Fake scam: royal wedding tickets NOT for sale

Just testing

The Register is reporting a social engineering spoof by the group Scam Detectives who offered fake �Golden Tickets� to the royal wedding next April for �250 ($388 USD). There were 160 site visitors on the spoof site in 12 hours willing to buy the fakes.


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�Scam Detectives used a free online website building package top set up a spoof site - http://www.royalwedding.weebly.com - only minutes after the announcement of the royal wedding. The site was promoted using social networks, adverts on classified advertising websites and spam posts on popular forums� Register writer John Leyden wrote.

Scam detectives, set up about a year ago, said its goal is �To reduce the number of people taken in by online scams every year and stop YOU from losing your hard earned money.�

The stunt is a great awareness raiser, and presents the problem that Internet shoppers always face: how do you spot a fake site?

Scam detectives� web site provides some approaches in the details of its investigation of another ticket-selling scam:

-- On the site purchase page, try inputting fake data, such as all zeros for a credit card number. If the site accepts a random number and gives a notice that your purchase is on the way, it�s a site set up to steal credit card numbers. A legitimate site will tell you the number is bad.

-- Look for contact information on the web site. If there is very limited information or no way of contacting the site owners about problems, something is fishy. A site might list contact email addresses, but if they are fake, you don�t want to do business there. Scam Detectives mentioned that there is a web site set up to check the veracity of email addresses: http://www.verify-email.org (Though for some reason it lists valid Yahoo addresses as bad.)

-- Check the �whois� listing for the date the site was set up and contact information. It the site claims to have been in business for years but whois date shows a registration in the previous few days or weeks, it�s probably a scam. New businesses go on line all the time, however, a recent registration date should make you check further.

-- Do a search engine check for the site (or company) and see if anyone else has discussed it as a scam or as a site with irregularities.

From our experience, we would suggest that shoppers be especially careful of any web site that is advertised by spam email.

Register story: Monarchist marks fall for faux royal wedding ticket site


Tom Kelchner