Detective game - can you spot the scam and how it works?

[TrustButVerify]

Here's a fun little game. It's not about a website for sale but it is a nice little exercise in fraud spotting and number manipulation.

I'll lay out all the pieces and let some one else buy a vowel and solve (we gotta have some US show references up in here) .


So I'm looking for contractors over on odesk and I see something really odd in someone's work history.

download.jpg

Data Entry Specialist + Proxy Switching?

She even goes so far as to mention the website she was doing "data entry" on.
http://myelectronicrewards.com/ipad/index.v2.php?

Get a Apple iPad.jpg


Hhhhhmmmmmmm.... that's odd. Why would someone be doing data entry on a "Get a free Ipad" site. The site where you give your zip code and get bombarded with affiliate offers and your email is spammed, etc.

After doing some searching, here are the details of the job she was doing:

Job Description

Looking for someone who will be taking information from an Excel sheet and pasting it into a web form.

You also MUST know how to switch to new US Proxies - I will not provide it. THIS IS A MUST!! THEY ALSO MUST BE PRIVATE PROXIES AND CANNOT BE PUBLIC!!! THEY MUST BE ELITE PROXIES AND YOU CANNOT USE HIDEMYASS OR HIDE MY IP

In your message, please tell me what kind of experience you have done in the past with proxy switching. You must obtain your OWN proxies and have your own source. I will teach you everything you need to do, but you MUST
REMEMBER, KNOWLEDGE OF PROXY SWITCHING IS A MUST!!

MUST HAVE A PLACE TO GET ELITE PROXIES FROM (MEANING THEY CANNOT SHOW AS SUSPECTED NETWORK SHARING DEVICE ON WHATISMYIPADDRESS.COM)

Wow, he really seems adamant about those proxies not being detectable....



Here's the kicker, check out how many hours he has been having people submit zip codes and sign up to that site:

odesk numbers.jpg
http://awesomescreenshot.com/055s01pda

Yes that's right... over 12,000 hours of having someone submit (supposedly) their zip code name and email address to myelectronicrewards.com. Can you say "Super Affiliate"?


Alright my friends - anyone care to explain this one?


Answers on a postcard

[KenW3]

Postcard reads:

Can you say "Super Affiliate"?

No, but I can say fraud and fines.

The website address you supplied belongs to SubscriberBASE Holdings, Inc

After the following was no longer an option: Promoters of online freebies agree to stop selling in Washington, it seems the company engaged in other activities detailed online.

There are more links like this. I'd rather not supply the name and other business entities, with the additional practices (as you detailed in the OP) mentioned in the documents, but all of this is online. It's a shame there are people like this.

[TrustButVerify]

KenW3 - interesting how all of those odesk jobs stopped the month before the settlement mentioned here http://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsre...25791800735488

[KenW3]

TrustButVerify, I believe your adept detective work has highlighted a very interesting aspect of this fraud case for the members here. I suspect all of the prosecutors in the various states would not even have the ability to understand what you have found