***Fraud Alert***: European Domain Solutions Ltd

dreamz

Please be aware that European Domain Solutions Ltd of Loughborough, England (www.europeandomainsolutions.com) are fraudulently canvassing Irish and UK businesses for domain name sales. They also refer to themselves as EDS or Ed's.. The caller will could likely be either Aron Davies or Helen Davies.

It appears they are working from a registered business name list and call telling you that a third party are attempting to register your businessness name:

eg: yourcompletebusinessname.com and yourcompletebusinessname.net

They say that they have the registrant 'on hold' and you must pay £300 by credit card, immediately, on the telephone, otherwise you will lose your business name.

They also state that they will then place a 'global lock' on you business name to protect it from all those nasty people in the world, lol.

So, they have been reported to the UK Police, the Garda Siochana and the UK Trading Standards. I expect they'll be getting a visit or two....

In the meantime - I just wanted you let to know, as you will probably never see your money again if they get hold of your credit card details (luckily my client called me to query it).

Perhaps you can notify any small business around you - not to give anyone credit card details on the telephone to 'protect themselves' from losing their 'business name' on the Internet....

It's a stupid trick, but many of our friendly local businesses could get caught out. You might also let local radio stations kow to alert everyone to 'beware'.. although perhaps they might not publish the business name until they are 'convicted', although it's fair to say that there has been a report filed against them.... I wanted to make sure this was searchable...

Thanks peeps. Take care - it's rough out there....

If you have already been duped, let me know as I have all their details and can help you file a Garda report with your local station and connect it with others. Don't let your pride get in the way - the only way we can protect our community is by reporting crime.

Peace

Dz.

parsi

Yes one of our users rang me a few weeks ago with a similar story - they had been contacted by some company regarding a supposed domain name that a third party was trying to register. I told them it was a load of cobblers...of course it ended up giving her ideas and next thing I knew a list as long as my arm was made with domains to be registered...

Savman

It's amazing how many people are susceptible to this whole "Hi I'm calling you from Such & Such Ltd. please gimme ur credit card info"

RoyalMarine

yeah... AOL rang me a while ago... jesus didnt know who they were... so i hung up... :-P

back on topic tho, yeah i heard about it on the news alright, and seems to be happening all over europe.. but then again, its just another scam from some people who think they can get away with it...

alanholland

Thanks for the warning.
At Acorn Water we had Jody from European Domain Solutions (or EDS) trying the same trick.
They claimed another local water treatment business were trying to register the .biz, .eu and .info domains and were offering us first option. They requested Euro750. We've reported them to the Gardai.

Alan

spi152001

Hi

The company targeted Samaraitans Purse International, we are a registered charity in the UK. Unfortunatly a payment was made. Could you help us sort out a police report.

Ross

Sponge Bob

Its fraud

They pretend that you will lose a domain and that they have 'kept it safe' in some way for you ...and at a huge cost.

If you are a charity also contact The Register who are great at doing scumwatch uk .

www.theregister.co.uk

Cabaal

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

yeah... AOL rang me a while ago... jesus didnt know who they were... so i hung up... :-P

wtf AOL called you?

mneylon

There's one of these scams every few weeks. They generally prey on the non-technical companies whose staff are less likely to know what is going on.

DublinWriter

If you are reporting such a scam to the guards, don't do so down your local garda station, but instead address it in writing to:

Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation,
National Support Services,
Harcourt Square,
Harcourt Street,
Dublin 2.

intruder alarms

Jody from European Domain Solutions (EDS) has just called me - we own the domain name www.christieintruderalarms.co.uk & www.christieintruderalarms.com and the trade name 'Christie Intruder Alarms Ltd' & apparently, another rival intruder alarm installer/security company from the south coast/hampshire area had approached European Domain Solutions (EDS) to buy the domain names christieintruderalarms.org, christieintruderalarms.net & christieintruderalarms.biz & that the rival security company most likely will use these domain names to tarnish our name or rob our traffic.

My research into this has lead me to this forum warning against these fraudsters, therefore, I am grateful to all who have posted!

I will be reporting this to the Police & when Jody calls back in 48 hours I will suggest that she could possibly be held personally response & convicted for the crime. I don't know if this is the case but it might make her think twice about the job she's doing!

mneylon

How much did they want to charge for the domain(s)?

intruder alarms

They wanted £50 each per annum per name if entering a 2 year contract (£300 up front) or £30each per annum per name if I enter a 5 year contract (£450 up front) or £25 each per annum per name if I entered a 10 year contract (£750 up front)! Steep eh?

I have the conversion recorded!

She stated words to the effect of 'a 3rd party has approached us the purchase christieintruderalarms.info, christieintruderalarms.net & christieintruderalarms.biz' but said she could not disclose the 3rd parties name as it would break the Data Protection Act.

Obviously when I do not purchase these domains we will know if this is a lie or the truth if a rival does suddenly re-direct info, biz & net to their website! Then it is not a scam - I'll keep you posted!

eth0_

what's the big deal if someone *does* buy the domains? You don't own them, and this company is just using underhand tactics, I doubt it's illegal.

But their prices are EXTORTIONATE.

DublinWriter

intruder alarms wrote:

I will be reporting this to the Police & when Jody calls back in 48 hours I will suggest that she could possibly be held personally response & convicted for the crime. I don't know if this is the case but it might make her think twice about the job she's doing!

Your best bet is to play along, but pretend your company doesn't have a credit card and ask what address should you send the cheque to.

intruder alarms

eth0: Even if they r lying about a 3rd party trying 2 but the name?

Dublin Writer: Think I might just do that. Good idea!



If, after all this, a local alarm company does buy the domain, I'll b posting a retraction LOL - if not you can b sure it's a scam!

mneylon

We've had several clients contact us about this over the last couple of days. I posted a "sanitised" version of one of the UK company's emails on our blog:

http://blog.blacknight.ie/beware_of_uk_domain_scammers.html

RachelSch

:mad: Im new to all this and had a call from them today. Yes I paid for 6 domain names to safeguard my business. God I feel abused.

How can I get my money back??????

Help needed asap.
thanks
Rachel

KdjaCL

RachelSch wrote:

:mad: Im new to all this and had a call from them today. Yes I paid for 6 domain names to safeguard my business. God I feel abused.

How can I get my money back??????

Help needed asap.
thanks
Rachel

contact your credit card company and local police internet dude.


kdjac

Annik

Hi there,

I work for my parents' company and (while I was away from the office) they received a cold call from European Domain Solutions. Unfortunately being as they are not quite as computer-savvy as I am they were completely taken in by the scam and ended up purchasing 4 domain names. I have since been in telephone contact with EDS. I requested a full refund but they only offered us £50 per domain name registered. I told them this was unnacceptable and when they didn't cooperate I asked them to take a look at the blacknight blog page mentioned above and comment upon it. I was swiftly transferred to a Supervisor who identified herself as Emma Thomas, apparently they are mailing a cheque out tomorrow for the full amount. Once the word "scam" was out in the open they were very helpful and cooperative, however I've heard "the cheque is in the post" line many times before so to be on the safe side I'd be most grateful if you could help me file this GARDA report you discussed, and any other appropriate action. We are based in Scotland. Would we be required to report this to a different institution?



Many thanks. :>

mneylon

Annik - How did your parents pay?

Sponge Bob

use Trading Standards officers willya

Annik

They paid by credit card.

Incidentally I think EDS are reading this forum. Shortly after posting my "cheque is in the post" comment they called up again asking if we'd rather have the money refunded directly to the card.

This is getting more and more sketchy by the minute - originally I was told they could not do this as they don't keep credit card information on file. Now suddenly it seems they do after all. Furthermore they said it would take 5-7 working days to get the money refunded. I have worked with credit card machines before and refunds happen instantly.
One way or another there will be hell to pay if we don't have that money back by early next year.

Also of note, I did a whois lookup of one of the domain's we registered and it appears EDS are "laundering" their domains through other companies. Try doing a whois lookup of www.hpruk.co.uk and note how Netserve is the sponsoring registrant. I've contacted netserve and to enquire about their involvement (i'm sure they aren't even aware of what has been happening) and we'll see how it goes. Meanwhile to be frank I'm not 100% comfortable with my analysis of the whois report, maybe you guys might be able to take a look and tell me if I have the wrong end of the stick as it were? :>


Thanks again guys.

mneylon

If they paid by credit card and you do not receive a refund you can initiate a chargeback via your bank

Annik

Okay, would we just call the bank and ask for this chargeback thing? Is there any kind of time limit - would we need to ask for it within 14 days or whatever?


-Annik

mneylon

Speak to your bank's credit card services department. They'll be able to advise you

Stuarty1

Hi I had a call from a women called Jodie today playing the same scam, I do beleive this is the same person.. The link is below..

http://www.mainstreamtech.co.uk

jaggeh

is it just me or is every scam being reported by new users...

i smell cursor exploit sites. id advise people not to click on any links here.

Awful Scut

What are cursor exploit sites? Just Googled it and couldn't find anything. Merely curious.

thefinalstage

Awful Scut wrote:

What are cursor exploit sites? Just Googled it and couldn't find anything. Merely curious.

Click link and it steals your password. Usually using the cookies.

Coder

Stuarty1 wrote:

Hi I had a call from a women called Jodie today playing the same scam, I do beleive this is the same person.. The link is below..

http://www.mainstreamtech.co.uk

Yes, www.mainstreamtech.co.uk have now ceased trading having been rumbled. They have since been called www.streamlineltd.co.uk and are now currently trading under The London Office of Verifications and Registrations www.loovar.co.uk
See Mainstreamtech's and Loovar's About Us web pages are identical.
StremlineLtd had the same address/phone no. as Loovar have now. Streamline also scammed: http://www.uksmallbusinessforums.com/printer_friendly_posts.asp?TID=6632

More on www.mainstreamtech.co.uk scams:http://www.davidhurst.co.uk/2007/06/06/domain-name-scams-mainstream-0870-850-2820/

Sadly I got caught out yesterday by The London Office of Verifications and Registrations. www.loovar.co.uk

You've been warned!!