RealScam.com, Antiscam Site, Is Under DDoS Attack
UPDATED 11:39 A.M. EDT (MARCH 21, U.S.A.) RealScam.com reports that the DDoS attack is continuing, but that measures have been taken to restore accessibility. The site is back online. Here, below, our earlier story . . .
RealScam.com, a site that concerns itself with international mass-marketing fraud, is experiencing a DDoS attack, a source told the PP Blog this afternoon.
“We’re seeing what we can do about it,” the source said.
On the plus side, the source noted, the DDoS attack suggests RealScam is meeting its mission of informing the public about scams.
The attack is occurring against the backdrop of government actions against the Profitable Sunrise HYIP “program.” RealScam posters have been following Profitable Sunrise developments closely. Forum posters also are monitoring developments concerning “Banners Broker,” another mysterious online “program.”
Precisely why RealScam.com has been targeted is unclear. At least one purported member of Profitable Sunrise — writing on another site on Saturday — said he wished the hacker’s group “Anonymous” was paying attention to negative coverage of Profitable Sunrise on the web. The poster did not reference RealScam.com in his apparent call for a DDoS attack. Instead, he referenced another site carrying negative news about Profitable Sunrise.
The attack against RealScam.com also occurs against the backdrop of remarks in Washington today by Michael J. Bresnick, executive director of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In an address to the Exchequer Club of Washington, D.C., Bresnick referenced mass-marketing fraud.
“. . . the Consumer Protection Working Group has prioritized the role of financial institutions in mass marketing fraud schemes — including deceptive payday loans, false offers of debt relief, fraudulent health care discount cards, and phony government grants, among other things — that cause billions of dollars in consumer losses and financially destroy some of our most vulnerable citizens,” Bresnick said. “The Working Group also is investigating the businesses that process payments on behalf of the fraudulent merchants — financial intermediaries referred to as third-party payment processors.”
Both Profitable Sunrise and Banners Broker — like many purported “opportunites” before them — have relied on banks and payment processors to keep cash flowing to the schemes. Bresnick did not mention either company in his remarks.
“The reason that we are focused on financial institutions and payment processors is because they are the so-called bottlenecks, or choke-points, in the fraud committed by so many merchants that victimize consumers and launder their illegal proceeds,” Bresnick said. “For example, third-party payment processors are frequently the means by which fraudulent merchants are able to get paid. They provide the scammers with access to the national banking system and facilitate the movement of money from the victim of the fraud to the scam artist. And financial institutions through which these fraudulent proceeds flow, we have seen, are not always blind to the fraud. In fact, we have observed that some financial institutions actually have been complicit in these schemes, ignoring their BSA/AML obligations, and either know about — or are willfully blind to — the fraudulent proceeds flowing through their institutions.”
Despite the absurd payout advertised by Profitable Sunrise (and claims that Banners Broker doubles money), some Profitable Sunrise members have complained on forums about credit unions in North Carolina and Alberta that have raised serious questions about Profitable Sunrise, a “program” that advertised a “Long Haul” plan purported to pay 2.7 percent interest a day.
Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi and pyramd scheme operating online, complained on its own Blog about credit unions raising questions about the Zeek “program.”
The SEC later said that Zeek scammed hundreds of thousands of people by duping participants into believing that the “program’s” payout of about 1.5 percent a day came from legitimate means.
Thank you my friend. As annoying as this attack may be we take it as a complement, someone out there is willing to pay money to keep us from telling the truth about them. We will be back and more dedicated than ever, much as Patrick was when the same thing happened to him.
Hang in there, Glim. RealScam is doing a lot of good.
Patrick
LOL. Anonymous isn’t stupid. They would certainly go after these scams first.
A good ol’ DDOS attack at Real Scam is one of the clearest signs ever that the right toes are being trodden on and that the forum is hurting the fraudsters. It’s a bloody nuisance, but, as Glim Dropper says – it has tob e taken as a complement.
AND
Michael Bresnick of FFETF’s comment
“The Working Group also is investigating the businesses that process payments on behalf of the fraudulent merchants — financial intermediaries referred to as third-party payment processors.”
Sounds like music to more ears than just mine. No payment processors to process black money will be a death knell to a very large number of online frauds.
So that’s why I haven’t been able to reach it in some time. Thank you for the update, Patrick. This kind of reaction suggests to me that Realscam’s activities are causing noticeable financial harm to the organized criminal groups that run such investment frauds.
Yu Blueit
Amazing how free speech only applies to them, and those who agree with them. But not to those of us who disagree with them.
As they say: “You know when you’re over the target when you’re taking flak.”
A compliment indeed…Hope to see realscam back real soon…
If there is anything I can do to help realscam admin in any way then please contact me.
RealScam is back online
DDoS attacks can result in criminal prosecution. If this is from an individual residing in the US it’s a major dumb move considering that these scams are already on US law enforcement/regulatory radar. In other words, attacking some random site might never rise to criminal prosecution (the feds got bigger fish to fry) but they are already frying the fraudsters.
Another way to ‘play dirty’ if you expect continued attacks over time is to move RealScam over to Amazon hosting. Let’s just say it’s much easier to refer for criminal prosecution an attack against your web property on Amazon hosting than on .
Ooops – gone again. Someone has gotten someone really really mad.
I think that this comment may hold the key
“Realscam’s activities are causing noticeable financial harm to the organized criminal groups that run such investment frauds”
How true!! Looks like some of the rats are coming out of the wood pile and exposing themselves. Arrogance and stupidity seem to make them want to deny the facts presented by RS, PP, and other antiscam sites. RS will be back just as PPBlog came back, we are causing some problems for these people.
I would like to thank everyone for their concern, the attack isn’t over but we’ve taken steps to deal with it better. One very nice thing about the antiscam community writ large is that there’s a very large talent pool and many kind and generous people. Jason (Poyol) stepped up for us in a very significant way and has made a world of difference. I’m honored to say that he’s joined the site’s full time staff.
I’m personally of the opinion that someone is unhappy about all the (very deserved) attention being paid to Profitable Sunrise on Real Scam.
I’d also note that performing a DDOS operation on a site will get you arrested and convicted, as Bruce Raisley found out when he kept attacking the website RickRoss.com (not the rapper, the cultbuster). Raisley’s appeal was denied, and I believe he’s currently a guest of the US feds.
So, if you’re doing it, I’d suggest not doing it.
Hehe. Kevin Thompson just named 3 potential scams… Banner Broker, Profitable Sunrise… AND GoFun Places (Zeek clone) in his latest blog entry, about how you should NEVER get involved in what he calls “leveraged profitable sharing programs” (i.e. pay-to-play profit-share, i.e. probably Ponzi schemes)
http://thompsonburton.com/mlmattorney/2013/03/21/leveraged-profit-sharing-programs-spread/
Getting a page not found error at this moment.
“The page you tried to access does not exist on this server. This page may not exist due to the following reasons:
You are the owner of this web site and you have not uploaded (or incorrectly uploaded) your web site. For information on uploading your web site using FTP client software or web design software, click here for FTP Upload Information.
The URL that you have entered in your browser is incorrect. Please re-enter the URL and try again.
The Link that you clicked on incorrectly points to this page. Please contact the owner of this web site to inform them of this situation.”
Let’s hope RealScam is just down for simple maintenance, Surfer.
Patrick
SBM has a message:
http://www.realscam.com/f23/go-daddy-migrated-us-new-server-2148/
Patrick
Just reading Thompson blog entry.
This paragraph I found VERY interesting,
“But it’s not an investment…
Sure, I know the counter-argument. People argue that Zeek never “asked for investments.” Instead, they were selling “sample bids” (wink, wink), which led to activity on the website, which led to profit, which led to profit distributions to the investors / distributors. Curiously though, the vast, overwhelming, ridiculous majority of those sample bids (99%+) were never used, which means the program was just cycling money from older investors to newer ones. While I know the counter-argument, it’s flat out silly. And those of us in the industry, we knew it and we said nothing. We let Zeek take advantage of the credibility we all work hard to create.”
Especially, “we knew it and we said nothing”.
Thom