AST Finance & Consult scam

AST Finance & Consult Fraud

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

AST Finance & Consult Screenshot - 10-Feb-2009

This fraudster should not be confused with any other company that may have a similar name. The website graphics and the evidence below identify this criminal.

AST Finance & Consult is a fake website that has been set up very recently for criminal purposes. The location details are demonstrably bogus, they have no internet presence and their website domain was very recently registered. They are offering a 'job' accepting payments to your bank account and transferring a balance to them which is the clear money mule function. It is hosted on the same IP and using the same nameservers as the AREM Networks fraud. Their home page text has been stolen from the genuine Mesirow website.

Evidence of Criminal Fraud:

i) You'll notice in the above screenshot that they state: "AST Finance & Consult is a diversified financial services firm headquartered in New York. We are a primarily employee-owned, private company with more than 1,100 employees in offices across the country and in the United Kingdom.", yet their website domain theastproject.com was only registered with BIZCN.COM, INC. on 27-Jan-2009. Clearly a lie and as such a clear indication of fraud.

ii) Despite their above claims, a Google search for "AST Finance & Consult" returns no hits at all at the moment. A clear indication of fraud.

iii) The above screenshot text under the heading "Our Focus is on You" has been stolen from the genuine Mesirow website home page - site theft.

iv) This 'Money Mule' job of "Finance Manager " is posted on their website under the 'Careers' menu option:

Careers
This is easy job, but your help is very important for us and our clients. This job does not require any special education. This job wouldn't bring you millions, we do not suggest huge earnings. You wouldn't have look clients for us or sell our production. You wouldn't have to pay us for taking you on our list. However we guaranteee stable income.

Our Finance Department is seeking an Finance Manager whose primary duties will include control of payments from customers.

Vacancy: Finance Manager

Time schedule: full-time or part-time

Location: UK, US

Main duties: to accept payments from customers in your region, send money to the Head Office, quick work with the company documentation.

Tools for work: bank transfers, Western Union, Money Gram.

Salary:
$ 5,000/month + 5% of each payment

You will need no money to start. Please fill out form and ATTACH your resume:

The job is the clear work at home 'Money Mule' function of 'Payment Processing', i.e. accepting fake cheques into your bank account and transferring a balance back to these crooks using Western Union or Moneygram. It will get your bank account and your assets frozen, get you a visit from the police and could well earn you a criminal record. Do not be fooled.

v) Fake website Contact Details:

United States

Address: 3202 34th Ave, Astoria, NY
Tel:00-1-512-3948846
Fax:00-1-512-3948846

United Kingdom
Address: 3 London Wall Bldgs, London, EC2M 5SY
Tel: Will be coming soon... (March, 2009)
Fax: Will be coming soon... (March, 2009)

• - 3202 34th Ave, Astoria, NY is just a street address and there is no Google evidence that these crooks are there.
• - The US telephone number 512-3948846 is located in Austin, Texas. Clear evidence of fraud.
• - The address of 3 London Wall Bldgs, London, is home to a number of business according to the UK Business Post Code Checker, but these crooks are not among them. Clear evidence of fraud.
• - A reverse postcode check on the postcode EC2M 5SY lists it as the unique postcode for Incepta Group PLC (Citigate Dewe Rogerson) at the above address - probably where they have stolen the address from.
• - Currently no UK telephone numbers.

vi) AST Finance & Consult are not listed in the New York State 'Corporation and Business Entity Database'. Clear, verifiable evidence of fraud - C heck for yourself.

vii) AST Finance & Consult are not registered as a company with the UK 'Companies House'. Clear, verifiable evidence of a fake company - Check for yourself.

viii) AST Finance & Consult are not registered with the UK FSA, (Financial Services Authority), which they would have to be to be able to legally trade in the financial sector in the UK. Clear & absolutely irrefutable evidence of criminal fraud. Check for yourself

ix) A passive RDNS check on the host IP (78.129.166.5) shows that the fraud domain google-analyzing.com is also currently hosted on the same IP - that domain is registered to 'Viviano Milano' who was the registrant for numerous fraud domains as used for Ace Rentals, AC Consult Finance and many others. The AREM Networks fraud is also hosted on the same IP using the same nameservers, so the pedigree of this fraudster is fairly evident.

x) Would a genuine US/UK company have a Chinese domain registrar and a Cayman Islands host?

The above evidence clearly demonstrates that the AST Finance & Consult website is a fraudulent 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.

Known Website Domains

theastproject.com
theastprojects.com

Registrar

BIZCN.COM, INC. (27-Jan-2009)
Enom Inc. (Rustelekom) (12-Feb-2009)

Host & IP address

KY-PRVT-NWRK-019231 (Cayman British Islands Offshore Network) - 78.129.166.5

Active
Suspended/Disabled

Nameserver Domains

srvdns.co.uk

Registrar

Register.com (22-Jan-2009)

Network Data: (theastprojects.com)

How I am searching:

Searching for theastprojects.com A record at k.root-servers.net [193.0.14.129]: Got referral to j.gtld-servers.net. (zone: com.)
Searching for theastprojects.com A record at j.gtld-servers.net. [192.48.79.30]: Got referral to ns2.srvdns.co.uk. (zone: theastprojects.com.)
Searching for theastprojects.com A record at ns2.srvdns.co.uk. [78.129.166.6]: Reports theastprojects.com. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
theastprojects.com.	A	IN	14400	78.129.166.5
theastprojects.com.	NS	IN	14400	ns1.srvdns.co.uk.
theastprojects.com.	NS	IN	14400	ns2.srvdns.co.uk.
ns1.srvdns.co.uk.	A	IN	14400	78.129.166.5
ns2.srvdns.co.uk.	A	IN	14400	78.129.166.6

Looking up at the 2 theastprojects.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns2.srvdns.co.uk [78.129.166.6]	78.129.166.5
ns1.srvdns.co.uk [78.129.166.5]	78.129.166.5

The host of this criminal fraudster is the KY-PRVT-NWRK-019231 (Cayman British Islands Offshore Network) on IP address 78.129.166.5. This IP also hosts the fraud domain google-analyzing.com and the AREM Networks fraud

***Latest News*** Webpage created 10th. February. 2009.

***Latest News*** 12th. February 2009
News from Simon bear - the domain theastproject.com has been suspended - please notify me of any active domains for this criminal.

***Latest News*** 17th. February 2009
New domain notified by site visitor - theastprojects.com hosted on the above network.
Later: News from Simon Bear - the domain theastprojects.com has been suspended by the registrar - please notify me of any active domains fro this criminal.