Webmaster Community Alert - BigWFoods Scam
This blog posting serves as a warning to any web developers that might be contacted by a person identifying himself as David Scott with Big W Foods. This is a scam, and here are the details as I have them right now.
They are contacting web developers and they need a shopping cart set up in 2 weeks or less.
They insist that you register the domain names for them.
They will provide credit card information via email and will also provide an approval code for you to enter to get authorization on the card. (This is not a proper authorization).
They will provide text that is in direct copyright violation of Target, Wal Mart, or any other large retailer.
He is sending bogus faxes from his “Bank” Credit Europe. He provided a USA Phone Number of 206-338-3155 which according to Intelius rings to a residential number in Everett Washington.
We registered bigwfoods.com, bigwfoods.co.ok, bigwfoods.co.mx, and a few others. David Scott made 2 payments on 8-14-07 and we received notification on 8-24 from Merchant-e-solutions that the cards were bad.
Description: 4807 Warning Bulletin File - An authorization was not received from the
Issuing Bank and the account number was listed in the MasterCard Electronic Warning
Bulleting file on the date of the transaction.
To Resolve this Chargeback: Please provide documentation to prove the transaction
below was authorized. If a credit has been issued please supply credit receipt showing
date, dollar amount and cardholder number. However, please do not issue a credit upon
receipt of this letter.
Merchant Number: 9410000xxxx
Cardholder #: 526490xxxxxx9130
Chargeback Ref #: 95140617227900xxxx
Control #: 14811xx
Transaction Amount: $1,857.49
Transaction Date: 08/14/2007
Merchant Number: 9410000xxxx
Cardholder #: 526490xxxxxx9130
Chargeback Ref #: 95140617227900xxxx
Control #: 14811xx
Transaction Amount: $2,080.39
Transaction Date: 08/14/2007
When we received the notification, I called him and asked for an explanation. He told me that his wallet was stolen on 8-24 and that was why the charges were reversed. My credit card processor told me that the cards were flagged the day that they were processed on 8-14.
We suspended the accounts on 8-24-07. Since then, he has tried to launch the following sites with the following web developers;
1. bigwfoodsltd.com which was registered by 123triad.com on 8-28-07 (whois shows bombaybiz ltd, but I have spoken to 123triad.com)
2. bigwfood.com which was registered by cambria.com on 8-30-07
I have also spoken with Paragraph Publishing from The U.K. who claims that David Scott tried to pay for $65,000 worth of advertising the same way (bad cards). Tom at Paragraph Publishing says the original website that David Scott is ripping off is http://www.bigw.com.au/
David Scott is also providing photos of his “Staff” to be used on About or Contact pages. Below is a screen capture of the photos he sent us and the photos he sent to Cambria.com. The same people are listed, but different photos have been used;
Bio Info Provided on 8-21-07
Bio Info Provided on 9-1-07
Notice how different Rizza, Trina & Sandra look in the two profile pages.
This “David Scott” is hellbent on launching a website using a variation of Big W Foods for the domain name. He will request that you register the domain, and he will want everything done in as little as a week. I feel that if he successfully launches a shopping cart, hundreds of innocent people will have their identities stolen.
Do yourself and the internet community a favor and do not work with him. Please spread the word about this scam. Lets work together to shut this bastard down.
