We had 37 fraudulent hosting sign ups in an 18 hour period last week. All purchases were for annual hosting accounts.
We had to disable our automatic account creation as our merchant provider was accepting all the fraudulent credit cards. Fortunately only the first four got through and were set up before we discovered what was happening. And they did not get to use them, as we promptly suspended them while we checked out the credit card information with the issuing banks and then the card holders if the information matched. I don't know how they thought they were going to have the use of a hosting account for a full year. This is what first triggered our suspicions to check the new sign ups as we do not receive many annual accounts. Mostly monthly and quarterly. Quarterly I could understand, as they could hope that it would take that long before we would be hit with the chargebacks and close the accounts. But not annual. ----- Original Message ----- From: "quicknet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 1:59 AM Subject: Re: Domain Lock Downside > What i want t to know is what in the world are they buying these domains > for?. > What company names should we be watching for or even content of the sites?. > Is it just domains names or are the trying to purchase websites with them?. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "'Mark Petersen'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 6:13 PM > Subject: RE: Domain Lock Downside > > > > Yeah so much for all these automated systems, when it all comes down to > > an eyeball.. :) > > > > We too have seen a 700% increase in business, and all of it fraudulent > > sourcing from India.. Same crew, using the same 'org name'. One > > actually had the audacity to email us about 2 hours after submitting > > order to ask us to 'please process the order' so they could upload the > > site, etc. A $1000 USD transaction was definitely out of the ordinary.. > > :) > > > > Funny... > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Mark Petersen > > Sent: May 27, 2002 6:24 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: Domain Lock Downside > > > > Well, I don't know about a market upswing, but we sure have seen a rash > > of > > bad / stolen card attempts come in from IP's tracing back to > > south east Asia over the past few days. So much so that we've switched > > over > > to cueing everything and validating by hand for now until things > > settle down. What a pain in the rear! > > -Mark > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "SpyProductions - Lars Hindsley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 12:30 PM > > Subject: Domain Lock Downside > > > > > > > Gents, > > > > > > Locking domains is a PIA because end users can't modify squat without > > > contacting us first. This is OK with the "dumb and happy's" but we > > have > > > customers with 1000+ names in their profiles. > > > > > > It is like what goes up must come down. If you lock it, you need to > > unlock > > > it. Changing DNS is undoable with locked domains, and that is a sore > > spot > > > for most of our customers. > > > > > > I suppose my only option is to enable an option at registration asking > > > customers, "Do you want your domain records locked?" > > > > > > Otherwise, if I'm all wet here tell me. > > > > > > Also, has anyone noticed a market upswing? We have seen an increase > > of > > > domain name registrations recently and I can't help but think it is > > this > > way > > > across the board. Nothing significant but it is noticeable. The > > .com's > > are > > > by far the most popular of course but .us has been much more steady > > and > > > strong than .biz and .info have ever been. Just thought I'd share. > > I'm > > > talking March through May numbers. > > > > > > Regards, > > > Lars Hindsley > > > SpyProductions.com > > > Achieve Web Success > > > > > > > > > > > >
