[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

Anyone even thinking of buying turn-key automatic `profit-generating` websites from places like hotwebsites.us or hotbizsites.us or 123eznet, don`t do it!

This is part of a Mexican scam ring, using a wide number of domain names, promising innocent buyers a piece of the internet pie and then simply taking their money.

Here`s how it works:
The scam webpage begins like this: Welcome to HotWebsites.us! All of our websites are proven profitable before being sold and are specifically designed to generate large cash profits for the owner, you! There are no costs other than the price you see listed. Our websites come with a guaranteed monthly income for the new owner as well as a 10x money back guarantee. Most importantly, you will receive free lightning fast customer service and tech support for life! Every single detail will be taken care of for you and you will even receive free premium hosting and free promotion. Check out a few of the Details page links and you will discover how much profit each website is currently generating.

So you decide to try it out, and spend $29 or $ 465 or take a free test ride... You buy one of the sites and get a great welcome email, saying something like:

You are now the proud new owner and webmaster of this website! The website
and all accounts have been transferred to your name. All of the profits are
now going directly to you. If you log in to your accounts you will see that
you have already started generating profits! Congratulations once again

What you might not notice is that your new site is actually a re-direct of a real site that belongs to someone else entirely and has been hi-jacked by the scammers. You log into your accounts and see that hits are happening. In a few hours you get an email that you have made a sale. Wow, you get excited. You note that you can only get your check in 90 days. Dam*! You want your money faster...
and you look at the notification email, which says something like:

Want to change your payout terms? If you have an existing website and want to change your payout terms you must purchase the website outright for $600. After making payment you must mention on the Thank You page form in the Comments field that you have purchased your existing website outright. You must use the Thank You page to submit your desired payout details. You can request any payout terms you like.

So you send them $600 via paypal or egold or stormpay... and guess what, you can`t get payment in under 30 days... Ah... you try to get some information from the guy you sent your paypal payment to. You also lodge a complaint with Paypal because you realize you`ve been scammed, and you get a nasty email right back from Customer Service , which says in the case of my anonymous victim:

Reversed
FundAccount (name deleted) (qty 1) ($332.00)
txn_id 0UH76773H44254456
receiver email: 1@PreBuildWebsites.com
customer email: [deleted ]
----- Because of your illegal claims all profits from all of your websites
have been seized. Your accrued profits will not be released until all
claims have been cancelled by you. Starting tonight at midnight you will
be charged a service fee of $200 per day per claim. The fee will be
charged to your affiliate account. The payment processor always decides in
our favor 100% of the time without fault so I recommend you cancel the
claim before you cause more trouble for yourself. Save yourself the $200
per day and cancel your claims before midnight. If you want your profits
your only option is to drop your claims as quickly as possible. When you
drop the claims you will receive your accrued profits and start making
money again.

Go to http://www.prodriven.com/scam/viewforum.php?f=1
for more interesting info on this bunch.

Sure there is a testimonials page, but no one at any point actually says they have RECEIVED a cheque or any money... lots of talk of seeing profits in their statistics, but not one person says thank you for having been paid... Strange, n`est-ce pas?

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

Yep, these lovely people are carrying out their threat. My correspondant`s account now reads -$425.... and yet the `sales` made by her fictitious website keep growing too. Miss Laura Collins is the nom-de-guerre of whoever is signing the threatening emails. The guy who received the paypal payment still hasn`t responded to Paypal`s email to him about the complaint filed. I wonder what he is waiting for???? Confirmation from Mexico that all those nice ordinary people whose money he has been receiving and sending along are actually receiving profits cheques??? Hmmmmm

The plot thickens.

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

As an afterthought, a whois? for hotwebsites.us give us:

WHOIS information for hotwebsites.us:

[whois.melbourneit.com]
Domain Name: HOTWEBSITES.US
Domain ID: D6271641-US
Sponsoring Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Domain Status: ok
Registrant ID: D3A05B0ED4BCDFA6
Registrant Name: Web Sites
Registrant Organization: Websites
Registrant Address1: 1442 52nd St
Registrant City: LA
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Postal Code: 90001
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Country Code: US
Registrant Email: WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com
Registrant Application Purpose: P1
Registrant Nexus Category: C12
Administrative Contact ID: D3A05B0ED4BCDFA6
Administrative Contact Name: Web Sites
Administrative Contact Organization: Websites
Administrative Contact Address1: 1442 52nd St
Administrative Contact City: LA
Administrative Contact State/Province: CA
Administrative Contact Postal Code: 90001
Administrative Contact Country: United States
Administrative Contact Country Code: US
Administrative Contact Email: WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com
Administrative Contact Application Purpose: P1
Administrative Contact Nexus Category: C12
Billing Contact ID: D3A05B0ED4BCDFA6
Billing Contact Name: Web Sites
Billing Contact Organization: Websites
Billing Contact Address1: 1442 52nd St
Billing Contact City: LA
Billing Contact State/Province: CA
Billing Contact Postal Code: 90001
Billing Contact Country: United States
Billing Contact Country Code: US
Billing Contact Email: WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com
Billing Contact Application Purpose: P1
Billing Contact Nexus Category: C12
Technical Contact ID: D3A05B0ED4BCDFA6
Technical Contact Name: Web Sites
Technical Contact Organization: Websites
Technical Contact Address1: 1442 52nd St
Technical Contact City: LA
Technical Contact State/Province: CA
Technical Contact Postal Code: 90001
Technical Contact Country: United States
Technical Contact Country Code: US
Technical Contact Email: WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com
Technical Contact Application Purpose: P1
Technical Contact Nexus Category: C12
Name Server: DNS1.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS2.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS3.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Name Server: DNS4.NAME-SERVICES.COM
Created by Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Domain Registration Date: Mon Jun 14 19:33:42 GMT 2004
Domain Expiration Date: Tue Jun 13 23:59:59 GMT 2006
Domain Last Updated Date: Mon Jun 06 05:05:59 GMT 2005

>>>> Whois database was last updated on: Fri Oct 28 05:25:20 GMT 2005 <<<<

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

And a whois? for www.memberaccount.com also gives us the same people:

WHOIS information for membersaccount.com:

[whois.enom.com]

Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com
Contact: support@NameCheap.com
Visit: http://www.namecheap.com/

Domain name: membersaccount.com

Registrant Contact:
Websites
Web Sites (WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com)
+1.8775761500
Fax: none
1442 52nd St
LA, CA 90001
US

Administrative Contact:
Websites
Web Sites (WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com)
+1.8775761500
Fax: none
1442 52nd St
LA, CA 90001
US

Technical Contact:
Websites
Web Sites (WebsiteAssistant@hotmail.com)
+1.8775761500
Fax: none
1442 52nd St
LA, CA 90001
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com
dns3.name-services.com
dns4.name-services.com
dns5.name-services.com

Creation date: 03 Feb 2005 06:59:23
Expiration date: 03 Feb 2006 06:59:23

While a whois? for www.123ez.net produces:

WHOIS information for 123ez.net:

[whois.enom.com]

Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com
Contact: support@NameCheap.com
Visit: http://www.namecheap.com/

Domain name: 123ez.net

Registrant Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (ff44959b7ed0410793923f9dbc291ce1.protect@whoisgua rd.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045
US

Administrative Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (ff44959b7ed0410793923f9dbc291ce1.protect@whoisgua rd.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045
US

Technical Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (ff44959b7ed0410793923f9dbc291ce1.protect@whoisgua rd.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045
US

Status: Locked

[awty]

Amazing the games people play, isn't it?
(Another hotmail address... surprise? Can't even use an address on their own domain!)
Jeff

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

What is telling is that the website supposedly belonging to my correspondant and only my correspondant is called www.dates-online.us . Guess what? I knew you were interested: it is simply a redirect from the established, legitimate and quite well-known www.match.com . Go to the dates-online sign up page and it even says match.com on the page!!!!

Because this interests little ol` me, I will go through the sites these lovely scammers have for sale and post the legitimate site they are redirecting from. I will do this until my correspondant gets her money back from the person she sent $332 to, has the penalties removed from her account and ... and this is a big AND, actually receives the `profits` from the websites she was informed she owned.... right up until the present moment.

[duvester]

more people experience to be scammer now..

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

A partial solution has been found to my correspondant`s problem: the human being who received the paypal payment of $332 has refunded it in full. The `company` still hasn`t said anything, however, and the `profits` apparently are still accumulating in the `happy new website owner`s account.

Stay tuned for new developments... I think it might be a good idea to contact the real websites and inform them of the use their sites are being put to...

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

Other names for the same rip-off artists:

Automatic-Websites.us
HomeBusiness4You.us
HotBizSites.com
InstantWebsites.biz
www.buy-website.net/

[wannabe-exFFinvestor]

Adding to the fun: the site sold as VacationBook.net has been hi-jacked from the very respectable Travelnow.com. And my correspondant has ``made`` nearly $200 in electronic monetary statistics in about 36 hours from it.... LOL