The Web Kingdom of Lies is Further Poked with the Light of Truth: Of Logos, Plastic Card, and "Mighty Recyclable" Essays

It was only last January when I caught the notorious SuperiorPapers website displaying the six logos of U.S. and U.K. companies. I learned from the responsible officials of these companies that they did not authorize Mizyuk or his website to use their respective logos. And like a spider poked with the ray of light from a flashbulb, he retreated and took the logos down one after the other; that is after receiving a demand-to-take-down-notice pursuant to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

As if this was not enough to jolt his wits, he caused another logo to be posted. Of course, this time-it was not of a distinguished US or UK company. The organisation's name is World Writers Assembly. To complete the entire background setting of contrived theatrics, a website was created for the purpose. A logo was even especially designed to give a stamp of authority and an alleged illusion of a credible accreditation. And soon, almost all of his websites were 'hot-branded' with this logo to show that the writers of these websites are accredited and are members of this organisation.

The website, WritersAssembly.org was created on 24 June 2008 with expiry in 2010 under the registrant's name, Kenneth Muse with the registrant organization as Writers Assembly. Kenneth Muse and/or his organization are located at 590 Madison Avenue, New York, 10022 and phone number 001-701-157-8889. See FIGURE 1 showing the domain dossier of this website.

Its website takes pride of having certified almost 10,000 writers-members since 2006. It is described as a non-profit origination (sic) requiring $250 to $180 for organizations and $20 to $50 for individual members. In the State of New York, non-profit organizations are required to be registered. Verification from the Charities Bureau Registry of the Office of the Attorney General, N.Y. showed that no such non-profit entity is registered. Assuming I pay for membership, will the amount I pay be deductible for income tax purposes after having contributed to charity? The Internal Revenue Service requires the EIN. I am not calling IRS, I already did.

A google search of the name, Kenneth Muse revealed a linkedin profile where a Kenneth Muse is identified as the Chairman of Association of World Writers, having worked for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner for eight years. His profile shows zero connections. It has been three months ago since I first came across his profile. (It should be stressed that there is World Writers Association but this is a UK organization).

The management and leasing company that is responsible for 590 Madison Avenue, New York is Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc. The Executive Vice President of the company informed me that there is no such entity or name that exists in the building. I was directed to contact HQ Global Workspaces for the 21^st floor of the building that is also being leased. An inquiry was made in two instances, i.e. through the phone and in writing. The Operations Manager for HQ Global Workplaces informed that there is no such client or entity listed or registered at 590 Madison Avenue. See FIGURES 2 & 3: Web screen shots of the emails.

Looks like a familiar trail, isn't it?

Los Angeles Herald Examiner had some 118 of publishing years. I contacted the Los Angeles Press Club and was able to inquire from the former employees and officers of Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Sometime in February 2008, the former employees and officers had their almost twenty year reunion. All those I inquired from were consistent in their replies-each one has no recollection of a Kenneth Muse. One of those I inquired from, Dean Musgrove of Daily News was at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner from 1978 to its closing in 1989. He and Kevin Modesti could not recall a Kenneth Muse. The name 'Kenneth Muse' was also not on the contact list for the reunion. Majority of these former employees and officers of L.A. HerEx have a linkedin profile, for instance Alex Ben Block, a former editor has at least 106 'connections. I wonder why Mr. Muse does not have any.

The only Kenneth Muse I know was the deceased and famous animator. Now, why would these websites display the logo of this entity when its (let me borrow their word) origination is as 'mysterious' as the alleged fraudulent websites.

The website, WritersAssembly dot org assures that payment of fees from $250 to $20 shall be made in a secured site and through a payment gateway, Authorize.net. However, I wonder why the website does not carry the verification of authorize.net or security guarantee of SSL certificates and the like, although it is clearly claimed by the website that the payments shall be processed by authorize.net and will be transmitted to a secure server. It says in its Privacy Policy that "All the transactions are handled by a secure server and discarded once the transaction is completed."

And do you also discard the credit card information of customers who order from the commercial essay writing websites, Yuriy?

So obviously, the payment one makes to WritersAssembly would not be deductible. Should IRS come out with a finding that there is no EIN then I can smell fraud here.

Plastic Card

Authorize.net is a payment gateway supposedly of these websites. As a payment gateway, it assures ease in "accepting credit card and electronic payments." Its role is similar to swipe machine; it processes payments through different steps.

Let us recall that one of the websites, the defunct TopMerchants.net was into this kind of business. From the time of writing of my second article until this first week of April, TopMerchants.net is up again on the World Wide Web. Per domain dossier, it was created 27 June 2005 and registered under 2 Pay Secure LLC has been reassigned on 25 March 2009 to Uniwork, Inc. of 17 F Unit C, Makati, Philippines with a net range of 66.165.113.224 -66.165.113.255 and an IP of 66.165.113.226. As of 22 April 2009, per NetWhoIs of the domain dossier, it is reassigned from Uniwork, Inc. to Universal Research Inc. with address at 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Suite 100, Reston, VA 20191.
TopMerchants dot net is also a payment gateway besides handling opening bank accounts, virtual terminal, debit card processing, check processing, and offshore investment benefits. The website 2-Pay-Secure.com is now being used as a shopping cart--web server for the commercial essay writing and research websites such as SuperiorPapers, BestEssays, RushEssays, BestTermPapers, BestDissertation, etc. The credit card information from those who order and pay for essays and research work are forwarded to this web server or shopping cart before the information is forwarded to a payment gateway. These websites hired the services of authorize.net as their payment gateway. However, there are legal requirements which must be observed in establishing a payment gateway.

There are security standards which are required to be complied with. These standards are devised by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The standards must be complied with by all entities which in the business of processing information of the card holder. Other security standards needed to be complied with are "the Payment Card Industry PIN Entry Device security requirements (PCI PED) and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS)" (Wikipedia). Those organisations with numerous transactions are required to have an assessment done by a qualified security assessor and those with less, by self certification or self assessment. This compliance is made annually. Authorize.net is a reputable company that has regularly complied with the PCI DSS standards. But what about the 'shopping basket' through which credit card information pass through and/or are stored? Authorize.net on its website clearly specifies in its
"Disclaimer:
Certification by Authorize.Net does not include certifications and/or registrations that may be required to be in compliance with federal, state or industry laws or regulations, including without limitation, regulations for the storage, handling, or processing of cardholder information such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard. Authorize.Net does not guarantee, represent or warrant the performance of the company; that the company is in compliance with federal, state and industry laws and regulations; or whether the company's systems are secure."

Clearly, authorize.net is not responsible for the compliance of shopping carts or other payment gateways integrated for a particular merchant/website.

When a customer orders from a merchant website his credit card information including the PIN is encrypted by his browser and is sent to a server, the information is decrypted and which in turn may or may not be encrypted again before it is sent to a payment gateway for verification and processing based on the procedure outlined.

The encryption is usually done by SSL or Secure Socket Layer"SSL provides encryption and integrity of communications along with strong authentication using digital certificates. SSL uses a private key to encrypt data being submitted from a browser before it is transferred over the Internet via the SSL connection. When the data reaches the SSL-enabled web server, it is decrypted. If the data were to be stolen during this transmission, it would remain unreadable. Many web sites use SSL to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. Web pages that incorporate SSL have a web address starting with "https://" instead of the usual "http://"(iTransact website). What the SSL does is to create protection to the sensitive data from the client's/user's browser to the server.

Ideally, the security standards are observed to protect the cardholder information from unscrupulous outside forces such as hackers. But what if it comes from within? In one of my informal chat with an expert of the industry, I was told that if I have some doubts as to the integrity of a website and/or company then I should not put in my credit card information. It is better to be overcautious than be sorry in the end.

We conducted a few experiments. For instance, an order was made to superiorpapers dot com. FIGURE4 at the blog shows the shopping cart where order details are placed and FIGURE 5 at the blog shows the page to which you will be prompted to after clicking the button in the order details. It is observed that the URL reflects the shopping cart https 2-Pay-Secure dot com. It uses Comodo SSL as shown. We chose not to continue by either placing true or false credit card details for evident reasons. SuperiorPapers dot com's contract with Comodo only started in July of 2008. What did it use then before July 2008? Be that as it may, the sensitive data should be encrypted and is securely transmitted to the web server-- 2-pay-secure. It should be stressed that 2-Pay Secure LLC had been de-registered and delisted by the Nevada Secretary of State as stated and shown in my second article.

2-Pay-Secure (IP address: 74.127.42.3) per domain dossier, its 'NetWhoIs' was recently reassigned on 22 April 2009 to Universal Research Inc. with address at 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Suite 100, Reston, Va. 20191. This strengthens the contention in my previous articles that the office addresses, IP domain registrations, IP addresses, names of companies and phone numbers are interchangeably used.

In simple language folks, sensitive credit card information and transaction is entered in the website by the customer (1)--->data is encrypted (2)---->sent to the server 2-pay-secure (3)------>then sent to authorize.net for processing based on its procedure (4)------->processed transaction sent back to the seller website (5).

What happens to the data before it is sent to authorize.net and after it (processed transaction) is released by authorize.net -meaning steps 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the above is NOT the liability or responsibility of Authorize.net.The US government through the Department of State issued an advisory to its nationals in 2005 in Ukraine. "Credit card and ATM fraud is widespread. Ukraine operates as a cash economy, and money scams are widespread. Although credit card and ATM use among Ukrainians is increasingly common, it is nevertheless strongly recommended that visitors and permanent residents of Ukraine refrain from using credit cards or ATM cards" (Travel Tour Ukraine website). Moreover, the US Department of the Treasury advised "banks and other financial institutions operating in the United States of serious deficiencies in the counter-money laundering systems of Ukraine. The impact of such deficiencies on the scrutiny that should be given to certain transactions or banking relationships involving Ukraine, in light of the suspicious transaction reporting obligations of financial institutions operating in the United States."

Ukraine in fact had been identified in 2001 to be "non-cooperative "in the fight against money laundering by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. An expert and director in Ukraine's Computer Crime Center, Vladimir Golubev said in an interview"that People are robbed in the Internet the same way. Criminals just use IT instead of a knife or a cudjel.(sic) Virtual criminals use the same schemes. The Internet, being an open and global information system, is not entirely adapted to these services acquired by our banks. Criminals will always be around where they catch a smell of money. Thus information is stolen, money on bank accounts is stolen, websites are hacked, technical espionage and information war are carried out" He also explains what 'carding' means ": Carding is not just a bunch of swindlers with plastic cards, it is a well-organized criminal community. They have special websites, blogs, forums. Newcomers are training and pros exchange useful information there. Anyone may know how it is organized on their sites.There are many ways of carding. It's a credit card fraud. Carder is the player in such fraud. It is hard to get PIN-codes from real cards, though, it is possible. Carders use a wide range of tools like PIN MasterCard, PIN Visa card and other systems. They can also resort to systems of exterior video monitoring over ATMs and key logging devices. Finally criminals could just peep your pin-code over your shoulder."

With this news from Ukraine, the US advisory and how this entire business is being run as detailed in my preceding articles; Americans need not physically be in Ukraine. You just have to order an essay! With the global recession, believe me more of the fraudulent activities will be seen and experienced. Be vigilant and be circumspect.

So what do you do with the sensitive credit card information of the customers who ordered from the websites? For instance, SuperiorPapers specifies on its website that credit card information is not disclosed to any third party and after processing, all the transactions are DISCARDED. Surely, you do not discard them because how can you be able to grant the repeat customers with discount.

Yuriy? Of course, he would not sell the information to the unscrupulous people in his home country (where he is right now), Ukraine-those referred to by Mr. Golubev. Surely, he would not use it for these ends because he has honesty and integrity! He loves his customers/clients so much and is so grateful to them for patronizing hisessay writing and research business and for which REASON ------he places all the essays which had previously been written by writers according to the instructions of customers and sold, transmitted to the latter already at a databank--downloadable for a fee!

MightyStudents Dot Com

The essays which they ordered and paid for are now in the essay databank of 190,000 downloadable essays contained at the website, MightyStudents dot com at a membership fee of $40.95 OR the new customer can submit his own essays and have three (3) days membership. But folks, these essays which had been previously sold to the customers are only to be used as 'sample' essays for the new customers of MightyStudents. The terms and conditions contained in the website provide "The property and copyright or other Intellectual Property rights in the Essay Material belongs to the Company but the Company shall grant to the Customer a non-assignable non-exclusive license to view and download Essay Material for personal study purposes and as a study and revision aid only. No license is granted for the use of Essay Material for any other purpose whatsoever (including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, use in any essay, coursework or dissertation written by the Customer). 4.2 Copyright in any Code used in the provision of the Services or the Website shall remain the property of the Company but the Company shall grant to the Customer a non-assignable non-exclusive license to use the Code for the purpose of using the Services and the Website but for no other purpose provided the Customer keeps intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Subject to the provisions of Clause 4.1 above any reproduction or redistribution of the Essay Material and /or Code is expressly prohibited by law and copying or reproduction of the Essay Material and / or Code to any other server or location for further reproduction or re-distribution is expressly prohibited" (underscoring supplied).

So the copyright remains with the company even after it had been previously sold to a customer? The US Copyright Act of 1976 says otherwise. The essays forwarded to me by writers of EssayWriters dot net which had already been sold and paid for in the distant past are the very ones in the database. I have the evidence-both essays from the website and the essays written by the writers. FIGURE 4 shows the domain dossier of Mighty Students as registered to Universal Research Inc. (Va-US).

The orders for research and essays from the commercial websites such as SuperiorPapers, bestessays, etc. go to EssayWriters.net for the taking of writers. These writers are paid a small fraction of the total price for an order as work done for hire. The policies of EssayWriters are silent on copyright. Assuming that the initial owner of the copyright is the company-the mere fact that it sold the essay to the customer then it has no business claiming copyright after the sale. Mizyuk and his cohorts cannot deny the fact that they know these essays are being passed off as the customer's academic work because even the tutor's handwritten observations or comments are sent to the respective writers so that revisions can be made along those lines. After these essays have been paid for by these customers, Mizyuk and his cohorts would download copies of essays from EssayWriters or Writers.ph and put them all in the databank for downloading of members for a FEE. These are essays written in accordance to and based on the respective customer's/client's specifications and for which the customer/client has paid a high price per page of the research. The disclaimer/terms and conditions upon ordering is silent on copyright. Is it not deceitful to make customers believe that what they are paying for and have received are theirs?

MightyStudents website clearly specifies that the sample essays may only be used as reference or research material for revision. This only means that the essays previously sold will have to be revised and recycled. Who will make the revision? Of course, these essays for revision shall be posted as orders at EssayWriters.net or Writers.ph while the company makes a lot of money in different ways from the same essay-they continue to pay measly amount of fees to their writers. This is a perfect illustration of GREED at its best and highest! Should you use the downloaded essay as is, then according to them; you be liable to the "company." My next question is how would the "company" find out and if it does, what can it do? Sue you and litigate through its virtual (mailbox) offices?

The entire business practice makes my stomach churn. Profit is made out from excessive and unjustified penalties and fines imposed on writers through invented customer complaints and plagiarism reports; profit is obtained from the wire transfers of fees to writers; profit is obtained from the customers who pay dearly for essays and other research materials; profit is obtained from those writers who quit but whose remaining fees are never paid and profit is further obtained by "recycling' it through posting at the databank -downloadable for a fee! Not to mention-that taxes have not been paid since the launch of its "business" in1997 which is of course according to the self serving assertion in press releases that the business started in said year.

Only someone who had been so much deprived in life could do this. Quite pathetic.

I am calling on all the customers/clients of these websites-the essays and research work you had paid for are now in the databank for others to download!

Back

(My gratitude to the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Press Club, to Alex Ben Block, Dean Musgrove, Vladimir Golubev, the Ukraine Computer Crime Center, the Operations Manager of HQ Global Workplaces, 590 Madison Avenue, to the management of Minskoff Equities, N.Y., Hexillion utilities, CentralOps.net, the N.Y Attorney General's Office, Charities Bureau, the US IRS, the employees and staffs of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner (HerEx), Authorize.net, Comodo, and the many who have helped, supported and trusted.)MORE soon.

References:

Materials from Ukraine Computer Crime Center

Domain dossiers

Department of State Advisory in 2005. Accessed 26 April 2009 at http://www.traveltoukraine.org/traveladvisory.htm

iTransact website http://www.itransact.com/info/security.html http://www.authorize.net/resources/howitworksdiagram/

SSL or Secure Socket Layer definition. Accessed 27 April 2009 at http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SSL.html"

Charities Bureau Registry at http://www.oag.state.ny.us/bureaus/charities/statutes_regs.html
Authorize.net and CyberSource at http://www.authorize.net/resources/howitworksdiagram/