SCAM ALERT - CRS - Central Registration Service is a SCAM - BEWARE

So yesterday I receive this notice in the mail. It looks like a bill; an invoice. But is it? It is printed on some pretty official looking invoice paper, has all kinds of information about my company, phone number, address, and a domain name I own called "wisconsinwireless.net".

The invoice simply states:

"standard registration via hosting service for"

URL: http://www.wisconsinwireless.net
contact address: Maria's Internet Access
referencenumber: ycxa 3796110********* (omitted)

Then there is a total listed in the amount of: 966,00$

I assume they mean, $966.00

There is a number on the invoice: 212-627-8877. So I call it. It rings... and rings... and rings.. Then eventually goes to a busy signal.

I read the invoice more carefully this time. That number, it says, to "forward the completed and signed form via fax to". Ah, so maybe it is a fax number. So I fax a penis length chart to them, using two different fax machines and numbers. Neither fax gets through; both fail.

So the next method of payment is to go online to: http://www.central-registration-service.com/payment

Which I do. I find that you can pay by check. They have listed the following address to send your money to:

CRS Corporation
1133 Broadway, Suite706
New York, NY 10010
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Or you can pay buy bank transfer using their swift code (LOYAVCVX) and Loyal Bank Limited (in Belize City, Central America) account number: 1040003940306. Yeah right.

Or finally you may simply choose to whip out your favorite credit card and simply pay fast and easily on line. Of course the online link takes you to paypal.

Now here is something interesting I did not mention before. The way I got to the payment options when visiting http://www.central-registration-services.com/payment was by entering completely bogus information. When you get to that page it will ask you for a reference number and company name. I put in the "example" they provided, "John Doe" and for a reference number "abcd-123456789". Then I clicked submit.



Instead of returning an error for inputing a reference number that would obviously not exist if this were a legitimate database query, it brought me to another page which asked me for my company name and URL. I entered something like, FUCK YOU for the company name, and "www.central-registration-services.com" as my URL.



When I clicked submit again, it showed me that $966.00 invoice amount, even though I inputed bogus information. When I clicked next it brought me to the payment options page.





So who exactly is this CRS place? Well, looking at their address they listed as being in NYC on Broadway, I was able to find out that the company that actually occupies this suite is:

Secure PC Solutions (http://www.securepcsolutions.com)

Registrant:
securepcsolutions
1133 broadway
suite 706
New York, New York 10 010
United States
http://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: SECUREPCSOLUTIONS.COM
Created on: 16-Oct-03
Expires on: 16-Oct-07
Last Updated on:

Administrative Contact:
lansdown, james james@securepcsolutions.com
1133 broadway
suite 706
new york, New York 10 010
United States
+1.2124652680

Technical Contact:
lansdown, james james@securepcsolutions.com
1133 broadway
suite 706
new york, New York 10 010
United States
+1.2124652680

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SECUREPCSOLUTIONS.COM
NS2.SECUREPCSOLUTIONS.COM

So I called them up looking for Jame Lansdown and this CRS place. Oh, in case you did not see from above, their number is 212-465-2680. It rings and rings, but then I get a voice mail attendant answering Secure PC Solutions, telling me that they are either busy or it is after hours, please leave a message. I hang up.

Now this CRS place, their domain name anyway, was only registered about a month ago:

Domain name: central-registration-service.com

Registrant Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (3d545a0bc89c4037838a2139b3f5d465.protect@whoisguard.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045
US

Administrative Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (3d545a0bc89c4037838a2139b3f5d465.protect@whoisguard.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045
US

Technical Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (3d545a0bc89c4037838a2139b3f5d465.protect@whoisguard.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
ns1.central-registration-service.com
ns2.central-registration-service.com

Nice how everything is hidden... Yeah, this is a company I am going to give nearly a grand to for my domain name "standard registration via hosting service", as they call it.

Looks like the server they are on belongs to some AMX HOST (http://www.amxhost.com) who claims to have this stellar network and multiple locations around the US. Meanwhile, they are nothing more than a reseller for Liquid Web:

From what I can tell, they are hosted by a company called Liquid Web (www.liquidweb.com) They are one of those ghetto scum web hosts that will hosting anything for nothing...

OrgName: Liquid Web, Inc.
OrgID: LQWB
Address: 4210 Creyts Rd.
City: Lansing
StateProv: MI
PostalCode: 48917
Country: US

ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.liquidweb.com:4321/

NetRange: 72.52.128.0 - 72.52.191.255
CIDR: 72.52.128.0/18
NetName: LIQUIDWEB-6
NetHandle: NET-72-52-128-0-1
Parent: NET-72-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS.LIQUIDWEB.COM
NameServer: NS1.LIQUIDWEB.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2006-08-03
Updated: 2006-08-03

OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE551-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-800-580-4985
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@liquidweb.com
http://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
OrgTechHandle: IPADM47-ARIN
OrgTechName: IP Administrator
OrgTechPhone: +1-800-580-4985
OrgTechEmail: ipadmin@liquidweb.com

So if you happen to see one of these notices come in the mail from a CRS please do not send them any money. This is a SCAM. Other tell tail signs that should alert you to this obvious attempt at fraud are the fact that the envelop the invoice comes in is sent from Central America, not NYC where these guys claim to reside. The bank they want you to send money to is located in Central America, not in NYC where they claim to reside. The phone number they provide on the invoice is not valid.

The back of the invoice has a bunch of disclaimers, all of which are written in perfect "ENGRISH"

I highly doubt you will get any service from these guys, even if you do send them money. If they really are doing "Domain Registration", their should be some type of transfer initiation during the payment process. There is none.

I would have put a image of the invoice up, but my damn scanner does not like OSX for some reason... You can thank the fuck tards at Microtek for that. Idiots.

If anyone has more information on thihttp://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifs CRS place and this apparently bogus software company, Secure PC Solutions, please let me know. Or if you are in the area, ie., around the 1100 block of Broadway, stop in at the following address and see if James Lansdown is there:

1133 broadway
suite 706
New York, New York 10010

That or send James and email: james@securepcsolutions.com

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