PatrickPretty.com

Tag: identity theft

  • DIABOLICAL: Purported ‘Christian’ Enterprise With Purported Ties To Catholic Church Launches Spam Campaign For Purported ‘Loan’ Program And Bizarrely Tries To Sanitize It By Linking To PP Blog Story On Profitable Sunrise Scam

    The scam/spam pitch from "ALL SAINTS."
    The scam/spam pitch from “ALL SAINTS.”

    Is it channeling Profitable Sunrise as part of an affinity-fraud/identity-theft reload scam? An enterprise that bizarrely is calling itself  “ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC CHURCH LOAN FIRM” purports to have an office in England and appears to be targeting Catholics and Christians in general to be fleeced in a purported “loan” program.

    The spam/scam pitch begins, “I am so disappointed of fake loan companies on the internet . . .”

    The PP Blog received spam from the purported enterprise at 7:53 a.m. and 7:55 a.m. today. The ribald spam campaign includes a link to this March 6, 2013, PP Blog story: URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Alabama Issues Warning On ‘Profitable Sunrise’

    Longtime PP Blog readers are aware that things can be downright diabolical in the fraud sphere, with criminals sometimes using the names of government agencies to create the impression that an enterprise is legitimate or even endorsed by the government or a media company. The aim of the “ALL SAINTS” scammers appears to be to plant the seed that law enforcement has scrubbed the scheme, that the loan program won’t meet the same fate as Profitable Sunrise in Alabama (or elsewhere) and that the PP Blog backs “ALL SAINTS.”

    It’s also possible that the “ALL SAINTS” scammers are seeking to use html links to the PP Blog to improve the search-engine penetration of their scam. Meanwhile, there are other, more nefarious possibilities, including bids to affect the server performance of the PP Blog and to dupe people into believing the “offer” originates at the PP Blog.

    The “offer” appears to originate at an IP of 180.215.23.27 in Bangalore, India. The PP Blog is published in the United States.

    Profitable Sunrise purported to be a “loan” program based in England. In April, the SEC called it a scam that may have collected tens of millions of dollars.

    It was not immediately clear whether “ALL SAINTS” had an accompanying, Profitable Sunrise-like HYIP scheme. What is clear is that the “ALL SAINTS” enterprise is fishing for personal information, something that could be linked to identity theft.

    Here is part of the fractured spam pitch (verbatim/italics added):

    Welcome to ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC CHURCH LOAN FIRM we are international Christian loan firm and Lenders that has offered Loans to various individual and firms in Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world,Are you in need of a loan? Do you want to pay off your bills? Do you want to be financially stable? We offer all types of loan, please email us back with the amount and duration of the loan you require. the bible says” Luke 11:10 Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

  • INTERPOL Chief Says His Identity Was Stolen In Fraud Bid On Facebook; Meanwhile, MPB Today Members Post Check-Waving Videos On Social-Media Sites And WebsiteTester.biz Gathers 400,000 Names And Email Addresses

    Earlier this week the PP Blog reported that members of MPB Today were using YouTube and other sites to post images of checks drawn on a distressed Florida bank. The checks, which were supplied as purported “proof” of MPB Today’s legitimacy, may expose both the posters and the bank to security breaches and identity theft.

    The bank, Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola, has been operating under an FDIC consent agreement since January. It did not respond to a request for comment from the PP Blog. It is possible that the bank was unaware that its name was being used as a form of purported “proof” that one of its customers — MPB Today, which operates an MLM advertised on Ponzi forums such as ASA Monitor — was above-board.

    Like MPB Today, the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme was pushed on Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup. This bizarre section of the Legisi Terms of Service purports that members must avow they are not an "informant, nor associated with any informant" of the IRS, FBI, CIA and the SEC, among others. The others included "Her Majesty's Police," the Intelligence Services of Great Britain, the Serious Fraud Office and Interpol.

    In the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme in 2008, members cited ASD’s relationship with Bank of America as purported “proof” of legitimacy. Federal agents later seized more than $65.8 million from 10 bank accounts controlled by ASD President Andy Bowdoin amid allegations of wire fraud and money-laundering.

    ASD also was promoted on the Ponzi boards. Robert Hodgins, who operated a company ASD members said supplied debit cards to the firm, now is wanted by INTERPOL in a case that alleges he assisted in the laundering of money for Colombian narcotics traffickers. The money was accessed with debit cards through ATMs in Medellin, according to court records.

    A mysterious business opportunity known as WebsiteTester.biz also is being hawked at ASAMonitor and other Ponzi boards. WebsiteTester claims it has collected the names and email addresses more than 400,000 prospects across the world. WebsiteTester claims its legitimacy can be established by watching a YouTube video that shows no faces and by reading a news release published by an anonymous author.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about fraud schemes that use forums and social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook to spread virally.

    Among the other “programs” pushed on the Ponzi boards was Legisi, an alleged Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $70 million. Legisi members were specifically prompted to “avow” they were not “an informant” for law enforcement, including INTERPOL, the FBI and the SEC, among other agencies.

    Despite repeated public warnings by authorities to exercise caution on the Internet, fraud schemes continue to proliferate globally. INTERPOL now says one of its own was targeted in an identity-theft bid on Facebook — and it was the boss himself.

    “Just recently INTERPOL’s Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity,” said Ronald K. Noble, INTERPOL’s Secretary General.

    “One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted
    during our recent Operation Infra Red,” Noble said. “This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the INTERPOL General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.”

  • BULLETIN: FTC Paints Picture Of Spectacular, International Fraud Involving At Least 16 ‘Sham’ Companies, More Than 100 Bogus Merchant Accounts And 14 ‘Money Mules’; More Than 1.3 Million People Fleeced

    PP BLOG BULLETIN >>> MOVING >>>

    More than 1.3 million debit or credit-card numbers have been compromised in an international micro-payments scheme that resulted in fraudulent charges totaling more than $10 million.

    The money appears to have been whisked offshore to bank accounts in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Kyrgyzstan, the FTC said.

    At the moment, the agency said it believed the fraudsters opened more than 100 bogus merchant accounts, formed 16 “dummy” corporations and relied on a network of 14 “money mules” recruited in a spam campaign to raid the cardholder accounts of small amounts that created a large amount in the end.

    Part of the deception was to create “phony company names” resembling the names of real companies, the FTC said.

    “The FTC believes the defendants may have run credit checks on the identity theft victims first, to be sure they were creditworthy,” the agency said, describing the deception as monumentally elaborate.

    Chillingly, the agency added that the perpetrators “cloaked each fake merchant with a virtual office address near a real merchant’s location, a phone number, a home phone number for the ‘owner,’ a Web site pretending to sell products, a toll-free number consumers could call, and a real company’s tax number found on the Internet.”

    It is likely that the scam was designed to scrape small amounts from cardholders’ accounts to minimize the chance of getting caught and to permit the scammers to stay under the radar and emerge with a huge sum, the FTC said.

    “None of the consumers affected by the scam had contact with any of the defendants. Most consumers either didn’t notice the charges on their bills or didn’t seek chargebacks because of the small amounts — charges ranged from 20 cents to $10,” the FTC said.

    “Consumers who called the toll-free numbers that appeared on their bills either found them disconnected or heard recorded messages instructing them to leave a message, but no calls were returned,” the agency said.

    Each of these companies (below) is a “sham” and has been named a defendant, the FTC said. NOTE: Remember, one of the allegations is that the perpetrators used “phony company names” that resembled the names of real companies. The information below reflects the names of the bogus firms, as reproduced from court records the FTC released today:

    1. API Trade LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company incorporated in 2006.
    2. ARA Auto Parts Trading LLC, a limited liability company.
    3. Bend Transfer Services LLC, a Nevada limited liability company incorporated in 2006.
    4. B-Texas European LLC, a Texas limited liability company incorporated in 2006.
    5. CBTC LLC, a Delaware limited liability company incorporated in 2007.
    6. CMG Global LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company incorporated in 2006.
    7. Confident Incorporation, a California company incorporated in 2002.
    8. HDPL Trade LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company incorporated in 2008.
    9. Hometown Homebuyers LLC, a Texas limited liability company incorporated in 2002.
    10. IAS Group LLC, a California limited liability company incorporated in 2008.
    11. IHC Trade LLC, a New York limited liability company incorporated in 2007.
    12. MZ Services LLC, an Arizona limited liability company incorporated in 2004.
    13. New World Enterprizes LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company incorporated in 2005.
    14. Imports LLC, a Louisiana limited liability company incorporated in 2006.
    15. SMI Imports LLC, a Florida limited liability company incorporated in 2006.
    16. SVT Services LLC, a New York limited liability company incorporated in 2008.

    Also named a defendant is “John Doe,” described as “one or more individuals or entities whose true name and address of residence are unknown to the FTC at this time.”

    How The Scheme Worked (From March Court Filing The FTC Released Today; Italics, Coloring, Indentations Added)

    Defendant(s) Doe have hired under false pretenses a group of at least fourteen individuals in the U.S., referred to here as the “money mules.” Defendant(s) Doe then direct the money mules to form companies and to open one or more U.S. bank accounts in the name of those entities.

    A group of sixteen companies formed by the money mules are named as defendants in this action and will be referred to here as the “Money Cashing Defendants.” In addition to the Money Cashing Defendants, Defendant(s) Doe themselves also have created over a hundred fake companies using false identities. These fictitious companies — some of which purport to be located in [the Northern District of Illinois] — are the “merchants” that place the unauthorized charges on consumers’ accounts.

    With this infrastructure in place, Defendants have proceeded to assess unauthorized charges to consumers’ accounts and to deposit the funds into the U.S. bank accounts of the Money Cashing Defendants. Defendant(s) Doe then direct the money mules to wire the funds to offshore accounts in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Kyrgyzstan, where the funds presumably end up in the hands of the Doe Defendants. In this way, Defendants have essentially stolen over $10 million. More than 1000 consumers have filed complaints with the FTC about these illegal practices.

    The defendants’ assets have been frozen.

    Investigators said the scheme, which had been operating since 2006, relied on stolen records to proliferate. (Citations omitted by PP Blog):

    “In setting up the fake companies, Defendant(s) Doe use names that sound similar to legitimate companies and provide addresses located in the vicinity of the legitimate companies,” the FTC said. “Defendant(s) Doe purchase ‘virtual office addresses through a company that sells business address services. All mail sent to these office addresses is then forwarded to another company that scans the mail and uploads it onto a secure server so that Defendant(s) Doe can view it electronically from any location.

    “The fake companies also use Employer Identification Number (‘EIN’) tax numbers of the legitimate companies. Defendant(s) Doe also create a website for each fake company so that the company appears to credit card processors to be a legitimate online merchant. These web sites appear to only operate for a short period of time, probably just long enough for a credit card processor to . . . perform due diligence on the account application . . . The websites of the fake companies purport to sell some kind of product such as electronics and office supplies. Each fake company also has a toll-free telephone number, as well as a ‘home’ telephone number for the ‘owner’ of the company. The toll-free numbers forward to a cell phone number registered in Belarus.”