MGDPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-31
kudos:9
1 edit | reply to MGD
Re: Ebook websites, fraud charges, Devbill/DigitalAge/Pluto said by Robert McMillan :
"We're going to aggressively seek to identify the ultimate masterminds behind this scheme," Wernikoff said. According to him, the scammers found loopholes in the credit card processing system that allowed them to set up fake U.S. companies that then ran more than a million phony credit card transactions through legitimate credit card processing companies.
Wernikoff doesn't know where the scammers obtained the credit card numbers they charged, but they could have been purchased from online carder forums, black market Web sites where criminal buy and sell stolen information.
It became apparent as far back as 2004 that the OCS was a vertical operation, and was directly infiltrating the financial system to obtain the card data. That conclusion did not come solely from monitoring the going rate at that time for card dumps on multiple hidden underworld forums, did not make the operation economically viable. Back then, at $9 per fraud hit, it would have taken 3 successful hits to a card before a profit was turned.
More than that, it was the repeated reports of some of the victim's card history which pointed to something far more sinister. Take the CENTER COMPANY --> EBSEBOOKS connection above, the "DAVID BERGMAN" bogus deflection replies all the way back to the 2004 era of the ABSOLUTE-SOFT.COM version 2.O and this forum:
Circa early 2004:
»Who is Absolute-soft???
Then: »$9.95 scam.. check your bank statements. security
By 2005 the growing appearance of the real extent of the operation: »Re: I got the same changes ....
The beginning of a comprehensive monitoring of the unusual circumstances of some of the victim card data:
But this is now TWO YEARS Later, one fraud entity is still going:
quote:
===========================================
Mark says:
January 21, 2006 at 8:39 am
Hi all,
I got hit in December on a CC that has NEVER been used at NewEgg, Buy.com, etc, and has never been typed online for that matter. It was only used once with a PHONECALL order. The credit card has been in my safe for months, so ANY charge I get is fraudulent. I am making an educated guess that the breakdown is somewhere in the mechanism that communicates the CC number and info for approval. Maybe the common denomincator is the company that certain merchants are using for CC authentication.
Just a thought…
===========================================
I wondered if there was a connection:
State of California
Entity Name: ABSOLUTE SOFTWARE CONSULTING LLC
Entity Number: 200336010080
Date Filed: 12/22/2003
Status: CANCELED
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Entity Address: 22806 SAILWIND WAY
Entity City, State, Zip: LAKE FOREST CA 92630
Agent for Service of Process: EVELYN NAZARIO
Agent Address: 22806 SAILWIND WAY
Agent City, State, Zip: LAKE FOREST CA 92630
Digging even deeper, there appeared to be:
quote:
Credit card charged by absolute-soft.com
August 18, 2005
Absolute-soft.com, CA.
They charged my credit card $9.95. I never heard of this company and I never ordered or bought anything from them. I sent them an email detailing the problem. I received an email back from
This is what the email said:
--------------------------------
"My name is David Bergman and I represent Absolute Software Consulting LLC Customer Service.
We got an e-mail from you reporting a charge of $9.95 on your credit card. Thank you for reporting about this situation promptly. I guess I should explain everything to you. Our company produces web design products, mostly website templates - primary web pages with no content. The price of each template is $9.95
thus your card was charged for the price of a template bought on our website. In this regard I have a very important question for you: Are you sure that nobody but you has access to your credit card information(name and number)? You see, if your card was charged and you didn't know about that somebody does have your card information and can use it. Please check it. We have already removed the charge you reported. The refund will be stated in the account within three or four business days. Nevertheless I strongly recommend you to call your bank and ask them to issue another card for you. Because if your card was once charged without your notification there's no guarantee that the person
having access to the CC information wouldn't use it again. It is also possible that some banking error occurred and your card was charged by mistake but still please call them and talk it over. Best regards,
===========================================
joe says:
July 26, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I had this charge, got a new bank card and the charge has appeared again. How did they get my new number that is only a week old. Someone is getting hacked, the bank or the merchants!
===========================================
Eric says:
July 27, 2006 at 6:37 pm
I got this charge back in May on 1 of my cards. I had it corrected and got a new credit card number. Just last week the charge came up again on a different card from a different company. Got that fixed 3 days ago and wouldn’t you know another charge from them yesterday on another different card. PLEASE somebody find out how to stop this. We shouldn’t have to change all our cards because of 1 fake company!
===========================================
Jim says:
August 17, 2006 at 10:10 am
I recieved this charge on my bank account 8/9. I am trying to get it refunded.
===========================================
DC says:
August 17, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Absolute-Soft.com hit me today for 9.95 on my debit card. Called the bank to close/change account. How they can get away with this for over 2 years is beyond me. You’d think the banks would set up some sort of common list where companies like Absolute-Soft wouldn’t even be able to submit charges at major institutions. A 5 minute internet search shows the level of this scam. Ridiculous.
absolute-soft.com
===========================================
This was far more than someone buying card dumps. In several instances over time it appeared that all the cards a victim had, issued by several institutions, were sequentially charged with fraud. It was if they were also accessing combined lists of card data alphabetically.
By 2006 not only are reports of fraud charging all over DSLR, but forum pockets all over the internet can be found of the same fraud reports. Start collecting names:
»www.jerseysmarts.com/2004/11/22/···y-fraud/
I knew back then that killing the websites had no effect on their ability to keep merchant processing accounts:
»www.jerseysmarts.com/2006/03/10/···d-fraud/
They could just resurface anywhere, but remain hidden with the first use of "no index" and "no follow" meta tags:
»Credit card criminals Devbill have a new home !!!
Was the four year and plus, card fraud laundering runs of KCSOFTLLC and EBSEBOOKS.COM aka Electronic Business Resource an aberration, a quirk within the financial system that they managed to slip through and continue fraud processing?.
No, they are just two of many examples. Absolute-soft.com aka ABSOLUTE SOFTWARE CONSULTING LLC began fraud charging in early 2004. Five years, HALF A DECADE later, this crops up in April of 2009:
Let's go back and have another look at that California corporation's database:
Entity Name: ABSOLUTE SOFTWARE CONSULTING LLC
Entity Number: 200924410303
Date Filed: 09/01/2009
Status: ACTIVE
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Entity Address: 22806 SAILWIND WAY
Entity City, State, Zip: LAKE FOREST CA 92630
Agent for Service of Process: BUSINESS FILINGS INCORPORATED
(C2113485)
Agent Address: *
Agent City, State, Zip: *
Apparently a 2009 refreshed registration.
.
MGD |
