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FTC Busts Domain Name Scammers
coondoggie writes "The Federal Trade Commission said today it had permanently killed the operations of a group that it said posed as domain name registrars and convinced thousands of US consumers, small businesses and non-profit organizations to pay bogus bills by leading them to believe they would lose their Web site addresses if they didn't. As with so many of these cases however, the defendants get off paying back very little compared to what they took. With today's settlement order, entered against defendants Isaac Benlolo, Kirk Mulveney, Pearl Keslassy, and 1646153 Ontario Inc., includes a suspended judgment of $4,261,876, the total amount of consumer injury caused by the illegal activities. Based on what the FTC called the inability of the settling defendants to pay, they will turn over $10,000 to satisfy the judgment."
I used to get mail from these jerks all the time.
It must have profitable as they spent a fortune in postage.
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
If they can't pay the full judgment, why not have them work off the bill in debtor's prison?
1646153 Ontario Inc.
I wonder if they trademarked that number? Epic spammer business name is epic.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
FTC outlines new business model.
Hey guys, I'm the cyber police and you've all been backtraced. Hand me your sloshdat credentials or your consequences will be permanently altered.
That would be DROA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Registry_of_America
I got their invoices all the time. Good for a laugh at least. I'm sure they scammed thousands.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
They should be pounding rocks with a sledge hammer for 20 years instead. If the penalties for screwing with people's lives through these kinds of scams, identity theft, and all the botnet thievery were serious and enforced, maybe there would be less of it. In a time when our lives are increasingly open - and privacy a joke - then righteous behavior becomes a (inter) national necessity. Otherwise we have anarchy.
Honestly, I don't know why the FTC even bothers. If these clowns aren't criminally prosecuted, what exactly is the point? $10k, and an order to Go Forth and Sin No More is just a waste of time.
And the "Go Forth" orders are routinely ignored... I think Kevin Trudeau has been slapped by the FTC for infomercial scams no less than three times, and he still doesn't give a $hit.
SirWired
I could burn through that much money just by having my dream home built.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
How much of the $4,261,876 they scammed people out of was used to cover the cost of postage for these bogus bills? It's trivially easy to get addresses out of the whois database, but couldn't you potentially actually lose money on this scam?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
It wasn't that long ago that stealing a man's horse was a hanging offense, and in most circumstances you were given wide latitude to use deadly force to defend yourself against theft, precisely because loss of resources like a horse could imperil a person's life.
Our era of bounty and consequence-free living is nearly over, though, so you can rest easy, it won't be long before we will be living in an era where these guys will get what they have coming to them.
Let's see if I get this right: the guys make a little over 4M dollars, get fined 10K dollars and can "keep" the rest because they have already spent it? If this is true, I'm in the wrong business!
Lately the talking heads have made a lot of news about growing discontent with the U.S. federal government. To some extent I've written that off as muck-raking by Fox, CNN, Republicans, etc.
But I've got to say, it really does seem like the government is failing at very basic issues regarding law enforcement, especially with letting white-collar criminals get away with pretty much anything.
Are things actually getting worse in that regard, or has the problem existed to this same degree for many decades now?
I initially read that as "The Federal Trade Commission said today it had permanently killed the operators of a group ..."
Sure, but is that nest egg able to be discovered by the lawyers? When you have that mush cash, it can't be TOO hard to figure out/find a way to hide some of it offshore.
Also, easy come, easy go. A lot of criminals spend cash like there's no tomorrow, because they know if they get caught, they forfeit it.
Besides, if I was an evil mastermind with untold millions, I'd spend it on the construction of an immense underwater fortress, and then kill all the people who knew the location. How are you going to find my money without a team of superheroes?!
Mwua-ha-ha.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
in the U.S. that you must first incorporate and go after the peoples money. Never commit a crime against the government or against a corporation unless you want the full weight of the law brought down on your head.
http://nwbagpipes.com/
Yeah, like putting them into the automatic mail sorting system.
Crime pays, very well. -- Is that the conclusion?
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
It's really not that difficult to make illegally-gained money "disappear". For example, overpay for fictional services provided by businesses set up by people who aren't officially tied to your main business. It's a lot harder to prove that money paid for, say, marketing consulting wasn't legit, at least without launching a full-scale investigation into the company that supposedly provided it. If that company is actually semi-legit (but happens to be taking a kickback, or has the perp's wife's sister-in-law as an employee, skimming the extra off into her own bank account, etc) the money might never be traced back to you, or can't be reclaimed even if it is. It's effectively laundered. Toss in a few overseas bank accounts, and a whole bunch of money becomes unrecoverable and undetectable by the authorities, but still remains available to you.
The problem with debtor's prison is that people can fall into debt for all sorts of reasons ranging from maliciousness to recklessness to just plain bad luck. Do you really think that someone who can't pay their bills because a hurricane destroyed their house and their place of employment should be put in prison?
What you are looking for is thieves' prison and last time I checked we already have those. However, AFAIK, the FTC doesn't have the authority to prosecute criminal cases, just levy civil fines. Instead they pass on information to the appropriate authorities (the FBI or state governments may have jurisdiction depending on the offense). In this case, either the FBI would need to extradite them to face charges here, or the Canadian government would need to press criminal charges.
I could burn through that much money just by having my dream home built.
Which is a physical asset that can be seized and sold.
Thinking more about the problem, probably some size adjustments of the subjects would be necessary, and adding more horsepower to the machinery seems also unavoidable. But yes, the desired result is achievable.
Note that the operation was shut down and the people involved are likely going to have problems starting up a new scam now that they've got this record. And now that one group of people has been successfully stopped, it should at least push other thieves to think of a slightly different way to screw people over. I wrote a complaint to the FTC about these dicks a year ago when I got my first letter from ILS. I got angry every time I saw a letter from them. They didn't get what they deserved, but this FTC action represents progress.
in the U.S. that you must first incorporate and go after the peoples money. Never commit a crime against the government or against a corporation unless you want the full weight of the law brought down on your head.
Yeah, that's usually the case. These guys did most likely send domain invoices to rich people too though.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
I could burn through that much money just by having my dream home built.
Which is a physical asset that can be seized and sold.
Not if it's made out of dreams.
It should be mandatory that the names and addresses of all guilty-found parties be published publicly. A little vigilante justice goes a long way.
A good lawyer is one who can get a charge of sodomy reduce to one of following too close.
Note that the operation was shut down and the people involved are likely going to have problems starting up a new scam now that they've got this record.
Bullshit.
These clowns *ALREADY* have a record of scamming, and it hasn't stopped them yet. There is no realistic reason to assume that a 10k fine means anything at all to them.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Our domain was up for renewal in September. In July we get a letter from Domain Registry of Canada (Domain Registry of America is their US version). Looking like a normal and official bill, the boss paid it by VISA despite it being nearly 10x what a domain registrar should be charging. The next day I'm going through the paperwork and find the DROC invoice. I'm baffled because they are not our domain registrar. First thing I do is call our real company and confirm that the domain is still locked. I also renewed at the time just to make sure. I then called DROC and after a few minutes on hold I was assured that the charge was cancelled. I contacted VISA the next day and was informed that the charge had been cancelled. They seemed to be pretty routine and mechanical about cancelling people though I imagine a few people never realized they had been suckered.
True, but the FTC doesn't seem to believe in civil asset seizure (much like DA's in drug cases do).
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Apparently the courts and the FTC actually seek to encourage crime. How is it with the overwhelming number of useless laws on the books that we do not have a single law that states that the wrong doer must always pay back more than was taken?
I got an "Official Notice" from them once for my domain. They wanted me to renew my registration for something insane, like $100-200, or as the summary states, "I'd lose my domain". I called BS, especially since they were far from my regular registrar, and shredded it.
Good to hear they got what was coming.
Hollywood accounting. You seen those numbers? They somehow get it on paper that they get a loss on major films that do really well in the box office.
Good accountants truly are undervalued.
If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
"As with so many of these cases however, the defendants get off paying back very little compared to what they took." Not happy? Then why not have the RIAA prosecute them?
WHAT record? WHAT problems? The only record there was ever a problem is this FTC press release, and attached orders. All the scammers have to do is pay their 10k, and then set up shop again using different names.
And do you know what happens when they get caught again? (The FTC has a lot of repeat offenders.) They'll get another, virtually identical court order. The second one will not only "enjoin" them from violating the law, but will also order them out of the business entirely. If the FTC is feeling really frisky and if they are on the ball, they might even seize their assets (if they haven't already been shipped overseas.)
Do you know what happens if they get caught a THIRD time for the exact same scam? (Yep, there is enough instances of this to see a pattern...) THEN they'll be referred to the Justice Dept. for the life-ruining charge of... Contempt of Court. Yeah, the threat of 30 days at Club Fed will surely deter criminals everywhere from scamming millions out of unwary consumers. Nobody's life could possibly continue with that kind of conviction hanging over their head.
As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Trudeau is a frequent subject of FTC orders, and he simply changes his next scam to be slightly different from the last, laughing all the way to the bank.