This is another scam by mobile SMS text messages, from one Dr Frank, claiming he is contacting the victim on behalf of the Canadian Mobile Random Lottery Ballot Draw.

I had to contact Dr Frank at +447924078012 and email caontario@gmail.com.

He send me a SMS so say I had won 1 Million USD at this Canadian Mobile Random Lottery.

Is it true and what must I do to received the money can you please assist me!

From nearby Stratford, Ontario, teen pop singer Justin Bieber has achieved worldwide fame in just one year, becoming a phenomenon.

He can thank the internet as the vehicle that helped him shoot up to stardom.

There are lots of hoaxes floating around on the internet. They are often not propagated by technically savvy people.

However, here is one hoax that comes as a message from Facebook. The sad part is that it was sent to me by a computer engineer.

It claims that Facebook is becoming slow and that the alleged reason is lots of inactive members. If you do not forward it to 15 others, your account will be deleted!

A typical chain letter in the social networking age ...

Warren Wershler-Henry, assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, has conducted a study that concluded that intellectual property law does not serve the creators, and stifle cultural exchange. He also observes that companies like Sony, Apple and Amazon want to channel all content via their proprietary "hermetically sealed" platforms, and that this hurts the doctrine of first sale, when books are effectively licensed not sold.

According to this CBC article, an IPSOS Reid survey shows that Canadians now spend more time online on their computers over watching TV.

No wonder social networking sites, such as Facebook have a big share in this ...

A woman in Edmonton lost $1,300 to fraudsters posting as a mystery shopper company.

The company, called Regent Research, posed a consumer research firm, and the applicant was given an assignment. They sent a money order for $1,500, and asked her to wire the $1,300 to a fake cousin in the UK.

By the time the bank discovered that the money order was fake, she has already sent the $1,300 out, and forever lost them to the scam.

The company's web site displayed the Better Business Bureau logo, also fake.

A British web site dealing with scams has published an interview with a convicted scammer.

One of the interesting tactics is to come back after victims who have paid, and posing as law enforcement and ask for a fee to recover the money already paid.

Here is Part 1, and here is Part 2.

And there is a discussion on Slashdot too.

Here is another sad case of a scam working. The victim paid money to the scammers. She also says that she borrowed the money in order to pay the scammers, and is now in double trouble.

The IP address is from Chad. I am not what currency she refers to: Indian Rupees?

Angelique wrote:

I am victim of the scam.

I have deposited R4.915.88, please help me to recover that money.

I have borrowed it. I need to repay it because the people are asking for it.

Here is another case of people confused and lost on the web.

Not only did he mistake my site for the BMW motor company in Germany, but they they have already paid 15,000 Indian Rupees to a scammer who claimed they are representing BMW. Now he is complaining to me thinking that I am BMW.

The reason for confusing my site with BMW's is the BMW 5-series car lottery winning scam article I wrote a while ago.

Here is the message I got:

A cousin of mine got a new laptop from his place of work. The laptop is a nice 14.4" HP with Windows XP on it.

He found that when he visited Facebook, the site looked a bit odd, and when he logged in, the URL was redirecting to various other URLs.

These include:

http://chips05.clanteam.com/

http://chips09.99k.org/pro.php

http://hosint.zymic.com/404/