This blog post may not be written by me even though it’s me.
I need to warn all of you out there that you can’t believe everything you read. I know that’s odd coming from a journalist, but in today’s Web world you have to question everything you read.
Case in point, work-at-home hucksters have reached a new low.
I wrote a story a while back about the best and worst jobs out there, and some unethical scammer somehow was able to take my story and put in bogus information about a work-at-home company and make it look like the article was coming from MSNBC.com and written by me.
The bogus article is located at this Web address: http://msnbc.msn.com-articles8.us/jobs/ It clearly looks like it’s coming from MSNBC.
Patricia Feeney of Houston, Texas never thought she would have a job working at home until one day she filled out a simple form online. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family by working from home.
I asked her about how she started her remarkable journey. “It was pretty easy. I filled out a short form and applied for a Online Business Systems. There is a small shipping and handling fee, its not really free but it was under $10. I got the Kit and within four weeks I was making over $5,000 a month.
First off, I never even heard of Online Business Systems until this fake article surfaced. And most importantly, if you’re offered a work-at-home job opportunity and are asked to pay money upfront it is likely a scam.
The sham story was brought to my attention after I got a bunch of emails from readers asking me about the company and whether the claims made by Feeney were true.
This email came from Jennifer just yesterday:
Hi, Eve!
I just read your article on MSNBC on the best and worst jobs. I noticed the top job is Online Affiliates and wanted to
Know if the company, Online Business Systems, is truly legit. Was Patricia Feeney’s story and income verified?
I want to make sure this is a legitimate company before looking into their program.
We could really use the extra income so I’d like to check it out if it is reputable.
This really gets me upset, and makes me sad at how underhanded and evil people can be when it comes to making a fast buck.
I’ve been ridiculed widely on Twitter, and probably other social media sites, for the story, which sounds and is too good to be true.
I immediately contacted my editors at NBCNews.com and they’ve got lawyers looking into the matter. But it’s a good lesson for all of us.
Just because the Internet says something doesn’t mean it’s true, even if it appears to be coming from me.
Here’s a link to the original story.
September 6th, 2012 at 10:26 am
Wow, how is that even possible? That’s incredible. What an amazing scam. I hope MSNBC sues the crap out of the company.
September 6th, 2012 at 11:53 am
I have to say, this one amazed me as well. Unreal what can be manipulated online.
September 6th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
I ended up on your blog because I wanted to reach out to you to let you know it was just a link to Herbalife junk…I can’t believe it. I came across it on Pinterest. Other people pin it and dont’ realize its fake!
September 6th, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Eve,
I am confused (so what else is new when it comes to the web) did they make up an entire new article? The one you connect us to looks like an MSNBC site and your picture is on it.
Is the entire article a scam or did they actually take bits and pieces of your story and attac their web address???
Vaso
September 6th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
@Vaso - Yes, it’s a story completely stolen from the real MSN site, hosted on a domain called: com-top-careers.us, see whois below. German scammers. We should contact Cathy and see what she’s all about.
@Eve - You rock. Scammers suck. That is all.
Domain Name: COM-TOP-CAREERS.US
Domain ID: D37190829-US
Sponsoring Registrar: INTERNET.BS CORP.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 814
Registrar URL (registration services): http://www.internet.bs
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID: INTERPO2UEFXVSNU
Registrant Name: Cathy Zeiglero
Registrant Address1: 5043. Road Golf Street
Registrant Address2: Near River view hotel
Registrant City: Frankfurt
Registrant Postal Code: 200949
Registrant Country: Germany
Registrant Country Code: DE
Registrant Phone Number: +49.08921268974
Registrant Email: cathy.ziegleroq3687@hotmail.com
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Registrant Nexus Category: C11
Administrative Contact ID: INTEXM4X5G1O0IHE
Administrative Contact Name: Cathy Zeiglero
Administrative Contact Address1: 5043. Road Golf Street
Administrative Contact Address2: Near River view hotel
Administrative Contact City: Frankfurt
Administrative Contact Postal Code: 200949
Administrative Contact Country: Germany
Administrative Contact Country Code: DE
Administrative Contact Phone Number: +49.08921268974
Administrative Contact Email: cathy.ziegleroq3687@hotmail.com
Billing Contact ID: INTE486OD74I68W0
Billing Contact Name: Cathy Zeiglero
Billing Contact Address1: 5043. Road Golf Street
Billing Contact Address2: Near River view hotel
Billing Contact City: Frankfurt
Billing Contact Postal Code: 200949
Billing Contact Country: Germany
Billing Contact Country Code: DE
Billing Contact Phone Number: +49.08921268974
Billing Contact Email: cathy.ziegleroq3687@hotmail.com
Technical Contact ID: INTETAU83CXUYEOC
Technical Contact Name: Cathy Zeiglero
Technical Contact Address1: 5043. Road Golf Street
Technical Contact Address2: Near River view hotel
Technical Contact City: Frankfurt
Technical Contact Postal Code: 200949
Technical Contact Country: Germany
Technical Contact Country Code: DE
Technical Contact Phone Number: +49.08921268974
Technical Contact Email: cathy.ziegleroq3687@hotmail.com
Name Server: NS-UK.TOPDNS.COM
Name Server: NS-USA.TOPDNS.COM
Name Server: NS-CANADA.TOPDNS.COM
Created by Registrar: INTERNET.BS CORP.
Last Updated by Registrar: INTERNET.BS CORP.
Domain Registration Date: Mon Sep 03 14:47:26 GMT 2012
Domain Expiration Date: Mon Sep 02 23:59:59 GMT 2013
Domain Last Updated Date: Mon Sep 03 15:11:23 GMT 2012
September 6th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
I would like to apologize to you!
I was one of the people who first took to Twitter to call you out.
When I realized the site was a spoof, I corrected myself, but probably did damage already
I’m sorry for that!
What amazed me though, is that I searched for a way to contact MSNBC through their website,
And could not find a single email address or contact form on their site to report the abuse.
That’s just really bad for such a large corporation, which claims is all about easy feedback or interaction nd integration of technology.
Hope this feedback will get to their management too, as I truly wanted to invest time letting them know how their brand and editors were being abused!
September 7th, 2012 at 7:20 am
Hey Dennisg, I really appreciate you apologizing. It renews my faith in humankind.
September 7th, 2012 at 8:53 am
Unfortunately this hacked article has made it’s way onto pinterest…it is being pinned by users by the minute who believe this is for real. NBC should probably put out another article telling everyone that this is in fact not true before person after person is handing over their credit card to a company that they believe is endorsed by NBC news.
September 7th, 2012 at 9:19 am
It such a marketing scam, in this economy the world is full of them! I saw it got it from pinterest I CANT BELIEVE THEY WOULD DO THAT, while the article seemed ligit just like all marketing scams, one soon realizes it’s not. CRAINESS. There’s a business term(Im a business major) “Theres no such thing as a free lunch”, meaning that if it seems free or too good to be true it is too good to be true. -Crystal LeeAnn
September 7th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
I searched for you because I thought for sure that you worked for that online business systems after reading that article. I’m relieved that it’s a fake actually, because I found it hard to believe that an “article” could sound so much like an advertisement for that company.
The link to the fake article is all over pinterest.
It really sucks that they used your name and picture. What a pain for you and your reputation. 
Spammers suck!!!!
September 7th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Hi Career Diva,
I was alerted to the fake article via a pintrest posting on FB. Because only the online ’service’ had links to it and those 4 times, I was immediately suspicious. An unbiased article would by necessity have had links to at least one employer for each of the top jobs. So, I went looking for the comments which of course were not available at that site. Then I went looking for you and found this site with your disclaimer.
Then I went back and looked at the graphic supporting the ‘argument’. This was harder to track down in the 10 or so minutes I worked on it, as it had no links to the original site. When zoomed in, the graphic clearly shows online employee as top of the tree with over one MILLION employees in the USA, however all the other jobs you mentioned were not in the top 10!. Reason? 1 it may have been a total fabrication. 2. it was a real graphic which had been modified, 3, it was real.
Eliminate 3 because instinct says that online employees are not that well paid although they may be that numerous.
Signs that the graphic was totally or partially fake?
- No link to the site the graphic comes from.
- Only date on the graphic is 2009,
- Next 4 jobs do not match your article’s next 5 top jobs
Searched for Money Magazine - no results for USA. I am searching from outside of the USA, so I am unaware that CNN has a television ‘magazine’ called Money so I have had to assume that this is the ‘Money Magazine’ mentioned in the graphic. Searched on top jobs in the USA, found the link to CNN’s report for 2009 at : http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/snapshots/1.html and found the jobs numbered 2 to 5 match those in the graphic, however no 1 is still different.
Went looking for additional supporting/refuting evidence, nothing more came up in this little research effort.
However, it goes to show that although research librarians get lousy pay, they or at least some of us can join the dots before we jump up an down and pick an argument with a columnist.
September 7th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
I just Pinned a link back to this blog post. I have seen the infographic from the fake article about 6 times on Pinterest today alone! I hope people don’t fall for it. It seemed so odd to me that there was no way to comment on the article or contact msnbc through that page then I realized the url was not legit. Sorry this happened to you!
September 9th, 2012 at 9:57 am
Oh man, I was coming to this website to find a way to yell at you for this stupid article! LOL it is all over Pinterest, my friends and my own accounts are being hacked and this article is being posted numerous times onto new pin boards that the user themselves is not creating. It’s driving me nuts.
September 9th, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Wow, I thought it must be too good to be true! It seemed like a scam from the get-go, but when I saw that you had endorsed it, I figured it just may be legite. I sent you an email to confirm & then I found your blog, which states that it is in fact a scam. I found this originally on Pinterest. What a disappointment…I just thought it would be great to make a few extra bucks.
September 10th, 2012 at 4:06 am
One of my favorite and hilarious bloggers looked up this scammy business after seeing their fake article, and her post about it is freaking hilarious. You must read:
http://brittanyherself.com/aside/work-from-home/
So sorry you have to deal with all this. That company sucks!
September 10th, 2012 at 7:00 am
Agree with Amber above - not only is the pin a false/spam article, it seems to be a hack pin and now people’s boards (mine included - don’t remember clicking on this pin though) are being hacked. 3 new boards were created on my Pinterest account and I see this pin being spread to my friends’ accounts … Sad.
September 10th, 2012 at 7:59 am
Was just drafting an email to you about this! Glad you’re already on top of it. It’s all over PInterest, hopefully nobody falls for it. I reported to Pinterest, not sure what good that will do. I’ll be linking this article in comments where I see it posted.
September 10th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Sorry to hear that they besmirched your name in an attempt to draw people into their con.
I just finished teaching a security course last week, and was thinking about updating some of the examples I’ve been using. The link you posted is a perfect example. I grabbed a screen shot while it is still live. I hope they pull it down soon!
September 10th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
I am so sorry to hear what happened to your story. It’s a heads up for all of us writing and posting on the web as well as working from home. I have been working from home for the past 12 years doing a wide variety of legitimate work. I also own websites which have also been hacked. Its a shame. You are trying to help someone make legitimate money and you get scammed for your efforts.
As a telecommuter. I just want to put in my two cents. You will not be scammed if you follow two simple rules. First, never ever pay for a job, they are supposed to pay you. Next, if it sounds too good to be true, it is plain and simple. Follow these rules and you will not be scammed even if a scammer does hack an article and post fake information.
Anne Anderson
Owner
“Legitimate Online Job Directory”
September 11th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
The article is actually a front to dupe you into signing up with Hebalife, and online MLM company (read: pyramid scheme). That’s all this Online Business Systems company is. I contacted them and in the process of talking with a “mentor” accidentally got sent an e-mail where his full signature was included (he’d been very careful not to include it in several e-mails before that). When I called him out on it and told him I wasn’t interested, I actually had his “mentor” call me and pretty much chew me out over the phone for calling them a scam. Whatever helps them sleep at night.
September 13th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
WOW! I was SO ready to talk to my hubby and check out that biz…until I googled it and discovered it was basically a back door into Herbalife! So THEN, I was going to track you down and correct the fact that it is NOT about simply posting links for Google, Facebook etc. (as stated in the fake article) and that it was extremely misleading to those of us truly looking for something differnt to do from home. Anyways, I am very glad that I somehow got linked back to your blog and figured out what was really going on. I too found the fake article Via Pinterest…and I will now be going on a rampage to warn all my friends! So sorry this happened to you, I know all too well how it feels to have your hard work essentially stolen and misrepresented (I’m a semi-pro family photographer, copywrite is huge to me!) Hope it gets resolved soon! Good luck!
September 14th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
A silver lining to this article: I was forwarded the article and was pretty sure it was a scam. (For several reasons including the tone of the article and the url that ended in .us.) I researched you, found this site and now you have a new (still unemployed) fan.
September 21st, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Well, we were duped. Since my hubby has only been able to find part-time work since being laid off in 2008 (completely jobless until Jan. 2011), I thought this might be a way to help pay the bills, since we’re sinking fast. He’s pretty mad over the fact that they’ve milked us out of $10.95 ($9.95 plus a separate mysterious $1.00 charge), not to mention the two days spent reading the initial material and watching the DVD (all of which was very vague and never mentioned Herbalife). Talked to a ‘mentor’ today on the phone for well over an hour and he found out it was a MLM. He is SO angry! I tried to show him the ‘MSNBC’ Career site where I found the link…eventually I found the link to your blog. Unfortunately, too late. Now, we have to pay another $40+ for the kit, or spend our own money to return it.
BTW, I also found the bogus site initially on Pinterest, although I don’t think I pinned it. Thank goodness.
September 22nd, 2012 at 10:24 am
This kind of spamming and lying irritates me to no end. I knew it was fishy the second I read it and I had to figure it out for myself (and I’m not even looking for a job, I just don’t like people to be duped). I re-pinned the article, but in the caption I wrote that its a total scam and I put a link to this post. I’m sorry that your name has been tainted.
September 22nd, 2012 at 1:48 pm
Someone hacked my pinterest acct and pinned this article as well. Fortunately only one of my friends “liked” it, and none re-pinned it before I could delete it.
September 23rd, 2012 at 3:02 pm
I just deleted two Pinterest boards that I did not create that had the false article pinned. Perhaps the author can get through to Pinterest. I was unable to alert them. Of course, I’ve changed my password.
September 24th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Wow, what an error! I just wrote a blog post based on - apparently - the scam article. http://que-sarah-sarah.com/2012/09/24/the-profitability-of-cience/. Does that mean the infographic I copied is fake, too? Ohhh, the Internet…
Love your blog.
September 26th, 2012 at 8:36 am
My cousin tagged the article on Pinterest but it seemed too good to be true. I pinned it to my board because I wanted to show a friend of mine (she’s tired of her job). Evidently Pinterest was notified of the scam because I could not find the “pin” on my board nor my cousin’s. I started doing some research on MSNBC and found your original article, which led me to your blog. Happy to learn this is a scam before getting myself and my friend into trouble.
September 26th, 2012 at 9:44 am
DARNIT!!! Totally got scammed on this article!! shoot, I signed up too! grrrrrrr…..
September 26th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
I heard about this from my email! Apparently these folks got into my yahoo account with only the message ‘hey check this out’ and the bitly link to the same post you mentioned not writing (http://bit.ly/SkHf2M). These folks hacked into my email, and sent the message to everyone in my contact list. I only knew about it after getting failure to send notices on email contacts that no longer own the address I had on file!
I am pursuing the security breach from the yahoo side, and more power to ANYONE helping to stop these folks!
September 26th, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Glad I followed up, I’d have assumed this was really your article,
Sorry you had your good name hijacked.
What a world we live in.
September 26th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
I am so sorry for all of you who got scammed. It really irks me that these scammers have sunk to such lows. Makes me realize how much we have to scrutinize everything today. UGH!!!
September 27th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
I saw this on Pinterest and I was wondering about it, it seemed so weird to me at the time to have so many links to one business in an “article”…Also of course it seemed ridiculous that online affiliate would be a top-paying job. In this day and age it was pretty clever scam. Sorry for those who were scammed — I hope no one paid too much money to them.
October 10th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Thanks for posting this. I actually followed up on this…and it’s selling Herbalife. And, it’s not so much as selling the product, but getting more and more people signed on as distributors. I was sorely disappointed but glad I only wasted a little money finding out about this. I could have been sucked in for lots more money.
October 12th, 2012 at 11:11 am
Patricia Feeney has now moved to Salmon Arm…….lol I received a tweet from my son asking me to check this out…..had this girls name but not in Houston one way to check out these thigs is scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and loo for sponsors of the ad.
October 18th, 2012 at 9:44 am
I just got an email on this saying she was from Plainview. I have lived in Plainview (pop. 22000) and owned 7 businesses here and have never heard of her. Checked and could not locate her anywhere here.
October 28th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Saw a niece pin that bogus article on Pinterest…so…did what I always do: RESEARCH UMBELIEVABLE claims so I can set my family and friends straight. NOT surprised to find this was a scam. I went to Pinterest, searched for as many of the pins as I could find, REPORTED SCAM on all. Tried to add a link to this article of yours, but Pinterest assumed my “links” were spam (talk about irony!). Perhaps others who’ve found the links on Pinterest would report them as well? Maybe that will get Pinterest to BLOCK that particular site??? THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS!
October 29th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Patricia Feeney is also in Corsicana, Texas.
October 31st, 2012 at 3:27 am
Thanks for posting this! I’ll pass it on. They just hacked my pinterest account and this really reeked of something sinister. Sorry this happened to you.
November 8th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
I will pass this on as well. They hacked my twitter account to repost.
November 12th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Totally fake/scam!
November 12th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
My hubby received an email in his spam box today from m00ney2003@yahoo.com that had the following link in it:
http://msnbc.msn.com-articles8.us/jobs/
Normally we would just delete any spam but we know this email address and she is known for hacking accounts! Her name is Sylvia Lopez from Humble TX and has been stalking my hubby for over 3 years now so we checked to see what the email said. The only thing in that email was “check this out: http://msnbc.msn.com-articles8.us/jobs/”.
Not sure if this helps any but thought you’d like to know since it’s the article you’re talking about. Hope you catch all the creeps!!!!
November 12th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Hi, These guys are really on a roll, they hacked into my yahoo mail account today as well as at least two of my friends with yahoo accounts. They also hacked into my dads account, all of the URLs are similar:
http://msnbc.msn.com-report4.us/jobs/
http://msnbc.msn.com-november8.us/finance/
http://msnbc.msn.com-id3.us/jobs/
November 13th, 2012 at 12:23 am
My grandpa’s yahoo sent me( he insists he didnt send me) an email saying:
Subject: Daniel hi!
Body: check this out http://msnbc.msn.com-report6.us/finance/
linking to a page similar to the aforementioned
http://msnbc.msn.com-articles8.us/jobs/
November 13th, 2012 at 1:28 am
I was just looking into an example of this for my uncle who received the same kind of scam today (”Patricia Feeney” is used here too, although in this case it says she lives in Burlington, the area we live in VT.. unless somehow that’s dynamically changing for unique users?). The URL in the email redirects to something less tricky, but they’ve slapped the CNBC logo all over the site to trick the user.
TAKE THEM DOWN NBC! - http://onlinenewsmarket2012.com/?31/1
November 13th, 2012 at 9:44 am
I got the fake email at work today, apparently they are raiding employee email lists of major employers now!
November 13th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Now retired Past CEO large construction company CA. (125 Employees)
Have lot’s of computer experience, Looking to do work at home like
Eve Tahmincioglu writes about …Is their a real company that is looking
for computer input from people at home, If So please feel free to contact me.
thomascstran@yahoo.com You can even talk to me on my cell…..
Talking to people face to face or on the phone is how I started a large
Construction business in California Thomas C. Stran 714-981-5568
November 13th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
I got the link from my sister.
It is: http://msnbc.msn.com-report6.us/finance/
and it invaded my yahoo account and forwarded the link to EVERYONE in my contacts list.
So embarrassing. Whoever is doing this, I hate you now and forever.
November 14th, 2012 at 11:39 am
It’s worse than you think!
The website is still up and running, only now it gets into your e-mail account and forwards itself to all of your contacts.
I got an e-mail from my Dad, checked out the link he sent me, then asked him why he was sending scam pages. He said he never sent it.
The next day, my inbox had a few failure deamons. When I looked at them, it was ME sending the same scammy e-mail to all of my contacts.
November 14th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Had the same thing happen. Clicked on a link from someone a couple days ago: and found this morning that my yahoo email was sending out a “Hey” email with the following link:http://msnbc.msn.com-news3.us/jobs/. I have no idea how that is possible. This really reflects poorly on the Herbalife people. They should be ashamed of themselves.
November 14th, 2012 at 7:32 pm
I also got the email, thought it was legit and clicked the link, and it then spammed my entire yahoo mail contact list. Some of my contacts clicked the link, and then their contact list was spammed. This spam/scam is spreading like wildfire, and needs to be stopped!!
November 14th, 2012 at 7:36 pm
PS: Eve, you shouldn’t link to the bogus article in your blog. Every time someone clicks on it, it spams their contact list, which is how/why it keeps spreading.
November 14th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
wondering if there is any risk of a virus infecting Outlook or other email system where this email would have been received. I was stupid enough to forward it on to someone only to research and realize within about 30 seconds of sending out the email that it was indeed a scam. Unfortunately I now have received 2 emails from others saying that I forwarded them the email. Neither one was the one I actually sent it to. So my question is how does this scam impact the security of my email data?
November 15th, 2012 at 1:55 am
!! Does anyone know HOW they’re obtaining the passwords to peoples yahoo accounts? My yahoo account was also “hacked” and these jerks sent the bs links to everyone in my contact list..but contrary to popular belief, simply going to a website does not give people your password. Also, I only use a Mac so there is nothing automatically downloading in the background and logging keystrokes. I also have a pinterest account but never clicked on any of these pins AND my pinterest password was different than my yahoo password. How is this happening?
November 15th, 2012 at 8:36 am
I just received this total scam in my inbox. As a software engineer, the first thing you need to check is the address. The scam site is using http://msnbc.msn.com-career5.us to post the article. This is similar to http://www.msnbc.msn.com but, at the same time, it is WAY off. Don’t be fooled people. Also, if using Google Chrome, always go in using Incognito. This will protect you from tracking cookies.
November 15th, 2012 at 10:49 am
Just received this in my Inbox with the link http://msnbc.msn.com-career2.us/jobs/. Just googled ‘Patricia Feeney’ and hit your blog. Shame you have to fight to clear your name. I’d start by using the same social media to hit back.
November 15th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Why can’t msn.com shut it down?
November 16th, 2012 at 8:18 am
You’re right DM. I’ve been tweeting and I just posted this same post on Huffington Post. Hopefully the editors will run it soon.
As for shutting the site down Pam, the lawyers at the company succeeded in shutting it down temporarily but since, Online Business Systems has been replaced by Home Cash Profits. It’s like a Internet scam cancer.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Its really a shame you can’t believe some things you read that look so real! I’ve been scammed again! I hope somebody can do something to shut these people down and make them pay back everything they scammed. Just looking for a good job! Definately not this!
November 16th, 2012 at 4:03 pm
They have moved on:
“hey check this out http://careers.nbcnews-1.com/job”
And they move fast: domain was only registered today, if I read the entry correctly at http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/nbcnews-1.com
November 16th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
I just got it, but with a different URL (which, I guess SHOULD NOT BE CLICKED!): http://careers.nbcnews-1.com/jobs/. It’s pretty obviously a fake/spam site, but now I’m wondering if I’ve just spammed all my contacts! (I AM actually looking for a new job at the moment, and the link came from someone I trusted.) This has to be beyond galling for you, Eve. I’m so sorry your name has been caught up in this.
November 17th, 2012 at 8:41 am
Hi Patricia, it has now happened to me too. I received the link in an email from someone I trust and opened it, thought it was odd but nothing more, and 2 days later started getting emails from friends saying I had been hacked. Sure enough, my Yahoo account was busy from 8 pm thursday night till 6 am the next morning sending emails out to everyone in my address book. I have changed the password on the account, is this enough to get rid of “them”, whoever they are?? Is the sending out of those emails the only detrimental effect or are there more problems to be expected. I had my Norton program scan my computer and it came up with nothing. I am not the most computer savvy person and am not sure how to proceed. So far on your repsonses from readers on this blogpost it seems to only be yahoo account holders. I am not even going to try getting in touch with them as they have never responded to any problems I’ve had. Maybe it’s time to switch to gmail. Thanx for any info you can give me.
November 17th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Eve: Thanks for promptly posting this warning. If the online world can help one add to their annual income, a legitimate article on the subject would help us all. If you feel this is a worthy topic, I would greatly appreciate your opinion on the subject. Thank you for your consideration, Michael C.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
OMG! I got this email from my personal friend, who is a brain surgeon! I read it and thought, hey this looks cool. I actually fell into one of those jobs. So I said, what the hell. Then I reviewed it. F__K! Totally my bad…I always check crap out. Shameful. Had to call my credit card company and fight the charges. They complied. PHEW! Someone should be shot for this!
November 17th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
I got hit with this Thursday 11/15/2012. It seemed weird, but I thought, “Umm, maybe my friend’s a little goofy in the head and thinks this would be a career?” Then as I looked at the page, I realized it was a spam and my friend’s Yahoo had been hacked. I started thinking maybe I needed to change my password, but forgot about it. The next day I came home from work, and there were hundreds of bounced e-mails in my inbox. Others were people I barely knew asking me why I was sending this. Took quite awhile to contact everyone in my address book that I had been hacked, especially since Yahoo wouldn’t let me “reply all!” This is why I don’t pay bills online, and should probably stop online banking.
November 18th, 2012 at 10:37 am
My brother sent me the link to article, I looked at it and decided to check it out at a later time. I did click on the link and found they wanted $199, but “if I acted now, I could get a $100 discount” replied to my brother. WTF? Went back today and couldn’t find the same story, but found your original story. I decided to check out your webpage to look for it and lo and behold found your link to this page on the side bar, which I normally don’t read. Thanks and keep up the good work. To Looking like a Fool, my wife’s yahoo has been hacked twice.not fun.
November 18th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
I received the link in an email from someone I know but almost never email to or from. Thats a red flag. That persons email may have been hacked (by a bot) to send these notes to her contacts.
I googled a key phrase to arrive here since the domain it linked to is a fake (ie a scam).
November 18th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
This scam is even sneakier than it appears! I kept noticing boards that I did bot create in my pinterest account with the only pin being this fake article… As soon as I would erase the board, another would pop up the next day with the same pin. I changed my passwords, but I still get the bogus boards popping up in my account. So do not assume that users are actually pinnning this. In my case, the company is somehow accessing my account and pinning it to my profile. So sorry to the original author for the damage done to your reputation.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Why is it still on careers NBCNEWS.com?????
November 20th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
It happened to me today. http://msnbc.msn.com-news9.net/jobs went to my entire email address book.
November 21st, 2012 at 8:57 am
Hey Al, The link is not on NBCNews. It just looks like that. It’s a dummy site created to look like NBCNews.com.
November 24th, 2012 at 5:12 am
I’m working a night shift and just had time to read my email from an older female friend. She sent it I’m sure because it was from a news site - NBC and because she recognized the city Beaumont.
@ Daniel…. I’m guessing you are correct that this bot/scam thing somehow makes Patricia Feeney local to your area. She now is in Beaumont, Tx.
I’m really worried and hope my friend did not pay money for this kit. At 65 she is always concerned about money and seeing the news website and the supposed ease and success she would have definitely jumped at what she thought would be an easy way to make money. I read the article then closed my browser and got another article. But I know for certain the first one talked about a Beaumont woman…..
November 25th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
i googled the address page and came across this article from you and decided to let you know it is in fact still circulating!
November 26th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
And another URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com-59.us/read/?Article=23163
I hope NBC’s lawyers can take action.
November 30th, 2012 at 10:00 am
I just got a link to the scam delivered by a virus or malware bot from one of my relatives. It generated a local town to insert, but the rest of the article was the same. I came to THIS page by googling the text of the first paragraph (I knew it had to be a scam, but sure looked legit for a few seconds…)
So, now it’s taken another twist.
December 3rd, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Not only has it been published its been adapted I got the article saying freeney was from Statesboro ga
December 3rd, 2012 at 10:16 pm
I have been receiving her emails for several months and they are every day. She has modified it to point to a nearby town as others reported. She is using Yahoo email and I reported her account there in hopes that that account will be removed. At least that is a start.
December 4th, 2012 at 6:35 am
This article is so not you to begin with, Eve…anyone can see it is a scam (marketing a business). Did msn get back to you on how they got the story? So many scams now with the internet.
December 4th, 2012 at 9:55 am
I really appreciate you saying that ckn_ny. You made my day.
My editors don’t know details on how this happened, but apparently it’s not difficult to do.
Everyone should be careful of everything they read. Don’t make decisions based on one article…even if it’s real.
December 8th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
here is another one. copy and pasted from the page.
“Patricia Feeney of Reidsville, never thought she would have a job working at home until one day she filled out a simple form online.”
I didn’t believe it and googled the name and found this page.
December 13th, 2012 at 6:33 pm
I JUST COPY AND PASTED THIS FROM MY IN BOX.THIS PATRICIA IS REALLY GETTING AROUND SHE RESIDES IN BROOKLYN NOW…LOL. Patricia Feeney of Brooklyn, never thought she would have a job working at home until one day she filled out a simple form online. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family by working from home.
I read Patty’s blog last month and decided to feature her story in our Career News segment. In our phone interview she told me her amazing story. “Since getting my Work-At-Home-Digital I actually make about $5,000-$7,000 a month using the internet. It is enough to comfortably replace my old job’s income. And the best thing is that I only work about 10-12 hours a week from home so I now have a lot more time for my family.”
December 17th, 2012 at 6:09 am
I am so glad to find your post. A friend of mine posted a link to the bogus msnbc article on my Pinterest account. I never pinned it myself. I delete it everyday hoping no one else will repin it from me. I had to shut down my facebook account because it posted a link to this website everyday as well. FB friends knew it was out of character for me to post anything like that and started asking questions. I didn’t realize it was doing this because I don’t go to FB everyday. My attempts at trying to delete this virus include contacting msnbc, stopping following the friend that posted it to my account (in case that was causing the problem), contacting Pinterest, having my husband (an IT specialist) delete it two different ways and editing my boards to delete the pin. Just like clockwork, it comes back everyday. My question is why hasn’t Pinterest done something? I have clicked on other Pinterest links that are dead and say something like “users have reported this to be a scam” so why is this one still hot? Another Beware…look out for zbiddy. I was tricked by them and my bank’s fraud department said this is a company they see a lot.
December 18th, 2012 at 10:01 pm
I just recieved this email from the office email address of my last job and opened it because I thought it might be a job offer. I typed in the website address and read the article because it was an MSN/jobs site and looked legit, 2 months ago I got the same article but with a click to open link from my Aunt which I also opened as she has from time to time sent me stuff.
My question is, do I have a virus on my computer now? My Norton Anti-Virus is not showing anything but from what I’ve read that doesn’t necessarily mean there is no virus so I’d not know how to get rid of it if it’s something Norton does not detect.
the 2 people I got the emails from were people I don’t correspond with regularly, in fact I’d not heard from my last job since Dec. 2008 so really surprised to get the email with Hey and my name in the subject line. it is not clear to me if my email account has been hacked either. I’ve been having problems with slow computer intermittantly for years, my email password is not a real word so I doubt anyone could guess it but now worried as I have some confidential info saved in the folders.
Pls. let me know what steps if any I and others should take.
December 19th, 2012 at 3:39 am
Seems it is ONLY active on yahoo accounts…I opened the spam email on my work email with an AOL domain. I was waiting for a reply from a client and when the RE: came in I opened it and sure enough it said “check this out”…before I knew it the same email was sent to everyone in my YAHOO email account! The AOL account I was working in (and opened the email) was not effected at all… Just my personal yahoo acct which was opened on another page on my pc laptop. THEN there were crazy posts to my Facebook profile! This is our of hand and it’s been going on for over 3 months now?!?!!! I honestly don’t believe passwords had anything to do with this…it’s interesting that it only affected my personal yahoo email AND Facebook…which are the only two pages that I allow a constant log in on my lap top.
HOW CAN I MAKE THIS STOP??!!! Help!!!!
December 19th, 2012 at 5:49 am
I just got this URL email from a hijacked email contact from LinkedIn who is a Film maker in LA
It seemed odd he would send this, and I thought it was spam till I saw his name.
The URL seemed fishy. Since when does MSNBC have a channel 9 affiliate somewhere?
http://msnbcnews-9.com/jobs/
I googled the first paragraph of the article and found the real story here.
Amazing how well constructed that bogus site is.
Don’t let government, in any case, use this as excuse to control the Internet to “keep us safe” from scammers. Government has more scams going than anything and from whence there are more lies disseminated than any other source, so lets not be stupid in trusting government to run anything right.
December 19th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Unfortunately, it’s still be forwarded with other domains too. I just received it this morning from a friend’s hacked Yahoo account: http://msn.msnbc.com-december.net/jobs/
The good news is I only found the real article by researching the fake one, and bad people aside, I’m just glad my job made the top 5 of the real article
Thanks.
December 19th, 2012 at 6:25 pm
Now it’s showing up at: http://msn.msnbc.msnbc-news3.com/jobs/
December 19th, 2012 at 7:46 pm
If you’ve been ‘infected’ by your Yahoo email spamming all your contacts the first thing to do is change your password! Second one is to delete all history/cookies. Not sure which did it for me but it’s stopped (for now)…
December 19th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
There is another msnbc fake url. Maybe you know someone at MSNBC that has interest in shutting down this site (it’s very close to msnbc’s url) and it is promoting this work at home scam with your modified article as its only content: http://msnbcnews2.com/
December 20th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Just received this link in an email from a friend that would never send stuff like this, so I guess that some sort of ‘bot got his contact list and spammed everyone in it. Interestingly, the email called me by my first name within the text and the title of the email was “Fwd: Hey Pam!”, which was also very weird. My friend isn’t the type that would even address an email with Hey Pam! So, the ‘bot must have some sort of intelligence to it. I figured it was bogus when msnbc and news9 were in the same email address. So, I Googled it before clicking it and came here. I hope msnbc gets this straightened out.
December 20th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
The same thing happened to me yesterday - all my Yahoo contacts got the fake email ostensibly from me. Thank heaven I only had about a dozen Yahoo contacts, and a lot of the emails bounced back to me.
I tracked the IP addresses on the bounced emails and found that the scams originated in Peru and Mexico.
I hope the NBC lawyers will get on the case once again.
December 29th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
here is another link -
http://whaouh.com/www.foxnews.com.news.report41.php
January 22nd, 2013 at 1:25 am
Another scam email with the same content was sent from:
Shelley Orbach
The link in the email was to the following Website:
http://newsmarketgen4online.com/?12/50
Would love to here back if any legal action was taken against this con artist.
January 28th, 2013 at 11:04 am
Please watch if you get this and open the link. I did this morning and now my Yahoo! account has been compromised and is sending the link out to everyone on my contact list. Good thing Yahoo isn’t my primary e-mail account. I knew it was a fraud when I read the first few grafs of the article, and like a lot of other people here came to visit Career Diva to say that you should never, ever pay to work at home. I am a freelance writer and I make a very good living working from home, so I know this to be a fact.
I’m sorry your good name and reputation got smeared like this. You do a good job.
January 28th, 2013 at 11:43 am
Is this truly your blog post, Eve? I have my doubts because I think a journalist would proof-read her own copy, or get someone to do so, rather than write “The shame story was brought to my attention.” Looks to me as though this is a web intrigue that has been blown out of proportion.
January 28th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Thanks Alan for pointing out the typo. Alas, even though I do proof-read my copy mistakes get by me. That’s why it’s so important to have a great copy editor checking over your work. Unfortunately, since I don’t make money on this blog I can’t afford to hire a copy editor. But I do appreciate readers like you helping me out in this regard.
January 29th, 2013 at 9:14 pm
Hello… I received the scam email today from a friend in Toronto, CA. It apparently took over her email account and automatically sent it to me and probably many others. I was suspicious from the start so I opened the URL on my iPhone. So far, I don’t think I have been infected. I hope this gets publicized by MSN.com.
January 29th, 2013 at 9:52 pm
They’re Back. here is a repeat with a new url for the same scam
http://careers.msnbc.msn.com-im8.net/finance/?GmKxQf
January 29th, 2013 at 11:19 pm
ProfitBoost Institute is using your credentials now…seems like the scammers are just changing the name of their business…
http://bit.ly/WqPqkf
Link above sent to me by friend - seemed way too good to be true…
January 30th, 2013 at 10:44 am
Unbelievable that anyone would stoop this low–our group received this link this morning: http://www.msnbc.msn.com-iw4.net/finance/?8fNpgc
January 30th, 2013 at 11:30 am
Eve: 1/30/12
I just sent you an email asking why you had endorsed this scam and then I went to your blog and found the alert informing me that you were NOT supporting this garbage at all. Good to know.
JP
January 30th, 2013 at 5:13 pm
I got the same link from someone and thought it was legit. My yahoo email sent scam to everyone in my contact list. How do I stop it? Is it a virus? How do I get rid of it? Do I have to change my yahoo password? Can I use the same computer or do I have to change my password on a different computer? If my friend got the scam email but could not open it, can I use her computer to change the password on yahoo? Is there a virus protection I can run to get rid of it? I already am using Norton. Thanks for any help.
February 1st, 2013 at 2:09 pm
I received a bit.ly link from a friend with a yahoo email account. Here’s the real link the scam site: http://careers.nbcnews.com-jan.net/finance/?JgQcwW
February 3rd, 2013 at 1:50 am
Happened to me on 1 Feb.
more info here
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/31/yahoo-mail-users-still-seeing-accounts-hacked-via-xss-exploit-amid-reports-yahoo-failed-to-fix-old-flaw/
February 9th, 2013 at 4:55 am
I have had 3 messages from friends yahoo accounts with different links in the last week (one just this morning - 9th Feb) and whois says the fake cnbc site was created 8th Feb! If Yahoo had fixed this problem the scammers wouldn’t be creating new sites would they??!
February 9th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
I too got this from someone I trusted - has an xtra email account, not yahoo! I immediately googled the name and found this site! So I hit “reply to all” and gave them the link to this site so they wouldn’t fall for it!
February 14th, 2013 at 6:23 pm
Oh dear…. Just got done by before I got this site. Received from someone trustworthy. Needed the xtr to catch up with the bills. Really really sad. THERE GOES MY KIDS FOOD MONEY FOR THE WEEK.
February 17th, 2013 at 10:15 pm
i paid $99.99 through my credit card to WORK AT HOME DIGITAL. Someone know how to get back my money?
February 19th, 2013 at 7:58 am
I got a text about this with a link and was like wow until I looked at the URL and it was from the so-called business…that’s when I knew it was a scam and googled it. Glad I found this
February 21st, 2013 at 8:03 am
The scam is still going on. This time I got an email from Canada with the news that Patrica Feeney was living in Amsterdam and made so $5,000-$7,000 each month while working 10 to 12 hours a week.
February 24th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
My name is Victoria and just this morning I recieved a weird text on my phone. I clicked on the link and it gave me that fake cnbc website and says your from the Memphis Tennessee area. It breaks my heart knowing that peoe put your namesake out there trying to scam us. I wish they would get a life. They have ruined so many people.
February 25th, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Recieved an email yesterday regarding this work at home….sounded too
good to be true. Looks like Patricia Feeney is a very popular name.
There apparently is one in Candiac, Quebec. I knew this was a
scam when I researched and Patricia Feeney does not exist in Candiac.
Somebody has to stop these people.
February 26th, 2013 at 3:01 am
Thanks for posting this. I actually followed up on this…and it’s selling Herbalife. And, it’s not so much as selling the product, but getting more and more people signed on as distributors. I was sorely disappointed but glad I only wasted a little money finding out about this. I could have been sucked in for lots more money.
February 26th, 2013 at 12:02 pm
I just received a text message with a link for cnbc2.com with the same story you are referring to with the name Patricia Feeney. The scam continues….
February 26th, 2013 at 4:53 pm
Just this morning Patricia Feeney was living in Gatineau and earning 5000$ to 7000$ a month. Thanks for the warning, it really looks legit…
February 27th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
The infographic utilized by NBC is still circulating on Pinterest (that’s how I found the false article and Googled around ’till I found this blog,) and now the article is apparently written by someone named “Robert Hill” that when you click on his name (expecting the link to give you his email or contact info), it just takes you to the main NBC page (oh, and Patricia is currently living in Houston) . Unfortunately, I gave the stupid Home Cash Success (it’s changed its name now) my email and phone number so that I could see what the fuss was about (thank goodness I didn’t give them any money!) but now I’m wondering when all the horrible marketing calls will be coming in….*shudder*
This is awful, people think it’s real because it’s hosted on a site with msnbc in the URL - it makes it look like a legitimate article. I’m trying to tell folks on Pinterest about this so that they don’t get sucked into it.
February 28th, 2013 at 8:17 pm
Sorry this happened to you Eve but thanks for posting… the scam sure is continuing… this morning I also received the link in an email from someone I know but almost never get email from (but a hotmail account not yahoo). Like a person commenting earlier, I also googled a key phrase to verify it as it sounded fake & being a freelance writer I’m used to checking sources …. all I can say is this Patricia Feeney really does get around - she’s now in Sydney, Australia earning $5,000-$7,000 a month for 10-12 hours a week with a ‘maintenance fee’ of under $50!
March 1st, 2013 at 8:27 am
Now this FACK SCAM travel to near IN MY CITY MEXICO.. im not buy nafing . im REPORT the DNS. and put back. IS A BIG SCAM THE 100.00 DLLS. Who is going to stop..woow..
March 3rd, 2013 at 7:11 am
This Patricia Feeney gets around a lot, she’s now living in Wigan UK.
Cheers for the heads up.
March 3rd, 2013 at 12:07 pm
Patricia Feeney certainly get’s about,she’s now in Norway in a little place called Lillestrøm.How did she find this place?.
March 4th, 2013 at 5:00 am
And here’s another!
http://news4marketgenonline.nl/?12/731
March 6th, 2013 at 11:37 am
I got an email this morning from my cousin in England about this story. The hometown was changed from Houston, Texas to Montour Falls (where I live). Amazing. I was going to look you up and we could have had tea together! Thank goodness for Google search
March 8th, 2013 at 8:53 am
I received a text this morning from 4153415628 - that had a link to this story on a cnbcnews14.com. And Patricia is now in PA. The most disturbing thing is that my name was in the link and it was spelled correctly (I have a somewhat common name with an odd spelling). I blocked the number, but I am sure there is a range of numbers that now have my cell info.
March 8th, 2013 at 6:05 pm
Hey I found another website where the fake article is published, but written as if in a different city. Somehow the scammers got a phone list because they texted the link to me…ugh!
http://cnbcnews14.com/job2/?qhtnz=amwzk
March 12th, 2013 at 12:57 am
I received a text this evening from 615-635-2440 that said casandra FYI and the link. i went to the link and it was a a “news story” about Patricia Feeney of imperial making money from home. imperial is a nearby town so i read it and was excited about it. however, i am a sucker for all this work from home stuff and have been burned every time so i decided to look further into it. i texted back “who is this” and got no response. so i looked for Patricia Feeney in the phone book to call her and there was no listing. so i Google it. this is where i ended up. im thankful i looked into it before i got suckered again! Im so sorry this has happened to you. How frustrating it must be
March 13th, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Well, I just got Patricia Feeney from Woodbridge, ON, Canada apparently racking up the big dough…and it’s March 2013…
Why hasn’t NBC sued them yet and stopped the propagation of these spam posts and fraud??? It’s all well and good to say that it’s not a legit CareerDiva post and that NBC is looking into it…but this stuff has been out their for years now and NBC hasn’t stopped them from using their name to rip off people. Doesn’t NBC have a responsibility to stop this perpetual fraud being undertaken in their name? What are the courts for? What are the internet regulatory institutions for? Can no one write software that will search out and shut down these links? Can no one search out where the payments are being made and charge, prosecute and imprison these fraudsters?
Because, ultimately, its the most vulnerable and desperate in our society that fall for this schemes…and that are sometimes irreparably hurt by them.
So I guess, I just answered my question. No one cares, because there are no “people of consequence” being hurt by these fraudsters and no one is accountable. I guess there’s no money to be made by NBC to stop this crap.
We can’t even enforce our own laws because there is a lack of will by those that can.
Maybe, CareerDiva, you should release regular weekly posts, warning people of this unfortunate tie-in for legitimacy until it is STOPPED and these websites sporting MSNBC identifiers implode.
March 13th, 2013 at 11:57 pm
I just got a text from this number: 601-345-0908 and a link to http://cnbcnews35.com/job2
The article was about Patricia Feeney, said she was making a lot of money at home and said she was from my town of Creswell. Goes to show you really can’t believe everything you read, even if it’s a cnbcnews website.
March 14th, 2013 at 10:27 am
all the folk on our mailing list have just recieved an e-mail supposedly from us, (it isn’t), with a link to a work at home website. It looks as though someone has sent it us and we have passed it on which we havn’t. I’ve had to ring round telling everyone not to open it. The name Pat Feeny was quoted but it said Sheffield (UK) our home town.
March 15th, 2013 at 5:06 pm
A GF in Oxford, England sent me the link to the scam article yesterday probably believing it herself. However, I have more scepticism than most with whatever appears on a site. However, given the length of time and that this link is still being passed around the world, as I live in Western Canada. Mind you, it speaks to never sending a link to any site you are not completely familiar with or it’s validated.
I agree with others here, this link needs to be removed completely.
I feel for the folks who’ve been scammed and someone somewhere is making money from their trusting in the link.
Too bad the police or Interpol cannot be involved here.
May 5th, 2013 at 9:13 pm
Just found your page after I got a text cleverly greeting me by name and telling me ” Benjamin - LOOK! I’m in the news! www.localheroshere.com/”. When I clicked on the link, it redirected to the link with the Patricia Frenetic work at home article. It is may 2013. Crazy that this can keep happening.