Progold Inc.

Progold Inc. Fraud

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

New Website banner:

Progold Inc. new site banner

Progold Inc. is just the old Progold Investments scam with the name changed. It's another, (or rather the same), money laundering fraud scam from the same stable as the Eden Financial Group, BestTradeSolutions and previously the Royal Finances & Consulting Group and they also seem to be the same fraudsters as behind Expressdeal judging by similar use of text. The dead giveaway that these are exactly the same fraudsters as Eden Finance & BestTradeSolutions is that they have the same stolen photographs for the bogus 'Board of Directors' as do Eden Financial Group etc., albeit with different names... How do I know they are stolen photographs? Well, one of them, ('Tony Alexander' in this scam - other names in the others) is actually the UK ex. Home Secretary - John Reid, who is probably a bit hard up now, but I don't think he's a money launderer, but then he is a politician.... The one thing all of these scam sites have in common is a job vacancy, and this one is no exception.

I'm not aware of any legitimate company with exactly the same name as these criminals, but this fraudster should not be confused with any other site that may have a similar name - the above webgraphics, the evidence below and the spamvertized money laundering position give the fraudulent site away.

Evidence of Criminal Fraud:

i) The 'job' (from the website):

» Vacansy (sic)

Job Category:

Financial Services

Job Responsibilities:

Requirements: male/female, from the age of 18, the countries of residence - European Union, USA, UK, AU. Presence of work experience, attentiveness, accuracy, the responsibility, communicative skills are desirable. Duties: Reception and transfer of money resources. As a rule reception of money is carried out on the personal bank account, also reception can be carried out with the help of systems Western Union and Money Gram (or the other different way under the arrangement with the Territorial agent). Transfer of money is carried out mainly with the help of system Western Union (also the way of transfer of money can anyone convenient to the agent under the arrangement with the Territorial agent such payment online systems as PayPal, E-Gold, WebMoney are not excluded. Conditions: Payment for the agent’s activity is made by a deduction of percent from the listed sum (you can familiarize in detail with indexation of percent of wages having read through the contract). The company takes upon itself all the expenses of remittance with the help of payment systems.

i.e. the usual illegal work at home money mule function that will get your bank account and your assets frozen and could get you a visit from the police - don't do it!

ii) This fraud company posts on numerous jobsites, (Google for "progold-inv") - typical ML fraud job advert seen on MyCanadaJobs.com:

Hello, our company searches for work of the removed representative. A direction of activity of the company: Investments and broker activity in precious metals (gold, platinum, etc.) Our problem consists in helping the clients to increase their well-being to keep actives and to avoid risks for itself and the future generations.

We invest means under high % in the largest funds of the world. Work as employment of 1-5 hours per day (it is possible at leisure from your main work) payment of 7% from a turn of the company depending on the order. Main function of the workman, Transceiving the money remedies for client so and investments from large companies

iii) No legitimate company would use private individuals to transfer money in this way using private bank accounts, (also described in the spam below). To do so is illegal and defines the company as both bogus and criminal.

iv) Consider this claim on the Progold Inc. website: "Founded in 1999, it soon proved to be one of the Asia’s most successful companies in precious metal brokerage. Sokolov’s grandchildren continued his successful business and developed a brand new scheme of investments, based on precious metals.". The fact that this company, like all such scammers, has no internet 'presence' and no internet information on the founder 'Alexander Sokolov' gives the lie to the above nonsense.

v) Their domain progold-inv.org was only registered with Enom on 20-Nov-2007.

vi) Please look at their 'Board of Directors' for absolutely definitive proof of fraud. All appear under different names on the BestTradeSolutions fraud website, and under more names on the Eden Financial Group scam site. I can tell you who one of the photos is - the one they call Gerry McDonnell on their Eden Financial scam site and Michael Hudson on the BestTradeSolutions site and Tony Alexander on this Progold Inc. site is none other than our own (UK) ex. Foreign Secretary John Reid, same picture here in the Bournemouth Echo. I'd know that face anywhere.

vii) This fraud was previously documented with the same domain progold-inv.org as Progold Investments

The above evidence clearly demonstrates that the Progold Inc. 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.

DNS Data - progold-inv.org:

How I am searching:

Searching for progold-inv.org A record at f.root-servers.net [192.5.5.241]: Got referral to TLD2.ULTRADNS.NET. (zone: org.)
Searching for progold-inv.org A record at TLD2.ULTRADNS.NET. [204.74.113.1]: Got referral to ns1.leaderhost.ru. (zone: progold-inv.org.)
Searching for progold-inv.org A record at ns1.leaderhost.ru. [194.176.118.10]: Reports progold-inv.org. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
progold-inv.org.	A	IN	86400	194.176.118.39
progold-inv.org.	NS	IN	86400	ns2.leaderhost.ru.
progold-inv.org.	NS	IN	86400	ns1.leaderhost.ru.
ns1.leaderhost.ru.	A	IN	86400	194.176.118.10
ns2.leaderhost.ru.	A	IN	86400	195.209.41.139

Looking up the 2 progold-inv.org parent servers:

NameServer	Nameserver Host	'A' Record Response	Website host
ns2.leaderhost.ru [195.209.41.139]	Garant-Park-Telecom	194.176.118.39	LeaderHost Ltd.
ns1.leaderhost.ru [194.176.118.10]	LeaderHost Ltd.	194.176.118.39	LeaderHost Ltd.

DNS Data - progold-inv.cn

How I am searching:

Searching for progold-inv.cn A record at i.root-servers.net [192.36.148.17]: Got referral to C.DNS.cn. (zone: cn.)
Searching for progold-inv.cn A record at C.DNS.cn. [203.119.27.1]: Got referral to ns2.rusec.cn. (zone: progold-inv.cn.)
Searching for progold-inv.cn A record at ns2.rusec.cn. [79.135.181.164]: Reports progold-inv.cn. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
progold-inv.cn.	A	IN	14400	79.135.181.162
progold-inv.cn.	NS	IN	14400	ns2.rusec.cn.
progold-inv.cn.	NS	IN	14400	ns1.rusec.cn.
ns1.rusec.cn.	A	IN	14400	79.135.181.163
ns2.rusec.cn.	A	IN	14400	79.135.181.164

Looking up at the 2 progold-inv.cn. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns2.rusec.cn [79.135.181.164]	79.135.181.162
ns1.rusec.cn [79.135.181.163]	79.135.181.162

The current host for this thief is a "Turkey Colocation Service" (79.135.181.162). Their domain turkey-colo.net was only registered with Estdomains on 30-dec-2007 and the IP 79.135.181.162 is already listed in the Spamhaus SBL under "AbdAllah Internet - Ukrainian cybercrime hosting". I think we all know where this one's coming from...

DNS Data - progold-inc.com

How I am searching:

Searching for progold-inc.com A record at j.root-servers.net [192.58.128.30]: Got referral to L.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. (zone: com.)
Searching for progold-inc.com A record at L.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. [192.41.162.30]: Got referral to ns3.myelitehosting.net. (zone: progold-inc.com.)
Searching for progold-inc.com A record at ns3.myelitehosting.net. [212.5.201.218]: Reports progold-inc.com. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
progold-inc.com.	A	IN	3600	85.254.47.56
progold-inc.com.	NS	IN	3600	ns3.myelitehosting.net.
progold-inc.com.	NS	IN	3600	ns1.myelitehosting.net.
progold-inc.com.	NS	IN	3600	ns2.myelitehosting.net.
ns1.myelitehosting.net.	A	IN	3600	75.35.18.172
ns2.myelitehosting.net.	A	IN	3600	200.6.220.198
ns3.myelitehosting.net.	A	IN	3600	212.5.201.218

Looking up at the 2 progold-inc.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns2.myelitehosting.net [200.6.220.198]	85.254.47.56
ns3.myelitehosting.net [212.5.201.218]	85.254.47.56

The host for this one is Latnet (Latvia) - 85.254.47.56

Known Website Domains

progold-inv.org (DNS Error)
progold-inv.cn (Unhosted)
progold-inc.com (Suspended)
progold-inc.biz (Suspended)

Registrar:

ENOM Inc. (Rustelekom) (20-Nov-2007)
Bizcn.com (09-Dec-2007)
ENOM Inc. (Rustelekom) (22-Dec-2007)
ENOM Inc. (Rustelekom) (22-Dec-2007)

Spam Body:

Hello, our company searches for work of the removed representative. A direction of activity of the company: Investments and broker activity in precious metals (gold, platinum, etc.) Our problem consists in helping the clients to increase their well-being to keep actives and to avoid risks for itself and the future generations.

We invest means under high % in the largest funds of the world. Work as employment of 1-5 hours per day (it is possible at leisure from your main work) payment of 7% from a turn of the company depending on the order. Main function of the workman, Transceiving the money remedies for client so and investments from large companies

This is a clear Illegal money mule function

***Latest News*** 3rd. February 2008

Domain progold-inv.org is no longer functional. New domain progold-inv.cn received from site contact.

***Latest News*** 19th. March 2008

New link received from site contact - http://progold-inc.com/vacansy.html
New website graphics added.

***Latest News*** 20th. March 2008

Message from site contact - domain progold-inc.com suspended

***Latest News*** 10th. April 2008
New domain reported by site contact - progold-inc.biz
DNS Data:
How I am searching:

Searching for progold-inc.biz A record at c.root-servers.net [192.33.4.12]: Got referral to F.GTLD.biz. (zone: biz.)
Searching for progold-inc.biz A record at F.GTLD.biz. [209.173.58.66]: Got referral to NS1.MYELITEHOSTING.NET. (zone: progold-inc.biz.)
Searching for progold-inc.biz A record at NS1.MYELITEHOSTING.NET. [75.35.18.172]: Reports progold-inc.biz. Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
progold-inc.biz.	A	IN	3600	85.254.47.56
progold-inc.biz.	NS	IN	3600	ns3.myelitehosting.net.
progold-inc.biz.	NS	IN	3600	ns2.myelitehosting.net.
progold-inc.biz.	NS	IN	3600	ns1.myelitehosting.net.
ns1.myelitehosting.net.	A	IN	3600	75.35.18.172
ns2.myelitehosting.net.	A	IN	3600	200.6.220.198
ns3.myelitehosting.net.	A	IN	3600	212.5.201.218

Looking up at the 3 progold-inc.biz. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns1.myelitehosting.net [75.35.18.172]	85.254.47.56
ns2.myelitehosting.net [200.6.220.198]	85.254.47.56
ns3.myelitehosting.net [212.5.201.218]	85.254.47.56

The host for this criminal's domain is Latnet Serviss Ltd. ( 85.254.47.56)