Magnus Business Community

Magnus Business Community Fraud

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

Magnus Business Community is just another run-of-the mill fake financial site that exists solely to ensnare the unwary, whether it is to 'phish' for bank details or mainly to recruit money mules. The clues are all there that give the criminal's game away without a shadow of a doubt. It is exactly the same bunch of criminals that have produced the majority of the money laundering scams listed on this site. It is an identical scam to IT-Security Business Alliance

This fraudster should not be confused with any genuine company with the same or similar name. The above logo identifies the fraudulent site.

Evidence of Criminal Fraud:

i) The Magnus Business Community fraudster's grandiose claims are even more ludicrous than normal here's a selection:

«Magnus Business Community» emerged in 1992 as a result of partnership of German entrepreneurs, striving for development, and a group of experts in the field of classical and investment consulting. Currently the company has a gained a unique reputation in the Germany as a consummate consulting professional and the owner of real estate of high commercial value.

The company boasts to have financial support for its investment projects from the leading World banks. The International Union of Attorneys ensures legal support and security of «Magnus Business Community» customers.

Among 1500 customers of the Group there are several top-level world corporations, which influence economies of the whole regions. In general the «Magnus Business Community» database includes more than 18000 clients, who could feel the comfort of cooperation or have concluded contracts with the company at some stages.

«Magnus Business Community» operates through its dedicated permanent staff including 2600 employees scattered over more than 50 countries worldwide. In addition about 150 freelance experts (in the field of marketing, technology, design and engineering) support various projects when necessary.

You have to laugh - their website domain magnus-online.com was only registered with Enom Inc. (Rustelekom) on 05-Feb-2008. Haven't they done well in a couple of weeks? You can see the joins «» where they slot in their different aliases.

ii) Despite the above claims, Google has never heard of them except as spammers and scammers.

iii) The payload of the site is this usual money mule job of "Regional Company Sales Agent" under the 'Vacancies' menu option:

Regional Company Sales Agent

Vacancy Announcement Number: ITsec-4900/R
Opening Date: 01/10/2007
Closing Date: Open until filled
Salary: Depends on Work Scope/ bonus & benefits
Duty Locations: United States of America, Australia

The duties of Company Sales Agent shall include:

Processing payments from, or for our clients
Daily reporting about each completed task.

Salary:

The monthly Salary is $5600(USD) plus additional bonus.

Candidate requirements:

Prior customer service experience is a good benefit, but not a must
Honesty, responsibility and promptness in operations
The ability to operate with more than one task effectively, and have an adaptable, flexible, professional attitude
Effective dealing with tight deadlines and frequently changing priorities
The ability of stable communication with our company and on-time and detailed reporting.

This job will allow You to:

Have another job and no interference with Your main place of work
Develop high self-respect and esteem
Develop communication and business skills essential for work in other relative spheres

If you are interested in this opening and feel that your skills comply with our requirements for this vacancy, feel free to send your detailed CV/resume to hr@magnus-online.com. We promise to react soonest possible and to provide any further details of this job at request.

They're disguising these better, but make no mistake - do not be fooled. It's the usual part time money mule function, or, as they put it "Processing payments from, or for our clients"

iv) No genuine company would recruit "payment processing agents" from among the untrained, unknown general population in a foreign country.

v) Contact details from website:
Magnus Business Community Berlin Office

Mailing Address:
Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse 15
Berlin , 10178 ,
Germany

Phone number:
46-513-389-389

Funny that - exactly the same details as for their last week's alias - IT-Security Business Alliance. Not a good sign if they change the company name from one week to another... They claim to be in Berlin, but the number is a Swedish one (+46) - they must have a long telephone cord... Mind they'd need a similar one for their Switzerland office - that telephone number is listed as a UK one.

vi) They are not registered at Germany's 'Companies House'.

vii) They've got the usual bunch of fake certificates that these crooks love to post. Why do they think that these would convince anyone? They've even got one from the UK Portsmouth and South East Hampshire chamber of commerce when they are not even pretending to be in the UK.

viii) Do a Google search for this scrap of text from their Privacy Policy to see just a few of this criminal's aliases: "We use business information to provide a payment service between commerce participants who are also users"

The above evidence clearly demonstrates that the Magnus Business Community 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 invariably 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

magnus-online.com (Suspended)
magnus-bc.com (Suspended)

Registrar

Enom Inc. (Rustelekom) 05-Feb-2008
Public Domain Registry (Knutov.net??) 19-Feb-2008

Network Data (magnus-online.com)

How I am searching:

Searching for magnus-online.com A record at k.root-servers.net [193.0.14.129]: Got referral to j.gtld-servers.net. (zone: com.)
Searching for magnus-online.com A record at j.gtld-servers.net. [192.48.79.30]: Got referral to ns1.dramsns.net. (zone: magnus-online.com.)
Searching for magnus-online.com A record at ns1.dramsns.net. [209.123.8.185]: Reports magnus-online.com. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
magnus-online.com.	A	IN	14400	64.247.59.155
magnus-online.com.	NS	IN	14400	ns2.dramsns.net.
magnus-online.com.	NS	IN	14400	ns1.dramsns.net.
ns1.dramsns.net.	A	IN	14400	209.123.8.185
ns2.dramsns.net.	A	IN	14400	64.247.59.152

Looking up at the 2 magnus-online.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns2.dramsns.net [64.247.59.152]	64.247.59.155
ns1.dramsns.net [209.123.8.185]	64.247.59.155

The host of this one is a current 'crooks favourite' - Net Access Corporation (64.247.59.155) (As previously used to host itsecurity-online.com and the Waller Truck fraudster)

Fraud Log

12th. February 2008
Webpage created

***Latest News*** 15th. February 2008

New domain notified to me by site visitor - magnus-bc.com registered with Melbourne IT (Yahoo domains as reseller). Hosted as above on Net Access Corporation IP 64.247.59.155

***Latest News*** 15th. February 2008

Site contact reports magnus-bc.com suspended.

***Latest News*** 20th. February 2008
Unfortunately, the domain magnus-bc.com has apparently not been blocked for transfer by MelbourneIT/Yahoo and has been transferred to Public Domain Registry and is back on line on a Softlayer/Knutov.net IP:

DNS Data (magnus-bc.com)
How I am searching:

Searching for magnus-bc.com A record at d.root-servers.net [128.8.10.90]: Got referral to C.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. (zone: com.)
Searching for magnus-bc.com A record at C.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. [192.26.92.30]: Got referral to ns3.knutov.net. (zone: magnus-bc.com.)
Searching for magnus-bc.com A record at ns3.knutov.net. [208.101.49.86]: Reports magnus-bc.com. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
magnus-bc.com.	A	IN	3600	208.101.49.86

Looking up at the 2 magnus-bc.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns3.knutov.net [208.101.49.86]	208.101.49.86
ns4.knutov.net [74.86.68.228]	208.101.49.86

The IP 208.101.49.86 belongs to SoftLayer Technologies Inc.of Dallas, Texas and is apparently leased to Knutov.net as reseller according to the data.
Later - Hosting ceased and domain suspended.