ABP Group scam

ABP Group Fraud (Stolen Website)

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

This fraudster should not be confused with any other company that may have the same or a similar name. The stolen website graphics and the evidence below identify this criminal and this criminal alone. N.B. - Their website content has been stolen from this genuine and totally innocent travel company.

ABP Group scam screenshot (Stolen Website) - 12-Dec-2009

ABP Group uses the above website that has been stolen from this genuine travel company and is being used to lend an air of legitimacy to a spamvertised mail forwarding scam, (sample spam below). Their domain abpgroup.net was only registered with ABACUS AMERICA, INC. DBA NAMES4EVER/Aplus.net on 17-sep-2009 for the usual 'criminal's domain' minimum period of only one year, their contact telephone number is bogus, they have no location details and they have no web presence. This type of fraud is covered in detail here in a United States Postal Inspection alert.

Evidence of Criminal Fraud:

i) On their 'About Us' page they claim "With over ten years experience", however, their website domain abpgroup.net was only registered with ABACUS AMERICA, INC. DBA NAMES4EVER/Aplus.net on 17-sep-2009 for the usual 'criminal's domain' minimum period of only one year and the whois details are hidden by privacy protect - a clear indication of a fraud domain.

ii) Despite their above claims, a Google search for "ABP Group" fails to return any presence for these criminals, (ignoring their own fake website, of course). Not to be confused with other companies of the same name.

iii) The site content is stolen in its entirety from this genuine travel company - a fact that is not only self-evident but is also clear evidence of criminal fraud.

iv) The fraud spam:

From: Roland Paulson <rp@abpgroup.net>
Date: December 11, 2009

Subject: Re: Correspondence Assistant part time $33/hour (CA)

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in the Mail Assistant position. I think you are a pretty good fit for the job.
Few words about our company - it is based in Australia with a few facility centers throughout the Europe
and called ABP Group, our website is www.abpgroup.net
We are a travel agency but we also provide mail forwarding services for expatriates, international travelers and seasonal workers from all over the
world. As we are experiencing a growing demand for these services from a Unites States residents, we are setting up
a pilot project, dedicated to providing services to them. If the project proves its viability within 6 months,
it will become permanent.
To bring the project to life we are looking to hire few people in the US who would help us with mail handling.
If you are hired your responsibilities would be as follows:

- Receiving mail at your residential address

- Scanning (or taking digital picture of) the front side of every received envelope

- Emailing scanned images to me

- Shipping out accumulated mail biweekly (prepaid UPS postage label will be provided)

Also, reliable mailing address which will be your permanent for at least 3 months, dependability and ability to check
your email few times a day is required.

Mail will be in the form of envelopes only, no parcels, 1-20 envelopes daily. Job will take you about 1 hour per day
on average.
Paycheck will be sent every two weeks in the amount of $400.

If you are still interested in the job, to get started immediately provide your full name and complete mailing address
along with a scan of copy of government issued ID (ID number can be blacked out).
Email is most preferable form of communication due to the big difference in times between Europe and US.

Thank you,

Roland Paulson

Project Manager

ABP Travel Inc

v) The above job is identical to the fraud job posted by an earlier alias, Forward Luxembourg LLC as mentioned in this USPIS Alert. Notice how the company has morphed from 'ABP Group' into 'ABP Travel Inc' at the end of the spam.

vi) How this particular mail forwarding scam works:

All of the above is just a load of old flim-flam, a smokescreen - the mail forwarding and the scanning is fake, pointless and just a confidence building exercise. After a little while doing the fake 'job' for the equally fake company, the dupe is offered a big bonus. All he or she has to do to get the bonus is to pass an 'integrity test' which consists of accepting a large cheque to their personal account and sending the crooks a balance back less the bonus via Western Union or Moneygram or even a cheque. What's wrong with that? Well the crook's cheque is of course either a good fake drawn on a genuine account or stolen funds from a hacked account and by the time the bank receives the information from the remote end, it is too late - the crooks have got the real cash you have sent them and have disappeared and you have lost the lot as the bank recovers the stolen funds. Don't even think about it... There's information on the scam here , along with contact info.

vii) They have no location details at all on their website, just the fake claimed New Zealand telephone number 3 357 0011, (which clearly contradicts their above spam claim to be located in Australia), and it Googles as the fax. number for a totally different and genuine New Zealand travel agent - clear evidence of fraud.

The above evidence clearly demonstrates that the ABP Group website is a fraudulent (stolen) website set up with intent to deceive. If you are an abuse team that has received an abuse report regarding these fraudsters, please consider immediate termination of their services in view of the absolutely undeniable evidence of criminal fraud - please don't delay - these criminals will not respond to any communication from you, (all their whois data is usually false), but will simply take advantage of any attempt at communication as a delaying tactic to allow them time to carry on their criminal activity and prepare their next network.

ABP Group Fraud Domains

Website Domains

abpgroup.net

Registrar

ABACUS AMERICA, INC. DBA NAMES4EVER/Aplus.net (17-sep-2009)

Host

InternetNamesForBusiness.com

IP address

64.29.151.221

Key:
Active
Disabled/Suspended
Parked

Domain Whois Data

WHOIS - abpgroup.net
Registrar:     ABACUS AMERICA, INC. DBA NAMES4EVER
Status:        clientTransferProhibited
Dates:         Created 17-sep-2009   Updated 17-sep-2009 Expires 17-sep-2010
DNS Servers:   NS1.APLUS.NET NS2.APLUS.NET NS3.APLUS.NET

Registrant:
Aplus.net
110 East Broward Blvd, Suite 1650
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
US

Domain name: ABPGROUP.NET

Administrative Contact:
    Domain Listing Agent,   abpgroup.net@domainlistingagent.com
    110 East Broward Blvd, Suite 1650
    Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
    US
    +1.8772758763
Technical Contact:
    Domain Listing Agent,   abpgroup.net@domainlistingagent.com
    110 East Broward Blvd, Suite 1650
    Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
    US
    +1.8772758763

Registration Service Provider:
    APLUS.NET, dns@aplus.net
    877.275.8763
    This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
    DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.

Registrar of Record: Aplus.net
Record last updated on 16-Oct-2009.
Record expires on 17-Sep-2010.
Record created on 17-Sep-2009.

Domain servers in listed order:
    NS2.APLUS.NET   64.29.154.69
    NS1.APLUS.NET   64.29.144.69
    NS3.APLUS.NET   216.251.32.154

Domain status: clientTransferProhibited
                clientUpdateProhibited

DNS Lookup: abpgroup.net A record
Searching for abpgroup.net A record at c.root-servers.net [192.33.4.12]: Got referral to H.GTLD-SERVERS.net. (zone: net.)
Searching for abpgroup.net A record at H.GTLD-SERVERS.net. [192.54.112.30]: Got referral to ns1.aplus.net. (zone: abpgroup.net.)
Searching for abpgroup.net A record at ns1.aplus.net. [64.29.144.69]: Reports abpgroup.net.
Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
abpgroup.net.	A	IN	3600	64.29.151.221
abpgroup.net.	NS	IN	3600	ns1.aplus.net.
abpgroup.net.	NS	IN	3600	ns2.aplus.net.
abpgroup.net.	NS	IN	3600	ns3.aplus.net.
ns1.aplus.net.	A	IN	300	64.29.144.69
ns2.aplus.net.	A	IN	300	64.29.154.69
ns3.aplus.net.	A	IN	300	216.251.32.154

Looking up at the 3 abpgroup.net. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns2.aplus.net [64.29.154.69]	64.29.151.221
ns1.aplus.net [64.29.144.69]	64.29.151.221
ns3.aplus.net [216.251.32.154]	64.29.151.221

The host for the criminal's domain abpgroup.net is InternetNamesForBusiness.com (INFB) on IP address 64.29.151.221.

***Latest News*** Webpage created 12th. December 2009.