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Old 06-01-2005, 01:14 AM   #1
hacker
Technology Mercenary
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Posts: 617
Karma: 2561
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: East Lyme, CT
Device: Direct Neural Implant
An E-Book "webstore" used for phishing?

This has been quietly discussed on some ebook lists in the last few days, but I guess I'll stick my neck out and try to expose it, make it public.. or at least find out some more detail about the site to bring some justice to the people who are getting screwed by them.

I'm hoping others here can help me find some detail about the site, because sites like this (if it truly is fraudulent) give all of us a bad name.

This ebook store has some very suspiscious content on it. Look what the following searches bring up:

For Dummys ebooks
Harry Potter ebooks
Stephen King ebooks

..and thousands of others. Their legal page is a bit... suspiscious sounding too. The wording and grammar on the site are very inconsistent, and some of the phrases strike me as warning signs:
Q: Is it secure to make an order at your site?

A: Sure it is! All the info you provide to us is transferred through HTTPS protocol with 128-bit encrypting. Moreover, we store all the data about our clients at secure servers with crypto-disks. You do not have to worry about this with us!


("crypto disks"?)

Q: I am trying to make a purchase at your site but it keeps telling that they cannot process my credit card. What should I do?

A: Please do not worry. Our manager will contact you as soon as possible and you will surely get what you want.

When a question is in the FAQ related to not getting your credit card transaction processed, BIG FAT RED WARNING SIGN...

There's also no mention of what format your "ebooks" will arrive in after you "become a member". Are they Adobe PDF? eReader? Microsoft .LIT? Their FAQ goes into a brief explanation of a couple common formats, but it doesn't actually say which books are provided in which format. Just more fishy things to add to this pond.

Poke around on the site for a bit and see what I mean. It looks professional, but... it just doesn't "feel" right. I'm beginning to wonder if the site exists solely to phish credit card numbers and account information away from everyone who tries to sign up.

I've emailed quite a few of the publishers and copyright holders of material listed on the site to try to get some answers, but haven't heard anything back from any of them yet.

Anyone else getting a bad vibe about this site?
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