If you received an e-mail from “Unicycle <unygift@unicycle.com>” offering a free Curious George toy and mini penny-farthing it is a scam trying to get your credit card information. I received the e-mail sometime earlier today.
The link brings you to “unicycie.com”, note the “l” is an “i”.
They also ask for your credit card PIN, a big red flag.
I called the real Unicycle.com, they are aware of the e-mail.
bump
This should probably stay close to the top of the list for a while.
Any word on how their email lists were compromised?
Wonder if it’s related to the server comprimise they had back in July of 2003?
Thanks for posting that Steve, that will be good to know especially since the holidays are comming around.
-Sabin
Here is a screen shot of the phishing email. If you didn’t receive it, have no fear. You can still enjoy their really pathetic attempt at phishing. I think a 4th grade US student could write a better phishing email. It’s obvious that this stuff is from countries where English is not the native language.
There are spelling errors (recive instead of receive), poor grammar, poor wording, poor punctuation, lousy HTML, gratuitous use of large fonts, and lousy HTML. It’s pathetic all the way around. I like the line where they say this offer is only going out to customers that are more than one year old. What about the babies?
How do they expect something so poorly written and presented to actually work? I’ve seen much better phishing scams. This one ranks as one of the worst executed.
I apologize for the high resolution of the attached image. It’s 766x901 pixels. I shrank it as much as I could while still keeping it on one screen shot.
Ah…
Thanks John, I needed that.
On a certain level, it is quite funny. My regret is that I never got to see the web page at unicycie.com. That page was taken down before I was able to see it. I’m sure it was done just as poorly as the email.
I agree that it is funny. As long as nobody got ripped off by it. But if someone did get ripped off by it…well you know where I’m going with this.
If someone did get ripped off by it, I feel really bad for them. Perhaps that was the lesson they needed, having not noticed any of the other advice that’s been passing over their heads for the past year or more, to not give out sensitive personal or financial information to questionable sources. Fortunately that bogus email was looking very questionable.
It’s kind of reassuring to know that, though that email list was compromised, the thieves didn’t have the skills to come up with something better to use to rip people off. Notice it appears to have been done from outside the USA. Though bad grammar is rampant here, I get the feeling this was an outside job.
The bozos are at it again. They sent out another phishing email. The same as the first. You’d think they would have read my critique and corrected their spelling errors. But no.
The new scamming URL is
http://www.unlcycle.com/
That is
http://WWW.UNLCYCLE.COM/ it starts with UNL rather than uni
The scam URL is still up right now too
http://www.unlcycle.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts/offerid234X54P674L0
Anyone know who to contact to get this new web site taken down?
I was guessing that it was a scam. And I knew it was a scam when they asked for a credit card#. I like where they say, Thank you because you choosed to be a unicycle customer. 
i got that email i thought nothing of it because i dont trust the internet
I got another one today. This one wants to send you to unlcycle.com (where the ‘i’ is replaced by an ‘l’). Looking up these domains with “whois” reveals that the registrars have USA addresses.
unicycie.com is registered to an Annette Albring of Toledo, Ohio.
unlcycle.com is registered to a Bruce Kinsey of Marysville, Ohio.
If these people are involved in the scam, they are sure wide open to prosecution. Maybe these are fake identities for some overseas operation. Maybe the names and addresses are taken from unicycle.com’s customer list, and the registrations were paid for using their stolen credit card numbers.
only one way to find out,
Give them a call… luckly bruce is registed in the yellow pages
Bruce Kinsey
Marysville, OH 43040-8812
(937) 644-9538
Annette Albring’s info is avalibele through Intellius.com but I dont want to put up the $8 to get her records.
The whois records have the info:
http://www.coolwhois.com/d/unicycie.com
http://www.coolwhois.com/d/unlcycle.com
Most likely they are the victims of fraud by falling for a similar scam.
OK I just called both of them. I got answering machines in both cases, and left detailed messages, along with my phone number. Bruce’s voicemail greeting sounds like a regular family voicemail greeting, giving his name and family member names. I bet they’re unicyclists.
The scammer might not have access to unicycle.com’s customer list. All they need is to get email addresses of unicyclists and you have a good chance of sending the fraudulent email to a unicycle.com customer.
Bruce Kinsey just called me back. It was the first he’d heard of any of this. He isn’t a unicyclist and he has never bought anything from unicycle.com. None of the unLcycle.com “whois” information is his, other than his name/address/phone#. The crystaltech.com email address isn’t his. He doesn’t think there are any unexplained charges on his credit cards. Sounds like the scammers just grabbed his name/address/phone# out of some public listing such as the phone book.
The domain under his name was just purchased yesterday… so, it’s likely that it’s not showing on his credit card yet as that usually takes a day or two to show up.
