SE Services - Expiring domain name scam

Ever got an email with the title being something like this "YourDomainName.com Notice of Registration Soon" ?

They will write something like this:


"To: Domain Owner


Your order #23511877 has been received and is currently processing. Registration includes SE submission for YOURDOMAINNAME.COM for 12 months. There is no obligation to pay for this order unless you complete your payment by May 8, 2012. SE Services provides submission services and search engine ranking organization for domain owners.


Failure to complete your search engine registration by May 8, 2012 may result in the cancellation of this order (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web)."

What's wrong with it?

1. According to any whois-site (for example:  http://whois.domaintools.com), your domain name probably doesn't expire yet. And before it's about to expire, the company you bought the domain from will most likely remind you that you have to pay if you want to keep ownership. 
2. But then again, it's a bit vague what you will actually lose if you don't pay according to this email. In truth, you will lose nothing if you don't pay. They claim that they are already providing you with services that will make you visible in search engines etc., but this is a lie. 
3. What company is this? Does the email say? Does the payment web site say? No. If you're gonna transfer money to someone you'd prefer to know who it is, right? 1 place it the email it is referred to "SE Services", but I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a company name or not. You'd expect them to have a logo, like any other company. 
4. "They have all my information, like name and address, this must be legit, right??" - This is public information connected to your domain name. A whois-search (described in pt 1) will expose this information.
5. They link to a "secure payment" web site. This page/site is not secure at all. Your web browser usually contains an image of a padlock or show HTTPS:// in front of the web site url IF the web site has been loaded through a secure socket. You should familiarize your self with this on your favorite browser. 
6. When trying to enter credit card information, it shows that they've put a little effort into the field validation. For example, if you just write 1234123412341234 as credit card number, they will know that the card is not correct. Why did they do this? Well, perhaps to make it look more real and to make sure they usually have real information when they contact their payment provider to steal your money. 
7. Their domain name, urlregisdomai.com, is registered at moniker.com, which hosts many domains used for frauds. It also seems to allow them to register domains under false names and addresses. 
8. A Google search for their domain name shows me that this site has been reported for fraud on many forums and web sites.
9. If I type "http://urlregisdomai.com" I get redirected to another site  http://iglobalmerchantservice.com/contact ... See how they transfer you directly to the /contact page? Convenient, since most of the people that goes to this site probably has a complaint. If you want to complain, you just have to fill in some more information about your credit card. 
10. The site also have a phone number on top. Have not tried it, but I assume it doesn't take you to a company called iGlobal Merchant Service. 
11. I googled some of the text on iGlobal's web site. And found out that they stole it from a legit company called CCBill (now see, CCBill has secure web sites, and they don't even ask about your credit card details if you need to contact support!) (see comparison below)
12. I'm not sure what they do with the card information they collect on iglobalmerchantservice.com, but I wouldn't be surprised if they some how try to get more money out of you.
13. There is not a single link on iglobalmerchantservice.com. Not a single link. (They haven't bothered to have more than one web page?)

iGlobal Merchant Service's first page text (fraud):

"iGlobal was created to serve the needs of consumers looking for a fast, safe and convenient way to purchase online services. iGlobal has been a trusted payment processor since 2004, processing millions of online transactions each year and earning its reputation as a leader in the industry."

CCBill's support page text (legit):

"CCBill was created to serve the needs of consumers looking for a fast, safe and convenient way to purchase access to online venues. CCBill has been a trusted E-Merchant since 1998, processing millions of online transactions each year and earning its reputation as a leader in the industry.

Liv Hansen in NorwegianSEO - SEO Scam

Got this email in my spam folder, but figured many people might fall for it:

"Hei,

Jeg benytter denne muligheten til å introdusere meg selv, navnet mitt er Liv Hansen,
veldig fint å møte deg. Jeg jobber som en SEO manager for Norwegian SEO.

Jeg gjennomfører en undersøkelse for en av mine partnere og mens jeg gjorde det
la jeg merke til [my domain name] og jeg har noen interessante forslag til deg
og jeg vil gjerne fortelle deg mer om dem.

Som en SEO ekspert driver jeg kvalitetssider som kan
matche og hjelpe siden din til å få høyere rangering og trafikk.

Hvis du er interessert, vil jeg gjerne sende deg mer informasjon
og alle detaljene som trengs for å gjøre det.

Tusen takk,

Liv Hansen
norwegianseo.com"

The signs

1. Strange Norwegian phrasing making me believe that the email has been translated from English. The beginning gives it away "I'm taking the opportunity to introduce myself, my name is Liv Hansen, very nice to meet you". Not many Norwegians write like this (in Norwegian that is)
2. She's telling me about how she was doing some research for one of her customers and stumbling over my web site. Sounds fishy. 
3. She gives me very little information in the email.
4. The domain was registered 9 days before I got the email. Very common for frauds as they don't usually have long life spans.
5. The domain name info is incorrect. It refers to the address "Spiralen 160", but searching on this address on Google or Yellow Pages gives me no results. 
6. Her website, http://www.norwegianseo.com has very little content, in fact it only has ONE page and none of what might look like links are links. There are no links on the page (except for a link back to the same page)
7. On the page, they say: "Svært få kan matche Interonlineseo når det gjelder ekspertise og erfaring", meaning "Very few can match InterOnlineSEO when it comes to expertise and experience". Oh, I thought this was "NorwegianSEO", not "InterOnlineSEO". Perhaps InterOnlineSEO was the previous scam they were running?
8. When checking InterOnlineSEO.com I see that the domain name has been registered at the same registrar. Very likely the same owner, just that the info is fake. This time it's registered by a German person.
9. The layout of InterOnlineSEO.com is pretty much the same as NorwegianSEO.com
10. InterOnlineSEO.com doesn't mention InterOnlineSEO in their description. Instead they refer to "BangOnSEO". How can they be so sloppy?
11. BangOnSEO.com is registered at the same registrar as the other two domains. The web site also have no links and only contains one page. Compared to the other two, this page actually refers to itself when talking about how they can't be matched on expertise and experience.
12. "Liv Hansen" also links to her LinkedIn profile. If she's on LinkedIn, she must be real, right? Well, she  has 0 connections. Searching for her previous companies ExpertsNO and AdsNO I didn't find much. 
13. There is also no company called "NorwegianSEO" in the norwegian company register. 
14. If they are so good at SEO, they should have more than one page on their web site. Many pages equals better content equals better ranking. The answer is that they don't bother, cause those who are about to send them money has no knowledge of SEO and will not pay attention to it. 
15. I spent less than 30 minutes digging all this up AND write this blog post. If you spend more time, you'll find more. 

What is the scam about?

I don't know, but here's my guess: You will have to transfer an advance to a bank account far away for services you're about to receive. Will you get them? Nope. 

Need help with your SEO?

Assuming you live in for example London, how about searching for one of the following:

- search engine optimization london

- seo london

- seo companies london

....and see who has done the best SEO for their own SEO company?

Good luck

Update

I answered "Liv Hansen" and told "her" that I didn't know what SEO was. I got a response within an hour or so. While they are lying about who they are, they may not be interested in your money after all. They want you to link to their casino affiliate web site. For them, this will be enormous help, because they might be able to get tons of links back from various companies. They offer 3 links back to your site, from a site they call PowerYourDesign.com - So while they'll end up with perhaps hundreds or thousands of links from different web sites, you get 3 links from one web site. This helps them a lot, but it doesn't do much good for you. 

Judging by their approach, I would be hesitant about using their services. I would also not want links to casino affiliate web sites on my company web site. 

I would also be concerned about doing business with their related companies like: HostGator.com and EsCasinoBonus.com as they seem to be involved.