Illegal DVD Bootleg Scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

Hi all. I've never posted anything before but I read the forum a lot. It's a great read...
Anyway, I was just wanting to know if anyone has an idea as to what I could do with these scammers...
They operate a website that claims to sell DVDs of entire series' but instead send you illegal bootlegs that are of extremely poor quality and refuse to give a refund.
I have many, many complaints against this website for various people who have been taken by these people and I was wondering what you guys think I could do about them?
At least I'd like to remove their "sponsored link" from Google.

The website is "www.tvdvdstore.com". I'll elaborate if anyone needs more information...

- Chris

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

There is a possibility that the site could get shut down if you send an abuse complaint to the host. If they're indeed doing something illegal and it can be proven, then the host will remove the website from its servers, and the registrar (in this case, the same company) may suspend the domain itself. The site is hosted on 1 & 1, who tend to be a cooperative host and registrar. Possibly connected to something called powerdvdstore.com (though not sure, at any rate it was a similar setup) which is currently dead.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

Yeah, I thought of that. I sent a complaint off to 1 & 1 who said they didn't host it and that I should contact GoDaddy. I sent them the complaint and they said they can't do anything about it because they're not the hosters. They just provide the domain name.
I ran a WhoIs on the hoster and it just gave me:

http://216.14.118.243

I think that means they're hosting the site on their own servers. Does that mean I can't do anything about it?

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

@chris-found this~may be of some interest...
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/non-fulfillment-of-order-c77663.html

http://www.complaintsboard.com/byurl/tvdvdstore.com.html

http://forums.gottadeal.com/showthread.php?p=1253719

As for what you can do-i'd suggest the better business bureau and the attorney general (either of the state where you are-or the state where they are based)

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks Donato! I'll add these to my large list of complaints I already have...
I'll write to the Better Business Bureau but I don't know what you mean about the Attorney General (I'm in Australia by the way).

Keep the suggestions coming if you guys can as I'm pretty much stumped as to how I could shut these guys down now. All I wanted to do originally was to remove the sponsored link and get that stupid McAfee SiteAdvisor to not report the website as okay. But I have no idea how to contact Google and after writing to McAfee, all I got was instructions on how to uninstall the SiteAdvisor. They obviously didn't even read what I wrote... So I figure the only thing I can do now is try to eliminate the source...

Any ideas, would be brilliant...

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

@Chris... If that first link i posted earlier is right about their location (Charlotte, North Carolina) then this info may be helpful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Attorney_General

http://www.ncdoj.com/default_about.jsp
http://www.ncsbi.gov/

http://www.ncsbi.gov/offices/offices.jsp
http://www.ncsbi.gov/contactus_form.jsp

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

Who did you talk to at 1 & 1 about it?

Quote:

Domain Name: TVDVDSTORE.COM
Registrar: 1 & 1 INTERNET AG
Whois Server: whois.schlund.info
Referral URL: http://REGISTRAR.SCHLUND.INFO
Name Server: NS57.1AND1.COM
Name Server: NS58.1AND1.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 17-sep-2008
Creation Date: 23-dec-2007
Expiration Date: 23-dec-2009

IP = 74.208.84.44, which falls into their range and clearly hosted on their servers. Confused

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

@Donato: I will write to them but I don't think it will do any good as a number of complaints indicates that they are actually based in China. Well, actually all the products were from China. It's wierd actually, they say they are based in the US, their "products" are shipped from China and someone said that they got a return address that was located in Canada.

@Akai: I spoke a to someone named Julie Pearl Genterone. She even did a WhoIs lookup of who the domain name was which was GoDaddy but she didn't say who was hosting it. I have absolutely no idea what's going with that.

Hmmm...

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

@chris-email them-maybe asking for a price on something from a fakey address (set up with BS info) gmail will do, then check where the email was sent from...

Quote:

If you want to find out where his email comes from then have a read here how to find headers, then copy and paste the header into this http://headertool.apelord.com/

After that take the last (bottom) number and put it in here http://www.ip-adress.com/ipaddresstolocation/

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

I am utterly astonished by the lack of empathy I've witnessed today. I'm honestly thinking a DOS attack maybe the way to go. Or maybe I'll go to the cops tomorrow, even though I've always considered them generally useless, they might be able to provide a little direction at least.

Thanks anyway guys.

- Chris

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:23 pm

Quote:

I am utterly astonished by the lack of empathy I've witnessed today

Firstly I would say that in your case : DON'T EVEN THINK OF A DDOS ATTACK :
Unless you like gaol. That's up to you Smile

Many people around here are a bit sensitive about that sort of activity. This site was attacked awhile back.

I snipped everything else for Pm Smile