[9560] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Internet billing scam? (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ed Tully)
Mon Jan 10 20:17:56 1994
From: tully@cscns.com (Ed Tully)
To: postman@lists.psi.com (Bruce Gingery)
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 18:13:49 MST
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.05.9401101707.B8540-c100000@antelope.wcc.edu>; from "Bruce Gingery" at Jan 10, 94 5:46 pm
There was an announcement last week, and now we have heard from several
other people, that thses guys are real. they moved to NJ because o some
problems setting up with the local telco. You can go into telecomreg and
com-priv archives and pull up the messages. then see for yourself and let
us know more - if there is any more.
ed Tully
>
>
> FORWARDED FROM imp-interest@thumper.bellcore.com
>
> Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 13:00:13 -0800 (PST)
> >From: Nick Szabo <szabo@netcom.com>
> Subject: Internet billing scam?
>
>
> Forwarded from COMMUNET:
>
> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 16:18:44 -0500
> >From: Scott A. Ward 703-614-4719 <wards@AMOMEGA.ACQ.OSD.MIL>
> To: Multiple recipients of list COMMUNET
> Subject: Warning: International Internet Association
>
> A company calling itself the International Internet Association, and billing
> itself as "the largest non-profit provider of free Internet access in the
> world" has started advertizing in the Washington, D.C. area, and offering free
> Internet accounts to individuals who will FAX them, among other things, a
> credit card number. As an active member of the Member Council of the National
> Capital Area Public Access Network (CapAccess), I wanted to find more about
> this organization that supposedly has offices NOT THREE BLOCKS FROM CAPACCESS.
> Here's the result of my search for the IIA.
>
> 1. Their address, listed as "Suite 852 - 202 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. Washington
> D.C. 20006", is actually a post office box at Mailboxes, Etc.
>
> 2. The company lists no incorporation, trademark or service-mark licenses.
>
> 3. They claim your E-mail address would be <userid>@iia.org. However:
> a. No iia.org is listed in the hq.af.mil hosts table
> b. No iia.org is listed in the acq.osd.mil hosts table
> c. No iia.org is listed is the INTERNIC 'whois' database
> d. No iia.org is listed using the INTERNIC 'netfind' Internet lookup
> In other words, IIA.ORG does NOT, at this time, exist.
>
> 4. Although they apologize profusely in the application, they state that
> "Without receiving a credit card number, the IIA _cannot_ process an account."
>
> 5. Although I have left a message on their voice-mail system, I have received
> no response from them. (they also apologize in the voice mail that, due to
> demand, they are operating at a 3-week backlog for applications.)
>
> I cannot judge an organization in advance. However, I do think it highly
> suspicious that, to use their propaganda, "The International Internet
> Association is able to make this service available through generous private
> donations, and the extraordinary dedication of its membership." I can say that
> I am not convinced this organization exists, and highly discourage any Internet
> user from sending information until you make certain that the IIA is real.
>
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