Yet another client reported they had been cold called by a company, name given as Global Computer Solutions, claiming their computer had errors.
They mentioned that Microsoft had passed on information to them that this persons computer had errors on it along with their contact details.
Of course anyone with some privacy wits about them would know that Microsoft would probably be breaching numerous privacy laws if this was the case. Come to think of it, when was the last time you bought a computer and registered Microsoft Windows with Microsoft (eg giving them your personal details)?

When challenged as to their identity, the caller gave their name and a number that could be called to verify who they were. Funnily enought they have a Melbourne office.
Well, not really, they just have a Melbourne number: 03 90160451 which I suspect just redirect back to India where the call centre is. (am I suspecting too much?)

Using my trusty friend Google, I see that this phone number is listed on two other computer repair websites.

http://azurepcsolutions.com

http://homepcsolution.com

Funnily enough they have other numbers for other countries and also, gee, the company’s addres is in West Bengal, India.

I’d really like to hope that the ACCC and the phone companys would jump on these companys and disconnect their services promptly. (or at least their local services)

Graham Cluley and his guest Sean Richmond discussed this very issue on a podcast.
Check it out, it’s not very long.

(Sophos 05 November 2010, duration 6:15 minutes, size 4.5MBytes)

In fact I reccomend you use the Sophos Naked Security blog as a trusted source of information about security related issues in the IT world, covering Facebook and Twitter to general security issues and news.
They make it very accessable for all user levels. They’re on Facebook too.

To those in the IT industry or those that have some web sense, these scams are nothing new. To those that are new to this, I hope this helps educate you.
To Google, I hope this helps add to the information that is already out there about these frauds to assist those looking for information.

And that number again just to make sure Google picks it up: 03 9016 0451 0390160451

Have I missed something? When did you need to register for search engines?

Anyway, this is here more as search engine fodder. I figure the more people that report this, the more likely it will appear in Google for those checking the authenticity of an email. (and I’m not the only one reporting this, others have too)

According to WHOIS, the SCAMMER appears to be Mark Denaro, csrgmarketing@gmail.com.

The domain being used in the SCAM emails is http://domainregistrat.com which when visited without the unique path, redirects you to http://iglobalmerchantservices.com/contact which seems to be a merchant services company. I don’t think I’d trust them.

The full WHOIS record (which is where he is scrapping your details from) is:

Domain Name: DOMAINREGISTRAT.COM
Registrar: MONIKER

Registrant [2949841]:
        Mark Denaro csrgmarketing@gmail.com
        RG
        200 Park Avenue South
        New York
        NY
        10003
        US

Administrative Contact [2949841]:
        Mark Denaro csrgmarketing@gmail.com
        RG
        200 Park Avenue South
        New York
        NY
        10003
        US
        Phone: +1.13474605327

Billing Contact [2949841]:
        Mark Denaro csrgmarketing@gmail.com
        RG
        200 Park Avenue South
        New York
        NY
        10003
        US
        Phone: +1.13474605327

Technical Contact [2949841]:
        Mark Denaro csrgmarketing@gmail.com
        RG
        200 Park Avenue South
        New York
        NY
        10003
        US
        Phone: +1.13474605327

Domain servers in listed order:

        NS1.WORLDWIDEPROMOTING.COM
        NS2.WORLDWIDEPROMOTING.COM

        Record created on:        2010-07-20 20:08:08.0
        Database last updated on: 2010-12-03 15:08:52.487
        Domain Expires on:        2011-07-20 20:08:09.0

Original email:

To make life easier, I thought I’d reconfigure a printer to use it’s network ability, but was short a network cable.

The nearest place at 4:30 on a Saturday of course was DSE.

$15 for a 1m network cable!
Actually, I wasn’t surprised, but still that’s pretty good consumer ripoff work.
(3m cable was $25)

Here’s an idea. Get rid of the fancy plastic packaging (which will be better for the enviroment anyway) and have plain or almost non existant packaging. $8 maybe? (And that’s still making a big profit)