I got today the usual “we need your help moving money, you’ll keep 10%” scam that usually operates out of Nigeria. This one had a new twist on their attempt to elicit credibility - it had an URL to an actual site: OmronCorporation.org (not actually linking to them myself). Of course I had to check it out, wondering if the guys were actually hosting a site, and sure enough there’s a horrible-looking page with long spiel about their products. Of course, not before they inform you of the usual arrangement:
We are a big firm engaged in export of goods to overseas.We have won various big exports contract at one time or the other, recently we were (engaged) contracted to supply financial programs for market analyzing, management project software in Germany and Australia which was successfully done.
Unfortunately we have faced some difficulties while receiving payment for our software in our country as need 10-30 days to get a payment from your country. We do not have so much time to accept wire transfers and can’t accept cashiers checks and money orders as well.So we need your help to accept this payments in your country faster.
I did a whois query, wondering who the site was registered to, and besides the phony name of “Mr. Sing Sang Sung” it turned out something interesting:
Admin Email:support@omroncorporation.org
Tech ID:D116043199563935
Tech Name:Microsoft Office Live
Tech Street1:One Microsoft Way
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Redmond
Tech State/Province:WA
Tech Postal Code:98052
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.4258828080
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:support@officelive.com
Name Server:NS1.OFFICELIVE.COM
Name Server:NS2.OFFICELIVE.COM
It would seem that scammers are taking advantage of Microsoft’s Office Live Basics offer for a free site, even getting them to host the DNS for them. I guess them’s the dangers of attempting to get as many sites as possible using your platform.
PS: Being a good netizen I’ve e-mailed the Office Live tech address. Anybody cares to make a bet on how long it’ll last?
Update: Got an automated reply from support@officelive.com telling me it was an unmonitored e-mail address. Had to go in and create a support ticket. The things we do for a cleaner net.
Update #2: There was no further contact after an e-mail requesting the scam message. The scammer’s site is still up, and still using OfficeLive.com’s DNSes.