Blog for hpHosts, and whatever else I feel like writing about ....

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Facebook Likes and cold-call scams

Following an article I wrote recently for SC Magazine, Martijn Grooten of Virus Bulletin, who shares my interest in and dislike of support desk scams, contacted me about the web site associated with eFIX, a company claiming to offer online technical support. He and I, along with Steven Burn, who has a great deal of experience of working in this area, have been able to dig out some interesting info on a slightly different aspect of flaky support desk operations.

eFIX’s web page lists an office in Glasgow under the name eFIX Ltd, at 8901 Marmora Road, Glasgow, D04 89GR. However, a search at Companies House, while it did turn up several entries with somewhat similar names, didn’t find one in Glasgow, and the address doesn’t ring true. The postcode is a fake, and we can’t find a Marmora road in Glasgow (let alone one long enough to hold nearly 9000 street addresses). In fact, the same address turns up in a great many other contexts (design consultancies, music, accountancy, even a buffet service), suggesting the use of some kind of template/boilerplate. It also suggests that it’s not only PC support companies that are suspiciously shy about their real whereabouts. Or else 8901 must be an awfully big building. Of course, it could be an accommodation address for multiple businesses, but that doesn’t explain why the street address itself is so elusive.


http://blog.eset.com/2011/11/09/facebook-likes-and-cold-call-scams

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