My Blog

Scam text message from +1 (604) 339-2192

Today I got a scam text message from +1 (604) 339-2192, telling me to deposit email money transfer at et-lnterac-xxx (see screenshot). Notice how the scammer changed the letter I to lowercase l (L). I am not sure if the number is spoofed or not, or if the cellphone is compromised and used as a bot. Basically the scam message claims that CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) has sent me $297.00 and that I should deposit the money.

Text message from +1 (604) 339-2192

Then I checked the whois data, but it seems to be fake.

whois data

The address is in Toronto but the originating number is from Richmond, BC.

I'm usually too lazy to check it because I already know it's a scam. But this time I checked it because I'm bored, and when I checked the address, it goes to this site. Now, the only time somebody can create a subdomain record on a CPanel-based server is when they have access to the CPanel itself, so even if the application (e.g. Wordpress or any other script hosted there) is compromised, unless the person has the username & password for CPanel, they won't be able to create a subdomain record. Another possibility is if the scammer has compromised the whole server and got himself a root account. Who knows.

Then I proceeded to check the index files. Ahh, I can see now what the scammer has uploaded because he forgot to disable index in .htaccess.

More scam

Then I tried clicking the INTERAC e-Transfer_fichiers folder as I was just curious to see what's there.

Interac scam

Very interesting. Then I clicked td, rbc2, bmo, sco. Here's what came up - a fishing page trying to get users to post their credentials for TD, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, and ScotiaBank.

Here's the Scotia one (check out the URL in the address bar):

Scotia Bank scam

Here's the TD scam (check out the URL in the address bar):

TD Scam

There you go.

If I go to the main domain, apparently the site is from India (country code +91):

Hope this can help some people. Be careful and stay safe.

 

 Read More

Disable free SSL from CPanel

Recently, CPanel has been providing domain validated SSL certificate for free. However, it is quite intrusive that it replaced my own Wildcard certificate with theirs. To disable it, login as root and type these two commands:

root@servername [~]# touch /var/cpanel/ssl/disable_auto_hostname_certificate

root@servername [~]# touch /var/cpanel/ssl/disable_service_certificate_management

 

 

 Read More

Windows 2012 Server RC Evaluation ISO direct link

I've been wanting to download the latest version of Windows 2012 but for some reasons I keep getting errors so if anyone is experiencing the same thing here's the direct download link.

 Read More

Scam from TextWon.com/Ziinga (claiming to be BestBuy) sent by (917) 690-6874

This morning I received a scam spam message from (917) 690-6874. Becareful because this is not a legitimate text from BestBuy.ca. It tries to fool the receiver by adding "BestBuy.ca" subdomain.

The page then redirects to Ziinga.com. Read the following about fraud by Ziinga

http://www.scambook.com/company/reports/59339/Ziinga.com

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?332397-ziinga.com-Help-Needed

The WHOIS information for ziinga.com:

Domain: ziinga.com
Registrar: Eurodns S.A.

Registrant:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
TextWon.com SCAM claiming from BestBuy.ca


Administrative Contact:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Phone: +35625572557
Fax:
Email: nodomainnames@gmail.com

Technical Contact:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Phone: +35625572557
Fax:
Email: nodomainnames@gmail.com

Original Creation Date: 2009-09-30
Expiration Date: 2015-09-29

Status:
clientTransferProhibited

Nameserver Information:
Nameserver: ns1.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns2.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns3.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns4.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns5.mydyndns.org

59QMY8Y3PY9G
 Read More

Oracle VM Server on Lenovo W520 with i7-2860QM and 32GB RAM, 1.5TB RAID

I've been curious about Oracle VM Server and wanted to try it for my own home lab. I've had the VMWare ESXi 5, OpenVZ, as well as Xen but not the Xen-based Oracle VM Server.

So I downloaded Oracle VM Server 3.0.3 (and a few weeks later upgraded to v3.1.1) and the initial experience was quite pleasant and the whole thing was easy to install. I've also installed the Oracle VM Manager 3.1.1 and the v3.1.1 in general is night and day compared to 3.0.3 (no silly "refresh" thingy).
You'll have to use Oracle 11g database and also if you use the Express version you can't convert it to the full version.

A couple of high-level observations:
  • I'm using Lenovo W520 with i7-2860QM and 32GB RAM as well as Seagate XT Momentus 750GB x 2 (Intel soft-Raid). Everything went smoothly, unlike the newest Ubuntu 12.04 distribution who failed at everything and was just in general buggy.
  • I could not find an option to do a snapshot from the GUI like I did in VSphere. There is a "Clone" option though. I haven't tested this on a live Oracle database
  • If I want to export the virtual machine .img files is done with qemu. Nothing in the GUI.

So, what's the benefit of using Oracle VM Server compared to VMWare?
  • Well, it's XEN-based and it's free
  • There's a bunch pre-built Oracle templates such as Oracle Enterprise Linux, PeopleSoft, 11g, etc. With VMWare
  • The overall licensing is cheaper for Oracle Database. There is a price difference if you use Oracle database server and your virtual machine uses VMWare.

A few screenshots for your viewing pleasure:
Oracle VM Server 3 Installation



Oracle_vm_server_303_w520_install_4


Oracle_vm_server_303_w520_install_3


Oracle_vm_server_303_w520_install_2

Oracle_11g_express_for_oracle_vm_manager




Oracle_11g_configure


Oracle VM Manager 3

Oracle VM Manager 3
 Read More

Ubuntu 12.04 on Lenovo W520 with Intel RAID - don't waste your time

I think Ubuntu 12.04 is a big failure. It's unstable and buggy to the point where I think it just deserves rm -rf /*. I can't believe an unstable product like this is labelled as "LTS". I've been reading Ubuntu forum and found too many issues regarding lockups in this version. Separating the install into "desktop","alternate","server" just so that it fits into a CD doesn't make sense. This is 2012 and even on the racks there's DVD-ROM. The price difference between CD-ROM and DVD-ROM is so minimal it is just not worth it to separate the contents. Also, regarding the lockups, don't blame it on X Window - it's the whole package that matters. Last year when I tried 11.04, the partitioning tool in the installer never work properly (GPT, MBR issues) I had to use Redhat's Anaconda installer to partition it and then use Ubuntu. A year later it's still the same and it's even buggier!!

The installer also failed to detect my RAID and yet it said "Installation is complete". This release is so bad it makes Windows Vista looks so much better. If I want a buggy, unstable OS with nice eye candy, I'd install Windows ME or Vista, not Linux.

On the other hand, Oracle VM Server (derived from Redhat Linux) installed just fine on Lenovo W520 and it perfectly detected the RAID configuration and everything was smooth sailing with no lockup whatsoever.

Ubuntu 12.04 on Lenovo W520

Executing 'grub-install' /dev/mapper/isw_BLABLABLA failed. This is a fatal error. Then it said "Installation is complete. You need to restart the computer in order to use the new installation.

FAIL.
 Read More

iOS 6 - How to get turn-by-turn navigation for older iPhone (3G, 4)

iOS 6 - How to get Siri and turn-by-turn navigation for older iPhone (3G, 4):

  1. Sell your old iPhone through any of these websites:
    1. http://www.gazelle.com/iphone
    2. http://iphonetraderexpress.com/
    3. http://www.selltronix.com/product_listing/sell-iphone-trade
  2. Get an Android (even older Android 2.2 phones have free turn-by-turn navigation out of the box).
  3. Congratulations! You're no longer forced to upgrade by a bully corporation and no longer bound by Apple's scheme of planned obsolescence.
 Read More

Bitrig - copycat of OpenBSD

Another day and yet another open source project got forked. Bitrig has decided to copycat OpenBSD and fork it. Do people really need yet another OS? Why not contribute back to OpenBSD? Think about the time that can be saved by open source developers if they team up and build a strong base. This is just silly. Reinventing the wheel is purely a waste of time.

I really dislike this trend in the Open Source community. There's always a new Linux/BSD distro every month and yet another derivative. There is no respect at all and this is nothing but a form of legalized plagiarism.

 Read More

Mobile Vendor Trend - 2012

What Google Trends is telling you:

Google Mobile Phone Vendor Trends 2012
 Read More

GMail - Temporary Error (500) - Numeric Code 93

At the mercy of Google when all my data (Google Apps) is in the cloud:

Gmail Error 500 Code 93
It has been down for the last 3 hours and I can't do any work. Furthermore, when trying to report a problem:
Google Groups - Error #463
Edit - update: confirmed:
Google Apps down (April 17, 2012)

 Read More

Latest

Scam text message from +1 (604) 339-2192

24.Jun.2017
Today I got a scam text message from +1 (604) 339-2192, telling me to deposit email money transfer ...

Disable free SSL from CPanel

26.Jan.2017
Recently, CPanel has been providing domain validated SSL certificate for free. However, it is quite...

Windows 2012 Server RC Evaluation ISO direct link

2.Aug.2012
I've been wanting to download the latest version of Windows 2012 but for some reasons I keep gettin...

Scam from TextWon.com/Ziinga (claiming to be BestBuy) sent by (917) 690-6874

3.Jul.2012
This morning I received a scam spam message from (917) 690-6874. Becareful because this is not a le...

Oracle VM Server on Lenovo W520 with i7-2860QM and 32GB RAM, 1.5TB RAID

2.Jul.2012
I've been curious about Oracle VM Server and wanted to try it for my own home lab. I've had the VMW...

Ubuntu 12.04 on Lenovo W520 with Intel RAID - don't waste your time

24.Jun.2012
I think Ubuntu 12.04 is a big failure. It's unstable and buggy to the point where I think it just d...

iOS 6 - How to get turn-by-turn navigation for older iPhone (3G, 4)

13.Jun.2012
iOS 6 - How to get Siri and turn-by-turn navigation for older iPhone (3G, 4): Sell your old iPhone...

Bitrig - copycat of OpenBSD

13.Jun.2012
Another day and yet another open source project got forked. Bitrig has decided to copycat OpenBSD&n...

Mobile Vendor Trend - 2012

11.Jun.2012
What Google Trends is telling you:...

GMail - Temporary Error (500) - Numeric Code 93

17.Apr.2012
At the mercy of Google when all my data (Google Apps) is in the cloud:It has been down for the last...

Drive Genius 3 - Defrag Failed

28.Mar.2012
I'm one of the folks who bought MacUpdate Spring 2012 Bundle, which includes Drive Genius 3. I've j...

Netflix has been down for several hours (November 27, 2011)

27.Nov.2011
I believe Netflix is currently down ... it has been down since 5pm. At first, I thought I forgot my...

How to install CentOS 6 from a USB drive with UNetbootin

23.Nov.2011
I believe I'm one of the poor souls who tried to install CentOS 6 64-bit on a laptop with no DVD dr...

Funniest Race Start Fail Ever!

9.Nov.2011
This is definitely the funniest race start fail ever! LOL   ...

Simple Bash Script to use OS X 10.4 as a firewall

25.Oct.2011
There was an unused Apple desktop machine running OS X 10.4 sitting around, so I decided to use it ...