onsdag 9. mars 2011

Camelot Advisors (scam)

A guy named "Mark Cruz" once called me from "Camelot Advisors" in Hong Kong (http://www.camelotadvisors.com). He wanted me to invest in a company called "Sensor Focus Media"...Or something.

Can't remember the conversation exactly, but I told him that I was not interested before he had the chance to tell me any details. And he goes like this: "But how can you know that you're not interested when you don't know what I'm going to tell you??" Later he realizes that this isn't going anywhere and says "Ok, I see where this is going. Well, if you're not interested in us then we are not interested in you!"... Fair enough.

I checked out their website by searching for "Camelot Advisors". Again it's a bit sloppy work on the website. They have a section containing news from Google. On each section there is a link that just links back to the main page. Instead you would expect it to show something else.

Most of the text on the page is just a part of a picture. This means that Google can't index this text, and people won't be able to search for any of these words on Google. I guess they don't want any attention from people other than the ones that they call (by using images they will never/rarely appear in any Google search results)

On their contact page they have a drop-down list that contains reasons for contacting them. One of 4 reasons is "problems logging in". I guess they must have a lot of problems with this as I suspect the login form is not working AT ALL. However, by contacting them you show them interest and maybe they will call you back to persuade you into investing in a company with a fancy name (scam).

The copyright at the bottom of the page says "2009", but the domain was registered 2010, so that site couldn't have been online at that point. Maybe they wanted to make it look like the company was a little older than it is, or they forgot to change it from a previous scam website they used.

They have some terms and conditions on their website, which makes it look serious. However, these are most likely stolen from another website (I don't know if that other site is a scam or not, but at first glance it looked real): http://jmbhomedevelopment.com/content/terms-use

They have a twin site at: http://www.edwardsmithandassociates.com (meaning that they're running multiple scams). On EdwardSmithAndAssociates' contact page it actually says "Contact Camelot Advisors & Associates" - they forgot to change it to "Contact Edward Smith And Associates"

The domain camelotadvisors.com is - surprise, surprise - registered through another company that protects the identity of the scammers.

The domain edwardsmithandassociates.com is, however, registered by a Hong Kong company called "Edward Smith And Associates". However, it may not be a real name and address at all.

The two twin sites are located in the same data center (that's what I assume as the IP addresses are almost the same)

Individually these arguments may not be that strong, but together they make it obvious: SCAM!



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