Spammers and referral whores using names of big HYIP sites to deceive investors

Spammers and referral whores* have devised an innovative way to get investors to notice their advertised programs. For several months now, these people have been sending spam using names of popular HYIP forums, HYIP monitoring, and other HYIP-related sites.

Here are examples of spam we received purportedly coming from known HYIP sites. The sites have constantly denied any involvement in the distribution of these spam mails. Be warned that these referral whores are in it only for referral commission. Worse, if they are program admins themselves, these spammers want to bait you into the program hoping you would promote the program to other people.

DO NOT support these programs. DO NOT click any link in the mail and DO NOT join any of the programs they advertise. You risk yourself being scammed. Report the mail as SPAM in your mail box so that the next time you receive mail from them, it will be sent to the Junk Mail folder.

Here's one mail that deceptively used the name "TalkGold Admin" in its email address, hoping you'd believe it's an official mail from the TalkGold forum. It is not.

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From: talkgold.admin@gmail.com
Date: Oct 8, 2006 7:51 AM
Subject: Please read !

We are monitoring the paying site !
We recomend you to join here

http://profitbranding.net/deposit.php?cgi=m e m b e r (DO NOT VISIT THE SITE!)

Short plan info :
Plan A : 10% hourly for 15 hours !
Plan B : 20% hourly for 15 hours !

Payment accepted : e-gold
Referals bonus : 15% and free 1000 USD in hot contest

=============================================

Your faithfully,
Talkgold admin
talkgold.admin@gmail.com

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The next mail was supposedly sent by the Goldrater monitoring site, except that it was sent by Gaoldrater.com and not Goldrater.com.

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From: support @ gaoldrater. com
Date: Oct 18, 2006 7:13 AM
Subject: perfect choice for you

Click below to join >>> http://tinyurl.com/y m v q 5 b <<<< (DO NOT VISIT THE SITE!)

Take a look at our investment plans:

Starter Plan: 15% hourly .
Accepted: $10-$125.
Advanced Plan: 30% hourly .
Accepted: $126-$5000.

For years our specialists have worked in different fields of online trading, investment and consulting. We have participated in a lot of successful investment projects. Finally we decided to join our skills and experience and create new brand investment project - SHARES VISTA.

Strong confidence in our abilities and expertise combined with the professional market prognosis has brought our company to where it stands now. We know how to approach our business properly and our innovative thinking turned out to be one of the major factors of our success.

Click below to join >>> http://tinyurl.com/y m v q 5 b <<<< (DO NOT VISIT THE SITE!)

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Here's another clever disguise. The spammer was able to manipulate the email headers (yes it is possible) to show that it was sent by HYIPDiscussion.com. A closer look at the headers, however, shows that the mail was actually sent by worldgoldprofit.us.to. The official HYIP Discussion site has also denied several times that it is sending any spam.

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-Gmail-Received: 715f6ffe916c65f8f6ae32fa1fc6d796c06d7180
Received: by 10.82.162.9 with SMTP id k9cs105461bue;
Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:58:06 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.35.21.9 with SMTP id y9mr1509001pyi.1163534285790;
Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:58:05 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <info@hyipdiscussion.com>
Received: from leaf.phpwebhosting.com ([67.19.218.130])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id 5si3476807nzk.2006.11.14.11.58.01;
Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:58:05 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: error (google.com: error in processing during lookup of info@hyipdiscussion.com: DNS timeout)
Message-Id: <455a1fca.0308aa54.3fc8.ffffcb46SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com>
Received: (qmail 12797 invoked from network); 14 Nov 2006 20:01:28 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO User) (ajie@worldgoldprofit.us.to@203.190.40.17)
by 82.da.1343.static.theplanet.com with SMTP; Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:01:28 -0500
From: "info@hyipdiscussion.com"<info@hyipdiscussion.com>
Subject: BEST HIGH PROFIT!!! 200% in 4 hours!!! Bonus available 50%.
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:02:54 +0700

hello, all hyipdiscussion member!
We recomended this one for you....

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We pay 200% after 4 hours.
20% at 1st hour
50% at 2nd hour
50% at 3th hour
and
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Total pay back is 200%

We add 50% for Biggest investor today. Just if you invest more than
$50.
So we pay 20% + 50% + 50% + 80% + 50% (free). Total profit is 250%.

Do not be late, now go to : http://2hundredpercent.sites l e d.com/ (DO NOT VISIT THE SITE!)

Double your money there...

They are on top in our monitoring website.

http://2hundredpercent.sites l e d.com/ (DO NOT VISIT THE SITE!)

Thank you

* * * * * * * * * *

Another deceptive spam was supposedly from the GoldPoll monitoring site. Although the email header was manipulated to show that it was sent by admin@goldpoll.com, it was actually sent by admin@goldfpoll.com -- notice the F between Gold and Poll. These guys can't even spell the name of their site right: the subject says the program was a "GollPoll recommendation".

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E-TradersGroup

115th Days & PAYING

128 Bit SSL

Automatic Withdrawals
Info
Started Jul 28, 2006
Running days 115
Total accounts 2380
VIP accounts 160
Total deposited $ 13,920,893.73
Total withdraw $ 3,554,953.08
Visitors online 46
Members online 23
Newest Member conkol45
Last update Nov 20, 2006

115th Days & PAYING

128 Bit SSL

Automatic Withdrawals

E-TradersGroup

Link: http://e-tradersgroup.com/index.php?ref=h a n k o k (DO NOT VISIT THE SITE!)

* * * * * * * * * *

Again we advise you NOT TO visit these sites, NOT TO click any links, and NOT TO join any of the programs these spammers are advertising. YOU WILL ONLY BE SCAMMED. Beware.

* "Referral whores" are people who aggressively promote and push for a program -- regardless of the fact that it may be scam -- with the only intent of earning commissions for every referral they direct to the site.

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