dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
38042
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

1 recommendation

jswanson

Member

[Credit Card Fraud] fraud: www.prophotosland.com & www.photogey

This is the same small charge $9.87 credit card fraud scheme posted on other threads although I have not yet seen these two sites specifically mentioned. If you see a small charge from either of these companies please:

1. Report the FRAUD to your credit card company, do not just dispute the charge - state that it is FRAUD and insist on a chargeback. Get a new credit card # and close the old account.

2. Report the fraud to www.ic3.gov with as much detail as possible

3. DO NOT attempt to contact the company as they will reverse the charges but may charge you again next month. They would rather refund your money then be investigated for fraud. HOWEVER, if you want to help stop them work through ic3.gov and your credit card FRAUD division.

4. Check your credit card statements carefully every month.

There are many forums out there regarding this topic... all you need to do is search on small charge credit card fraud or even 9.87 charge credit card fraud.
jswanson

1 recommendation

jswanson

Member

Re: [Credit Card Fraud] fraud: www.prophotosland.com & www.phot

Sorry - other site name was cut off... it was

www.photogeyser.com
jswanson

jswanson

Member

Another site in this network just popped up...

»polishpicturesonline.com/

they use the same exact pictures and text as the other two... watch out for this one... looks like it has been live for a little over a week.

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

1 edit

Doctor Olds to jswanson

Premium Member

to jswanson
Two are hidden by their robots.txt contents and the last one doesn't have a robots.txt file at all.




www.prophotosland.com


»www.prophotosland.com/
Snapped 2008-02-24 17:38:38


»www.prophotosland.com/robots.txt

User-agent: *
Disallow: /




www.photogeyser.com


»www.photogeyser.com/
Snapped 2008-02-24 17:38:20


»www.photogeyser.com/robots.txt

User-agent: *
Disallow: /




www.polishpicturesonline.com


»www.polishpicturesonline.com/
Snapped 2008-02-24 17:37:57


»www.polishpicturesonline ··· bots.txt

Page Not Found




Intereresting also is that the Contacts from each site are different. With a name or two from another group of scam-front sites. :[

»www.prophotosland.com/in ··· =contact
Support: Alex McGuire
e-mail: support@prophotosland.com
tel: (609) 916-0040

»www.photogeyser.com/inde ··· =contact
Support: Eric Robertson
e-mail: support@photogeyser.com
tel: (301) 979-9960

»www.polishpicturesonline ··· =contact
Support: Cristian Darie
e-mail: support@polishpicturesonline.com
tel: (214) 556-6190

Strange...

Regards,

Doctor Olds
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

1 recommendation

jswanson

Member

Another one is popping up with similar text... home page is different but text and some photos are the same:

»imagesparadise.com/

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds

Premium Member

www.imagesparadise.com


»www.imagesparadise.com/
Snapped 2008-02-24 21:52:03


»www.imagesparadise.com/r ··· bots.txt

Page Not Found


»www.imagesparadise.com/i ··· =contact
Support: Cristian Darie
e-mail: support@imagesparadise.com
tel: (214) 556-6153

pcdebb
birdbrain
Premium Member
join:2000-12-03
Brandon, FL

pcdebb to jswanson

Premium Member

to jswanson
MGD See Profile should probably add these to the list

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds to jswanson

Premium Member

to jswanson
Found another one:

www.photosparadise.com


»www.photosparadise.com/
Snapped 2008-02-25 00:02:59


»www.photosparadise.com/r ··· bots.txt

Page Not Found


»www.photosparadise.com/i ··· =contact
Support: Cristian Darie
e-mail: support@photosparadise.com
tel: (214) 556-6153
Doctor Olds

Doctor Olds to jswanson

Premium Member

to jswanson
And another....

www.imgparadise.com


»www.imgparadise.com/
Snapped 2008-02-25 00:11:46


»www.imgparadise.com/robots.txt

Page Not Found


»www.imgparadise.com/inde ··· =contact
Support: Cristian Darie
e-mail: support@imgparadise.com
tel: (213) 984-4966

Cute. NOT!
Doctor Olds

Doctor Olds to jswanson

Premium Member

to jswanson
And this oddball one.

www.zenithgraphic.com


»www.zenithgraphic.com/
Snapped 2008-02-25 02:54:57


»www.zenithgraphic.com/co ··· kies.txt

Page Not Found


»www.zenithgraphic.com/in ··· =contact
Support: Alex McGuire
e-mail: support@zenithgraphic.com
tel: (504) 208-4860

General: Edris Hoover
info@zenithgraphic.com
tel: (505) 350-8506

Jupiter, LLC
8210 Robin Ave NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110

fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium Member
join:2001-05-25
Limbo

fireflier

Premium Member

Interesting that the name "Jupiter, LLC" is shown there. Wasn't the name jupiter involved in some other less recent CC charging scams?

crazfamily
@coxfiber.net

crazfamily to jswanson

Anon

to jswanson
This has happened to me recently. I will go to that web site asap. also this must be wide spread. It looks like the credit card companys would pick up on this.

Juliette
@sbcglobal.net

Juliette to jswanson

Anon

to jswanson
This just happened to me with prophotosland - I contacted my credit card's fraud dept. and filed a complaint.

The weird thing is that they were telling me that that charge was from a local mall (which I have not shopped at in weeks and at which there is no such store) and that my card was swiped (I had my card with me).

Card closed, charge replaced, but am curious about how it came up as a local charge with my card swiped...
MGD
MVM
join:2002-07-31

1 recommendation

MGD to jswanson

MVM

to jswanson
said by jswanson:

This is the same small charge $9.87 credit card fraud scheme posted on other threads although I have not yet seen these two sites specifically mentioned.
.......
Oh Excellent, thank you for Heads Up!!

And lets continue with Doctor Olds See Profile's digging. pcdebb See Profile is indeed correct, into the data base they go.

I can confirm positively that these are the next round of "Globus" fraud sites from Doctor Olds See Profile's thread: »pictureglobus.com, imaglobus.com, and templateglobus.com now

I need to see if anyone who is a slickdeals member can either IM or post to this thread: »forums.slickdeals.net/sh ··· ngle.com

The poster "Minette" may have some valuable info I need. They got charged $9.87 by PROPHOTOSLAND.COM on 1/27 and subsequently got hit by according to them:

"a company called "Alkay Services LLC", this time on ANOTHER credit card I own, for the amount of $9.64. Same business (photo) according to my bank (Chase).

I need the phone number that may have been listed on the line item charge, or at least part of it. if it was not listed on the charge the card issuer should be able to give it to them. If anyone else has a "Alkay Services LLC" charge and has or can get the number. This group is also using the same deflecting tactic as the globus group, by telling victims someone registered on the site with their car. More than likely any victim who bought that lie and got a credit will have been hit with a second charge the next month. Any subsequent second hit names and full info is vital in following the trail.

The C&C website for the Globus was the bogus "Hermes Electro" hermeselectro.com: »hermeselectro.com pretending to be in Hong Kong:





The C&C for this picture, image, photo, fraud group is a bogus site "Hong-Kong Content Trade", hkc-trade.com: »hkc-trade.com/

A direct clone of the other one:





There are no records that indicate a business by those names exist at either of those addresses.

Need to add picturesjungle.com »www.picturesjungle.com/i ··· =contact to the list also.

I am off the belief that the names listed on the sites such as Eric Robertson, also of Globus fame, and Cristian Darie etc. are all fictitious. Having spent countless hours checking LLCs' and corp registrations in the state of Texas, including multiple county FBN lists, I do not believe they exist. At least until something substantial comes up to indicate otherwise.

You will notice from the added info to the sites listed above, that not only are the current crop using GoDaddy hosting, so were the Globus group.

I am not sure if it was posted, but one of the early victims of the Globus run, was told by GoDaddy that they would not shut them down without legal action. I will try and find a copy.

This group probably represents one of the most egregious lack of due care by a hosting company. Providing these criminals with a conduit, which enables them access to payment gateways allowing them to fraudulently process thousands of credit cards is unbelievable.

Lets just look at the worst case:

We have hosting provided to supposed e-commerce sites, where one can readily see from the robots.txt file, that no one could even find them. Plus their domain registration is cloaked, hidden. The only information published is a bogus name, and a cell phone contact number.

Now we are seeing supposed e-commerce sites registered to bogus locations in Hong Kong, and they are using contact phone numbers in various US states. The entire set up configuration reeks of fraud, a four year old could spot it, before the first charge ever hit.
http://www.polishpicturesonline.com/index.php?action=contact
Support: Cristian Darie
e-mail: support@polishpicturesonline.com
tel: 214-556-6190 no scam reports

214-556-6190 Type: Land Line
Provider: MCI Worldcom Communications Inc
Location: Plano, TX

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: POLISHPICTURESONLINE.COM
Created on: 30-Dec-07
Expires on: 30-Dec-09
Last Updated on: 30-Dec-07

Administrative Contact:
ZHANG, HAITAO support@hkc-trade.com
Honk-Kong Content Trade Company
426 King's Road
North Point, N/A 000000
Hong Kong
85281980664

Domain servers in listed order:
NS19.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS20.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

»www.prophotosland.com/in ··· =contact
Support: Alex McGuire
e-mail: support@prophotosland.com
tel: 609-916-0040

(609) 916-0040 Type: Land Line
Provider: Focal Communications Corp
Location: Pleasantville, NJ

PROPHOTOSLAND.COM

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: PROPHOTOSLAND.COM
Created on: 05-Dec-07
Expires on: 05-Dec-08
Last Updated on: 05-Dec-07

Domain servers in listed order:
NS15.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS16.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

»www.imagesparadise.com/i ··· =contact
Support: Cristian Darie
e-mail: support@imagesparadise.com
tel: 214-556-6153

(214) 556-6153 Type: Land Line
Provider: MCI Worldcom Communications Inc
Location: Plano, TX

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: IMAGESPARADISE.COM
Created on: 07-Feb-08
Expires on: 07-Feb-09
Last Updated on: 07-Feb-08

Administrative Contact:
ZHANG, HAITAO haitao.zhang44@yahoo.com
426 King's Road
Hong Kong, North Point --
Hong Kong
85281980623

Domain servers in listed order:
NS23.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS24.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

»www.photogeyser.com/inde ··· =contact
Support: Eric Robertson
e-mail: support@photogeyser.com
tel: (301) 979-9960

(301) 979-9960Type: Land Line
Provider: Verizon
Location: Washington, MD

PHOTOGEYSER.COM
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: PHOTOGEYSER.COM
Created on: 14-Nov-07
Expires on: 14-Nov-08
Last Updated on: 14-Nov-07

Domain servers in listed order:
NS15.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS16.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

»www.picturesjungle.com/i ··· =contact
Support: Alex McGuire
e-mail: support@picturesjungle.com
tel: (706) 955-4677

(706) 955-4677Type: Land Line
Provider: Level 3 Communications
Location: Augusta, GA

PICTURESJUNGLE.COM
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: PICTURESJUNGLE.COM
Created on: 27-Nov-07
Expires on: 27-Nov-08
Last Updated on: 27-Nov-07

Domain servers in listed order:
NS27.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS28.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

HKC-TRADE.COM
Registrant:
HKC Trade Co.

426 King's Road
Honk Kong, North Point -
Hong Kong

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: HKC-TRADE.COM
Created on: 28-Nov-07
Expires on: 29-Nov-08
Last Updated on: 28-Nov-07

Administrative Contact:
ZHANG, HAITAO haitao.zhang44@yahoo.com
HKC Trade Co.
426 King's Road
Honk Kong, North Point -
Hong Kong
+852 2562 8127

Domain servers in listed order:
NS27.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS28.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
MGD
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

jswanson

Member

Hi MGD,

Please also add www.photosmix.com to your database. Phone 941-312-2213 out of Florida. Same visuals/text as photogeyser and prophotosland.com. Alex McGuire is also the contact on this one. Just looks like a different version.

juicyminidonut
@comcast.net

juicyminidonut

Anon

said by jswanson:

Hi MGD,

Please also add www.photosmix.com to your database. Phone 941-312-2213 out of Florida. Same visuals/text as photogeyser and prophotosland.com. Alex McGuire is also the contact on this one. Just looks like a different version.
Same thing happened to me, a charge was listed on my account for $9.87 from www.photosmix.com. Did you ever get through to the phone number listed on the website? After reading this forum, I called once and didn't bother trying again, and called my bank instead. They reimbursed me but it's kind of a hassle now that I have do the paperwork to file it as a fraudulent charge and everything... and I also have to wait for a new card in the mail...

cxg
@citicorp.com

cxg to jswanson

Anon

to jswanson
www.photosmix.com happened to me as well. I've filed a complaint with the fraud department of my bank, used the government website listed above, and e-mailed the abuse@godaddy.com website, as they are the host for this website (their "secure site" logo is at the bottom left). I may even go file a complaint with the local police department today, and even go so far as contacting the better business bureau.

hkfczrqj
@uiuc.edu

hkfczrqj to jswanson

Anon

to jswanson
add me to the www.photosmix.com scam. Will proceed as stated in this thread. Thanks for the very complete info on this fraud.
MGD
MVM
join:2002-07-31

MGD to jswanson

MVM

to jswanson
said by jswanson:

Hi MGD,

Please also add www.photosmix.com to your database. Phone 941-312-2213 out of Florida. .....
Yes indeed, good find. They are confirmed as a fraud operation. Also had the robots.txt no follow search block. As a matter of fact, the site went down while I was checking it. Not sure why, or if it will stay down. Many of these set ups are paid for with hijacked card data. GoDaddy needs to get with program and put a stop to this fraud hosting and domain registration cloaking.

The names on the sites, such as Alex McGuire are boogus.
[photosmix.com IP 72.167.110.64]

Registrant:PHOTOSMIX.COM
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: PHOTOSMIX.COM
Created on: 17-Dec-07
Expires on: 18-Dec-08
Last Updated on: 17-Dec-07

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration PHOTOSMIX.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2599

Domain servers in listed order:
NS19.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS20.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
MGD

shepbobz
@ameritech.net

shepbobz to juicyminidonut

Anon

to juicyminidonut
Add one more to the photosmix.com scam. Showed up on our bill today. Hope all who get this report it as a fraud-- these folks need to be stopped.
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

1 recommendation

jswanson

Member

Another one to watch out for... www.glossyeldorado.com. Gotta love that name

MGD... please add to the db!

There are other sites that talk about this scam:

»www.ripoffreport.com/rep ··· 6667.htm

The most annoying thing for me is that my credit card company charged me $10.00 for a new card... to make sure the $9.87 doesn't turn into a recurring charge I am made to pay $10.00. I will be cancelling that card.
MGD
MVM
join:2002-07-31

1 recommendation

MGD

MVM

said by jswanson:

Another one to watch out for... www.glossyeldorado.com. Gotta love that name

MGD... please add to the db! ..............
Done !!
said by jswanson:

.......The most annoying thing for me is that my credit card company charged me $10.00 for a new card... to make sure the $9.87 doesn't turn into a recurring charge I am made to pay $10.00. I will be cancelling that card.
That is unbelievable !!

You are actually saving them money by telling them to cancel and reissue the card. You are not liable for fraudulent charges, it becomes their problem. The alternative is to allow these criminals to hit the card with new charges every two weeks, and let the Bank deal with them. Until such time as they catch on, and decide to re issue it at their own expense.

If this is a National or large Regional Bank, please name them. The only possibility that I am thinking of, is that they are a small credit union or something. Either way it is ridiculous to charge a customer, who through no fault of their own, becomes the victim of card fraud. I am not even sure that it is legal under Federal Law to do so. I could see it if you had lost the card, or otherwise contributed to the problem. Just on principle alone I would raise all kinds of commotion with that institution. It has to be a small non profit credit union or something, correct?. If not, they via their CSR are entirely clueless. They just don't get it.

MGD
MGD

MGD to jswanson

MVM

to jswanson
GLOSSYELDORADO.COM




A new twist on the search engine blocking, specifically line items Google:




No contact phone number, only the made up name Cristian Darrie.

And a familiar bogus GoDaddy domain registation, and GoDaddy hosting:

Registrant:
HAITAO ZHANG
426 King's Road
Hong Kong, North Point --
Hong Kong

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: GLOSSYELDORADO.COM
Created on: 15-Feb-08
Expires on: 15-Feb-09
Last Updated on: 15-Feb-08

Administrative Contact:
ZHANG, HAITAO haitao.zhang44@yahoo.com
426 King's Road
Hong Kong, North Point --
Hong Kong
85281980611

MGD

Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium Member
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30

Doctor Olds to jswanson

Premium Member

to jswanson
said by jswanson:

add www.photosmix.com to your database. Phone 941-312-2213 out of Florida. Same visuals/text as photogeyser and prophotosland.com. Alex McGuire is also the contact on this one. Just looks like a different version.
www.photosmix.com

»www.photosmix.com
Snapped 2008-03-14 07:08:24


»www.photosmix.com/robots.txt

User-agent: *
Disallow:
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

jswanson to MGD

Member

to MGD
Hi MGD,

It was a small credit union as you guessed and believe me, I will be talking to someone pretty high up about their policy. I will most likely also close the account as I have not been happy with their response.

Thanks for all of your work on this!

lorider680
@okheart.com

lorider680 to jswanson

Anon

to jswanson
Chalk me up for Photogeyser.com. Glad I stumbled on this forum. Going to call my bank and have a new card issued.
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

jswanson

Member

Looks like photosmix.com and prophotosland.com are back up and running so beware... their site states "Our hosting provider has accidently delegated our domain to a different company... " not sure what this means as they still have the same GoDaddy logo. GoDaddy may have received enough abuse complaints that they made them change something... but obviously they are still operational. Perhaps MGD, you will know what this means.

I am guessing there will be another round of charges in the next few weeks...

Victim 1947
@comcast.net

Victim 1947 to jswanson

Anon

to jswanson
A charge of $9.64 from a Michael P Hamilton in Maryland (213-984-4966) posted to my Chase on 3-14-08. A foreign voice recording, gave an indiscernible .com name, not Hamilton, not prophotoland, etc. Sounds like "time share" but is indiscernible. I see $9.64 has been used on previous attacks. Chase described Hamilton as an Art Dealer, but said they would do the charge back. They did not want to close/replace the card. So I asked the rep to clearly state for their recording that they were declining to close the account for fraud. They said they will investigate. I'll monitor the account daily.

deanhuff
@rr.com

deanhuff

Anon

Add another for MICHAEL P HAMILTON $9.64 on 03/15/2008. Bank of America gave me a new account number and re-imbursed the money.

I also had another charge for around $3 from "M BAR C RANCH" in Pending state but never posted.

I saw on the news that a local grocer called Sweetbay had a security breach and gave out a bunch of card numbers. Sure enough, I had 1 Sweetbay transaction in early December.
jswanson
join:2008-02-24

jswanson

Member

MGD,

Please add stockimagemix.com to the database. Another one with the exact same home page... unbelievable. Same bogus support name of Alex McGuire, etc.

Support: Alex McGuire
e-mail: support@stockimagemix.com
tel: (561) 283-4229