Advocates for Youth is a legitimate campaign organisation that says that it "
champions efforts to help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health." It has a website at
www.advocatesforyouth.org which was registered in 1996.
However, the domain
advocatesforyouths.org is a completely fake rip-off of the legitimate advocatesforyouth.org site (note the extra "s") which is advertising itself through spam:
From: Advocates for Youth [inboxteam6@gmail.com]
Reply-To: Advocates for Youth [ljdavidson@advocatesforyouths.org]
Date: 2 July 2014 21:52
Subject: Say No to FORCED MARRIAGE and HIV/AIDS
Mailing list: xkukllsbhgeel of 668
Signed by: gmail.com
Invitation Ref No: OB-22-52-30-J
OUR 12TH INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CONFERENCE ON “ EFFECTS OF TEENAGE MARRIAGE AND HIV/AIDS "
Advocates for Youth and co-organizers of the 12th international NGO's & CBO's conference on community Development and Development Planning have the pleasure to invite Youth Organizations, Socio Cultural Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBO) Scholars, Researchers, Health Organizations, Professionals, Business Organizations (NGOs) Religion Organizations, Human Right Organizations & Women Groups to the International Conference on" Effects of Teenage Marriage and HIV/AIDS " taking place from Wednesday 20th - Friday 22nd August 2014 in U.S.A and Monday 25th August - Friday 29th August 2014 in The NETHERLANDS respectively.
This is the most important event in the framework of the fight to Educate the Youth on HIV/AIDS, Child Abuse, human and community development which will take place in Washington DC, United States of America from Wednesday 20th - Friday 22nd August 2014 in U.S.A and Monday 25th August - Friday 29th August 2014 in The NETHERLANDS respectively.
Advocates for Youth is registered 501(c) Non profit international organization whose aims & objectives are to empower individuals and communities worldwide through offering grants for business, education, economic enhancement, community development and environmental conservation, to support groups and organizations addressing social issues, youth ad women empowerment, and a variety of philanthropic projects through grants to non-profit organization; to provide education & information with view of limiting abuse and child molestation, to support and advocate on behalf of those infected and affected by the menace or abuse and neglect to promote the well-being of mankind by empowering the capacity of charitable organization to provide effective programs of quality.
This conference will bring together 1026 representatives of NGOs/CBOs and numerous numbers of interested individual participants from all over the world. The conference will be conducted on participatory bases with satellite plenary and simultaneous sessions followed by general and small group discussions.
SUPPORT: The conference receives financial support from CitiBank New York and United Nations Youth Commission etc. This sponsorship covers the following:
1. Return Airplane travel tickets for selected delegates from their home countries to venues of the event in Washington DC ( United States of America ) and The Hague City (The Netherlands), then back to their home countries.
2. Hotel accommodations in Washington DC ( United States ) only for selected delegates and their friends.
3. Medical insurance cover for delegates throughout the entire conference duration.
Advocates for Youth will not assume the responsibilities of any other costs other than those listed above.
NOMINATION & SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS: Intending participants are requested to nominate between Five (5) to Ten (15) active members to participate. Participants should be from 14 years and above (Male or Female).
REGISTRATION PROCESS: To register to take part in this Conference, please request for the International Delegates Registration form and other conference information. The request for registration form and other conference information should be addressed to the Secretary:
Linara J. Davidson
Secretary, Advocates for youth
2000 M Street, NW Suite 750,
Washington DC 20036,
United States of America,
Tel: +1 202.600.9543
Fax: + 1 650.747.4401
Email: ljdavidson@advocatesforyouths.org
Website: http://www.advocatesforyouths.org
While we anticipate your earliest response, you are advised to contact the Secretary by email and we look forward to meeting up with you and your group in Washington DC and The Hague City to assert a new change for a stronger society.
Announcer !!!
Debra Hauser
President, Advocates for youth,
Washington DC
U.S.A.
Email: debra.hauser@advocatesforyouths.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask mailers to stop spamming them. The above mail is in accordance to the Can Spam act of 2003: There are no deceptive subject lines and is a manual process through our efforts on World Wide Web. You can opt out by sending mail to email id mention here and we ensure you will not receive any such mails.
In this case the email originates from
217.120.44.73 (Ziggo / Groningen, Netherlands) and was sent to a spam trap.
The fake site is almost a bit-for-bit copy of the fake site, but things like the Contact Details page are slightly different:
The fake site has a telephone number of
202.600.9543 and a fax number of
650.747.4401. The fax number is in California, but the "202" telephone number appears to be Washington.. but on closer examination it looks like a VOIP (internet phone) number which could possibly be anywhere in the world.
But the fake site looks utterly convincing. Mostly because it is cloned directly from the legitimate site. (See screenshot above)
The domain
advocatesforyouths.org was registered on 24th May 2014 with anonymous details, and the mail handler is
mailhostbox.com who are a legitimate commercial provider. But what most visitors to advocatesforyouths.org will
not spot is that the domain just does a framed forward to
another site
googleones.in/advocates4youth/ which is where things get more complicated.
googleones.in is hosted on
74.122.193.45 a Continuum Data Centers IP reallocated to:
OrgName: Ajay Kumar
OrgId: AK-7
Address: 801 Main St NW
City: Lenoir
StateProv: NC
PostalCode: 28645
Country: US
RegDate: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-11-30
Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/AK-7
OrgAbuseHandle: SNM9-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: machiwala, shazim nizar
OrgAbusePhone: 91 22 26782833
OrgAbuseEmail: shazim@ideastack.com
OrgAbuseRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/SNM9-ARIN
OrgTechHandle: SNM9-ARIN
OrgTechName: machiwala, shazim nizar
OrgTechPhone: 91 22 26782833
OrgTechEmail: shazim@ideastack.com
OrgTechRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/SNM9-ARIN
The domain is registered to:
Registrant Name:Ziggo Ziggo
Registrant Organization:N/A
Registrant Street1:stadhoudersstraat
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:rijswijk
Registrant State/Province:Zuid-Holland
Registrant Postal Code:2282pm
Registrant Country:NL
Registrant Phone:+31.0657392939
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:alzaidaemirates@hotmail.com
The "alzaidaemirates@hotmail.com" doesn't really seem to tally with the Netherlands address, but it does link in with some other contents of the server. Incidentally, Rijswijk isn't very close to Groningen being a 233Km drive so the spammer's IP doesn't match the WHOIS details.
Interesting, the root directory of
googleones.in is open and this is where it gets complicated.
We can see folders with the following names:
- advocates4youth/
- alz/
- cgi-bin/
- eem/
- eemtholland/
- tbello/
"
advocates4youth" contains the fake Advocates For Youth Siteas already discussed
Al-zaida Emirates
"
alz" is a site called "
Al-zaida Emirates" which is a ripoff of the legitimate
Zamil Group Holding Company. Probably the obvious different to that the "Al-zaida" site has an "Apply For Loan" button which marks it out as some sort of finance scam.
EEM Moura and TEE Bello (part 1)
The next fake site is under "
eem" which advertises itself as "
EEM MOURA & TEE BELLO Group of Companies". This site is a slightly-altered copy of the legitimate
Alpha Group.
There is perhaps a clue here under "Shipping" which could be advertising for a
Parcel Mule job (i.e. laundering stolen goods).
EEM MOURA & TEE BELLO (part 2) [eemthollandbv.nl]
There is another fake "EEM MOURA & TEE BELLO" site in the folder "
eemtholland"
(and using the forwarder domain
eemthollandbv.nl). This is different from the other site being a fake shopping site, a poor copy of the legitimate
HollandForYou.com site.
This fake site is also likely to be recruiting people for a
parcel reshipping scam.
Hotel T. Bello
The final fake site is filed under "
tbello" (sounds familiar?) and is supposedly the "Hotel T. Bello" in Den Haag (The Hague). It is a poor copy of the
InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam.
Perhaps the "Hotel T Bello" is a fake hotel for the delegates to the fake "Advocates for Youth" conference that was advertised in the original spam.. that is certainly one way that these conference scams work.
There is not a single legitimate site on this server. Avoid.
