Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Hurricane Gustav: Fraud Watch Day Three

This is our third day of listing the newly registered domains for Hurricane Gustav. On August 31st there were Fifty-four new Gustav domains, and yesterday there were an additional One hundred forty-six new Gustav domains. Today we add One hundred seventy-five more Gustav domains. As with previous disasters, the vast majority of these domains have been purchased by two categories of domain speculators and will never be used in a meaningful way. Some are people who purchased the domains to be sold to legitimate organizations.

For instance:

Now displaying "Samaritan's Purse" charity pages, but not registered by Samaritan's Purse. No reason to suspect foul play, but Dan Brown's email address makes them "interesting".

gustavcharities.com
gustavcharity.com
gustavdonation.com
gustavrelieffund.com

Each says it is owned by "Dan Brown" with the email address, companyone@cash-evolutions.com. Dan owns more than 2,000 domain names. The real Samaritan's Purse website is registered to Jeff Chandler, jchandler@samaritan.org. It certainly appaers that Dan has made exact duplicates of the Samaritan's Purse website on these websites in order to help people find these worthy charities. This may be his own act of charity, and if so, that's great. He has made no edits to the content, he is simply loading the real charity site inside a frame. Clicking the "GIVE" button, really does give money to Samaritan's Purse. But each of these new charity domains has to checked out to be sure.

The first type of Speculator is someone who buys a domain to sell to someone. The second type of Speculator is someone who buys the domain and then sells advertising on it. The latter seems to be one of the most popular ways to make money on your domain. For instance:

gustavhurricaneblog.com is owned by Ryan Blankenship of Bakersfield, California. Were you in the Hurricane, Ryan? Then why do you need a website about it? The page is currently covered with advertising, so if you need a "Gustav Hurricane Lawyer", and you click on BloomLegal.com, presumably Mr. Blankenship gets paid. Need Wind Storm Insurance in Texas? Click txwindstorminsurance.com, and Mr. Blankenship gets paid again. (Ryan also owns: gustavstorm.info, gustavhurricanesite.com, hurricanegustaveinfo.com, hurricanegustaveinfosite.com)

Some of the new domains are real sites that anyone interested in or experiencing Gustav might want to build or participate in.

Photosites:

gustavimages.com
gustavphotos.com
gustavpictures.com
gustavrelief.net

Other types of real sites:

gustavneworleans.com
gustavpeoplesearch.com
gustavpeoplesearch.net

But there are plenty of sites with a Donate Button that are not so easy to figure out . . .

gustavpets.com is building a Twitter network for people who are helping find lost pets after Gustav. They suggest we donate to a charity that has brought 3,000 pet carriers to the area to help gather strays. Real? We need to find out.

gustavsolidarity.org has information on many local charities who may be deserving of your help.

donate2gustav.org does the same, with more well-known charities.

gustavnow.com says its going to list local charities soon . . .

Some we don't understand yet, for instance, Bob Dunlap, long-time owner of "beui.com", which has always just been a family photos website for his New Orleans family (example), but now owns the domains:

Aid4gustav.com
Gustavaid.us
Gustavrelief.us
Gustavvictims.us
Help4gustav.com
Help4gustav.org
Helpgustav.com

Domain speculator? Charity benefactor? We don't know.

Some of the most popular domain owners from last night's run include:

Anito Caro of Toledo, Ohio, who owns:

gustavrecovery.info
hurricanegustav2008.info
hurricanegustavrecovery.org
gustavimpact.info
hurricanegustavhelp.info
hurricanegustavla.info
hurricanegustavrecovery.info
hurricanegustavrecovery.net

Greg Greene of Mishawaka, Indiana, who owns:

helpwithgustav.org
gustavrescue.org
gustavvictimassistance.org
gustavvictimhelp.org
gustavfoundpets.org
gustavsangels.org
gustavvictimcare.org
gustavfoundpets.com
gustavsangels.com
gustavvictimhelp.com
gustavvictimassistance.com
gustavvictimcare.com
helpwithgustav.com

Of course the "Privacy" sites, which hide WHOIS information so that people have no opportunity to use it to figure out if the domain is legitimate or not, have scored quite a bit of traffic.

GoDaddy's "Registration Privacy" service, "Domains by Proxy", lists:

gustav08.org
gustav-ala.info
gustav-ala.org
gustav-alabama.info
gustav-alabama.org
gustavclaims.info
gustavclaims.org
gustavclaims-ala.org
gustavclaims-alabama.org
gustavclaims-houma.org
gustavclaims-la.org
gustavclaims-lafayette.org
gustavclaims-louisiana.org
gustavclaims-mississippi.org
gustavclaims-ms.org
gustavclaims-nola.org
gustavclaims-texas.org
gustavclaims-tx.org
gustav-la.info
gustav-la.org
gustav-louisiana.info
gustav-louisiana.org
gustav-mississippi.info
gustav-mississippi.org
gustav-ms.info
gustav-ms.org
gustavreliefnow.info
gustavrelief-now.info
gustavreliefnow.org
gustavrelief-now.org
gustavsite.info
gustavsite.org
gustav-texas.info
gustav-texas.org
gustav-tx.info
gustav-tx.org
gustav-ala.com
gustav-alabama.com
gustavclaims-houma.com
gustavclaims-lafayette.com
gustavclaims-ms.com
gustavclaims-nola.com
gustavclaimsnow.com
gustavclaimsonline.com
gustavclaimssite.com
gustavclaims-tx.com
gustav-la.com
gustav-louisiana.com
gustav-mississippi.com
gustav-ms.com
gustavreliefnow.com
gustavrelief-now.com
gustavshop.com
gustavsite.com
gustavsite.net
gustav-texas.com
gustav-tx.com
newgustavclaims.com
gustavclaims-ala.com
gustavclaims-alabama.com
gustavclaims-la.com
gustavclaims-louisiana.com
gustavclaims-mississippi.com
gustavclaims-texas.com




Here are the new domains that need to be checked out today:

assistgustav.com
assistgustav.org
donate2gustav.com
evacuate-hurricane-gustav.info
fuckgustav.com
giantgustav.com
gustav-2008.com
gustav-ala.com
gustav-ala.info
gustav-ala.org
gustav-alabama.com
gustav-alabama.info
gustav-alabama.org
gustav-help.com
gustav-images.com
gustav-la.com
gustav-la.info
gustav-la.org
gustav-louisiana.com
gustav-louisiana.info
gustav-louisiana.org
gustav-mississippi.com
gustav-mississippi.info
gustav-mississippi.org
gustav-ms.com
gustav-ms.info
gustav-ms.org
gustav-pictures.com
gustav-texas.com
gustav-texas.info
gustav-texas.org
gustav-tx.com
gustav-tx.info
gustav-tx.org
gustav08.org
gustavaidnow.com
gustavangels.com
gustavassist.com
gustavclaims-ala.com
gustavclaims-ala.org
gustavclaims-alabama.com
gustavclaims-alabama.org
gustavclaims-houma.com
gustavclaims-houma.org
gustavclaims-la.com
gustavclaims-la.org
gustavclaims-lafayette.com
gustavclaims-lafayette.org
gustavclaims-louisiana.com
gustavclaims-louisiana.org
gustavclaims-mississippi.com
gustavclaims-mississippi.org
gustavclaims-ms.com
gustavclaims-ms.org
gustavclaims-nola.com
gustavclaims-nola.org
gustavclaims-texas.com
gustavclaims-texas.org
gustavclaims-tx.com
gustavclaims-tx.org
gustavclaims.info
gustavclaims.org
gustavclaimsnow.com
gustavclaimsonline.com
gustavclaimssite.com
gustavcleanup.org
gustavdatarecovery.com
gustavdatarecovery.org
gustavdisaster.net
gustavdisaster.org
gustavdisasterfund.com
gustavdisastersupport.com
gustavemergency.com
gustavemergencyrelieffund.com
gustavfirstaid.com
gustavfoundpets.com
gustavfoundpets.org
gustavfund.info
gustavhope.com
gustavhope.org
gustavhurricaneaid.com
gustavhurricaneblog.com
gustavhurricanepictures.com
gustavhurricanesite.com
gustavimpact.info
gustavjohannesson.com
gustavkatrina.com
gustavlegal.com
gustavlegalhelp.com
gustavlooters.com
gustavonline.com
gustavpost.com
gustavrecovery.info
gustavrelief-now.com
gustavrelief-now.info
gustavrelief-now.org
gustavrelief2008.com
gustavrelief2008.org
gustavrelieffund.net
gustavreliefnow.com
gustavreliefnow.info
gustavreliefnow.org
gustavreliefonline.com
gustavrescue.com
gustavrescue.org
gustavsangels.com
gustavsangels.org
gustavshelter.org
gustavshop.com
gustavsite.com
gustavsite.info
gustavsite.net
gustavsite.org
gustavsite.us
gustavsrf.com
gustavsrf.net
gustavsrf.org
gustavstories.com
gustavstorm.info
gustavsurvivor.com
gustavsurvivor.net
gustavveterans.com
gustavveterans.info
gustavveterans.net
gustavveterans.org
gustavvictimassistance.com
gustavvictimassistance.org
gustavvictimcare.com
gustavvictimcare.org
gustavvictimhelp.com
gustavvictimhelp.org
gustavvictimsfund.com
gustavvictimsfund.org
gustavvictoms.com
gustavvideos.com
gustavwind.com
helpgustav.net
helphurriancegustav.com
helpwithgustav.com
helpwithgustav.org
hurricanegustav-firstaid.com
hurricanegustav-relief.com
hurricanegustav2008.info
hurricanegustavaid.com
hurricanegustavaid.net
hurricanegustavassistance.com
hurricanegustave.com
hurricanegustaveinfo.com
hurricanegustaveinfosite.com
hurricanegustavhelp.info
hurricanegustavla.info
hurricanegustavlawyers.com
hurricanegustavlawyers.net
hurricanegustavrecovery.info
hurricanegustavrecovery.net
hurricanegustavrecovery.org
hurricanegustavsupport.com
hurricangustavrelief.com
lagustavclaims.com
newgustavclaims.com
nogustav.com
nomegustav.com
obamagustav.com
olivergustav.com
ouragangustav.com
thegustavfund.com
uraganogustav.com
victimofhurricanegustav.com
victimsofhurricanegustav.com
voicesofgustav.org
volunteergustav.com
flavioegustavo.net
gustav-recovery.com
gustavodepaula.com
gustavorobledoisaza.com

Again, Probably none of these are fraud. During Katrina less than 1% were. But there's always that 1% . . .

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Trying a new setting. After turning on comments, I got about 20-30 comments per day that were all link spam. Sorry to require login, but the spam was too much.