The Design Agency, LLC scam

The Design Agency, LLC Fraud (Stolen Identity)

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

This fraud should not be confused with any other company of the same or similar name - the website screenshot and the following fraud evidence refer to this company alone and no other. The website has been stolen from a genuine company and the criminals have also assumed the name of another genuine Florida company who are clearly nothing to do with these criminals - it is their usual modus operandi.

The Design Agency, LLC screenshot 03-Nov-2009

The Design Agency, LLC is just one of the numerous fake Russian scam sites that exist solely to ensnare the unwary, whether it is to 'phish' for bank details or mainly to recruit money mules. The complete fraud website content has quite clearly been stolen from the verified genuine Russian company Home Design and modified to suit this criminal's purposes, in particular the addition of a 'Careers' menu option that doesn't exist on the genuine website and leads to the criminal's money mule job. The fake website was only recently set up, (for instance, the initial domain thedesignagencyllc.biz was only registered with the unresponsive registrars MELBOURNE IT, LTD. (Yahoo as reseller) on 02-Nov-2009 for the usual 'criminal's domain' minimum period of only one year) and contains a clear money mule solicitation of U.S. Representative/Financial manager under the Careers tab. Notice the illiterate line in the above screenshot "a member of the Europen Chamber of Commerce" - the 'Runglish' style of poor English and grammar is a common thread of these Russian criminals. Their other identical fraud aliases are/were Vidal Architects, Inc, Design Resources, Inc, Design Build Studio, Inc, Design 2 Studio LLC., First Design Group, Design to Perform, DESIGN BUILD INNOVATIONS, L.L.C, N Design Studio, Inc, Euro-Design Corp, The Design Studio, LLC (The Desugn Studio, LLC), DESIGN 4 ADVERTISING, INC., Design Pro Screens, Inc., International Design Center, LLC, HOUSE & DESIGNS, INC. and the Design & Promotions Corporation fraud among others - this is clearly a serial fraudster which is clear evidence of fraud in itself. As usual they have stolen the name of the genuine "Design Agency LLC" in Miami, Florida, however the DUNS number they are using is fake.

Evidence of Criminal Fraud:

i) The The Design Agency, LLC criminal's website has quite clearly been stolen from the genuine genuine Russian company Home Design so any claims made in it are not relevant to the criminals, although they do carry the claim "Since our company’s founding in 1998, we have assisted numerous corporate and some private individuals around the world" under this 'Careers' menu option. However, the fact that their initial domain thedesignagencyllc.biz was only registered with the unresponsive on MELBOURNE IT, LTD. (Yahoo as reseller) on the 02-Nov-2009 for the usual 'criminal's domain' minimum period of only one year is clear evidence of fraudulent misrepresentation.

ii) This fraud is simply a follow-on fraud to all their other aliases, including Vidal Architects, Inc, Design Resources, Inc, Design Build Studio, Inc, Design 2 Studio LLC, First Design Group., Design to Perform, DESIGN BUILD INNOVATIONS, L.L.C, N Design Studio, Inc, Euro-Design Corp, The Design Studio, LLC (The Desugn Studio, LLC), DESIGN 4 ADVERTISING, INC., Design Pro Screens, Inc. and the HOUSE & DESIGNS, INC. and the Design & Promotions Corporation fraud - clear evidence of a serial fraudster.

iii) As is usual for these criminals, despite claiming to have been in business since 1998, (as evidenced below), "The Design Agency, LLC" have no genuine Google internet presence at all, (ignoring their own fake website, of course). The only other hit for the name is a clearly different company in Missouri, (these criminals are claiming to be located in Florida).

iv) The payload of the fake website is the following clear money mule criminal solicitation under the Careers tab:

U.S. Representative/Financial manager Job

About Company:

Our company primarily deals in design activities for corporate and residential ground plans. Our business unit is experienced in both creation and implementation of plans conceived.

-       Accommodations

-       Premises design

Since our company’s founding in 1998, we have assisted numerous corporate and some private individuals around the world. Although we are currently headquartered in Moscow, Russia, the arms of our innovation have reached the four corners of the planet. We maintain a direct and diligent marketing process in the United States, and repeatedly offer services that are ahead of the industry “curve” in both pricing and quality. Our advantages lay in certain benefits our Europen clientele experience that only an overseas company can provide:

   1. We are able to offer similar products for lower than standard pricing; we are able to cheaply staff our Moscow office
   2. Our Home Office is staffed with industry experts with over 8 decades of combined experience

Why do we need U.S. Representative/Financial manager?

When we initially started operations in the United States, we experienced some issues with US trade laws that can be summarized into two different problems:

   1. All financial services operations have to take place inside the USA
   2. Customers cannot make payments to a company don’t have offices inside the US, even if the company is an industry leader around the world. Our Home Office is located in Russia, which is why customers are not able to directly transfer money (payments for our designs) to our office in Russia. Under US law, the funds must be deposited into the account of the Financial Manager of Staffing Solutions that resides in the USA. Then, it is the Financial Manager’s responsibility to transfer the funds to our business in Russia. The company has to be registered in the US tax administration, which we have already finished. By maintaining a Financial Manager in the US, we are able to solve both of these problems and continue to help the companies that need us in the USA.

Main duties include receiving payments from customers:

   1. Bank checks
   2. Wire transfers
   3. Certified funds

Compensation:

The Financial Manager will be entitled to 5% of all completed transactions. The maximum turnover handled by a single manager is limited the by company’s policy and is set at $100,000 per month. Thus the maximum monthly pay will constitute $3,000-5,000.

Type of Employment:

Agreement

Time Commitment:

2-4 hours per week

Important:

We also have a business proposal for US company owners and managing directors. Private US businesses can accept funds from our customers with no limitations with a monthly turnover of up to 500,000.00 US dollars. Their profit is set at 7.5% of the turnover and may constitute $40,000.00 monthly. Please apply if you have a legal running business and are interested in this offer.

You can combine this job with your current job, because you'll spend no more than 3 hours per week. This job can become perfect addition to your current job.

v) You do not get a much clearer definition of the illegal 'part time' money mule function of receiving stolen funds to a personal checking account and transferring a balance back to these criminals via Western Union or Moneygram which on its own defines the company without doubt as criminal and bogus and is clear evidence of criminal fraud. The potential for absolutely massive fraud is self evident from the "business proposal for US company owners".

vi) No legitimate company is going to advertise for this sort of illegal part time, 'work from home' money transfer position among the untrained, inexperienced and uncertified general population overseas. The additional 'business proposal' shows the potential sheer scale of this criminal fraud operation - don't be part of it or you will lose a lot of money and perhaps your liberty.

vii) This 'Team' doesn't change between aliases, (except for the name of the fake 'director', this time the same old face is Adler Yuriy Petrovich, (Other aliases from the above list have various other names - clear evidence of fraud):

Team

viii) Contact Details from their 'Business Licence' page:

The Design Agency, LLC

RUSSIAN ADDRESS
8 MIRA PROSPEKT
MOSCOW, 129110
RUSSIAN FEDERATION

United States Business Name: The Design Agency, LLC
Address: 1717 N. BAYSHORE DRIVE
SUITE 2139, MIAMI FL 33132
Tax ID (FEIN): 208708696
Duns Number: 78-738-0807
Reference Name: FLORIDA BUSINESS REGISTRATIONS

• - A Google search for the address "8 MIRA PROSPEKT MOSCOW" returns no hits for these criminals, (ignoring any occurrences of their own fake website, of course).
• - A Google search for the DUNS number 78-738-0807 shows that the crooks also used the same number for numerous other aliases - it is completely fake.
• - A Florida business entity search shows a listing for the company "Design Agency, LLC" but it is normal for these crooks to steal an identity.

The above evidence clearly demonstrates beyond any doubt that the The Design Agency, LLC website has been set up very recently by money laundering criminals purely for the purpose of spamvertising an illegal money laundering 'mule' job of receiving 'customer's payments' to a personal checking account and transferring a balance back to these criminals. 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 serial criminal activity - please don't delay - these criminals will not respond to any communication from you, (all their whois data is 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

thedesignagencyllc.biz

Registrar

MELBOURNE IT, LTD. (Yahoo as reseller) - 02-Nov-2009

Host

Yahoo on IP address 98.136.92.79

Key:

Active
Suspended/Disabled
Parked

Domain Whois Data

Domain Name:                                 THEDESIGNAGENCYLLC.BIZ
Domain ID:                                   D36698381-BIZ
Sponsoring Registrar:                        MELBOURNE IT LTD
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:                13
Domain Status:                               clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID:                               D125716171495914
Registrant Name:
Registrant Organization:                     Private Registration US
Registrant Address1:                         PO Box 61359
Registrant City:                             Sunnyvale
Registrant State/Province:                   CA
Registrant Postal Code:                      94088
Registrant Country:                          United States
Registrant Country Code:                     US
Registrant Phone Number:                     +1.5105952002
Registrant Email:                            contact@myprivateregistration.com
Administrative Contact ID:                   B125716150073978
Administrative Contact Name:                 PrivateRegContact Admin
Administrative Contact Organization:         Private Reg US
Administrative Contact Address1:             PO Box 61359
Administrative Contact City:                 Sunnyvale
Administrative Contact State/Province:       CA
Administrative Contact Postal Code:          94088
Administrative Contact Country:              United States
Administrative Contact Country Code:         US
Administrative Contact Phone Number:         +1.5105952002
Administrative Contact Email:                contact@myprivateregistration.com
Billing Contact ID:                          B125716150073980
Billing Contact Name:                        PrivateRegContact Bill
Billing Contact Organization:                Private Reg US
Billing Contact Address1:                    PO Box 61359
Billing Contact City:                        Sunnyvale
Billing Contact State/Province:              CA
Billing Contact Postal Code:                 94088
Billing Contact Country:                     United States
Billing Contact Country Code:                US
Billing Contact Phone Number:                +1.5105952002
Billing Contact Email:                       contact@myprivateregistration.com
Technical Contact ID:                        B125716150073982
Technical Contact Name:                      PrivateRegContact TECH
Technical Contact Organization:              Private Reg US
Technical Contact Address1:                  PO Box 61359
Technical Contact City:                      Sunnyvale
Technical Contact State/Province:            CA
Technical Contact Postal Code:               94088
Technical Contact Country:                   United States
Technical Contact Country Code:              US
Technical Contact Phone Number:              +1.5105952002
Technical Contact Email:                     contact@myprivateregistration.com
Name Server:                                 YNS1.YAHOO.COM
Name Server:                                 YNS2.YAHOO.COM
Created by Registrar:                        MELBOURNE IT LTD
Last Updated by Registrar:                   MELBOURNE IT LTD
Domain Registration Date:                    Mon Nov 02 11:36:04 GMT 2009
Domain Expiration Date:                      Mon Nov 01 23:59:59 GMT 2010
Domain Last Updated Date:                    Mon Nov 02 11:36:10 GMT 2009

DNS Lookup for thedesignagencyllc.biz
Searching for thedesignagencyllc.biz. A record at D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. [128.8.10.90]
Searching for thedesignagencyllc.biz. A record at G.GTLD.biz. [199.7.64.126]
Searching for YNS1.YAHOO.COM. A record at M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. [202.12.27.33]
Searching for YNS1.YAHOO.COM. A record at J.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. [192.48.79.30]
Searching for thedesignagencyllc.biz. A record at YNS1.YAHOO.COM. [98.136.43.32]

A record found: 98.136.92.79

Domain	Type	TTL	Answer
thedesignagencyllc.biz.	NS	86400	yns2.yahoo.com.
thedesignagencyllc.biz.	NS	86400	ns9.san.yahoo.com.
thedesignagencyllc.biz.	NS	86400	yns1.yahoo.com.
thedesignagencyllc.biz.	NS	86400	ns8.san.yahoo.com.
thedesignagencyllc.biz.	A	1200	98.136.92.79

The criminal's host is listed as Yahoo on IP address 98.136.92.79 - the same IP as his previous aliases - DESIGN 4 ADVERTISING, INC., Design Pro Screens, Inc., International Design Center, LLC, HOUSE & DESIGNS, INC. and the Design & Promotions Corporation fraud.

***Latest News*** 3rd. November 2009
Webpage created

***Latest News*** 15th. November 2009
News from Simon Bear - the domain thedesignagencyllc.biz has been suspended by Yahoo - please notify me of any active domains for this criminal.