Tag: stolen

Posted on

Spam irony, and the same scammers are still out there

In a twist of irony, I have now been sent the same type of spam as the one that was created using my stolen credit card details and name earlier this year.

This time, the content of the spam is (with extra spaces in the URLs to break them):
[sourcecode language=”html”]
Dear Shawn Sijnstra,

This is to notify that new updates have been released for Skype.

http://www. official – skype – update.com/

Following are major new features :

* Up to 5-way group video call.
* Redesigned calling experience.
* Improved video snapshots gallery.
* Improved browser plugins performance on some websites.
* Reduced false positives on browser plugin phone number recognition.
* New presence icons.
* Improved handling of calling attempts made when the user has run out of credit.
* Improved access to sharing functionality

To download the latest version , go to :

http://www. official – skype – update.com/

Start downloading the update right now and let us know what you think
about it.

Talk soon,

The people at SkypeUnsubscribe (http://jenadyco.offthepageemarketing.com.au/unsubscribe.php?cid=145&pid=755316&auth=13b78fdbd9b406c40959611b276d3546&upw=)
[/sourcecode]

It would appear to be the same group as the whois record for the address is registered in the same way, with the same or similar registrar, with the same fields used and a very similar address used. I have left the name of the registrant out for obvious reasons:

% By submitting a query to RU-CENTER's Whois Service
% you agree to abide by the following terms of use:
% http://www.nic.ru/about/servpol.html (in Russian)
% http://www.nic.ru/about/en/servpol.html (in English).

Domain name:             OFFICIAL-SKYPE-UPDATE.COM
Name Server:             ns1.official-skype-update.com 122.224.4.108
Name Server:             ns2.official-skype-update.com 122.224.4.108
Creation Date:           2011.09.27
Updated Date:            2011.09.28
Expiration Date:         2012.09.27

Status:                  DELEGATED

Registrant ID:           QH9BLSG-RU
Registrant Name:         
Registrant Organization: 
Registrant Street1:      1039 Avenue Street
Registrant City:         New York
Registrant Postal Code:  10023
Registrant Country:      US

Administrative, Technical Contact
Contact ID:              QH9BLSG-RU
Contact Name:            
Contact Organization:    
Contact Street1:         1039 Avenue Street
Contact City:            New York
Contact Postal Code:     10023
Contact Country:         US
Contact Phone:           +1 800 2379293
Contact E-mail:          adobe@awssportswear.com

Registrar:               Regional Network Information Center, JSC dba RU-CENTER

Last updated on 2011.09.28 10:34:48 MSK/MSD

The individual whose name was used has a much more common name so hopefully does not have the same issues I have.

Posted on

Reclaiming your name after credit card theft

The Situation

In February this year, my Credit Card details were stolen. I received a phone call from Citibank identifying a fraudulent transaction (kudos to them!). I confirmed this, the card was cancelled and replaced, and the money re-credited. I also found another transaction on there at about the same time, where someone had purchased something from a Russian domain registrar. I was surprised at the time about how much you could spend at the registrar, but I filled out the paperwork for Citibank, had the money re-credited immediately, and all was right with the world. Or so I thought.

The Fallout

So it turns out that my credit card details were used to register a lot of websites. These websites were used as some kind of presumably honeypot scams via email spam, directing them to dodgy URLs offering free upgrades to Skype and Adobe products. How do I know this? My name is rather rare (I suspect unique world-wide), so when I Google searched my name a little while ago, rather than seeing a list of interesting and good deeds I may have done, I saw websites like “stupid scammers” come up. Now I’m very much in favour of these sites remaining up, because I would like people to be generally aware of such scams and be able to easily identify them as such. What adds insult to injury for me is that not only did the scammers use my stolen credit card to pay for the domain name registration, they also used my name as the technical contact, administrative contact and company name. This means that when people went to investigate the scam sites using whois, my name came up.

Why do I care?

At the moment I am looking for work, and so my Google search profile is very important to me. I would like the first impressions to be good. So when I started checking in to my current profile and found my good name to be associated with these scams above any other things that I’ve done, I was less than impressed. Secondly, as an IT professional, these scams are particularly badly done and make me look bad in my own field of broader expertise.

How do I know that every time I apply for a job, someone  isn’t Google searching my name and ruling me out just-in-case? I want to reclaim my name.

What am I doing about it?

I”ll be trying quite a few options, and I’m also soliciting other ideas from the internet at large (that includes you!) I do not expect this to be a fast process, but something I want to see how far I can get; with the intent of sharing my experiences and what to do if the same thing happens to you. I will also look at issues around Bing and sites like Pipl, but luckily the stupid scammer stuff is buried much deeper on those.