast-tracked Mother Theresa to become canonized as a saint in the near future. A dubious "miracle" was used as evidence for her beatification, so it looks like she'll be Saint Mother Theresa is a relatively short time.
I think that one rationale for all this hype is that the Roman Catholic Church has been taking quite a beating in the public eye over the past few years, with scandals reported in the media in graphic detail. The Church needs a public figure to be held up for the masses to idolize and Mother Theresa seems to fit the bill. After all, even though they've got priests molesting children, they've also got Mother Theresa, for whatever that's worth.
There's nothing particularly fancy about the Oxford Memo Book in the picture. It measures 6 1/8" x 3 3/4", has 72 ruled pages with a simple brown carboard cover. These are the favored notebook of the Honolulu Police Department, the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, some security guards and a number of ordinary people who prefer it to the exclusion of any other notebook.
Some time ago, Oxford decided to stop making these, much to the chagrine of devoted fans. I've seen web postings by people frustrated with the company for its decision and there are a number of people seeking them independantly.
Another company, Roaring Springs, began making them and sells them via their website, but you have to buy a case of 144 notebooks because they don't sell them any other way.
Here in Hawaii, you can buy them singly for $1.90 each at Fisher Hawaii. A friend of mine in California asked me to pickup ten of these for him and mail them over. Naturally, he'll pay for the books and postage. He's a friend, not my brother. Another shocking level of devotion for a notebook! Where will it end??
So, if you're a fan of the now-discontinued Oxford Memo Book in Hawaii, go to Fisher Hawaii and buy as many as you want.
By the way, please don't get mad at the clerks at OfficeMax because the store doesn't stock them (You know who you are).
While trying to watch a Youtube video, I saw an ad for something called "Duvamis". It's supposed to be a way for people to find-out "who they really are" and the ad - which has a long version and a short one - reminded me very much of Scientology, both for its content and its production quality.
You can see the long version here
Being a curious guy and having nothing else to do, I watched the entire ad and then tried to find their website.
The site duvamis.com wasn't hard to find with a simple Google search, but there wasn't much content.
Duvamis also has a blog at duvamis.blogspot.com which claims to offer users a place where they can "express their inner selves" or some bullshit like that.
A quick WhoIs search informed me that duvamis.com is an anonymously-registered domain and its IP address is out of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Now, my instincts began to warn me of a potential scam. Why Bulgaria - a country whose law enforcement abilities against Internet crime are not exactly stellar, mostly because they have no law applicable to the Internet - and not the United States or Western Europe? If they have nothing to hide and only want to help me "find-out who I really am", why hide behind a cloak of anonymity?
Hey, it's entirely possible that these guys are on the level, but too many questions about Duvamis are left unanswered.
As a side note, I found it rather interesting that "Duvamis" is also the name of a fictional person in World of Warcraft. Duvamis was an 80th level gnome mage who was last active on WoW in July 2010, which is only a few months before the domain duvamis.com was registered.
I found that to be particularly interesting.
Personally, I'd advise anyone to stay away from these people.
Special thanks to a reader who did more thorough background research into Duvamis than I had the time or opportunity to do. With his permission, I have added it to the body of this blog:
A friend asked me to look into this. Message I sent to him below.
"It
is definitely weird. The WhoIs information for Duvamis is private but
the WhoIs information for the site they're hosting the CSS information
on is not.
Both
Bulgarian Innovation Projects and Eagle (formerly Orel) Invest look
like private equity firms focused on investing in technology. It isn't
really suspicious that a fledgling social media site with enough money
to launch a relatively high profile ad campaign on Youtube would have
investors, and these sorts of companies create shells within shells
within shells in the US to dodge regulations, not sure how it works in
Bulgaria though.
What is suspicious is that all the names listed
under the WhoIs are aliases, two out of three of which seem to share a
naming convention with a Youtube commentor named Dragomir Dmitrov with a
brand new account that's affiliated with Duvamis.
The
person for dvcdn.com is Atanas Rakov, and the person for bip-invest.com
is Atanas Dimitrov, there's a third name on orel-invest.com that
doesn't fit the convention. All names listed under WhoIs appear to be
aliases with no internet history at first blush.
In addition both
bip-invest.com and orel-invest.com share the same real world address,
which appears to be an apartment complex, not office space, although I'm
not overly familiar with Bulgarian architecture and zoning so don't
quote me on that.
The
only thing that makes me hesitate to call this an out and out project
with malicious purposes is that everything not directly associated with
Duvamis has been around for more than a few years and there isn't any
chatter about past scams that I'm seeing. So maybe legit, maybe not, I
don't think there's anything else for me to find without engaging in
dirty tricks."
Since the posting of this blog entry, I haven't seen any more ads for Duvamis on YouTube. I'm not saying that one had anything to do with the other. Looking through the comments sections of both of their videos, I discovered that I wasn't the only person who had doubts about it.
Signing-up for an account reveals Duvamis to be a sort of social networking site. As of right now, there's very little in the way of content on the site and very few users, most of whom aren't active beyond setting-up their homepages or "Visions" as Duvamis calls them. The website even has its own way of telling time (too complicated to explain, but it's weird) and they use odd terms for the various sections.
I'm not sure if Duvamis is a social networking site that's trying to be a religion or a religion trying to be a social networking site.
Either way, it's too weird for me.
Duvamis' ad campaign is the perfect example of doing it wrong.
