A strange one - Review a Journal article

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 11

Hi All

I received the following email today:

Quote:

Dear Colleague,

How are you? I am sure you are busy with many activities right now. However, I hope you could help us review a manuscript,
entitled " Essential Components of Effective Prevention Efforts: A Survey of Model Programs " that has been submitted for publication in
Science Journal of Psychology. Please let me know whether you are able to take on this task
as well as whether you can return the Review Form by 16TH July, 2011 or earlier. The Manuscript, Reviewer's Guide and Author Guidelines
will be E-mail to you if you are interested.

On behalf of the Editorial Team of the Science Journal Publication, I thank you very much in advance for your effort in this endeavor.

Best regards,

Dr. John Morrison
Editor
Science Journal Publication
http://www.sciencejournals.cc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MANUSCRIPT TITLE: Essential Components of Effective Prevention Efforts: A Survey of Model Programs

ABSTRACT:

This study examines components involved in effective prevention programs in order to determine which are
perceived to be most essential. Programs that were determined to be Model Programs by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Registry of Effective Programs were surveyed.
The findings include a ranking of perceived essential qualities. Some components are more essential than
others but continued research would help clarify the results.

Having been around the forums for a little while, I know that hunting out the name of a real journal and also the name of a person associated with that journal is easy. The thing is, while I'm not in the science industry, I am an academic and could help at reviewing journal articles.

I suppose what I am wondering is exactly how this scam (if it is one) would unfold. I'm not about to put my hand up and offer, but I suppose I'm curious...

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:50 pm

Hi Katherine,

this is sooo interesting ... and sooo hard to bait: Obviously you can't answer from the email address the invitation has been sent to. And the scammer has gone to the trouble to dig up real scientists, so he probably wouldn't answer to a stranger = baiter.

You can't even try, because if I wrote "This offer has been passed on to me by a collegue who hasn't got the time to do it" he might guess who this collegue has been.

I'd love to find out what he is planning, but I don't see a safe method.
Evil or Very Mad

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 11

*lol* I'm glad you're tempted. If you would like to pick up the ball and run with it, here's the header. Please keep me informed if you do though, as I'm also curious!

From Science Journal Publication Thu Jul 7 08:53:02 2011
X-Apparently-To: [me]@yahoo.co.uk via 77.238.189.161; Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:02:34 +0000
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
X-YahooFilteredBulk: 64.26.60.159
Received-SPF: none (domain of qwestoffice.net does not designate permitted sender hosts)
X-YMailISG: yR.4YooWLDvi9Th06kAGASMcPFMd3b3aui5RyIZgUq_wYmCd
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Hfceirb18iXryYAJYxzoBg--
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Thu, 7 Jul 2011 04:01:56 -0500 (CDT)
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
From: "Science Journal Publication"<[email protected]>
Subject: Manuscript Review [Essential Components of Effective Prevention Efforts:....]
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 09:53:02 +0100
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:10 am

Okay, I did some digging. The header says the email has been sent from Brazil - might be a proxy.
The email address seems to belong to

Quote:

Address lookup
canonical name
sciencejournals.cc.
aliases

addresses
69.167.177.184
Domain Whois record
Queried whois.nic.cc with "dom sciencejournals.cc"...
Domain Name: SCIENCEJOURNALS.CC
Registrar: DIRECTI INTERNET SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD. D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Whois Server: whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Name Server: NS1.WEB4AFRICA.COM
Name Server: NS2.WEB4AFRICA.COM
Name Server: NS3.WEB4AFRICA.COM
Name Server: NS4.WEB4AFRICA.COM
Status: CLIENT-XFER-PROHIBITED
Updated Date: 01-apr-2011
Creation Date: 01-apr-2011
Expiration Date: 01-apr-2012

>>> Last update of whois database: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:22:35 EDT <<<
Queried whois.publicdomainregistry.com with "sciencejournals.cc"...
Registration Service Provided By: WEB4AFRICA
Contact: +233.302921912
Website: http://www.web4africa.net

Domain Name: SCIENCEJOURNALS.CC

Registrant:
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin ([email protected])
ID#10760, PO Box 16
Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Nobby Beach
null,QLD 4218
AU
Tel. +45.36946676

Creation Date: 01-Apr-2011
Expiration Date: 01-Apr-2012

That means, the registration of the site is fresh as a daisy and meant to stay online for one year only - the shortest possible period. The website has been created anonymously.
They do not mention a phone number, however, the address says

Quote:

Head Office: Federal Capital Territory (Abuja),
Nigeria.
Branch Office: Accra, Ghana.

We all know where most of the scammers come from: Nigeria and Ghana.

And their trick seems to be

Quote:

Science Journal Publication charges authors a fair price that reflects the actual cost of publication. However, the ability of authors to pay publication charges will never be a consideration in the decision whether to publish.

So at best, you will get published on a crappy website for a hefty fee. At worst, you will not even get published. But I guess a real scientist would stay clear of this website anyway.

EDIT TO ADD: I'm still not sure if I should bait this one. I don't want the scammer to find out that you have ratted on him. While he is probably in a grubby internet café in Nigeria, he just might have accomplices round your corner, or he might try to ruin your reputation all over the internet.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 11

Jeannette wrote:

So at best, you will get published on a crappy website for a hefty fee. At worst, you will not even get published. But I guess a real scientist would stay clear of this website anyway.

EDIT TO ADD: I'm still not sure if I should bait this one. I don't want the scammer to find out that you have ratted on him. While he is probably in a grubby internet café in Nigeria, he just might have accomplices round your corner, or he might try to ruin your reputation all over the internet.

Thanks for all your hard work. I'm certainly not going to take them up on their offer, but I have to say that I'm only a PhD student with no real intention of publishing or becoming an academic. I'm also studying English, not Science, so I doubt this could do me much harm.

A quick google showed me this site which is almost the identical email.

I'm more than happy for you to go for it, I'd just really like to be able to watch from the sidelines. *g*

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:07 pm

The scammer you are dealing with has covered his behind by mentioning that there just might be a fee for publishing. So technically, it is not even a scam.

Good luck with your studies; I love the English language. To me, it sounds even more elegant than French when spoken by educated persons. And the way it uses verbs when German clumsily turns to complicated adverbial constructions is wonderful - a Roman heritage?

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 11

Darn it, I was keen to see what you would get out of him. Oh, well, maybe another time.

And thanks. I've had to learn a lot of ways of critical theory from scratch, so it's been a very steep learning curve. Still, I do think English is a beautiful language.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jul 2011 Posts: 3

Did anyone else notice that the Domain reg. address was thew same as Loan2help fake bank site that was just shut down? Nobby Beach isnt too far away from me... might snoop a little harder lol

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jul 2011 Posts: 3

Privacy Protect. Org is a company that protects privacy! lol
from their website:
Why Privacy Protection?
When buying a domain name you have to provide accurate contact information or else your domain registration could be terminated as it would be in violation of the registration agreement.

This information has to be made publicly available to everyone via the public WHOIS database as required by ICANN, the international governing body for domain names. Everyday, this valuable source of accurate contact information is targeted and harvested by spammers and telemarketers resulting in unwanted and unsolicited contact. Also since your contact information is public, you are at risk for identity theft and fraud and of being contacted by harassers and stalkers.

Privacy Protection ensures that your private information is not published by replacing all your publicly visible contact details with alternate contact information.

Think I will contact some journalists about Australian website protecting Scammers.

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 11:37 am

As I said:

Quote:

The website has been created anonymously.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Jul 2011 Posts: 3

Thanks Jeanette, being a noob I suppose I missed the the full meaning of what being created anon. means in the context of 419's endevours and let my enthusiasm carry me away.

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