Other scams
New unbelievably brazen fraud: Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency
Over the last couple of days, I started receiving disturbing reports about a new copyright extortion outfit, “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency.” The con artists behind this “company” have been mass-sending demand letters threatening that those who won’t pay $495 by a certain date, “will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court.”
According to confidential reports, the IP addresses and file titles (this scam deals with music, not films) are not made-up (to the extent of the reliability of collection methods, of course). Therefore, either the crooks indeed work with an IP monitoring company or use home-brewed methods (can be as simple as running an out-of-box Bittorent client and analyzing logs). Collusion between former owners of the file sharing sites and this scam outfit is also a possibility. At this moment, it is an open question how this outfit managed to translate IP addresses into the subscribers’ personal information. This is very disturbing.
What is unusual and what places this scam far beyond even Prenda Law on the brazenness scale, is the nature of the threats. Unlike the majority of US copyright trolls, who abuse copyright law but manage to balance on the edge of legality, ICLEA undeniably crosses the line by threatening its targets with criminal prosecution.
The most despicable existing troll operations (Prenda, Lipscomb, CEG-TEK, etc.) never endangered their lucrative shakedown scheme by wandering into a clearly criminal domain. There is a very scarce and scattered evidence of some callers making threats of criminal prosecution (those are mostly collection agents to whom Lipscomb outsourced harassment), but I believe those threats are not indicative and most likely were not approved by troll masterminds.
Back to ICLEA. The majority of those who dealt with copyright trolls, including lawyers, immediately recognized the fraud. The address listed on the website is a rented “virtual office,” calls go to voicemail, etc. I believe that these crooks will be busted very soon, but since I am concerned about uneducated, easily scared victims, I have decided to write about it in order to utilize the high visibility of this site to search engines, so potential victims would find this warning:
|
Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency is a scam; this “company” is engaged in criminal extortion — these letters are sent through the mail so they constitute mail fraud and wire fraud. This crosses the line of criminality because this outfit impersonates law enforcement and falsely threatens its victims with criminal prosecution.
Don’t even think about cutting a check to the criminals: they will be history very soon. |
Below is the text of the letter, found on The Internet Patrol Site. I will replace it with a scan of an actual letter when/if I get one.
Re: Illegal Internet activity resulting in potential criminal and/or civil charges Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency v. John Doe
Case ID 12345 Confirmation 67890If this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013, you may lace potential felony criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court.
Dear Mr. Doe,
My name is David Walsh and I am a Senior Copyright Law Enforcement Officer with the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency, an international organization that has been charged with enforcing copyright laws on the Internet worldwide. We work with law enforcement agencies and strategic partners around the world to enforce copyright laws, and to help prosecute individuals and companies who violate these laws.
We have identified illegal Internet activity involving copyright crime occurring by either you, or someone in your household such as a spouse, child, or roommate. Under the United States No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, penalties for willfully infringing copyright law can include a felony criminal conviction that can result in imprisonment, and/or fines of up to several million dollars:
17 U.S.C.§506(a). Penalties for criminal infringement, set forth in Title 18 of the U.S. Code, are a felony conviction entailing up to five years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $250,000. In addition to a criminal conviction and fine, copyright holders can also file a civil court case against the copyright infringer. 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2). In a civil case where the court finds that infringement was committed willfully, the court can award statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.
The copyrighted materials outlined below in the Evidence section of this notice are a small sample of the materials that have been illegally downloaded and shared through your Internet account. As the Internet Service Provider (ISP) account holder, you are legally liable for what occurs over your Internet connection. Evidence collected against you includes the correlation of your IP (Internet Provider) address listed in this notice at the time that the copyright crime we identified was committed.
Evidence: Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency v. John Doe
File Name: Equinox (Skrillex).mp3
Copyright Holder: Psychopathic Records
File Size: 2.1 MB
Date Downloaded: Monday, April 23, 2012 – 5:58 PM Software/Network: FrostWire (BitTorrent)
IP Address: 66.85.235.51File Name: Cee Lo Green – Fuck You.mp3
Copyright Holder: Elektra Records
File Size: 3.5 MB
Date Downloaded: Saturday, November 19, 2011 – 11:59 PM Software/Network: FrostWire (Gnutella)
IP Address: 66.85.235.51As you can see by the Evidence we have against you, the copyright crime you committed was done through P2P (Peer-To-Peer) file- sharing software. P2P file-sharing software allows Internet users to share music, movies, software, and other types of files. Some examples of P2P software include LimeWire, FrostWire, Cabos, uTorrent, BitTorrent, Vuze, and Ares. Even if you purchased the file – sharing software or subscription to a website, the rights you purchased were for the file-sharing software or subscription itself and not the rights to download, upload, or otherwise share copyrighted materials.
Claiming that you were not aware that you were committing a copyright crime by sharing the files listed in this notice does not absolve you of criminal and/or civil liability, and you are still liable for copyright infringement. In fact, if you read the fine print and/or user agreement associated with the file-sharing program you used or subscription you purchased, you will likely find a clause that places the liability on you as the end user and references the fact that downloading, uploading, or otherwise sharing copyrighted materials is illegal.
If you cannot locate the files listed in this notice, someone with access to your computer may have deleted the files. Either way, you can still be held criminally and/or civilly liable, as a crime has already been committed. Electronic evidence collected against you can still be used to prosecute you, even if the files have been deleted from your computer.
At this point, no criminal and/or civil charges have been filed against you, however if this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013 then you may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court.
We are providing you with an opportunity to settle this matter and will accept the sum of $495 to avoid any potential further action from being taken against you. If you act promptly you will help avoid being named as a Defendant in a potential criminal and/or civil lawsuit that can result in a felony criminal conviction causing imprisonment, and/or fines of up to several million dollars. You can pay the settlement amount of $495 and avoid further action from being taken against you by following these steps:
(1) Read and sign the Settlement Agreement included with this notice.
(2) Prepare a check or money order in the amount of $495 made payable to “Net Tech Division/Internet Copyright Agency”. Be sure to reference Case 12345 on your method of payment.
(3) Mail the signed Settlement Agreement along with your settlement payment to:
Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency Net Technology Division
1455 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20004We will contact you once we receive your Settlement Agreement and payment to confirm that no criminal and/or civil action will be taken against you, along with providing you with steps you can take to help avoid any future legal entanglements.
Enclosed please find a sheet containing answers to questions you may have and a Settlement Agreement. We look forward to your settling this matter before criminal and/or civil action is taken against you.
Sincerely,
David Walsh
Senior Copyright Law Enforcement Officer
Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency
E-mail: dwalsh@copyrightlawenforcement.com
Now the good news: frauds like this inevitably draw attention of the law enforcement. Public also becomes more aware of these scams’ existence. Thus, the “classic” copyright trolls increasingly find themselves in an uncomfortably open area under the bright spotlights. LiveWire Holdings, for instance, is not registered anywhere in the US, and it uses a virtual address in Washington, DC; this fact alone can trigger law enforcement’s sensors previously not tuned to respond to such signals.
We help to accelerate trolls’ downfall, but what will ultimately bury copyright extortionists is their own greed. Over the course of the human history, greed has been killing criminal organizations much more sophisticated than copyright trolling operations.
Update
2/22/2013
Busted!
Thanks to Mike Masnick and others for alerting me about the apparent shutdown of the fraudulent operation. Currently the website of the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” looks like this:
It was quick. To the best of my knowledge, many people, including lawyers, reported or called/emailed “David Walsh” threatening to report this fraud to the FBI and other authorities. While I’m glad it turned out this way, many disturbing questions remain. It is still not clear how the scam artists managed to link IP addresses to identities. There are suspicions linking this operation to the “Limewire Settlement” scam, so it is possible that both IP addresses and identifying information were fished at that time.
Impersonating a government agency
While searching Google cache, I found out that yesterday’s version of the website was pretty mild in comparison to what the crooks had earlier. There is a pretty damning evidence that the impersonation of a government agency was an essential part of the fraud (see the cached version of “Home” and a picture of a police arrest on the next page). Also note an attempt to solicit snitching: the “Report copyright crime” page was not included into the yesterday’s version.
ICLEA archive:
- Home: 2/8 Google cache | 2/21 screenshot
- Potential lawsuit notices: 2/8 Google cache | 2/21 screenshot
- Questions about notices: 2/4 Google cache | 2/21 screenshot
- Enforcement news: 2/15 Google cache | 2/21 screenshot
- Report copyright crime: 2/3 Google cache
- Contact: 2/21 screenshot
- Site Policy: 2/4 Google cache
- Privacy Policy 2/8 Google cache
Coverage
- TechDirt: Pure Scamming Copyright Troll Implies It’s A Gov’t Agency And That You Will Face Jail Time If You Don’t Pay Up by Mike Masnick.
- TorrentFreak: Scammers Extort BitTorrent Users Posing as Law Enforcement by Ernesto.
- ArsTechnica New troll scam: Pay us $495 or face felony charges and jail time by Timothy Lee.
Fight © Trolls 
i doubt they even have an IP address, probably just sending random letters.
At least some are real (according to a reliable source), as I noted above. It does not mean that it cannot be a mix of actual collected IP addresses and bogus ones.
how did they know who to contact do they do the same crap as the other subpoena ip addresses?
I noticed the reference to the negligence theory in there. Surprised they don’t know better than that.
You’re not REALLY surprised though, are you? I don’t get the impression from this that these guys are all that concerned about keeping everything on the level…
Does anybody knows if there is some actual artist behind this scheme?
The rights holders would be the “record” (CD, mp3) labels. It’s hard to believe Elektra Music/Warner Records would stoop this low. Even if they wanted to, wouldn’t the MPAA do the heavy lifting again? A major label, for business sake, would not want association with extortion and fraud.
But I thought the purpose of law was to help us scammers make money. Are you going to try and take away the livelihood of me and my children??
“Case 12345”????
Really? That’s the best number they could think up?
I’m sure the text I copied from the Internet Patrol Site was redacted, so it was a real case and reference numbers.
Heh. Their websites has now changed to say: “Effective immediately, the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please disregard any notices you received from us, and please do not send us any payments.”
Hilarious.
Ceased operations likely because they received some sort of correspondence from the Department of Justice…or (and I hope this is the case) were raided by an FBI tac team. The DoJ doesn’t fuck around with this shit and whenever something like this pops up, it goes to #1 on the priority list.
Uh, did anyone take a look at their website:
—
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Effective immediately, the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please disregard any notices you received from us, and please do not send us any payments.
—
I think someone was actually stupid enough to think this was a good idea and just realized how much trouble they are in for mail fraud, blackmail, etc.
There must be a good story of stupidity here. They are not asking for an electronic transfer to some offshore account, they want people to mail checks? To a US address? That means unlike stuff like 419 scams someone has to be there, in US jurisdiction, to pick up the checks and go cash them? That means that person is in the US and has left a paper trail connecting themselves to the mailbox and the feds are going to go there and have a field day.
Do you have copies of the settlement agreement and FAQ? Those are probably a fun read too.
I would not expect David Walsh to be a real name, but then whoever did this is really stupid, maybe stupid enough to use their real name.
I’m also guessing the IPs are just being made up, especially considering their other brilliant clerical work like case #12345 with confirmation #67890. If you get a report from someone that says it’s their IP though, that would be interesting. Then we would have to assume it could be someone working for “legitimate” copyright trolls. There are other possibilities though, they could be wardriving, connecting addresses with IPs and then making up the accusations, but that sounds like a lot of work considering a “real” troll like Brett Gibbs can’t be bothered to drive to a subscribers house to do some investigating.
Did you redact the name or was the letter really addressed to Mr. Doe? Did the envelope have a recipient’s name or was it just addressed to the home and Current Resident?
This is looking like a pretty sad scam attempt.
Thanks, 100% agree. I would only note that “12345” and “John Doe” are the result of redaction.
I received a letter- Certified, so I had to sign for it, in my name with correct address with case id: 21424732 saying that if I did not pay$395 by March 1st I could face felony criminal/civil charges and be held in jail until arraigned in court. The first clue was the seal – it wasn’t raised. Then I noticed them using “stamps.com”. A government agency does NOT use stamps.com! Onto the website and tracking to their “virutal” office. I scanned the letter and the envelope and sent it to the Department of Justice 2 days ago. As of today the website is down and I recieved an email saying they were not longer operational and do not send money. They did a pretty good job with forgery and language. Someone put effort and time into this scam. Luckily I know the law and have good instincts. I am sure they received money from people. It was done well enough that I had to do some serious research to find out it was a scam. I believe they tracked my IP and home address by a “settlement” from Limewire, which never materialized. Lesson learned.
Can you please elaborate the Limewire “settlement” part? It could solve the mystery of ICLEA getting contact info. Or rather partially solve, because I do know that some accusations were substantiated, i.e. alleged file sharing took place.
I received a notice that Limewire was being sued and because I was a paying customer I was entitled to a settlement amount. I filled out a form where the settlement would be sent. This would account for how the perps got my personal information. However, another P2P is called “Spotify” and it posts on facebook songs you download and listen too. The songs I was accused of downloading illegally were downloaded only to Spotify and not Limewire, so maybe facebook was hacked to get my personal info as well.
I received a letter 2 days ago, I went to the post office today to pick up my “Certified letter, it is identical to the one on this page. They got my info from the limewire settlement scam. saying I would be part of a settlement aginst limewire if I used the site for downloading music in the past.
The songs they said I downloaded were real, but I don’t think they cost $495.00.
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: COPYRIGHTLAWENFORCEMENT.COM
Registrant:
Domains By Proxy, LLC
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.LAWENFORCEMENTDNS.COM
NS2.LAWENFORCEMENTDNS.COM
Interesting. It’s as though they somehow knew this wasn’t legal, and so registered in a way to try to obscure their tracks. Further digging shows the dns also registered through the proxy company.
Looking into Domains By Proxy, LLC I find what I suspected, they are not going to be protected from any legal battles if someone brings criminal charges.
“In special situations, it may be necessary for Domains By Proxy to reveal your name and personal information, such as:
When required by law, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law
To comply with a subpoena or other legal process served upon us
To resolve any and all third party claims, whether threatened or made, arising out of your use of a domain name registered by Domains By Proxy on your behalf
(Please refer to the Proxy Agreement for additional information.)”
Can’t wait to see if anythings comes from this.
Thanks to SJD’s efforts this may be over before it gained any real traction but the question remains. How did they get the personal identifying info behind the IP addresses? One guess is that this is a byproduct of the “extended surveillance” that has been reported in, for example, Lipscomb’s remodeled assault on the USA. A few Anons have commented on this blog that, upon the release of their info, they have been subjected to a coincidental barrage of telemarketing harassment by third parties. Makes me wonder.
i fully believe the trolls are selling our phone numbers (as an added avenue of income). the increase in telemarketing calls (and the oddity of the businesses) is just too suspicious.
There’s been a barrage of shady telemarketing calls for me since my Lipscum business started. Clearly someone is selling contact info.
Same with me for Prenda. I get telemarketer scum calling my land line every day, multiple times a day. I can’t even keep up with it by filing FCC complaints.
intesting to see if we get any feedbacks here from actual does. Examplle comes to mind, this scam artist emailed bunch of people with lipscomb type of inquiry letters, some doe replied and now scam artist has his name, email and ip address..
I just got one of these notices yesterday but since I’ve been in IT for nearly two decades…I kinda know better so of course Google is my best friend…boy, for everyone complaining and asking, “how did they find me! how did they track me?!?”, you’re kidding, right? Ironically, even though I’m obviously quite tech savvy, I still got one of these notices!! I’m almost 100% sure why though…I made the stupid mistake of downloading without a VPN account…guess after all these years without any issues I just felt “safe”…You’d think I know better though….doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out…I mean come on, every single peer to peer program out there…they all show you the IP addresses (trolls must just love this…thinking about this, I have no idea why these clients don’t just hide this info…to all the software devs out there, you listening and taking notes?)…all you have to do next is match the IP to a name and address and bingo…and matching the names to addresses isn’t that hard…do you really think your privacy is safe? where do you really think the data goes when you sign up for something using your real name and address….lots of the data is sold…I don’t even believe that data with Google is safe…after all, we live in the information age…think about it…all of us must be sharing all of our identity data out there more times per month than we can count…and I’m almost 110% positive that tons of the data eventually gets sold…
So my guess…this “agency” tracked IP addresses down and then purchased the data to match the IP to a name/address…I have a feeling that other trolls are using the same tactics…or maybe a combo of tactics…
The lesson? Get and use a VPN account (I should have, and will now)! Then all these f***** ass***** can’t do jack sh*t!
Except for subpeoning the owner of the VPN server for traffic logs, and any legitimate websites will not sell off your personal information… not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t help because generally your external IP is dynamic. So even if an IP could be linked to an address at time A, it has no relation to what an IP did at time B.
Euro VPNs will tell them to go fuck themselves
God Bless you for exposing these scammer crooks’ unconscionable scheme to extort money from the public! I personally hope they are identified, arrested, and receive long prison sentences!
I am stunned at the swift Poof! of this scam. With all of the fighting against crook trolls that has been going on, seeing something like this extinguish itself so quickly is very refreshing indeed. Excellent coverage and exposure by SJD. Hat tip to you!
Thank you. What I’m happy about is how quickly Google picked up my story: it’s already #3 when searching for “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency.” Very powerful weapon.
as always Excellent Job !!!
Kudos to SJD !!
I wish it was these easy to get rid of the trolls!
BTW (boring news) a picture of “Jim Regan” in the cached version of the “Home” is of course a stock photo (most likely illegal).
I KNOW HOW THEY KNOW THE INFORMATION…
IT IS PART OF THE FAKE LIMEWIRE SETTLEMENT SCAM…
WEBPAGE http://www.settlementdisbursements.com
TELLS YOU TO DOWNLOAD A SPYWARE THAT SEARCHES YOUR COMPUTER FOR ANY FILES ENDING IN TORRENT… THEY DO HAVE YOUR CORRECT IP ADDRESS AS WELL!!!!!!
IT ALSO PROMPTS YOU TO ENTER YOUR INFO LIKE ADDRESS AND NAME FOR YOUR FREE ELECTRONIC/GIFT CARD SETTLEMENT… DON’T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a younger brother who did this with my info, I received the notice yesterday via certified mail. THESE CROOKS actually pay over $3.50 to send it this way and have ID verification to make it look even more legit.. CONTACT YOU LOCAL FBI AND GIVE THEM THE EVIDENCE SO THEY ARE PROSECUTED!!!!
I AM 100% SURE AND SERIOUS THAT THAT IS THE CONNECTION… IT TOOK ME DAYS TO FIND AND DELETE THE MALWARE PRODUCED FROM THAT SITE ON MY COMPUTER AND SADLY ENOUGH–SOME OF IT I CANNOT DELETE… I’M JUST HOPING IT CAUSES NO FURTHER PROBLEMS FOR ME NOW… “SDI’S” WEBSITE IS NOW NO LONGER EXISTENT… I HAVE CACHES OF IT IF INTERESTED… GOD I HOPE THAT THIS DOESN’T GO ANY FURTHER…
***********I RECEIVED THIS EMAIL IN MY JUNK FOLDER AT 2:19am THIS MORNING****************
DELIVERED VIA EMAIL
Dear (*MY NAME*)
This is to inform you that the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please DISREGARD any notices you received from us, and please do NOT send us any payments.
You will not receive any further communication from us.
Yours truly,
David Walsh
Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency
dwalsh@copyrightlawenforcement.com
http://www.copyrightlawenforcement.com
Although I’m sure the crooks mask their IP addresses, yet who knows… I’m curious if there is an original sender IP address in the email header.
************** THIS IS THE SITE MY BROTHER USED MY INFO @ THAT I AM SURE IS CONNECTED. THEY DOWNLOAD A “PROGRAM” WHEN YOU “MAKE YOUR CLAIM” AND RECEIVE YOUR INFO/IP/INFO ON … TO THINK THIS SITE WAS DORMANT FOR OVER A YEAR BEFORE THIS ALL STARTED TO HAPPEN…***********************
Settlement Disbursements (SDI) has been retained by LimeWire, FrostWire, BitTorrent, and Azureus to provide you with a $1000 settlement payment as part of a court ordered settlement. If you have ever used LimeWire, FrostWire, Cabos, uTorrent, BitTorrent, Vuze, Ares, or any other similar file-sharing software then you are automatically entitled to receive the $1000 settlement.
Please Note: Under the terms of the court ordered settlement, once your settlement claim is approved you will be removed from receiving settlement notices when you use LimeWire, FrostWire, Cabos, uTorrent, BitTorrent, Vuze, Ares, or other similar software. If you do not make a claim then the notices will continue to appear.
We are now accepting a limited number of court ordered $1000 settlement claims. Please note that we cannot accept any new settlement claims after the court imposed deadline expires on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 11:59PM.
If you have any questions regarding the settlement, please click on the Settlement Questions button at the top of this page to see answers to frequently asked questions. If would like to read the court ordered settlement and injunction, please go to:
Click to access Injunction.pdf
To make a settlement claim as part of the court ordered settlement, receive your $1000 settlement, and remove the settlement notices from LimeWire, FrostWire, Cabos, uTorrent, BitTorrent, Vuze, Ares, and other similar file-sharing software, please click the CLAIM SETTLEMENT AND REMOVE NOTICES button located below to check if you qualify for the settlement and submit your settlement claim.
Court imposed settlement rules
1) All settlement claims must be submitted by the court imposed deadline of Friday, February 22, 2013 at 11:59PM.
2) Processing of settlement claims and shipping of settlement payments takes approximately 1-2 weeks.
3) Limit of one settlement claim per household.
“Thank you for making the settlement claim process such a breeze. My $1000 settlement payment arrived within a week”
–Mike, New York City, New York
“Your customer service is exceptional and helped guide me through the $1000 settlement process”
–Karen, London, UK
“The claim process went smoothly and the online tracking allowed me to follow the status of my settlement claim”
–John, Sydney, Australia
For over twenty years SDI
has been the premier choice for fulfilling court ordered settlements. We are proud to have millions of satisfied clients and we look forward to continuing to provide exceptional customer service and support
Copyright © 2013 SDI. All rights reserved.
Yes this is the one I entered my info into……………………..
I mentioned this a long time ago that once these cocksuckers get your info they will keep you in their loop. This scam has LMC written all over it. The ones who would try such a scam are the ones that have broken the law so many times already that this latest scam would just be another drop in the bucket. Look to the most egregious law breakers and then you might narrow your search.
Unfortunately, people get scared and do not do their research on such matters. They pay the fee and get put on a “pay” list for the next extortion scam to come around. Every once in a while a Doe bites back, but it never goes anywhere and the eels slip away yet again to pull another scam.
Reblogged this on TorrentLawyer™ – Exposing Copyright Trolls and Their Lawsuits and commented:
I am horrified by reading Sophisticated Jane Doe (SJD)’s story about the Copyright Law Enforcement Agency. Quite frankly, I was already of the opinion that some of the copyright trolls needed to be disbarred and some needed some jail time for the fraudulent activities they appear to have taken part in, and this was when they were filing CIVIL COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT lawsuits in federal court. Reading this story, I am offended by the activities of this group, and no doubt the FBI and other law enforcement agencies will take note of their actions. In my opinion, this kind of activity raises to the levels of Ransomware and other flat-out illegal activities, and I have no doubt they will be shut down by law enforcement agencies just as fast as I am typing this comment.
For these reasons, I am not writing my own separate article on this topic, but I am merely re-posting SJD’s article below.
WELL THIS IS VERY INTERESTING… THERE IS A IP ADDRESS FOR THE SENDER…. LMK
x-store-info:4r51+eLowCe79NzwdU2kR3P+ctWZsO+J
Authentication-Results: hotmail.com; spf=pass (sender IP is 74.50.124.200) smtp.mailfrom=dwalsh@copyrightlawenforcement.com; dkim=none header.d=copyrightlawenforcement.com; x-hmca=pass
X-SID-PRA: dwalsh@copyrightlawenforcement.com
X-AUTH-Result: PASS
X-SID-Result: PASS
X-Message-Status: n:n
X-Message-Delivery: Vj0xLjE7dXM9MDtsPTA7YT0wO0Q9MjtHRD0yO1NDTD02
X-Message-Info: z6+tzUa3IoSkHoZNP7yC+Vmht3g2XW1U2plMdOnf8fZv6uAwMBg7qFIOWmdJzrBWfd9ZmnHMETx5fn7x2Dd67I05fVTryg7ouB6anGnCoVFzki37uIbtld0EXg2N/fTsGMrkvlIroL1xQS6IkHV6rF6ihn8eVNwn
Received: from copyrightlawenforcement.com ([74.50.124.200]) by COL0-MC4-F47.Col0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4900);
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:19:39 -0800
Received: from ([127.0.0.1]) with MailEnable ESMTP; Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:19:14 -0500
Reply-To:
From: “David Walsh”
To:
Subject: Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency, URGENT NOTICE
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:19:11 -0500
Organization: Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_01DC_01CE10AB.7352EEB0″
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 14.0
Thread-Index: Ac4Q1SgPzqItrVrlRBqM8DWm6BuoCg==
Content-Language: en-us
Return-Path: dwalsh@copyrightlawenforcement.com
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 22 Feb 2013 08:19:39.0477 (UTC) FILETIME=[5BD02850:01CE10D5]
This is a multipart message in MIME format.
——=_NextPart_000_01DC_01CE10AB.7352EEB0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=”us-ascii”
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Thank you. The mail was sent from the same IP as the site itself, i.e. 74.50.124.200 – NOC4Hosts in Florida, a cheap popular hosting. I was hoping the crook would send it from his home connection.
check this out from there homepage
Effective immediately, the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please disregard any notices you received from us, and please do not send us any payments.
scumbag is from Tampa
The IP address “74.50.124.200” is located in the following region : Tampa, Florida, United States
ISP :
Organization : NOC4Hosts
ASN : AS29802 HIVELOCITY VENTURES CORP
Country \ Country Code : United States \ ( US )
City \ City Code : Tampa \ ( 813 )
Region : Florida
Local PostCode : 33614
Latitude : 27.9987030029297
Longitude : -82.5156021118164
Hi everyone,
I’m a reporter from Ars Technica. I see several folks who have received these letters. If any of you are willing to discuss the situation, I’d love to talk to you. Please email me at timothy.lee@arstechnica.com. Anything you send me will be considered confidential unless you tell me otherwise. Thanks!
Yes, guys, please talk to Tim. ArsTechnica has a huge readership, and helping to spread awareness about this particular scam will undeniably help many potential victims of similar scams (and make new scams less likely to happen).
SJD slowly taking over the whole blogosphere… Ars, Techdirt,,,, they will all fall before us MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!… er wait…
Holy shit they’re impersonating federal law enforcement, even going so far as to fabricate a federal agency, and not even trying to hide it. This is not ballsy brazen, it’s sheer, unadulterated stupidity and has landed them them on the DoJ’s shit list…a list one does not want to ever be on heh. Good job, idiots, you’ve managed to one-up Prenda’s (alleged) ID theft by claiming to be federal law enforcement with arrest powers. I don’t even know if there’s a statute for a legal entity that does this but falsely claiming to represent the federal government to do…what they’re doing, that’s serious shit. Well at least Steele et al will have company in federal prison.
the tiny image of “The Director of the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” was fake too.
here is the original one:
http://www.f1online.pro/en/image-details/1780587.html
maybe they are from ukraine.the image in “report copyright crime” section in the web ,as you can see here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.copyrightlawenforcement.com/report.aspx
comes frome a this web : http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/yanukovych-signs-law-on-humanization-of-responsibi-118876.html
No one noted another interesting fact. The domain name Copyrightlawenforcement.com was registered on 09/03/11 and updated on 06/08/12. Even if “update” means a purchase, it is still a long time while this domain was dormant. Strange (to say the least) that we did not hear about it before. Wayback machine does not have it archived, which implies very low traffic. Alexa show nothing as well.
Any ideas?
IT ALL HAS TO DO WITH :
BACK IN 2010 AND 2011 A RECORDING THAT TOOK PLACE OF MANY DOWNLOADS ON LIMEWIRE/FROSTWIRE/ETC INCLUDED ONLY A MESSAGE TALKING ABOUT A SETTLEMENT FOR ANYONE WHO HAS USED THE SOFTWARE. AND IT DIRECTS YOU TO A WEBPAGE
http://www.settlementdisbursements.com/
WHICH WAS ALSO DORMANT AT THE SAME TIME AS THE INTERNET LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES SITE… THIS SITE WAS ACTUALLY COMPLETELY DELETED EARLIER, AND NOW IS BACK ONLINE.IT SAYS ABOUT THE SAME THING THE OTHER ONE SAYS ABOUT CEASING OPERATIONS… WHEN YOU WOULD “MAKE A CLAIM ” ON THIS SITE IT ASKS YOU TO DOWNLOAD A “SIMPLE SCAN PROGRAM” TO SEE “IF YOU QUALIFY” FOR THE SETTLEMENT -BY SEARCHING YOUR HARD DRIVE FOR ANY TORRENTS.MP3′S… THEN YOU GIVE THEM YOUR INFO LIKE NAME ADDRESS ” SO THAT THEY CAN SHIP YOU YOUR SETTLEMENT”… LOL… MY BROTHER FELL FOR IT AND HE IS 14, HE PUT MY INFO IN IT, AND I RECEIVED A NOTICE YESTERDAY…
I AM 10000000000000% SURE ITS THE SAME SCAM, ONLY ITS DEALT THROUGH MULTIPLE SITES….
THEY ALSO SENT EMAILS TO PEOPLE WHO “MADE A CLAIM AND HEAR NOTHING” SAYING TO REVISIT THE PAGE A RESUBMIT THE CLAIM…. THIS IS FACT
My big question is this: how did they get the identity of the subscribers from the ISPs? That typically requires a court order.
dude
I HAD JUST SAID IT WAS DORMANT… THIS IS ALL STEMMING FROM “SETTLEMENT DISBURSEMENTS SCAM FOR LIME WIRE AND FROST WIRE…. WHICH WAS ALSO DORMANT FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME…. CANT YOU GUYS SEE THE CONNECTION??!!!!!!!!??????
So what you’re saying is they have some sort of Spyware program that can identify both your personal information (I guess that wouldn’t be hard) and your torrent files?
If that’s the case, it’s not only mail and wire fraud, but that is a patent violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. I know we all hate the CFAA, but this is what it was designed to protect against.
BACK IN 2010 AND 2011 A RECORDING THAT TOOK PLACE OF MANY DOWNLOADS ON LIMEWIRE/FROSTWIRE/ETC INCLUDED ONLY A MESSAGE TALKING ABOUT A SETTLEMENT FOR ANYONE WHO HAS USED THE SOFTWARE. AND IT DIRECTS YOU TO A WEBPAGE
http://www.settlementdisbursements.com/
WHICH WAS ALSO DORMANT AT THE SAME TIME AS THE INTERNET LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES SITE… THIS SITE WAS ACTUALLY COMPLETELY DELETED EARLIER, AND NOW IS BACK ONLINE.IT SAYS ABOUT THE SAME THING THE OTHER ONE SAYS ABOUT CEASING OPERATIONS… WHEN YOU WOULD “MAKE A CLAIM ” ON THIS SITE IT ASKS YOU TO DOWNLOAD A “SIMPLE SCAN PROGRAM” TO SEE “IF YOU QUALIFY” FOR THE SETTLEMENT -BY SEARCHING YOUR HARD DRIVE FOR ANY TORRENTS.MP3’S… THEN YOU GIVE THEM YOUR INFO LIKE NAME ADDRESS ” SO THAT THEY CAN SHIP YOU YOUR SETTLEMENT”… LOL… MY BROTHER FELL FOR IT AND HE IS 14, HE PUT MY INFO IN IT, AND I RECEIVED A NOTICE YESTERDAY…
I AM 10000000000000% SURE ITS THE SAME SCAM, ONLY ITS DEALT THROUGH MULTIPLE SITES….
No, it would be a phishing scam as Mikey P suggested. Would not be anything new or complex. No hacking required.
Here is the design template.
It’s hard to be convinced of anything copyright enforcers say when the bulk of their population is characterised by scammers and liars.
A company called Capitol solutions http://www.capitolsolutions.com/ is the company that is located in that suite that people were instructed to send money to, according to their website, which was updated this year. This is the information I pulled from GoDadddy for their domain:
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: CAPITOLSOLUTIONS.COM
Created on: 31-May-98
Expires on: 30-May-13
Last Updated on: 29-May-12
Registrant:
Capitol Solutions
1737 H Street, NW
2nd Floor
Washington, District of Columbia 20006
United States
Administrative Contact:
Holley, Kenneth passivehero@yahoo.com
Information Systems Integration
P.O. Box 5315
Arlington, Virginia 22205
United States
2024654880 Fax — 7038522826
Technical Contact:
Holley, Kenneth passivehero@yahoo.com
ISICG, LLC
5113 8th Road North
Arlington, Virginia 22205
United States
7035167075 Fax — 7038522826
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.ISICG.NET
NS2.ISICG.NET
NS3.ISICG.NET