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Showing posts with label Scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scams. Show all posts

Thursday 24 September 2015

Evil network: 64.20.51.16/29 (Interserver Inc and Muhammad Naeem Nasir)

This DHL-themed phish got me looking at an IP address range of 64.20.51.16/29 which is a range belonging to Interserver Inc in the US, but which has been reallocated to a customer. But who? Because the WHOIS details for that block are not valid..
%rwhois V-1.5:003fff:00 city.trouble-free.net (by Network Solutions, Inc. V-1.5.9.5)
network:Class-Name:network
network:ID:NETBLK-INTSRV.64.20.32.0/19
network:Auth-Area:64.20.32.0/19
network:Network-Name:INTSRV-64.20.51.16
network:IP-Network:64.20.51.16/29
network:Org-Name:N/A N/A
network:Street-Address:N/A
network:City:N/A
network:State:na
network:Postal-Code:N/A
network:Country-Code:US
network:Created:20150624
network:Updated:20150922
network:Updated-By:abuse@interserver.net
Well, that's quite a sloppy move by Interserver to allow that, but it doesn't mean that the block is evil. However, an analysis of the sites currently and formerly hosted in that range indicate a very high proportion of phishing sites.. in fact, the range is a hotbed of sophisticated fraud sites, many of which seem to be undiscovered.

I combined current reverse IP data from DomainTools and current and historical data from DNSDB and then ran them through an IP lookup and a check against the Google Safe Browsing and SURBL reputations. The results [csv] show a very large number of sites flagged by SURBL in particular, amounting to 47 out of 167 sites (i.e. 28%) that I can identify as being currently hosted in that range.

In addition, a large number of phishing and other malicious sites have been hosted on 64.20.51.16/29 in the past and are now hosted elsewhere.

nswo.co.uk / "La Casa Limpia - a Balaeric Island Villa"


At first glance, some of the remaining sites look legitimate. Consider nswo.co.uk entitled "La Casa Limpia - a Balaeric Island Villa".

It looks utterly legitmate, although it is an odd domain name for a villa in Spain. Let's check those WHOIS details..

    Domain name:
        nswo.co.uk

    Registrant:
        P J Green

    Registrant type:
        UK Sole Trader

    Registrant's address:
        100 Malderen Road
        Islington
        London
        Greater London
        LN23 6AU
        United Kingdom

    Data validation:
        Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 10-Dec-2012
Despite Nominet claiming to verify the address, there is no such road as "Malderen Road" anywhere in the United Kingdom, and the post code of "LN23 6AU" is also completely invalid and exists nowhere in the UK. A bit of investigation shows that the site is almost a complete rip-off of  a legitimate site at palmyramenorca.com.. but with different contact details.

dominioncollege.ca / "Dominion College"


Consider also dominioncollege.ca - a professional looking website billing itself as Dominion College of Canada.


Apparently, Dominion College is the "Highest Ranking Creative Arts University". But there is no such university in Canada, and the domain for this "150 year old" institution was only registered in August 2015.

Domain name:           dominioncollege.ca
Domain status:         registered
Creation date:         2015/08/14
Expiry date:           2016/08/14
Updated date:          2015/08/19
DNSSEC:                Unsigned

Registrar:
    Name:              PublicDomainRegistry.com Inc
    Number:            3059041
The "About Us" page gives another clue.


That is actually Old Dominion University in Virginia, United States. A completely different and wholly legitimate institution.

hkbbr.org / "Hong Kong Business Bureau Registry"

Consider hkbbr.org billing itself as the Hong Kong Business Bureau Registry..

Yet a Google search for that term only returns hardly anything except content from the site itself, indicating that there is no such organisation.


The domain was registered in 2013 to an anonymous registrant. What is the point of this site? Well, it looks like it is a register of legitimate Hong Kong businesses. You can search for business in their online services page..


Well, it looks like a search.. but in fact it just loads results from a page www.hkbbr.org/entity/ which has an open directory.. so you can see that there actually only 43 companies in the database. One or more of which will be fake.

Presumably this forms part of a scam where the victim has to deal with a fake company, and the scammers use this web site to try to convince the victim that they are dealing with a legitimate company.

tricountysalesmexia.com / "Tri County Sales Mexia"


Consider tricountysalesmexia.com, entitled "Tri County Sales Mexia's Premier Pre-Owned Late Model Luxury and Exotic Vehicle Dealer - Mexia | Texas"


We added up the value of the cars listed on this "Tri County Sales" site. There were 218 cars valued at around $13.2 million, or around $60,000 per car.

Their website shows plush offices..


Now, Tri County Sales is a real company and I suspect a reliable vendor of used vehicles. But in reality the company's premises look like this:


Does it look like somewhere that stocks $13 million dollars worth of high-end exotic vehicles? Of course not. Let's take a look at one of the more notable cars on the website.


This is a pretty rare car. But look closely at the partial logo in the top left hand corner of the large photo..


It's the logo of Southlake Motorcars, where the image was stolen from..


Several of the other vehicles also turn up on other sites. You can be assured that although Tri County Sales is a real company, this website does not belong to them and is a scam.

goldwestgroup.com / "Gold West Group"

Consider goldwestgroup.com calling itself "Gold West Group"..


It's a bit vague about where it has mines, but the facility pictured at the top is the Obuasi Gold Mine in Ghana belonging exclusively to AngloGold Ashanti and no-one else.

The site itself mentions a Chile address, and the WHOIS details are consistent.

Registrant Name: Manu DeSouza
Registrant Organization: Gold West Group
Registrant Street: Europa Oficinas
Registrant Street: Guardia Vieja 255
Registrant City: Providencia
Registrant State/Province: Santiago
Registrant Postal Code: 2103
Registrant Country: Chile
Registrant Phone: +56.22997704
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: webmaster@goldwestgroup.com
But AngloGold Ashanti have no operations in Chile. This site is a scam.

edichem.com / "Edible Chemical Inc"

Consider edichem.com describing itself as "Edible Chemical Inc"..



This site is riddle with spelling errors and has some comically bad photo manipulation.

The offices in the picture actually belong to a company called APAG.

Let's have a look at that so-called CEO..


"Birningham University"? Quite a typo. And that photo is of a completely different person called Peter Westenthaler.

This fake company has even gone to the effort of setting up a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/edichem.biz:


cllinternational.com / "Courier Logistics Limited"

Consider cllinternational.com calling itself "Courier Logistics Limited":


In what way is this logo meant to reflect "Courier Logistics Limited"?

It doesn't.. it belongs to the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

The purpose of this site appears to be to generate fake courier tracking numbers, so a victim who has ordered a product will assume that it is actually on it's way. The tracking lookup seems to respond to a six-digit tracking code. The fake tracking site is on another IP, 185.24.233.16 in Ireland.


steadyprivateloan.com / "Steady Private Loan"

Most of the fake companies I have found so far have zero internet footprint. This fake finance company has at least attractive a couple of complaints:

Edmond L.
Beware !!! Do not deal with TERRANCE CLARK / CLARK BRIAN of Goldmine Private Loan now with a new name "Steady Private Loan". These are scam artist.
8 months ago

Sharon Todd
I agree. We fell for their Goldmine Loan and now Steady Private Loan owe us $21,195 ...They look fantastic but do not fall for them. We are reporting them to the FBI
7 months ago

Unlike some of the other sites, this is a bit more amateurish and generic.



It claims to be based in Delaware.



The bottom line here is that there is no such corporation as "Steady Private Loan" in Delaware. This site is a scam.

madrewson.net / "Madrewson Consult"

Consider madrewson.net calling itself "Madrewson Consult". This bills itself as some sort of HR consultancy, but you can guarantee that everythig it touches is fake.


There are a bunch of testimonials on the "About Us" page.

These are all attractive, well-photographed people aren't they? And they pop up in so many places. The photo of "Helen Pyzowski" turns up in a bunch of places. "Adam Smith" is a stock image. "Kristin Malie" turns up in a bunch of places. "John L. Skelley" turns up in a bunch of places. The testimonials are fake, as is this so-called company.

mobgifts.net / "Coca Cola Promo"


"Coca Cola" themed prize scams are well known (and documented on the Coca Cola corporate site) but I've never seen anyone go to the effort of creating a fake website to go with it.


There are several photos of people being handed cheques. But what is that cheque exactly?


This is someone winning a prize alright.. but for developing a mobile app, not a lottery. All the other pictures of people getting cheques are similarly bogus. There is no such thing a the Coca Cola Promo free lottery.

braincure-biotech.com / "Braincure Biotech"

Consider this so-called Taiwanese biochemistry firm, "Braincure Biotech" (braincure-biotech.com)


The site looks professional but very generic. But is it genuine? Unfortunately, the Taiwanese companies registry is in Chinese only and is quite difficult to use. So let's just Google it.


There are virtually zero references to this "company" apart from its own website. And by the time you look, probably this blog. A quick check of the body text of the site reveals that it is copied from other genuine biotech sites. This company does not exist, but presumably is there as part of an investment or employment scam.

What else is there?

Trawling through the IP address range shows many fake blogs (set up to promote goodness only knows what), some Bitcoin and make-money-fast sites and a whole load of sites that appear to be suspended. I cannot confirm a single legitimate site in this range.

Who is behind this?

Although the IP address range is owned by Interserver Inc it is allocated to a customer. However, Interserver seems to have displayed poor governance here because it not only has allocated the range to an anonymous registrant, but it has not acted on the extremely high concentration of fraudulent sites.

Looking at the range, I can see several nameservers..

ns3.boldhosts.com
64.20.51.18

ns4.boldhosts.com
64.20.51.19

ns2.paidhoster.com
64.20.51.20

ns1.ok2host.com
64.20.51.21

ns2.ok2host.com
64.20.51.22

ok2host.com has anonymous WHOIS details, but the other two are related:

BOLDHOSTS.COM
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Abdul Razzaq
Registrant Organization: Boldhosts
Registrant Street: Street 18 Clifton Block 8  
Registrant City: Karachi
Registrant State/Province: Sind(en)
Registrant Postal Code: 75500
Registrant Country: PK
Registrant Phone: +92.2135491130
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: info@boldhosts.com


PAIDHOSTER.COM
Registrant Name: Sajid Mahmood
Registrant Organization: GroomHost
Registrant Street: Progressive Center Shahrah e Faisal  
Registrant City: Karachi
Registrant State/Province: Sind(en)
Registrant Postal Code: 75400
Registrant Country: PK
Registrant Phone: +92.215681734
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: info@boldhosts.com

Although paidhoster.com does not resolve, both boldhosts.com and ok2host.com do and are hosted on adjacent IPs of 76.73.85.141 and 76.73.85.142 respectively, indicating that they might be the same company. Groomhost.com is also mentioned in the WHOIS details above, and that is hosted on 76.73.85.140.

It turns out that there is another IP block of 76.73.85.136/29 hosting a variety of possibly white-label web hosts:

network:Auth-Area:76.73.0.0/17
network:Class-Name:network
network:OrgName:Naeem Nasir
network:OrgID;I:FDC-11211
network:Address:Street number 18 clifton block 8
network:City:Karachi
network:StateProv:Sindh
network:PostalCode:75500
network:Country:PK
network:NetRange:76.73.85.136 - 76.73.85.143
network:CIDR:76.73.85.136/29
network:NetName:FDC-11211-76.73.85.136

The WHOIS details for the IP range don't give a lot of data, but we can also find the same registrant details for the domain sandhost.com:

Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Muhammad Naeem Nasir
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: Street  18  clifton block 8
Registrant City: Karachi
Registrant State/Province: Sindh
Registrant Postal Code: 75500
Registrant Country: Pakistan
Registrant Phone:
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: naeem.nasir@yahoo.com
The AA419 database shows several hits for this email address going back to 2011, so it seems that whoever this Pakistani web host is, they have been tolerating this activity on their network for several years, even if they are just providing hosting services rather than perpetrating fraud.

Conclusion

I really just skimmed the surface with my analysis here, but it is clear that the 64.20.51.16/29 block is being used almost exclusively for fraud. Moreover, the fraud is extremely sophisticated involving things like fake business registries and couriers. It is also clear that the Pakistani web hosts apparently providing these services have been doing so for some time.

Recommended blocklist:
64.20.51.16/29
76.73.85.136/29
185.24.233.16

Thursday 30 April 2015

Nepal Earthquake scam: savenepal.org

I was tipped off to this site by a contact, but it appears that there are some particularly dispicable scammers who have registered a fake website called savenepal.org which is soliciting donations via PayPal.

The site largely cloned from the legitimate ActionAid site which is genuinely seeking donations to go to Nepal.

ActionAid is "Registered charity no 274467" (it says so on the bottom of the page). SaveNepal.org claims to be "Registered charity no 276187", but we can check at the UK charities commission and we can see that the charity with this number is actually an orchestra.


Clicking "Donate" on the scam site leads to PayPal. It doesn't give much of a clue about the ownership of the fake site:


The WHOIS details for the domain are hidden using WhoIsGuard. These other sites appear to be live on the same server:

com-indexhtml.link
com-indexhtml.us
grantsekit.com

Out of these, only com-indexhtml.us has a non-anonymous WHOIS entry:

Registrant ID:                               C4E83B25FA8AD52D
Registrant Name:                             Frank J. Moore
Registrant Address1:                         2441 Byers Lane
Registrant City:                             Davis
Registrant State/Province:                   CA
Registrant Postal Code:                      95616
Registrant Country:                          United States
Registrant Country Code:                     US
Registrant Phone Number:                     +1.5307574940
Registrant Email:                            uscustomerhelp@gmail.com
Registrant Application Purpose:              P1
Registrant Nexus Category:                   C12


I'm pretty sure that those contact details are fake. Going back through historical WHOIS comes up with different contact details:

Registrant ID:                               29B0B5BBD7190398
Registrant Name:                             dinna  james
Registrant Address1:                         po box 876
Registrant City:                             dl
Registrant State/Province:                   dl
Registrant Postal Code:                      110098
Registrant Country:                          India
Registrant Country Code:                     IN
Registrant Phone Number:                     +1.918978978
Registrant Email:                            helpot80@gmail.com
Registrant Application Purpose:              P1
Registrant Nexus Category:                   C12


Of course, these contact details could also be false and there's no definite connection to savenepal.org yet. But out of curiosity, who is helpot80@gmail.com?  Googling doesn't reveal much, but it does show a copy of a conversation in the news.admin.net-abuse.email where someone who is claiming to use this email address is complaining about spam. If we then use Google Groups to find the original newsgroup post we see it was posted from an IP of 182.68.85.242 which is a dynamic Bharti Airtel IP in India, which does at least match the country in the WHOIS details.

Another Google result is this Phishtank entry listing social2013.com/rockgrade/ which appears to be a copy of the Rock Grade Management scam site I covered way back in 2011, indicating that perhaps these two scams are related. helpot80@gmail.com was listed as the owner of social2013.com before it expired in February 2015.

This WHOISology report links the address to several domains:

beauty6k.com
social2013.com
droughty.com
auto36.us
secure2013.us

Also, 94.242.255.129 has hosted many other domains, many of which appear to be scammy.

com-13.pw
com-21.us
com-indexhtml.us
news7d.com
mynews360.com
grantsekit.com
social2013.com
secured2014.com
usgrantskit.com
savenepal.org
com-indexhtml.link
huffingtonpost.com-indexhtml.link
dear.graphics

Many of these have the helpot80@gmail.com address listed in their historical WHOIS entries.

What else can we find out?

The email address is connected with this scammy looking Facebook page allegedly giving away "free laptops"



The email address also links to this Google+ profile naming them as "N. Al.". It also links to this YouTube channel with a single video about Payoneer. These Profiles indicate that helpot80@gmail.com has an interest in affiliate marketing, an activity with a mixed reputation.

I cannot prove that helpot80@gmail.com is connected with the savenepal.org, but they probably know whoever is behind it.

Remember, if you want to donate to ANY disaster charity, it is worth checking very carefully that you are dealing with the real thing and not a bunch of scammers.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

cnwebregistry.cn / chinaygregistry.com scam and "Huayu Ltd"

This spam email is actually part of a long-running Chinese scam.

From:    Jim Bing [jim.bing@cnwebregistry.cn]
Date:    29 April 2015 at 14:27
Subject:    Re:"[redacted]"

Dear CEO,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent, Thanks)

We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China.
We received an application from Huayu Ltd on April 27, 2015. They want to register " [redacted] " as their Internet Keyword and " [redacted] .cn "、" [redacted] .com.cn " 、" [redacted] .net.cn "、" [redacted] .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " [redacted] " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards,

Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3008, Jiulong Building, No. 836 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.cnwebregistry.cn
Whoever "Huayu Ltd" are is irrelevant, as they aren't actually interested in registering these domains, even if they exist. Instead, this is an attempt by a rogue Chinese domain registrar to get you to buy overpriced and worthless domains.

In this case the spam mentions the domain cnwebregistry.cn, but chinaygregistry.com is also on the same server and will be similarly fraudulent.

This video I made a while ago explains the scam in more detail:



Friday 17 April 2015

Scam: "Your Invited For A Five Days Summit 5th -9th May, 2015 in London (UK)," / "Royal Queens Hotel"

This spam email forms part of a Conference Scam:


From:    United Nations Summit [no_replytoold@live.com]
Reply-To:    unitednation.unt@gmail.com
Date:    16 April 2015 at 17:59
Subject:    Your Invited For A Five Days Summit 5th -9th May, 2015 in London (UK),

Dear Invitee, Nonprofit/NGO Colleague,

UN General Assembly invites companies and organizations to participate in this important meeting. UN convening a Four-day Global Summit of Economists, Educationists, Administrators, Manufacturers, International Finance, Corporate Finance, Researchers, Non-Governmental Organizations, Religious Leaders, Community Organizations,lawyer and law firm,individuals from the public and Private Sector from 5th-9th May, 2015 in London (UK) to assess the worst global economic down turn since the Great Depression. The aim is to identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations, and initiate a needed dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all countries of the world. You are invited to take part in the International Conference.

Registration to this Summit is absolutely "free" and strictly for invited individuals and organizations only. As an invitee, you have received a registration code UN/CODE/66987/2015-UK with the invitation letter, which grants you access to the registration form.

The United Nations General Assembly will sponsor free travel costs and all-round flight tickets for all participant. Invited participants will only be responsible for their hotel accommodation and feeding cost at the Royal Queens Hotel.

Venue: Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (QEIICC)
Date:5th-9th May, 2015.
Conference Theme:Impact and implications of the global financial and economic crisis on sustainable development & climate change proposals for an integrated global response to the crisis.

For further details about registration form,visa,flight ticket and other details, write an acceptance letter to be part of this event and send it directly via our Official e-mail together with your cellphone number for confirmation.

Send us e-mail:
unitednations_summit@secretary.net
unitednations.summit@aol.fr
or Call Dr. Pitt Thomas for more information +44703-597-1620.

We look forward to meeting you at the forthcoming Global Financial and Economic Crisis conference.

Register Now!!!!

Mrs.Kathleen Fitzpatrick
(Organizing Secretary)
Communication and Public Affairs.

United Nations-Nations Unites
Division for Social Policy and Economic Development Department of Economic
and Social Affairs Room UK2-1324, 2 United Nations Plaza, England, United
Kingdom.
What's the scam? Notice that "Invited participants will only be responsible for their hotel accommodation and feeding cost at the Royal Queens Hotel." These is no hotel in London with the name "Royal Queens Hotel", but the scammers will magic one up for you to take pre-payment for your hotel.. and will then vanish with your money.


There are some similarly-named hotels in London, for example the Hotel Royal @ Queens, but this is not the same hotel. Be warned though that sometimes scammers do go to the effort of setting up a fake hotel website to make the scam more credible.

Avoid.

Wednesday 15 April 2015

pdatamc.org / publicdmc.cn domain scam

This email message is actually a spam promoting a long-running scam where an unscrupulous party is attempting to sell overpriced and worthless domains to their intended victim.

From: Bruce Lo [mailto:bruce@publicdmc.cn]
Date: 14:59 Wednesday 15th April 2015
Subject: [victimdomain] Registration
Priority: High

To whom it may concern:

We are the Registrars accredited by China Internet Network Information Center. We have something to confirm with you. On April 7, 2015, we received an application in which a company by the name Presg Group applied to register " victimdomain " as their Brand Name and some Asia domain names through our firm.

Now we are handling this registration. After our initial checking, we found that the name are identical to your company's. We need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you have authorized this, we will finish the registration at once. If not, please let us know within 7 workdays, in which case we will dicuss the matter more thoroughly. If not otherwise advised within that time limit we will proceed with the registration for Presg Group . We will be waiting for your reply. Have a nice day!

Best Regards

Bruce Lo
Registration Dept.
Phone: +86.55165184482
Fax:    +86.55165128724
Website:http://www.pdatamc.org/
Address: No. 789, XiYou Road, Zhengwu District, HeFei City, AnHui Province, China  
I've explained this particular scam so many times that I made a video explaining it..

businessexecutives01.com / theexecutivesbrand.com scam

This is a grubby "Who's Who scam"

From:    Sterling Hudson
Date:    15 April 2015 at 14:12
Subject:    Re: you were chosen as a potential candidate...

Dear,

You were recently chosen as a potential candidate to represent 2015 Worldwide Branding Registry of Distinguished Professionals and Executives.
We are pleased to inform you that your candidacy was formally approved May 2nd. Congratulations. The Publishing Committee selects potential candidates based not only upon their current standing, but focusing as well on criteria from executive and professional directories, associations, and trade journals.
Given your background, the Director believes your profile makes a fitting addition to our publication. There is no fee nor obligation to be listed. As we are working off of secondary sources, we must receive verification from you that your profile is accurate. After receiving verification, we will validate your registry listing within seven business days.
Once finalized, your listing will share prominent registry space with thousands of fellow accomplished individuals across the globe, each representing accomplishments within their own geographical area.
To verify your profile and accept the candidacy, please visit here.

Our registration deadline for this year's candidates is May 28th. To ensure you are included, we must receive your verification on or before this date. On behalf of our Committee, I salute your achievement and look forward to welcoming you to our association.
Sincerely,

Benjamin Morisson
Editor in Chief
Worldwide Selection Committee 2015

If you don't want to receive emails any more, please Unsubscribe
The link in the email does to www.businessexecutives01.com:8133/wayne/ which is an anonymously registered domain hosted on a spam server at 123.249.39.89 in China. The links on businessexecutives01.com  website all lead to theexecutivesbrand.com which is basically a mirror of the content.

There are a number of this scammy spam sites on the same servers. I recommend that you block all the following sites as spam:

businessexecutives01.com
dirtyemojis.ru
foldemholdem.com
ironchampusa.ru
truepeptide.net
theexecutivesbrand.com




Monday 26 January 2015

Very lazy Walmart raffle ticket scam spam

Sometimes I see some very sophisticated scams with lovely websites and a credible and convincing pitch to snare the unwary. This isn't one of those, but it is a remarkably lazy piece of crap instead.

From:    Walmart [clarkscott75875@gmail.com]
Reply-To:    mrwilliamm234@gmail.com
Date:    26 January 2015 at 17:23
Subject:    Walmart


Walmart,

This is to announce to the Public that the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., have
started selling raffle ticket for the 2015 with the effect from today
been 1/26/2015, for more inquiries, contact our Publicity Department
below:

Wal-Mart Public Department
E-mail: publicityonwalmart@publicist.com
                 or
Mr. William Morgan
E-mail: mrwilliamm234@gmail.com

You will be directed on what to do to pick your form

Thanking you In Advance
Dennis Harrison
Walmart, Arkansas USA
I've heard it said that the scammers deliberately choose really stupid scams that only an idiot would fall for.. in order to filter out all those people who aren't idiots. So perhaps there is a point to all this half-arsed crappiness after all.

Saturday 22 November 2014

Oplamo Herbal Root scam

As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as "Oplamo Herbal Root". So, this spam is almost definitely a scam.

From:     Mr. Tom Good Hope [mrtomgood@gmail.com]
Reply-To:     mrtomgoodhope@gmail.com
Date:     22 November 2014 02:24
Subject:     SUPPLY BUSINESS OF OPLAMO

My name is Tom Goodhope i based in Liverpool,UK working with a pharmaceutical company.
I have decided to contact you directly to discuss briefly via email about the ongoing supply that came up in our company.

I think if you can understand English and India Language (Hindi,Tamil etc) you can take up this business proposal to buy out OPLAMO HERBAL ROOT from the local producer in India and make supply to our company as the direct producer to enable our company be buying direct from you on every subsequent order after this first purchase.


OPLAMO ROOT its used for production of Anti-viral drugs & Animal Vaccines.Our company have been purchasing the materials from Pakistan but it is very scarce and expensive now in Pakistan. I've found out the truth that this Pakistan people purchases this product in India at the rate of $210 USD,while they supply to our company at the rate of $430 USD.

Recently i got the contact information of a local producer in India that preserve {OPLAMO} herbal root to the quality our company needs for production and i came to know that this product can be purchase at rate of $280 US dollar per sachet in India.

Note that i can not release the contact information of the local producer easily to anybody that can not follow up with guidelines on how to make this supply on this first supply,because if any mistake occurs and my company finds out that i'm involve in given information to someone to supply this product to them they will consult a legal petition against me and i can not go to India to buy and supply this product to our company because i do not have money to handle this business and i don't want to release this information to our company management.

Our company buys 3000 sachets (each sachet contains 5 grams),but on the first order with any producer they want to give a trial order of 300 or 500 sachets and payment method for this first order is COD- cash on delivery, upon their satisfaction on this first order they would be making payment on T/T in advance.

Please read this business proposal very well before you reply me,if you can not handle this business according to my guideline its better you don't reply me,because i want you and i to be on safer side in this transaction.

Upon your reply i will clarify you more on how to start this business immediately,please drop your contact phone number for me to be able to contact you ASAP.

Thanks,

Mr Tom Goodhope

Company Secretary

mrtomgoodhope@gmail.com
"Tom Goodhope" sounds more Nigerian than British, but the originating IP address is actually 123.239.58.103 in Delhi, sent via 198.20.245.154 [eas.easylhost.com] in the US.

Given that all the search results I can find for "Oplamo Herbal Root" or "Oplamo Root" seem to be similar scams, I would suggest that this doesn't even qualify as snake oil and I would give it a very wide berth.

Thursday 9 October 2014

chinaregistry.org.cn domain scam

This is an old scam that can safely be ignored.
From:     Henry Liu [henry.liu@chinaregistry.org.cn]
Date:     9 October 2014 07:53
Subject:     [redacted] domain and keyword in CN

(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks)

We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China. On Oct 7, 2014, we received an application from Huaya Holdings Ltd requested "[redacted]" as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it's necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China?Kind regards

Henry Liu 
General Manager 
China Registry (Headquarters)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 21 6191 8696
Mobile: +86 138 1642 8671
Fax: +86 21 6191 8697
Web:
www.chinaregistry.org.cn

Nobody is trying to register your domain name, this is simply a long-running scam aimed at getting you to spend too much money on something that you don't need. And I strongly recommend that you don't forward junk email like this to your CEO either.

I created a brief video explaining the scam that you can view below:

Friday 29 August 2014

cars4cashuk.com scam and Cyber Cast International (CCIHosting), Panama [190.97.160.0/21]

I spotted this scam warning on the Autotrader website:
We have received reports of customers receiving a text message asking them to visit www.cars4cashuk.com to sell their cars quickly for cash. Customers are asked to pay a deposit in order to secure the sale of their vehicle. This website is not genuine and in no way affiliated with AutoTrader. We are currently working to have this website shut down.

For more information please contact our Customer Security team on 0330 303 9001.
The site is a crude attempt to extract money from unsuspecting people trying to trade their car, but it does feature the AutoTrader logo prominently.


If you're trying to sell your car then probably all you need to know is that it's a scam, and you probably don't need to read any further. But if you read my blog regularly then you might want to read on..

The site has no ownership information, but a check of the WHOIS details show the following contacts:

Domain Name: CARS4CASHUK.COM
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.1api.net
Registrar URL: http://www.1api.net
Updated Date: 2014-08-10T15:31:12Z
Creation Date: 2014-08-10T15:31:12Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-08-10T15:31:12Z
Registrar: 1API GmbH
Registrar IANA ID: 1387
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@1api.net
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +49.68416984x200
Reseller: www.sky-ip.com http://www.sky-ip.com/
Domain Status: ok - http://www.icann.org/epp#OK
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: José Castrellón
Registrant Organization: CyberCast
Registrant Street: Ricardo J. Alfaro, El Dorado
Registrant City: Panama
Registrant State/Province: Panama
Registrant Postal Code: 0819-06448
Registrant Country: PA
Registrant Phone: +507.3014841
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: domains@sky-ip.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: José Castrellón
Admin Organization: CyberCast
Admin Street: Ricardo J. Alfaro, El Dorado
Admin City: Panama
Admin State/Province: Panama
Admin Postal Code: 0819-06448
Admin Country: PA
Admin Phone: +507.3014841
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: domains@sky-ip.com
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: José Castrellón
Tech Organization: CyberCast
Tech Street: Ricardo J. Alfaro, El Dorado
Tech City: Panama
Tech State/Province: Panama
Tech Postal Code: 0819-06448
Tech Country: PA
Tech Phone: +507.3014841
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: domains@sky-ip.com
Name Server: ns1.cybercastco.com
Name Server: ns2.cybercastco.com


So who are José Castrellón and CyberCast (aka CyberCast International). Are they the scammers? Well, no.. CyberCast (through their website at ccihosting.com) offer anonymous offshore hosting and domain registrations. The sort of things that scammers love, although of course there are legitimate uses for such things. CyberCast presumably are not doing the actual scamming, but I'd suggest that they could be accused of some level of complicity.


So.. you can buy a domain and web hosting using an anonymous payment system like Bitcoin or Perfect Money and it seems more-or-less do what you like with it. Now, that's great if you are running a web site dedicated to overthrowing an oppressive regime (for example) but the bulk of the sites hosted by CyberCast are a lot less savoury, including phishing sites, sites selling DDOS services, counterfeit goods, trading stolen credit card information, piracy sites, spam, cybersquatting, illegal or fake pharmacies, hacking sites and a little bit of porn as well.

There may well be some legitimate sites hosted by this company, I spotted some local Panamanian sites for example, but the overwhelming majority of the CyberCast / CCIHosting address space is completely toxic, therefore I would strongly recommend that you block access to the 190.97.160.0/21 range from your network.

There is not a lot of reputation data for the sites in this /21, but I have compiled a list of sites, IPs, WOT ratings and Google and SURBL prognoses here [csv].

Thursday 24 July 2014

Scam: "brunerinvestment.com" is not The Brunner Investment Trust PLC

This simple spam is backed up by a fairly sophisticated fake website.

From:     brunner investment [investment@brunner.com]
Reply-To:     brunnerinvestment@gmail.com
To:     50
Date:     24 July 2014 12:08

Dear

The Brunner Trust PLC, is working on expanding its international portfolio Globally and financing projects in form of debt financing from the tune of $1million to $500million,
we also offer personal and business loans from the tune of $100,000 USD to $1,000,000.00 USD

We would be happy to receive an Executive summary to see if you have any Viable project we can finance and partner together
by making financial investment in Form of soft loans.

Email your projects summary to us at: info@brunerinvestment.com

Regards,
Stefan Hofrichter
Chief Economist and Head of Global Economics & Strategy
The Brunner Investment Trust PLC is a real organisation with a website at brunner.co.uk - the domain that the spammers are soliciting replies to is brunerinvestment.com (note the missing "n" in "brunner"). It was registered on 31st May 2014 with anonymous WHOIS details.

This is the real Brunner Invesment Trust site:

And this is the fake one:


The differences are subtle:

Of course the main purpose of the web site is to encourage you to think that you are talking to a real person, to which end the contact details are completely fake:

Although the postal address is correct, the rest of the details are fake:

Brunner Investment Trust Plc
199 Bishopsgate,
London, EC2M 3TY
Tel:+44 703 195 6304
Tel/Fax: +44 745 227 1933
Email: info@brunerinvestment.com
brunnerinvestment@gmail.com
The telephone numbers quotes appear to be "follow me anywhere" numbers that forward to another number, which could be anywhere in the world.

So what's the scam? Well, there's probably an up-front fee to even discuss financing.. and if it's like this recent scam it could be tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, there is no financing available (remember that this is a fake site, not the Brunner Investment Trust) and once the scammers have your money they will vanish.

I note as well that the site is fairly well done although somewhat buggy (and it randomly pops up adverts) which looks rather like the same cloned websites I discussed earlier this month.

Some technical details for this - the site is hosted on 93.188.160.4 which is allocated to Hostinger International in Lithunia (although the servers might be in Amsterdam). The spam originates from 168.167.134.124 (Botswana Telecommunications Corporation) via an unknown mail relay on 82.105.253.84 (Telecom Italia, Verona, Italy).

Avoid.

Monday 14 July 2014

Scam: "CNnet Dispute Solutions Ltd" cn-network.com / cn-network.org

This email from a Chinese domain registrar styling itself as "CNnet Dispute Solutions Ltd" is a scam.

From:     james@cn-network.org
Date:     14 July 2014 11:12
Subject:     About Internet Trademark Issue: [redacted]


Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

We are a organization specializing in trademark consulting and domain name registration services in China. We just received an application sent from "HaiTon Importing Co., Ltd" on 13/07/2014, requesting for applying the "[redacted]" as the Internet Brand and some Chinese domains such as .cn/.com.cn/.hk/.asia ect... for their business running. Though our preliminary review and verification, we found that this keyword is currently being used by your company and is applied as your domain name. In order to avoid any potential risks in terms of trademark dispute and impact on your market businesses in China and Asia in future, we need to confirm with you whether "HaiTon Importing Co., Ltd" is your own subsidiary or partner.

Will your businesses in China and Asia be impacted potentially if they apply for this trademark? And will you agree this company to apply for this trademark? Please contact us immediately within 10 working days, otherwise, you will be deemed as waived by default.

Please contact us in time in order that we can handle this issue better.


Best Regards,

James Tan

Auditing Department.

Registration Department Manager
4/F,No.9 XingHui West Street,

JinNiu ChenDu, China

Office: +86 2887662861

Fax: +86 2887783286

Web: http://www.cn-network.com



Please consider the environment before you print this e-mail.
Don't worry, this is a scam. There is no such company as "HaiTon Importing Co". Nobody is trying to register these worthless domains, there is really nothing to worry about. I've explained it all in this video.

They have a website at cn-network.com and are soliciting replies to cn-network.org. Registration details are as follows:

Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Wang XiaoGang
Registrant Organization: Cheng Du Chuang Ning Wang Luo Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si
Registrant Address: No. 69  JinFangYuanDong Road  ChengDuJinNiu District
Registrant City: ChengDuShi
Registrant Province/state: SC
Registrant Country: CN
Registrant Postal Code: 610000
Registrant Phone: +86.2887783286
Registrant Phone EXT: +86.2887783286
Registrant Fax: +86.2887783286
Registrant Fax EXT: +86.2887783286
Registrant Email: 253885777@qq.com
Registrant Email EXT: 253885777@qq.com
Registry Admin ID: 42771277


I can find the following domains that use the same contact details:

cn-nic.org
cn-network.org
cn-network.com
cn-network.net
cnnetcor.com
cnnetpro.com


This scam has been going around for years, and it is just being randomly spammed out and you should simply ignore it.

Video: Chinese Domain Scams