Investment Scam: Direct2EG

It's a relative rarity that I get spam promoting a pyramid investment scam like this. They used to be quite common. My surmise is that the activity has mostly been relegated to discussion forums dedicated to this kind of shonkiness. If the WHOIS data for " direct2eg.com" is to be believed, this scam is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- a claim that I find entirely credible. Malaysia isn't the centre of scum and villainy that Nigeria is, but it's high on the list of such places, particularly as regards pyramid investment scams.

In the interests of not promoting this rubbish, I've partially redacted the spammer's affiliate IDs.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kissou abdoulaye <kiss_ablo54@hotmail.com>
Date: 29-Mar-2007 17:16
Subject: NEW PROGRAM.. BREAKING WORLDWIDE RECORD!
To:

hello

 

I stumbled upon a very interesting website recently. I've been spending some
time going through it and personally, I feel it's a very useful site...I even
learnt a couple of new things!

Just thought it might be useful for you too.

Membership fees is only a one time $20 out of pocket while you can earn passive and residual income  .The more you find prospect the more you achive your dream

 

In this program you earn money on every level. You'll start making money just after you activate your account!

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FOLLOW 3 SIMPLE STEPS BELOW:
STEP #1
SPEND $20 in total from your e-gold account to 3 sponsors including $5 to the program administrator for the administration cost of the website. After your payment, you will be redirected to registration page.

MEMBER	PAY AMOUNT
limosine	$7
adrien	$5
jaguar	$3

STEP #2
SIGN UP to open an account by filling registration form with your username, email and e-gold account number.

STEP #3
PROMOTE your Direct2EG webpage using your referral link

 

HOW IT WORKS ..
After you spent $20 in total to 3 sponsors and sign up, you'll get a referral link to "Direct2EG" webpage which your name now becomes the top sponsor.

Promote your webpage. If a new member signs up from your referral link you'll get $7 before this new member can activate his/her account. You don't have to wait until your name reaches 3rd level position to be paid. You'll get the money even if you are still in the first level. You'll start making money just after you activate your account! This makes this program much better then other programs!

Your downlines will do the same thing as you do. Assume that every member gets 30 new member each and your your potential earning:

LEVEL	DEPOSIT PER MEMBER	TOTAL DOWNLINES	EARNING
1	$7	30	$210
2	$5	30 X 30	$4500
3	$3	30 X 30 X 30	$81000

 

 

www.direct2eg.com/?id=xxx

 

 

First create an account with e-gold.Please click here

 

http://www.e-gold.com/e-gold.asp?cid=xxxx235

 

Click on "CREATE AN ACCOUNT" at the left of the menu section

Fill the form .

To fund your e-gold account please click here

 

http://www.me-gold.com/index.php?ref=xxxx235

 

 

Regards

KISSOU

---

MSN Messenger : appels gratuits de PC à PC partout dans le monde !

Info: Anatomy of an eBay scam

I ususally report on spam-based scams, so eBay scams aren't my usual cup of tea. My encounters have been primarily with the other side of eBay scamming: the hiring of mules to act as middle-men. For a more in-depth look at the eBay side of the fraud, I recommend the article "Anatomy of an eBay scam" at The Register. It's an abbreviated email exchange between the reporter (posing as an interested buyer) and the scammer.

In this particular scam, an eBay account with a good reputation is hijacked (by phishing the owner for credentials), and an item offered for sale under that identity with instructions to contact the seller via non-eBay channels. When contacted by a buyer, the seller then spoofs mail from eBay instructing the buyer to send payment to an "eBay agent" via Western Union. If the buyer falls for it and sends the money, the scam is complete and successful.

Note that a single fraudulent listing on eBay can be used to scam a large number of potential buyers, since there is no competitive bidding, and no goods are ever shipped. The scammer can just pretend that the goods are available to all who ask, and collect as many payments as possible. The payments could be made through a money mule: the article doesn't spill the beans on the identity of the Western Union recipient, so I can't make an informed guess about the process in this case.

News: Spammed Stocks Suspended

It's nice to have something to report other than the usual stream of job scams over at Suckers Wanted. Sophos is reporting that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has temporarily suspended trading on a swag of stocks that were being touted (and touted, and touted) in spam. This seems like a good thing, but I somehow suspect that the miscreants behind the spam will rapidly switch to a bunch of other stocks. I have doubts as to whether this action will yield long term benefits unless the SEC starts reacting quickly to new spams.

Info: Job Scam Changes, February 2007

This month has finally seen the demise of Impex Consult, active since December 2006, but the tail end of Norden continues to trickle in (active since November 2006), although only the domain "norden.hk" seems to be active anymore. Meanwhile, two new names have started showing up in a big way: Radius Investments and August Insurance. The "Radius Investments" scam is causing more damage than usual, because it is ripping off the identity of a real company, which is naturally suffering harm to its reputation through no fault of its own. On the plus side, it means that someone is motivated to stomp on the scammers and their domain registrations hard, fast, and continuously -- with lawyers -- which is about what it takes. My guess is that the scammers will give up on the idea of impersonating real companies pretty quickly because of this opposition -- but wait and see, because my predictions aren't always right.

Also worthy of note so far this month is a move away from image-based spam. The Impex Consult scam was the biggest contributor of such spam to inboxes last month (so far as job scams are concerned), and Radius is the major contributor this month, but the August scam has fallen back to plain text. The August spams have also been free of hyperlinks to their websites, and this has aided them in bypassing spam filters to a large degree.

Info: ITS Finance now Diving with Sharks?

It's often interesting to try to follow the scammer through a series of name changes. Some have such a distinctive modus operandi that the changes are obvious: you can almost predict what they are going to do next. Others are subtler and less conspicuous. All such evidence is circumstantial, but some evidence is stronger than others.

In this particular case, I believe there is overlap between the (currently inactive) ITS Financial Corp scam, and the (new) "Dive with Sharks" scam. My suspicions are raised by the very similar form of the spam. Consider the following comparison: an ITS spam is on the left, and a "sharks" spam is on the right. Neither is the complete email, but these ideas are expressed in the same order.

ITS Financial Corp	divewithsharks.biz
Hey there	Hello,
I hope this message finds you in a great spirit.	We hope you are reading this message in a fine mood.
For a start I'd like to welcome you on this opportunity because our firm just came about your contact and your brief profile through an email listing affiliated with HotJobs and I would be highly interested in giving you a work at home job in which you can earnextra income of close to AUD3000 monthly.	I'd like to welcome you on a very interesting opportunity. We supppose you will be very interested in a home job in which you could get about AUD4000 per month.
This work doesn't affect your present job and this is a very limited offer in which I would really require your immediate response. I will be hoping to hear from you soon, since this is a job that will enable you to work part-time.	This job will not affect your present career, it will only take a small part of your free time.
Please fill out our application form, no fees asked, just your basic contact details:	Please fill our application form. No fees are asked, just leave your contact details:
We will get back to you ASAP. Have a nice day	We will contact you soon. Thank you!