Thursday, November 5, 2009

SMS Alert,: A new approach to Scammer in Nigeria

It was 2am in the night on Thursday5 November 2009, I was in a deep sleep in the late night when my cell phone rang, oh after a very stress day, I dont expect any call at such odd hour but as the caller turn out to be a mentor I had no choice except to pick up the call ( in a relationship that had lasted for a decade, this is the first time he called in the deep of night) so I hope everything is right! for your pleasure here is close transcript of our night discussion.

Caller: Hello, sorry to buzz you at this hour

Me: hope there is no problem

Caller: yeah there is this sms alert I got from MTN ( one the leading Nigeria Telecommunication).

Me: Oh, what is? (Quite number of such sms had been recieved per day either as promotion or advertizing, or network overload warning) So i think this should not warrant this late night call, and indeed it not.

Caller: I was informed that I had won 1Million Naira in MTN XTRACOOL ( XTRACOOL is one MTN Nigeria free all night call).
Me: Oh I see, do they call you aside from the sms alert?

Caller: Nope

Me: This is another tactic from this fraudster guys, just disregard the sms, as MTN will call you not sending sms alert (if at all you won, meanwhile this a person that does not even registered for such service).

Caller: Ok, you mean it is frauds?

Me: Yes, okay forward the content of the sms to me

Caller: Okay, I will do that now

Some minute latter I recieved this sms from the caller

N1,000,000 has been credited to you in the xtracool draw. your code is 004848.visit "www.xtracools.com" before 24hrs for your Prize. M-T-N Everywhere you go

Immediate I recieved and read the sms, the caller called back

Caller: did you see the sms. I sent now?

Me: Yes, just like I told you before, this is scam as that site is not official MTN site, MTN only has one site which is www.mtnonline.com

Caller: You meaning it?

Me: yes, dont worry I will check that site www.xtralcools.com in the morning and get back to you my finding.

Caller: Goodnight

Me: Goonight

As usual, when I got to office, I check on the doamin name to know who owns it and scrap some other data for this write up, though the domain information is protect hence you wont be able to know who owns it but the server location and some other stuff can be know, this are the www.xtracools.com informstion

Registrant Search:
"PrivacyProtect.org" was found in about 865,878 other domains
Email Search:
is associated with about 642,969 domains
Registrar History:
3 registrars with 3 drops.
NS History:
6 changes on 5 unique name servers over 3 years.
IP History:
15 changes on 14 unique name servers over 5 years.
Whois History:
10 records have been archived since 2007-07-23 .
Registration Service Provided By: GOSSIMER, LLC
Contact: +1.8889024678

Domain Name: XTRACOOLS.COM

Registrant:
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin ()
P.O. Box 97
Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Moergestel
null,5066 ZH
NL
Tel. +45.36946676

Creation Date: 03-Nov-2009
Expiration Date: 03-Nov-2010

Domain servers in listed order:
ns4.highhosting.net
ns3.highhosting.net
ns2.highhosting.net
ns1.highhosting.net

Administrative Contact:
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin ()
P.O. Box 97
Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Moergestel
null,5066 ZH
NL
Tel. +45.36946676

Technical Contact:
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin ()
P.O. Box 97
Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Moergestel
null,5066 ZH
NL
Tel. +45.36946676

Billing Contact:
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin ()
P.O. Box 97
Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Moergestel
null,5066 ZH
NL
Tel. +45.36946676

Status:ACTIVE

Server information:

ICANN Registrar:
DIRECTI INTERNET SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD. D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Created:
2009-11-03
Expires:
2010-11-03
Updated:
2009-11-03
Registrar Status:
clientTransferProhibited
Name Server:
NS1.HIGHHOSTING.NET (has 279 domains)
NS2.HIGHHOSTING.NET (has 279 domains)
NS3.HIGHHOSTING.NET (has 279 domains)
NS4.HIGHHOSTING.NET (has 279 domains)
Whois Server:
whois.publicdomainregistry.com

IP Location:
United States - Pennsylvania - Scranton - Network Operations Center Inc
Response Code:
200
Domain Status:
Registered And Active Website

so with this little informtion the hosting company has been contacted about the fraud activities of this site and the site www.xtracools.com had been pulled down


As you can see from above related story, anybody can fall or be tempted by money, always share your knowledge about everything you know as it may be beenficail to someone you love. The caller is highly respected and intellectual somebody, he has over fifteen published book to his credit, yet perharp he might fall for this juices trap.

Always look underhood.
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