I got an email from a magazine yesterday..
Hi this John, from PCGamingWorld I would like to have some info about the gaming mod you are going to release on Steam. We here at PCGamingWorld are making several reviews for mods to show
in our magazine.I will explain how we work with this:
I have to make several reviews about mods are available for Half-Life 2. The best mod will be picked out by our customers by sending in a card that they get with the game magazine.
Well guess what ;) This time you got lucky! Would it be possible to get a review or test copy? And if so, how will this be done? We would prefer to get it by either FTP, or HTTP links.
Thanks in advance.
Greetings, Johnwww.pcgamingworld.be (Site down for maintenaince)
Ok. Sure. This doesn’t seem fishy at all. So I email them back.
Sure – can I phone you to discuss this?
Hi Garry,
Thanks for such a fast reply.
I would prefer e-mail to keep tracking what we have going on.. if that’s ok with you.
If you have any questions please e-mail us.Greetings,
John Abrof
I’d much rather give you a call to discuss a few things with you if that’s at all possible.
- gayry
Hi,
Sorry, unfortunatly this is currently not an option for us.
If you have any questions, e-mail these.Cheers,
John
That’s kind of weird – don’t you guys have phones?
Ofcourse we do, but I can’t see the problem if we do all of this trough e-mail.
He He He
Am I really THAT stupid?
FIRST!! But wow. Some people…
They just wanted gmod10 so they can spread it free
I’ve seen this kind of approach work before, I’m glad you saw through it. That was really fishy. I’d only see that working if someone replied while the “Wow! Someone important contacted me!” was still in effect. A kid at my school lost all his RuneScape items after falling for an email from “Jagex…”
Also, if you click on the logo at the top, it takes you to an ad site. That could be yet another dead giveaway.
That’s scamming just like what I don…. hey what a silly name :\
The WHOIS is filled in with crap – translated from Dutch to English (I’m Dutch, yay) it would say
Name – John Johnson
Company – lol
Language – English
Random adresses – a address in Holland but a phone with a Belgian landline number ( 32)
Email – mohammed_idiot@hotmail.com
THATS NOT THE REAL EMAIL ADDRESS, MIND YOU :O
WordPress keeps fucking up my comments and i can’t edit them afterwards -.-
Wasn’t it illegal to supply false licensee information for web sites?
Well what would you expect??? Gmod 10 looks so nice, i guess SOME people just cant wait.
The full report from the Belgium DNS look up is as follows.
Domain
Name pcgamingworld
Status REGISTERED
Registered 16 November 2005
Last update 02 January 2006 14:15
Licensee
Name Jan Janssen
Organisation lol
Language English
Address Adelbert van Scharnlaan 190
6224 JY Maastrich
Belgium
Phone 32.92187979
Email email
The kid did a good job but I think he was more exsided than you I think he was like “OH MY GO OH MY GOD! Garry might give me free GMOD 10 WOOO!”
He’ll pee his pants when he see that its on the front page!
Ha, I love how you put your name as “Gayry”.
Gayry hath punted the enemies of gmod.
I would’ve fallen for it
:(
Well, insist on a phone call and give reasons why you want human to human conversation.
For one reason so that youc can claify any misunderstandings the reporter might get, like from Wired Magazine.
then also explain that speaking is a better form of communication then just words.
yeah you probably already knew that Garry, but magazine reporters arn’t the brighest of the bunch or they would be uncovering government phone tapping and such.
I agree that phone conversations are so much better then emails or IMs, because it feels good to hear someone talk to you.
Garry, you are smart. I totally would’ve fallen for that. :(
Wow, I am ALWAYS struck by the terrible spelling, punctuation, grammar and formatting in scam emails. I mean, isn’t there even ONE criminal low-life out there with so much as a ninth-grade education?
Also, lol “gayry”.
PC Gaming World is not a magazine.
Theres PC World
Computer Gaming World
PC Gaming World doesn’t exist.
But, PC Gaming Magazine does!
I’m a member of teh PC Gayming magzine! lol i wnt tu play teh xbox 360 versin of garrys mod plz now, we will put u in teh magzine, and then people will trafic ur sights lol
- John Johnlyheimer,
PC Gaming Magzine
(ps. ftw)
bah sue the prepubencent nit for wsteing your time ..
and while we’re at it we can all sue him for delaying our beloved Gmod by a few minutes by useing evil mind controle on Sir newman here forceing him too reply to a poorly crafted scam
oh and for suggesting this im intiteled to 10% of all profits made on sueing this nit
.. (yer ok im bored and the coffee level in my blood stream is daganerously low .. lower then my spelling abbility at the moment .. )
-RANT-
Dude i thought you fell for my little trick :( ur meen im trelling my mom!
*jk*
People have tried to scam me too…Seriousl, i want you to consider xbox 360 version of gmod10. Ask VALVe if they could possibly include it in that package that’s coming out for xbox360 which includes portal and stuff. You could release the “best of” models and other things from facepunch (at least, the ones you actually put into your gmod) ;)
How sickeningly cheap!
Should have sent him GMod v1/2/3
That would have been funny.
Still, the fact that his attempt failed is funny enough on its own.
!!1!!1one1!oneone11!!!!!11!!!eleven!!1123
I never trust sites with .be… .be domains were offered for free for some time but that ended lowering the credibility of .be sites. :S.
Hmm, the registrant’s phone number seems to be exactly the same as the webhost’s… durrrr…
http://www.dns.be/whois/GetDomainStatus.do?lang=en&domainName=pcgamingworld&imageField.x=0&imageField.y=0
Why didn’t he just fake a phone call if he wanted it that bad? You can put that number in frount of it the number to stop people form finding out your number and as long as does not sould like he 12 he could be ok.
Wow he’s weird, he needs the article, yet he’s bitching about phoning garry.
i lol’d at
“-gayry”
If i was the person i would just go “you spelt your name wong”
“wrong”
LOL gayry smooth. They expect you to put it on an FTP for all to have.
So will you do the interview?
Or will you mess with them some more… :D
I don’t think I would have fallen for that. It sounds just like those “Hey I live in Nigeria and I need a copy of gmod10 to get out of the country, plz send it and I will give you lots of money!” I’ve been getting.
Ok seriously I still don’t think I would have fallen for it. I wouldn’t have bothered replying because having to contact another human just really drags me down.
You should have sent him a 30 mb zip file full of gay porn.
Hey Garry. This is John the apostle. Now, you most likely thought I was dead, but hey, Jesus aint the only one who can resurrect you know ;-D. Now, when i was in heaven, you’ll never believe who I met. Thats right, none other than Don Knots. Now, your friend, whom youv’e seen countless times on the Andy Griffeth show, and guest appearing on scooby-doo asks only one thing in return. He just wants Gmod 10. But right now, cause I’m going back to heaven first thing sunday morning. E-mail me at JohnTheApostle@heaven.god or, give me a ring, at 1-555-Apostle.
Seriously though-I would have been fooled by that e-mail, until they said please e-mail me a copy of the game…In either ftp or http.
I though GMOD $10 was Steam Standalone, right? So you would just run it with account assigned with it…
Hmm the name “Gayry”, lady hand models…, hmm there’s something going on here… I’ll get to the bottom of this or someone else will.
I would have taken that as far as I could, just for my own enjoyment, imagine how funny it would be to listen to that kids 5 second crap on why he can’t “talk” to you.
Hurr hurr, I wouldn’t have thought to do that. Clever, I will admit, but you caught him off guard with the phone thing.
“That’s wierd, don’t you guys have phones?”
Haha, that part made me laugh so much. How stupid can people be?
How mutch do you think that this guy spent on the website, and how mutch time do you think he spent planning this?
wow, nice one. I would have fallen for that one
Send them an OIFY squad! They tryed to fool Garry – now they will die >:D
Heh…I heard someone talking about this…wonder if it was them…I’ll have to ask.
Wow… that guy has to be either stupid, or just plain… stupid! I mean, that hacker who got Half Life 2, I give props to him. But this guy, this guy is just plain STUPID! I mean, who sends an e-mail ASKING for a copy through ftp, when the regular way would be to MAIL them a copy. Seriously, what people do… this is just plain stupid :P I emphasize the word “stupid” because… that’s what this guy is. Good job Gayry! Make us proud! =]
I like how he asks for FTP or HTTP links to sound smart.
I’d put a nice virus into a .zip and give it to him ;)
lol lame imho o.O
lol i just looked at this dns link somebody pull out of the web and it show now!
Domain details
Domain
Name pcgamingworld
Status REGISTERED
Registered 16 November 2005
Last update 04 August 2006 21:07 (CHECK THIS!!! that was yesterday!)
Licensee
Name Colaris Sjaak
Organisation lol
Language English
Address 6224 6224 JY Maastricht ( in the netherlands we don’t have 8 numbers )
and this site has only been update 8 times what a gaming magezine :S:S haha good job Gary ^-^
Haha, that person(or those people?) can easily be described as “l4m3 n00bs”.
or how we call it in Dutch
gewoon een klootviool
just a balls ccer
Seriously, if i were you I wouldnt send some like that out without:
1. A Serious Phone Conversation
2. Seeing some Identification (drivers licence, passport) and a copy of there magazine
3. Getting them to sign an NDA (Non-Discolsure Agreement)
And it definitly just stupid to put it up on a FTP server.
I’m sure you know this garry, just some advice for every one else out there reading this.
I’m quite impressed they went to the effort to create a fake website and domain, if i were you I’d double check the security on any machines with Gmod10 on. Less we forget what became of Valve with Half Life 2.
If this were real it would be good publicity.
What a dipshit. It would have been a good attempt if he had used fucking spell check. And the least he could do is get a friend or someone who’s good at acting to let Garry talk to him on the phone.
That was poor, although if garry is willing to give away dev copies to magazines then (if you tried hard enough) you could probably get a copy through a hoax.
No offense, garry :p
Pc gaming world is Com, not Be. Heh, nice one.
When will be he accessible Garrysmod 10 as well as which types of purchase they will be accessible, as well as or perhapses in box?
GMod10 will be released when it is done (If that is what you are asking).
I am sure that there will not be a boxed version, but only a downloaded one.
Oh well. Garry’s Mod will be on torrentspy within hours of its release for 99% of its *real* audience to play with, not feeling as though they would ever play online anyway.
My god. Trying to play Garry for a chump. It’s not that easy, probably some kid trying to get a free test of gmod10. I wonder if we could find there house meet them and beat them up for trying to steal a game….
i would happily pay around £15 for the game but not if it was only available downloadably which it probably will be…
Someone can’t use his parents credit card.
Oh dear…
Hi this John, from PCGamingWorld I would like to have some info about the gaming mod you are going to release on Steam.
–*I* would like?
We here at PCGamingWorld are making several reviews for mods to show
in our magazine.
–Oh dear, he writes like a twelve-year old
I will explain how we work with this:
–With this?
I have to make several reviews about mods are available for Half-Life 2.
–Yeah, right..
The best mod will be picked out by our customers by sending in a card that they get with the game magazine.
–Picked out? … How!? also, card?? And how can they know about the mod if they’ve only read a review? And concerning this whole picking-out-thing, what good would that be for?
Well guess what ;)
–Wow, you’re really starting to sound proffesional
This time you got lucky!
–How subtle.
Would it be possible to get a review or test copy?
–Of course not! If he would have, it’d be because Garry would be trying to market GMod10.
And if so, how will this be done?
–How did you do it with all the other mods?
We would prefer to get it by either FTP, or HTTP links.
–*choked giggle* Oh.. right, HTTP links… really, can’t you be a slightest bit more transparent?
Thanks in advance.
–In advance? who does he think he is?
Greetings, John
–Bye, John.. Oh, no signature?
http://www.pcgamingworld.be (Site down for maintenaince)
–Oh, so that’s why theres no proof…
Garry, I feel sorry for you. No, really. So many people just assume that you’re a total cretin… I really don’t see how anyone could be fooled by this
Haha! Stupid. You go Garry!
Fire the missles. SCAM I SAY!! Always do by phone.
I’d host an installer for a virus, renaming it to GMOD10_Installer.exe.
To all you people who said you’d fall for it:
Are you stupid? “John”? They always give their first and last names so you know exactly who at the company it is. A test copy: Anyone who isn’t absolutely stupid would ask for a test copy of a retail game for their magazine. The amount of grammar mistakes is ridiculous.
FTP OR HTTP LINKS? What kind of idiot would ask someone to host a retail mod on the internet?
sendin him a virus in a zip would be immoral, i’d just send him an old version of gmod
Man, you should send them a zip file of 400mb’s full of gay porn and viruses, unless they actually are legit, then your screwed.
Hahaha, nice, i laughed my ass off. That was so obvious all he wanted was to get a free demo of it lol.
Yeah good idea, I’ll download 400mb of gay porn and then zip it up and send it to him. GREAT PLAN BATMAN!
What a cheap thing to do. Good thing you knew it was fake ahead of time.
Yarr, they be takin our Garry as a fool? They be the idiots!
What you gotta do is tell the guy i decided to trust you and i am gunna send you a copy because you whent through so much trouble and i humiliated you in front ofso many people. So he believes the crap and you send him the porn or some kind of virus. =) that would be hilarious.
say its my new realease, Gmod porn edision.
Hi Garry,
I have a PC Magazin too. can i have a copy? lol
just joking :D
What a freaking idiot!
As quoted from DNS.be:
2005/11/16 CREATED
2005/11/16 UPDATED
2005/12/10 UPDATED
2005/12/11 UPDATED
2005/12/12 UPDATED
2005/12/14 UPDATED
2006/01/02 UPDATED
2006/08/04 UPDATED
You are not the only one he tried to scam!
I would almost fall for it if it weren’t for the crappy logo(mismatching words and the PC from PC gamer) and him not writing like a REAL professional.
(Actually, a professional will call first, and ask for a disc through REAL mail, and will NOT need your gmod 10 in order to PREview it, but just to interview you(and people(even fans) are allowed to interview people via the use of E-mail))
“Actually, a professional WOULD* call first”
need to edit post…
Heh, nice. What a newb.
ya the guys a complete idiot…
Haha, fucking owned.
Is there not 1 scammer with more brains than a garden snail? I get at least 2 Paypal scams a day, I DON’T EVEN HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT!
You should have sent him Garry’s Mod 9.
*sighs* wow,
alright lets start this out on a high note,
ROFLWAFFLE OMG NUBS! HAHHAHAHAHA
onto real comments,
what a noob? fuck, I would have (1)Made an extensive website w/ artificial fourms :), and the SHOPING section (mag order) would be down, i would have updated it, (not raelly just fake it :D fucking the internet sideways for the win) 2 times a month, fake google shit, lol uhhh………. I woulda told him on the phone:
*laid back voice*,
Hey, Is this Garry Newman?
Yes.
Hello this is Jake Samson (rofl anyone get THAT one?) from PC gaming world, in recent months we have gotten many requests (or somesuch) about HL2, your mod is one of the more popular, and we would like to get a review out as soon as we can, (:P) early bird and all that ya know.
If at all possible, if we could get our hands on the disk?
(btw forgot 2 say, not Phone VOIP masked with fake number)
*etc i rant more etc*
wow i just wasted alot of time on nothing …. lol
anyway,
if you would fall for that
your a dumbass basterd and you would deserve it,
and that guy was a nubbasterd.
anyway….
uhhh
what was i saying :P
uhhmm that guy was nub, garry is god
gayry = funny
uhh gmod10 is goddly as all hell
ummmmmmmmmm fucking,
ya…
i had somthing elcce 2 say… i cant remember
and also you should fucking send a mock vrs of 10 (disable all features get rid of lua coding switch the .exe with (1) troJEN mANNNNNN virus, clkoptimizer.exe and IPTRACK :D)
roflmao whatever i talk to much lol im OUT
Well, with something as awesome as Garry’s Mod, you’d be a fool not to expect anyone to try to steal it. All you have to do is stop them from succeeding, which I’m sure you can pull off.
yes you are.