Fraudulent Mac Retailers

[lildancer]

macwhizshop

Thanks Scott for continuing to be one of our many crusaders for justice. You too were a victim, and it's nice to know there is someone on the "inside" and has a strong affiliation with Apple, its intities and contacts, as well as your own legal team. Thanks for staying involved. It helps all of us.

 

[Gabriel]

Wow. This guys chutzpah is pretty incredible. I hope you guys nail the bastard.

I wonder if perhaps talking with Blaine WA officials and the RCMP is going in the wrong direction? This guy has lied so much there's absolutely no reason to believe he's actually from Canada at all. He could have just found the address of a Mailboxes Etc. somewhere and slapped it on his website. I noticed that the IP for the fake post here comes from a DSL line in Amarillo TX, perhaps he's located there?

Thinking that this guy might have tried something this sophisticated before I searched LexisNexis for anything similar to the incident described. I didn't find anything, but I probably wasn't searching precisely enough.

Good luck.

 

[lildancer]

macwhizshop

You're all probably right. I think that going thru B of A might be the best bet, because those of us that have sent him money, sent it to that bank in Blaine.
Probably the only place that has real info on him. We have the banks physical address and his bank account #. I contacted them earlier today, because I am a Bof A customer too, letting them know they have a customer that is committing fraud at their branch.

 

[Thirteenva]

Maybe a sting operation is in order. Someone set up a "fake" order and agree to mail a money order to a certain location, and then hand deliver the money order to that location along with some mounted police.

 

[Gabriel]

I know a lot of us are very curious about how this investigation will progress, but since it seems like this guy (or an accomplice) has read this thread it would be a bad idea to plan things like a sting operation here.

 

[ovrdrvn]

Second That Emotion...Again

As before, the above poster is SO right. I'm glad everyone is bonding as I'm a victim too and quite upset. HOWEVER, by posting and discussing this you are in no way helping the authorities. If you really think that you are trained enough to track down international economic fraud cases, run down to your local FBI office and apply. I suggest you all contact those that are equipped to handle this and find out if I'm right...I know already what the answer is. Feel free to email me or PM as I said before...but if you want him caught, stay out of the amateur detective business.

 

[lildancer]

macwhizshop

Hmmm, let's see...all of the people that had their photos and website ripped were not privy to this information before it was posted here and they were personally notifed. They themselves thanked people here, not the authorities, (not to mention alerting Apple also), which added to the list of victims and charges against this guy.

This is a public forum for the benefit of all, not to be controlled by a few.

I think OVRDRVN, you're missing a key point: Macwhizshop's website was changed but not shut down. Derald obviously is still trying to do business, even after being personally confronted by his victims, Scott Rose, the G4 Store, the retail store he ripped the photo of from, and all of us that he has defrauded, and the other macwhiz.com.

He has been confronted personally, by all of us and is clearly uneffected by threats of notifying the authorities and legal action. I just don't get what your big concern about sharing info here is. We aren't sharing anything that hasn't been told to him directly-and he's still doing business!

 

[ovrdrvn]

Follow Up

Most people (or certainly quite a lot) have agreed with me and contacted me. If some people think that the appropriate thing to do is to keep playing amateur detective rather than giving any new information directly to the appropriate authorities, then I guess they will do that. I do suggest that if you haven't contacted me with your case if you are a victim, do your research and get your information where it needs to be. If you want this guy caught...don't think that we are all necessarily smarter than he is. Have a little faith that some people are trained to handle things like this...help catch him, don't help him.

 

[jxyama]

Re: Second That Emotion...Again

Originally posted by ovrdrvn
As before, the above poster is SO right. I'm glad everyone is bonding as I'm a victim too and quite upset. HOWEVER, by posting and discussing this you are in no way helping the authorities. If you really think that you are trained enough to track down international economic fraud cases, run down to your local FBI office and apply. I suggest you all contact those that are equipped to handle this and find out if I'm right...I know already what the answer is. Feel free to email me or PM as I said before...but if you want him caught, stay out of the amateur detective business.

while i understand your sentiment, one of the primary reasons we've made the progress so far was because one observant member noticed scott rose's picture. that would not have been possible had we not discussed this issue in public.

i understand your sentiment about him or his accomplise reading this site - but i doubt it changes anything. all the changes he's made to his site is primarily (i highly suspect) due to very formal complaint filed by scott rose and the g4shop. he's probably not responding to info on this site ("oh crap, these guys are onto me!"). if he's audacious enough to counter both scott rose and g4shop and claim he is the victim, i have no reason to believe he cares much about what a bunch of rumor site members are discussing.

whether he will know it or not, i highly advise against making direct contact with him in person or doing a sting operation. that is stupid - i applaude wanting to take this matter into your own hands - but that far more dangerous than discussing things here. those things should truly be left up to the authorities. in fact, even if you can "nail" him in action, none of us have the authority to do much about it - we are not police officers.

again, i understand your sentiment, but i personally believe it will serve all of us better by keeping this issue somewhat public so we will have access to the brains and resources of many more than just the victims discussing issues amongst themselves. specifics of your contact with the authority and your victim status should be kept private, of course... that is none of public's business. however, like a poster said before, pretty much everything we've discussed here and found useful, the scum himself have heard already. i just don't see what the paranoia is about.

however, i believe the public has every right to hear about this case, at least until the site is shut down and there will not be any more victims.

 

[Gabriel]

Yes, we are all amateurs in the detective business, but I think that a large group of people with different backgrounds and experiences can notice a lot more and make a lot more progress than even a professional. However, you're right, we don't want to tip this guy off or compromise any legitimate investigation. Maybe the solution is to set up a private thread or an email list or something so that this guys victims can share information securely.

 

[ovrdrvn]

I Know This Not To Be True (Thanks Gabriel)

All the posted information was known by the authorities. The fact that Scott and the G4 store were notified through here and confronted him while looking like it has made some progress in getting to him...it hasn't and I do emphasize again, if you don't believe me...call the authorities...look them up yourself. There has been one piece of information here that shouldn't have been leaked as it may well have given him a clue about how to cover his tracks. He may be arrogant, but he isn't that stupid. By having a group of amateurs try to crack the case, we are being somewhat arrogant in thinking that we know better than professionals with years of training. That said, if my word means nothing...call those that handle these cases, tell them what you are calling about and see if I'm right. There is absolutely no value to discussing issues of this case here. Other than victims who haven't known what to do until coming here (which IS the great value of this forum) I think if the posters who keep claiming that public discussion is so helpful would due their due dilligence...they would probably stop encouraging this behavior.

 

[neilah]

Originally posted by Gabriel
[snip]Maybe the solution is to set up a private thread or an email list or something so that this guys victims can share information securely.

Sounds like a private P2P network.

And I thought I'd never think of a good reason to want one!

 

[ovrdrvn]

Neilah...Great Thinking

If someone wants to make a suggestion about the most secure and compatible app to do this with, we can all share ideas after being verified. Those that have contacted me have been given my real name, phone number and where I am. (After showing me that they are who they claimed to be). If we want to put our collective minds together in an attempt to be helpful as well as share the anger and frustration, I say great.

 

[jxyama]

if authorities are on this case in such a way that amateurs on this site can come up the same tactic, i see no reason how it would have worked regardless of the "leaks." if they are professionals and have access to much greater resources than us amateurs, then i'd really hope they will conduct their investigation in far more effective fashion than what mere rumor site members can come up with on our spare time.

that said, i'm not really interested in cracking the case. i just want that website torn down so there will be no more victims. i also don't have much interest in nosing into what authorities are up to either - that, is more of a waste of their time.

the only thing authorities have over hundreds of collective brains is just that - authority to take action against this guy. their knowledge, esp. involving technology, is probably nowhere near the collective knowledge on this site. follow slashdot - no one govt/authority body can collect that much information as that site does in a matter of minutes.

if you have contact with the authority, tell them to hurry up and take concrete action. (i sure hope they are getting there.) macwhiz whipped up a free shipping promotion - more and more people will be scammed now and this guys is not going away.

that is another thing - authorities are usually prone to bureaucratic delays. no amout of hush-hush in public can help that...

finally, our of the respect to the victims, i will shut up now. overdrvn - i admire your efforts but i do not know if you have the right to basically represent all the victims. if the only discussions were taking place between the victims already identified, how would new victims become aware of this issue?

that said, good bye and i wish all the victims a somehow better ending in the near future.

 

[lildancer]

macwhizshop

Kuddos! I totally agree. Everyone is totally free to share info privately and that is great too. But if new victims saw this website today, and didn't know the history like we do, they may think that its a safe site. As long as its up, and people order from him, we need to keep new victims aware also.

If others are like me, I never came upon this until a month after ordering, and I only came across it when I did a search for his website. In Nov. I searched
sites under Macwhizshop looking for complaints and found nothing, so I figure d it must be legit. We don't have to disclose everything here, but the format still needs to be open. I bet there are hundreds if not more people out there that don't even know about his site and victim support, and wondering "where in the heck is my computer?"

 

[kanker]

One thing I would encourage all of you to do is to link to this thread whenever possible. I know that this is probably not the only Mac forum that you frequent, so whenever you see any threads that ask about deals being too good, is this legit, etc..., be active. When this thread was just one or two pages long I linked to it twice on MacNN threads from people who were probably within a day of commiting their money to this theif and hopefully stopped a few others who saw the prices as a result of those threads from buying too. I hope some of you have done the same and wish those of you who have been defrauded luck in getting satisfaction.

 

[dtwolfe]

Originally posted by Thargok
This is what I got...

Whois info for, macwhizshop.com:


Registrant:
MAC WHIZ COMPUTERS
342-6540 E. Hastings St.
Burnaby, BC V5B 4Z5
CA

Domain name: MACWHIZSHOP.COM

Administrative Contact:
Dutchak, Derald macshopz@yahoo.com
342-6540 E. Hastings St.
Burnaby, BC V5B 4Z5
CA
604-608-3539 Fax: 604-608-3539

Technical Contact:
Dutchak, Derald macshopz@yahoo.com
342-6540 E. Hastings St.
Burnaby, BC V5B 4Z5
CA
604-608-3539 Fax: 604-608-3539

Sorry to those who have been scammed.

He's updated his registry entry (Dec. 16) new info:

Registrars.
Registrant:
MAC WHIZ COMPUTERS
8959 W. 10th Ave
Suite #502
Vancouver, BC V6B 3F8
CA

Domain name: MACWHIZSHOP.COM

Administrative Contact:
Dutchak, Derald macshopz@yahoo.com
8959 W. 10th Ave
Suite #502
Vancouver, BC V6B 3F8
CA
604-608-3539 Fax: 604-608-3539

Technical Contact:
Dutchak, Derald macshopz@yahoo.com
8959 W. 10th Ave
Suite #502
Vancouver, BC V6B 3F8
CA
604-608-3539 Fax: 604-608-3539

Registration Service Provider:
Look Communications Inc. / Easyhosting.com, postmaster@easyhosting.com
1-877-414-5665
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.


Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 16-Dec-2003.
Record expires on 01-Sep-2004.
Record Created on 01-Sep-2003.

Domain servers in listed order:
CNS1.IDIRECT.COM 207.136.100.41
CNS2.IDIRECT.COM 209.148.64.42

He appears to have both registered his domain and is hosting on easyhosting.com/looktown.com contact them immediately! They have the power to shut him down.

 

[dtwolfe]

I just sent the following email to postmaster@easyhosting.com, and urge others to send similar ones:

Please be advised that the person who has registered the domain http://www.macwhizshop.com may be operating a fraudulent business. Whois information seems to indicate that he has registered his domain with you and or uses your hosting services. I ask you to please take a look at his accounts and contact any necessary authorities if you determine his site is a fraud as many former customers have indicated on this bulletin board thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41856&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

I would like to state that I have not dealt with this person or his business, but have read the testimonials of those who have and looked at his website which offers goods at unrealistic prices and appears in someplace to contain pirated code, images, and other content form respectable businesses.

Thank you,



========================
Thanks to whoever posted a link on the TSS message board. I hope this is helpful to all those who were scammed.

 

[cbz38a]

Hey guys, you all make good points. Ovrdrvn is right in that the authorities should be involved at all pointsa with this. The rest of you are also right, the information on this website has helped a lot of people avoid that mess (like me). I would suggest some caution in putting too much information out there. If the guy loses his nerve and bails ... you lost him. No matter how much you tried and how sincere your efforts, you will lose him if you show he has the "whole" Mac world on his As_. You guys are all great in your "sleuthing" but the professionals (though slow as hell) are best equipped to properly nail him. All we do is enable him to disappear, haven't you guys seen "Catch me if you can"?

 

[dxp4acu]

Yeah, derald probably already knows way too much, and he knows there are people after him. It might be much harder to nail him now than it was before.

That being said, the way we can keep this thread going and yet have information flowing that he can't read is this: For those involved, start a private network/email to talk about it, and for those who do not know about it, someone can keep bumping this forum to the top of the list on the front of the macrumors website.

This way, others will still find out, but no new info will be leaked. It stinks that those of us not involved will not find out about it, but I would much rather be in the dark, if that meant Derald was in the dark as well. Go get 'em Mounties!!!

 

[jxyama]

i'm sorry, but i think there are some other points to consider.

i understand that i'm not a victim, so my perspective is different. but i think the first order of business is to shut down his site. it's the holiday season and every extra day that site is up on the internet leads to more and more people getting scammed. i understand the sentiment of victims wanting this guy busted and get their money back, but i am personally against that if that means "keeping quiet so he will keep on doing his business until authorities bust him."

to me, preventing future scams is the first order of business and if talking about it here will make him run (and thus shut down the site), then my goal would be accomplished.

i'm not interested in cracking the case. i just don't want any more victims. (of course, he could come back elsewhere... that is another issue... it's a fine line we have to walk, i guess...)

 

[Raid]

Trust no one

Reading these posts is getting quite amusing. First ovrdrvn, you may have the most nobel intentions of gathering information for the proper authorities, but for all we know you could be this Derald person, hell I could be Derald...

What we need to do is find a central authority that will handle victims information safely and securely. Is there an internet BBB?? ...I'll look for a Canadian authority on this and have a chat with my friend in a law firm to see what he knows about internet law.

<edit:> Check these sites out:
The Internet Fraud Complaint Centre seems to be more internationaly based, and is backed/supported/teamed with the US government.
The RCMP Reporting Economic Crime Online is the system set up in Canada to report these types of crime.
Now which one is best?? Opinions?</edit>



To bottom line it for everyone, we should find the proper authority to report this to and direct all victims there.

The underlying theme of ovrdrvn is correct, the victims need to come forward. But sharing this kind of information with private individuals is not very effective, and pretty risky if you don't really know who your talking to.

Just one more thought before I grab lunch. Law enforcement officials could request account transactions to trace the withdrawls and deposits made in the companys name... The net can close around this guy and a fairly airtight case can be made.

Don't give up hope people.

 

[G4Store]

On behalf of The G4 Store, thank you again for everyone's assistance in this matter.

Despite the fact that the website in question has changed to a degree, that doesn't mean that our work is over. Rest assured we are working diligently on this matter and proceeding forward.

As some have noted, a public forum may not be the most appropriate place for everyone to exchange ideas. However, without the sheer power of a public forum, this entire issue may never have come to light.

To that end, we are hoping to privately collect data, ideas and experiences from people like you. If anyone has any additional information that they would like to share, please feel free to email us at:

alert@g4store.com

This is a special email that will be available for a limited time. Please include your contact information so that we may respond to you as quickly as possble. Some wonderful people have already done so, and are already helping us in our efforts.

Thank you again.

Scott Carr
Founder, The G4 Store
http://www.g4store.com

The G4 Store, a subsidiary of SaveWealth Internet and Media

 

[winwintoo]

Re: Trust no one

Originally posted by Raid
Reading these posts is getting quite amusing. First ovrdrvn, you may have the most nobel intentions of gathering information for the proper authorities, but for all we know you could be this Derald person, hell I could be Derald...

The same thought crossed my mind - no ovrdrvn, you did nothing to make me suspicious - I'm just suspicious by nature.

If there's going to internet crime, I, as a Canadian, would prefer that no Canadians are involved.

Get him
M

 

[Raid]

Originally posted by G4Store
To that end, we are hoping to privately collect data, ideas and experiences from people like you. If anyone has any additional information that they would like to share, please feel free to email us at:

alert@g4store.com

Ok I think this is a step in the right direction. First we know that the g4store is a valid and reputable company that has involved itself because it too has been victimized by this person. Second Scott has pretty much confirmed his identity or at least proven he can make an email account with the g4store domain...

Thanks Scott I really do think you are who you say you are. I would still stress to people that when emailing your experiences keep certain things like your account and credit card #'s out of the posts, ball-park the amount you paid... and to paraphrase Joe Friday 'post just the facts'. Also keep contact information to a minimum until the proper authorities come asking for it, and then give them all the evidence you can. Check out the links in my post above, they have instrcutions on what to do.