Scams on the Rise!

Back in 1982, I was the first kid on my block with a 300 baud modem. While there were a few local dialup Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) to explore, there wasn't much to offer the home-based telecommunication enthusiast back in the day. There were also things like Telnet and Compuserve, FidoNet, but not much else one could connect to. The Internet existed as ARPANET (initiated in 1966), but was a long way off from being in the public sphere.

To say my early years with computer technology was an adventure would be an understatement — almost immediately, things like hacking, phreaking, and other illegal activities involving scammers and scamming came to my attention. At my old IT job at CUNA Mutual I was involved with plastic card fraud. First with Eagle Optics, then Vortex Optics, I became intimately familiar with a wide variety of online fraud and scams and worked diligently to thwart their efforts. I got really good at it.

I cannot be fooled by them — it's just embedded in my psyche to always be on the alert for nefarious cyber scams. Alas, this is not the case for people who do not have the same background and experiences I have had, but I'm going to give the general public a valuable tool that can be used to spot scammer websites — WHOIS.

Simply copy and paste a website address into it.

Are you on a questionable eCommerce website? Here's one:

Domain Name: VORTEXSPOTTING.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2833908026_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.dynadot.com
Registrar URL: http://www.dynadot.com
Updated Date: 2023-11-30T09:17:44Z
Creation Date: 2023-11-30T09:17:34Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2024-11-30T09:17:34Z
Registrar: Dynadot Inc
Registrar IANA ID: 472
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@dynadot.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +16502620100

Now compare that with a legitimate website:

Domain Name: VORTEXOPTICS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 100902741_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.comlaude.com
Registrar URL: http://www.comlaude.com
Updated Date: 2023-06-22T23:12:17Z
Creation Date: 2003-07-22T14:34:48Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2024-07-22T14:34:48Z
Registrar: Nom-iq Ltd. dba COM LAUDE
Registrar IANA ID: 470
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@comlaude.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +442074218250

Note the difference in the Creation Date field: 11/30/2023 versus 07/22/2003

Ask yourself — has Vortex Optics only been around since November of 2023, or more like sometime in 2003? Would you enter your credit card into a website that was created just a month or so ago? Of course you wouldn't, right? Well, you shouldn't! Not unless you're eager to have your debit or credit card replaced. A recent website creation date is a sure-sign of scammer activity.

Online scams, in all of their current forms, are at the worst levels I've observed in my fraud prevention role at work. Since many of them originate outside of the United States, there isn't much US law enforcement can do about it. Alas, merchants and consumers are essentially on their own, and both must be cautious and vigilant. 

During the past several months, scammers have been copying images from a variety of merchant websites and embedding them into their own phony eCommerce websites. These websites are designed to do one thing and one thing only: lure in unsuspecting customers and steal their billing credentials. They do this by offering beyond ridiculous too-good-to-be-true deals on products. The websites are quite sophisticated and include social engineering features to induce FOMO (fear of missing out). Once they have your billing data, they run them through a type of Credit Card Triangulation Scam in order to launder the funds. 

Don't fall for these scams! 

Use WHOIS.