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Category: Scams

Fraudulent offers

Avast highlights the failing in consumer protection

Avast highlights the failing in consumer protection

Sometimes we can learn a lot from what experts in their field of operation publish. Ironically we saw this yesterday again when Avast, a large anti-virus vendor, quoted an article by John Wasik on Forbes: All online scams have one thing in common: They want to tap your greed to get at personal information they can steal. These “phishing” ruses are happening 24/7. A typical banking scam will ask for information so the scammer can access anything from your credit…

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The GDPR and blanket privacy: Hold on – who watches the guardians ICANN?

The GDPR and blanket privacy: Hold on – who watches the guardians ICANN?

ICANN had two complaints they closed, escalated back to them last week. One was a Registrar Standards complaint, one was regarding a rogue reseller proxy at the registrar which is the subject of the first complaint. Why? What happens where we have a registrar that serially accepts and has been accepting weak unverified registration details, for at least the past four years into the registries, in violation of the ICANN RAA and this leads to mass abuse? What happens if…

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Malicious Domains: Heroes and Facilitators

Malicious Domains: Heroes and Facilitators

In a new pending report from the United States Better Business Bureau, they are looking at a new plague that’s hit the United States and the world. While we will not steal their thunder in this most excellent report and the revelations contained in it, it does illustrate certain underlying issues, malicious domains controlled from West Africa. Let’s get some facts straight: A domain registered by a malicious party for malicious purposes, is malicious. This is simple undeniable logic. Such…

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Alert: fastweedonline.com: What you might need to know

Alert: fastweedonline.com: What you might need to know

Domain fastweedonline.com  is currently registered with ICANN accredited registrar Namesilo: Domain Name: fastweedonline.com Registry Domain ID: 1944472965_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namesilo.com Registrar URL: https://www.namesilo.com/ Updated Date: 2017-05-10 Creation Date: 2015-07-04 Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2020-07-04 Registrar: NameSilo, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 1479 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@namesilo.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4805240066 Status: clientTransferProhibited This domain is shielded via Namesilo’s associated PrivacyGuardian.org proxy service. Registrant Name: Domain Administrator Registrant Organization: See PrivacyGuardian.org Registrant Street: 1928 E. Highland Ave. Ste F104…

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Understanding the Cameroonian Pet Scam

Understanding the Cameroonian Pet Scam

In a previous article we mentioned that not much is known about the Cameroonian Pet Scam or this type of fraud emanating from West Africa. We mentioned the pet scam, the weed scam and stolen credit card details. This article quickly looks at one scammer found that will illustrate this type of cyber-crime.

A Tale of Two Fraud Facilitators: Ladette and Guy

A Tale of Two Fraud Facilitators: Ladette and Guy

The question has often been asked: How large are the scammers nests? In the previous post, From Benin: A Loan Scam Syndicate, we explored a syndicate operating from Benin, defrauding consumers mainly in Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada, having over 300 domains. To show this is not an isolated incident and that domain fraud abusing fake domain registration details is rife, we will now look at two identified facilitators in Nigeria working in concert. First a female was identified…

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Whoisguard: A proxy for crime targeting the USA from the USA?

Whoisguard: A proxy for crime targeting the USA from the USA?

 Background: A domain proxy is a system whereby a domain owner, the registrant,  hides his or her details for a domain registration behind a registrar or reseller’s proxy. The proxy owner substitutes his own details for those of the registrant, the domain owner. This is a great shield for legitimate users wishing to protect their privacy, but also attracts malicious registrants using fake registration details.

Web.com – wrong excuse

Web.com – wrong excuse

Web.com and Consumer Harm This blog post will illustrate what happens when Network Solutions is made aware of serious issues on their service. Network Solutions is a leading US based registrar, a member of the Web.com Group, Inc. For any abuse issues with their service, they insist the abuse form at https://abuse.web.com/ be completed. Also for fake domain registration details. So what happens if this route is followed? The domain and the scam Let’s first consider the malicious domain hyperchems.com…

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