Threat Center Live Blog: Chinese Scams Resurface with New Branding

The Threat Prevention Team has found thousands of URLs and over 200 new domains registered to a group of Chinese scammers. The new sites are the same as the old, but with new branding and promotional products, such as "Acai Power Slim" "Pure Magnum Pro" and "Colo Cleanse Plus". This scam is perpetrated by sending spam messages advertising a "free trial" of the products. In the end, the criminals have made off with personal information, a credit card number and a recurring monthly charge.

Here is an example of an “Acai Power Slim” site. The pages are filled with bogus testimonials, citations from CBS and ABC News and clinical research. Also note the pressure to sign up for the "risk free trial."

As you dig through the site, you'll notice any meaningful way to contact the site owners has been removed. An email form is present which presumably will never be answered. All of the domains found match the previous pattern and have been registered to Chinese ownership.

DomainName : appleaboard.com

Creation Date ..................2009-08-19
Last Update Date ...............2009-08-24

Registrant Name .................FANG JUN
Registrant Organization .........FANG JUN
Registrant Address ..............JIANGYANGBERILI13
Registrant City..................YY
Registrant Province/State .......HN
Registrant Country Code .........CN
Registrant Postal Code ..........414039
Registrant Phone Number .........+86.073051421473
Registrant Fax ..................+86.073051421473
Registrant Email ................hiuaxiang@163.com

Expect to see an increase in spam associated with these domains over the next several weeks as the scammers attempt to lure people to these sites. eSoft is detecting these sites as "Phishing & Fraud."

Here is a sample list of the recently registered domains: