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Author Topic: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud  (Read 16988 times)

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Offline Admin

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A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« on: September 14, 2011, 01:34:16 PM »
Sometimes the stuff that drops into my In-Box disgusts me - sometimes it amazes me - and once in a while it leads me down a path that becomes quite fascinating. Such is the case today when I received the following email generated by the "Contact Us" page at Goodwife.com. Here is what was sent:

Quote
Subject: violations

Contact Page Form for The GoodWife Site
Name: James Phillips
Email: jphillips@fbi.gov
Message:
Hello, I am James Phillips of the FBI. Your website is in violation of Code 3 of the Internet Customs Act. This website must be removed by September 22, 2011 or legal action will be taken. You must comply with this request.
Submitted by IP address 65.49.14.77

I receive nutty messages all the time - so much so that I am inured to most of them. For some reason, this one caught my interest and I decided to follow up.

First step was to see if there is a "Code 3 of the Internet Customs Act" - which came up dry. If anyone finds anything about that, please post it here as I am interested in what it says - although with the remainder of the story it is probably inconsequential at this point.

Next step was to trace the IP address - which is where it BEGINS to get interesting. The IP address resolves to an ISP for Hurricane Electric based in Fremont, CA - but with a subrecord leading to a company called Sophidea, Inc. of Cheyenne, WY at this address: 2710 Thomes Ave., Suite 884, Cheyenne, WY 82001. Make note of the address as it will appear again... and again... and again.

Since there was a telephone record in the WHOIS for Hurricane Electric, I called to inquire further. They were about as helpful as you might expect - refusing to give any information about their customers or even confirm the subrecord pertaining to Sophidea, Inc. I even tried to get them to confirm that the FBI does NOT use their services, but they declined to deny (though offering a wry chuckle to my question).

Before I continue, I should point out that it is a crime for a person to impersonate a federal officer under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 912. What this person did in sending me that message about GoodWife is to commit a federal crime - unless, of course, they *are* a federal officer - so my search for information continued.

Feeling pretty certain that Sophidea, Inc. was somehow implicated in this, I wanted to speak with someone there and looked for contact information to include a telephone number. Since most states have public records for corporations, I figured the Wyoming Secretary of State would have that information in the corporate filings. I have attached the entire record I was able to bring up from the State of Wyoming pertaining to Sophidea, Inc. Note that there is no telephone number and there are no Directors shown with the only information being their 'Registered Agent' address at . . . 2710 Thomes Ave., Cheyenne, WY 82001 - the same address as shown for Sophidea, Inc. on the internet WHOIS record for the IP used to send the message.

Now it gets REALLY interesting . . .

Since I could not find a telephone contact in the Wyoming corporate filings, and since the address for Sophidea, Inc. is the same as the address shown for their Wyoming Registered Agent, Wyoming Corporate Services, Inc. - I searched for a website for Wyoming Corporate Services, Inc. and found this site -- http://www.wyomingcompany.com/. Confirming the street address matched, I decided to call and inquire about Sophidea, Inc. They acknowledged that they are, indeed, the registered agent for Sophidea, Inc. and as their registered agent they are able to accept legal service on behalf of Sophidea, Inc. Now, I am not contemplating civil action, so legal service is not so much an interest, but their role as a registered agent for a company that has no telephone number, has no internet presence, has no directors in their corporate filings, AND whose IP address has been used in a federal crime - well, all that I find fascinating - and I was compelled to explain my fascination to the person on the other end of the telephone. Of course, I was told she was one of 12 people in their office to answer phones and she is unable to offer anything other than to refer my call to their "owner" who will call me back by the end of the day. I am still awaiting that return call.

In the meantime, and now with my curiosity having been piqued, I decided to dig a little deeper into this organization, Wyoming Corporate Services, Inc. - and this is where I found a tie-in to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, see this Reuters article -- http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/28/us-usa-shell-companies-idUSTRE75R20Z20110628. It turns out that Lazarenko is connected to a company, Capital Investments Group, who is registered at . . . . .  you guessed it, 2710 Thomes Ave., Cheyenne, WY 82001.

See . . . you all thought I was just venting with no connection to the theme of RWD - didn't you??

BTW - there is some fascinating information contained in that Reuters article about the rivalry between Lazarenko and Gennady Korban, another Ukrainian 'businessman.' I believe it was Boethius who recently mentioned something about Tymoshenko having 'learned the ropes' from Lazarenko back in the early days of Ukrainian independence.

Isn't it interesting, these 'connections' of corruption and fraud?

It is not clear at this time what the 'end game' is in all this. Will the owner of Wyoming Corporate Services, Inc. call me back? Is there a real 'James Phillips' who is an FBI agent? If so, would the FBI be using the computer services (IP address) of a reputed fraudster organization? Is there a "Code 3 of the Internet Customs Act"?

Stay tuned. I'll let you know if I discover anything further - and feel free to contribute any related information you may happen to find.

Offered solely for your entertainment and humor.

- Dan

Offline Chicagoguy

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2011, 02:07:09 PM »
I think you could have a second career.  8)  You are good at this !

Offline Gator

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2011, 02:20:21 PM »
Dan,
 
Did you send a copy of the email to the FBI with the results of your search?  The FBI does not appreciate anyone impersonating an FBI agent.

Offline Darth_Budda

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2011, 02:38:38 PM »
I want to know how this ends,,,

This is interesting...
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Offline camachinist

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2011, 03:41:50 PM »
   As luck would have it, there's an FBI office only 3 minutes away from that address. Put the taxpayers money to work :)

Offline Jooky

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2011, 04:19:36 PM »
Hey Dan,
 
It will be interesting to see what you response you get. My guess is that your harrasser is using UltraSurf.
 
Check out this trail....
 
UltraSurf
http://ultrasurf.us/

Who runs UltraSurf? UltraReach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrareach
 
What about UltraReach?
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWvj3fm9QgcJ:ultrareach.com.websitedetective.net/+sophidea+anonymous+proxy&cd=88&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
 
Quote
Website traffic and whois info for Ultrareach.com. The ISP of Ultrareach.com which is currently providing hosting service to this site is Hurricane Electric, and the site Ultrareach.com is currently using the ip address 65.49.14.20. This IP address is currently being used by a server located in , Anonymous Proxy (A1). The latitude and longitude coordinates of this site are 0 and 0. The company which is behind all this setup is Sophidea. The Google's view of importance or Pagerank of Ultrareach.com is 5 and according to our information, the alexa rank of this site is 70277.

A quick Google search came up with all that for ya. I've worked with teams in China that use services like UltraSurf to get around government IP restrictions just to make their internet function normally, so I'm a bit familiar with this stuff. This could be anyone purposefully using UltraSurf to mask their IP.
 
Hope that helps.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2011, 09:27:17 AM »
Dan,
 
Did you send a copy of the email to the FBI with the results of your search?  The FBI does not appreciate anyone impersonating an FBI agent.

Gator,

I have not yet sent anything to the authorities. I first wanted to see if I could make contact with anyone who might take an interest in this incident - and who knows, maybe it was/is just some petulant teenager playing around and if so, I did not want to initiate anything to make a federal case of a simple prank.

Having said that, my other thought was (and remains) that if I get stone-walled, I have no compunction about forwarding the message to the authorities and letting the cards fall where they may. More below . . . .


Hey Dan,
 
It will be interesting to see what you response you get. My guess is that your harrasser is using UltraSurf.
 
Check out this trail....
 
UltraSurf
http://ultrasurf.us/

Who runs UltraSurf? UltraReach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrareach
 
What about UltraReach?
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWvj3fm9QgcJ:ultrareach.com.websitedetective.net/+sophidea+anonymous+proxy&cd=88&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
 
A quick Google search came up with all that for ya. I've worked with teams in China that use services like UltraSurf to get around government IP restrictions just to make their internet function normally, so I'm a bit familiar with this stuff. This could be anyone purposefully using UltraSurf to mask their IP.
 
Hope that helps.

Jooky,

That is REALLY interesting information - especially the Washington Post article found linked in the Wikipedia entry, found here -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-has-the-state-department-run-into-a-firewall-on-internet-freedom/2011/04/03/AFYnn9eC_story.html. If I am reading it correctly, it seems the US Government is funding systems to enable individuals to circumvent other government's internet controls. Those same systems are, or can be, used by US residents to cloak their IP address. Am I understanding it correctly?



In any case, here is an update:

* The promised return call from the owner of Wyoming Corporate Services, Inc. did not occur. I will be calling them again today.
* As I wrote yesterday, I see so many bizarre messages forwarded from these "Contact Us" pages that my strong tendency is to glance at them and instantly ignore them. Yesterday when the message purported to be from the FBI came through, I had already seen another message and mentally dismissed it - not giving any thought to the possibility they might be connected in some way. Well, here is that message:

Quote
Subject: MY RUSSIAN BRIDE STOLE MY STUFF

Contact Page Form for The GoodWife Site
Name: James Anolick
Email: jimmylickgop@yahoo.com
Message:
YOU FAGCUNTERS MY RUSSIAN BRIDE TOOK EVERYTHING EVERYTHING. GODDAMNIT
ILL NEVER TAKE YOUR ADVICE AGAIN.
Submitted by IP address 65.49.14.77

Note that the IP address is identical to the IP address I posted earlier. I had not noticed this when I posted my message yesterday.

At this point I see a couple of possibilities (really only one but I'll throw the other out just for fun). One is, the FBI imposter is a disgruntled AM whose marriage to a RW failed and he is blaming anyone and everyone for the failure. The other possibility offering far more intrigue is that the US Government is funding the site used to send the message from the FBI and maybe James Phillips is an FBI agent properly issuing a warning - AND - there is some connection between the US Government and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Lazarenko through this mysterious Wyoming Corporate Services organization. Occam's Razor suggests the former.

I'll keep you posted on any new developments - and please continue to post anything you might find related to this. Somehow this thing managed to catch my interest and with the tie-in to this sham corporation, Sophidea, Inc. and the deeper connection between Wyoming Corporate Services and Lazarenko, I continue to be motivated to find out whatever information may be available about these connections.

- Dan

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2011, 09:35:58 AM »
Lazarenko is currently the guest of a minimum security facility in California, convicted of embezzlement.  He was to be released in January, 2012, but that date, it is rumoured, has been moved to November, 2012.
 
On his release from a U.S. prison, the Ukrainian government wants him extradited to face charges in Ukraine.
After the fall of communism, the biggest mistake Boris Yeltsin's regime made was not to disband the KGB altogether. Instead it changed its name to the FSB and, to many observers, morphed into a gangster organisation, eventually headed by master criminal Vladimir Putin. - Gerard Batten

Offline Manny

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2011, 09:37:22 AM »
As Jooky suggested, that IP appears to be an anonymous proxy: http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/65.49.14.77

Offline alex330

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2011, 12:51:27 PM »
I would say it is most likely someone with a bone to pick. We deal with the FBI now and then with our hosting and they will normally just pick up the phone to ask questions and may follow up with emails if needed.  But a contact page form?

Offline BC

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2011, 01:01:55 PM »
Spam.

Delete and forget.

Offline Jumper

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2011, 01:32:18 PM »
Dan ,
Just curious, did you email james phillips for clarification of Code 3?
to see if the email address was legit, etc.
.

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2011, 01:48:19 PM »
Places like the FBI or IRS will not make a first contact by email.  It's a spam message and the FBI probably has a fraud site where you can forward it.  I received something similar from a site spoofing the IRS and it was promptly fowarded to the IRS fraud site...
 
http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/internet-alert-scammers-sending-fake-fbi-e-mails-seeking-personal-information

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2011, 01:50:58 PM »
Dan ,
Just curious, did you email james phillips for clarification of Code 3?
to see if the email address was legit, etc.

No, not yet. I'll do that today. When the message first arrived, I had the same reaction as mentioned by alex330 upthread, so decided to see if I could reach someone the old-fashioned way - by telephone. Since I had no idea where to begin to find this person, I elected to trace the IP to get close - and that led me down the current path.



Spam.

Delete and forget.

Yeah - that is my standard response to nearly all the messages from the 'Contact Us' pages - because they are almost all nutty (as mentioned in my first post). This one really captured my attention for two reasons; (a) the sham/shelf corporation activity going on less than 100 miles to my North in Wyoming, and (b) the tie to Lazarenko.

I suppose the other thing that now interests me is the link to US Government funded sites for circumvention of internet controls - and one of those sites being used in this incident.

I am not one to get caught-up in wild-eyed conspiracy theories, but this one has just a couple of connections that seem more than simple coincidence, hence, my interest in running them to ground - if possible (and *if* it does not become a time sink).

- Dan

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2011, 02:12:50 PM »
Hurricane Electric is a IP and bandwidth provider out of California. That is the extent of their involvement and no relationship to the FBI. And yes, they not very helpful.  :)

Sophidea, Inc. looks like a spammer outfit, with a bogus corp. They have been hitting honeypots.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=286100







Offline Jooky

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2011, 02:24:58 PM »
Quote
If I am reading it correctly, it seems the US Government is funding systems to enable individuals to circumvent other government's internet controls. Those same systems are, or can be, used by US residents to cloak their IP address. Am I understanding it correctly?

Yes exactly. I didn't realize companies like this were getting government funding, but it makes sense.
 
Yup, Hurricane Electric just provides bandwidth. Nothing nefarious going on there (trust me, I know, I worked there).
 
Sophidea are not spammers, but since their software allows spammers to mask their IP a lot of spam will be traced to UltraSurf's anonymous IPs. It makes sense that they would operate through a registered agent to avoid dealing with problems caused by users of their products (like the situation here).
 
A quote from that last link:
 
Quote
apparently headed by a Gerarld Pitts who heads a number of other groups at that street address.

That's what a registered agent does. No actual businesses exist at that address. The actual businesses can be anywhere.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2011, 02:27:43 PM by Jooky »

Offline JayH

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Re: A Labyrinth of Deception and Fraud
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2012, 06:42:32 PM »
Reminds me of   following some of the ownership trail of some of the "dating" web sites!
Any update on interesting story?
SLAVA UKRAYINI  ! HEROYAM SLAVA!!!!
Слава Украине! Слава героям слава!Слава Україні! Слава героям!
 translated as: Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!!!  is a Ukrainian greeting slogan being used now all over Ukraine to signify support for a free independent Ukraine

 

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