Dead Sea Beauty Kit

Hi Neil,

thanks for your message.

Where have you seen that ad ?

We have absolutely no relation with this company or service. Was it appearing as a Google ad maybe ?

Hello Julien,
It has taken some time to trace the source of my complaint, but today it appeared again. It takes the form of a survey which pops up and asks about four simple questions. The "reward" is a "free" gift. So, I completed the survey and from the three prizes offered selected the so-called "Dead Sea Kit" I paid the $5.95 postage and then when that was confirmed, was told that if I returned the kit within 14 days at my expense I would not be charged the $65.95. When I e-mailed saying to cancel the product I received a reply saying that it was too late and that the product would be delivered. I had to go to the post office to collect the product, took it home, re-wrapped it un-opened, returned to the post office and paid $16.95 for the return postage. The total cost of this scam was $23.90 plus time on e-mails re-wrapping and visits to the post office. In my view Ex-Pat holds responsibility as the scam was on your site and is still being used. I have no doubt that Ex-Pat is being paid for including this fraudulent promotion on their site. I AM WAITING TO SEE WHETHER EX-PAT IS GOING TO WARN OTHER CONTRIBUTORS THAT IT IS A SCAM and to remove the promotion from the site! This form of scam brings discredit to Ex-Pat and if it is not part of their business they should warn contributors, if on the other hand Ex-Pat is accepting this form of scam I want nothing further to do with the site which I contribute to because I have considerable knowledge and experience of Cuba. Neil Reid (MacDuff)

As a website owner myself, I can tell you that what you're experiencing may not have anything to do with this blog.  If Julien says that they aren't affiliated with the company, then unless Julien is lying (doubtful), then they aren't affiliated with them.

Assuming there really is no formal affiliation with Expat-Blog, the only way it could be related to this website would be if this website's database had been attacked by a virus/malware of sorts, one which places unwanted ads where they don't belong.  The problem, though, is when that happens, it will affect many more than just one visitor to the website (you). 

So unless others come forward reporting the same problem, I hate to say it, but you probably have a virus on your computer.  In all honesty, the "fake survey" is a very old trick in the malware/virus world.  I don't mean to sound rude, but if you were naive enough to not recognize the "Dead Sea Kit" for the scam that it was, then there's a reasonable chance that you've unwittingly clicked on other scams, etc. in the past, thereby downloading a virus/malware program which could very well be creating the unwanted pop-up ads you're now seeing.

Thanks for your view languagetraveler. I only responded because it was a survey on the Ex-Pat site. As it has been appearing on the site for three weeks, I think it is sensible for Ex-Pat to warn its contributors that it is a scam. No, I have not been caught by other scams. But as you are apparently expert in such matters, perhaps you could advise Ex-Pat upon how to remove the "survey" from their site. As you will know from my contributions about this, I have provided full details about the company that is responsible including address and e-mail.

The pop-up offering a free prize for answering a brief questionaire again appeared this week on Expat. Don't respond!!!