I just had a phone call that I'm convinced was a phising scam. I had come inside to hear a message being left on my answering machine. I played the message back and heard a message from Shaquan Brown calling about the domain hosting I have with "them." I know the name of my domain hosting company; so do its employees; and it's not "them."
Caller ID said the call was from "WEB HOSTING SUPPORT" at (602) 716-5339.
I called "Mr. Brown" back and, after navigating through a recorded welcome message saying that I had reached "hosting support," a man answered with, "Hosting support."
"Uh, yeah, I'm returning a call from Mr. Brown," I said identifying myself. The man said that he was Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown said that he was calling about my domain name. I have some internet domain names registered and utilize the services of a web and domain hosting company; on the rare occasion that they call me, their company name shows up on caller ID and they properly identify themselves as being with that company.
Mr. Brown proceeded to ask me for my domain name. "My domain name?" I asked him. "You have a domain or web hosting, don't you?" He asked. "I do?" asked I, "You tell me. You called me about 'it' you moron."
At this point I heard male laughter break out in the background--like Mr. Brown had just been made.
I asked Mr. Brown what company he was with and he acted as if I'd just asked him the capital of Tajikistan. I cussed at him, he informed me he would have to terminate the call and hung up.
I don't doubt that if I had been more cooperative with Mr. Brown, he would have come to the point where he needed to renew my domain name, probably conveniently with a credit card.
Beware... and don't say I didn't warn you.
Your experience was egregious, but while you're warning people, if you ever get postal mail or a fax from "Domain Registry of American," (and it's going to look like a bill), shred it. They're domain thieves.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet people don't realize how many scams are out there trying to steal your domain. You gotta be careful out there.
Lots of them will scam you with those letters, about 3 months before my domains expire i get letters from about 3 companies. They look legit from your registar, but beware.
ReplyDeleteYep, sounds like they were wanting to "switch" you to their company.
ReplyDeleteJust received a call from the same person at the same number, they left a message. Called them back, they are legitimate, from ipowerweb.com, a hosting service that handles 3 of my domain names. Of course, when Roch101 returned their call, asked for and received Mr Brown, Brown would not know which of Roch101's many domains he was returning a call about unless Roch101 gave him the info. It sounds like Roch101's hot headed hair trigger response generated an exceptionally rude interaction with a legitimate business contact. Nice job. Ignore Roch101. The caller is ipowerweb, a good reliable company that doesn't spam call anyone.
ReplyDeleteA legitimate company would have caller ID identify their company and they would instruct their employees to announce who they are with when leaving a message or when answering the phone -- or, at the very least, when they are directly asked. Legitimate? Maybe. Competent? Not as far as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteI don't have business with them, so why would they call me? I see their number on my caller id but I wasn't home when they called.
ReplyDeleteI have this number call me routinely and at the exact same time every day. I never answer and there is never a message left.
ReplyDeleteThe companies that I do web hosting business with are all recognizable and would not use that area code.
I noticed this post is nearly 18 months old, and am disappointed that the scam is continuing. I wish there was a good place to report this!
We're getting multiple calls a week from 602-716-5339. Caller ID says "Endurance." Normally, there's no one there, and it just hangs up. Just now, what sounded like a young African American man asked for my husband's first name. I got out the words, "Wait a minute. We get a lot of phone calls from this number," and he hung up. Whoever they are, they're not getting any sort of business from us if we can trace them back to anything that we are or were using.
ReplyDeleteNot doing business with them either and they call and hang up on my voice mail. Legit businesses do NOT hang up and do NOT have untraceable/unlisted/blocked phone numbers. I second the "BEWARE" from Roch101.
ReplyDeleteI got a call from them today, picked it up but they hang up. I think their business are scams. I posted an ad on craiglist and a lady replied and I gave her my phone number, her name is Claire.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I'm currently having an issue with my webhost (hostcentric.com) and requested to talk to a supervisor. 8 hours later (Long after I left the office) I received a voicemail from a Matt Warren identifying himself as "the supervisor" - I'm starting to suspect this is an outsourced support company used by many hosting companies (virtual or otherwise) - was hoping the number was going to lead me to a corporate office where I could make a complaint with someone who may actually care about their company.
ReplyDelete