Journals > General > View Entry

12:58am

ALERT: Predators Are Among Us

There *are* predators among us, and possibly, even on your list of friends. This is a bit long, but it is *very* serious.

If comments have been added below, please read them, too. Most likely they will include updated information.

Don't ever let your guard down, especially in areas that you would deem to be safe — such as joining a group of like-minded individuals on the Web.

ZooToo is a group of like-minded individuals on the Web.

Never forget that the Web represents an entire cross-section of society, good and bad. Think of it this way: in the real world, it's easy to see when you are driving into a bad area, and you also know what country you are in.

SURROUNDED BY SHEEP?

Even though you may feel safe like a sheep in the middle a herd, it doesn't take much for a wolf to blend right in. Creating a disguise in the virtual world couldn't be much easier.

RULE #1: Do *not* believe anything just because you read it (or hear it).

Therefore, since you are reading this, you should not simply believe it. On the other hand, I would hope that I present enough information that you will investigate, and therefore, be able to make an informed, valid conclusion of your own. We all want to be able to trust others, and that's exactly what wolves depend on. As I write this, there are *64 zootoo members* who will likely be surprised to learn they have potentially added a wolf to their list of friends.

• MY INITIAL OBSERVATION

Last night, I stopped in to review comments in my forum entry: "Why should I have to spay or neuter *my* pets?"

The very top, most recent comment quickly caught my attention, and just as quickly, raised strong suspicions. Based on what I discovered, I deleted the comment within minutes. This individual definitely selected the wrong place to sneak something in.

Here is the comment exactly how I discovered it (please read every word):

**********


broganorama
Posted: 42 minutes ago

"Commercial Dog Food is Killing Your Dog, Hear What The Experts Have to Say..."

dog-training.1upon.com ( Fill in the form and it will take you to the page if you want to read how! )

Some of you may think this is a good thing but I do not. Dead animals that have been euthanized with long lasting potentially dangerous drugs are not "FOOD" for our beloved pets. I wonder if the demand for this raw product is one of the reasons behind societies slow to no response to animal breeding that is out of control.


**********

Did you notice the paragraph makes no sense whatsoever? Also, the instructions in the parentheses reads "... if you want to read how!" How what? How to kill your dog? The title says "Hear" yet the instructions say "Read" — yikes! This suggests to me that it was written by someone with a limited grasp of the English language, and possibly by someone outside the US. Interestingly, the site is actually in Germany.

ZooToo member: broganorama (profile page)

ZooToo does not seem to post member start dates. But, one can determine an approximate start date based on the member's list of friends. Friend lists do include the date that the friend was added. The earliest date a friend was added to this member's list was June 12, 2008. Since June 12, broganorama has added 64 members to their friend list. I haven't been on zootoo long, but that is by far the most friends I've seen in one list, especially in such a short period of time. Hmm.

Also, it seems that broganorama has one of everything on his profile (except for the multitude of friends) — one pet, one forum entry, etc., and lists shelters in the Hollywood, CA area — remember, the site is in Germany. And broganorama's avatar is a dove — very Christian-like appearance. Must be a good, trustworthy person, right? All the appearances of a just another safe sheep. Almost.

Clicking on the link in the comment (be careful, I'm not suggesting it), along with following the directions provided by the person, takes you to a web page that is dominated by the photo of a cute puppy. But almost immediately after the puppy appears, it is covered by a window requesting your name and email address. (Hello?) That window has both a "submit" and "close" button, yet only the "submit" button actually works. The "close" button does nothing. Therefore, you are faced with a screen that will not clear until an email address is entered. NOTE: simply close the browser window to escape.

What happens if you enter an email address and click the "submit" button? You do *not* go back to the site with the puppy. Instead, you will be transported from the German site to a site based in Canada. That page begins with "Urgent Press Release for Dog Owners" — and, of course, it's not really a press release at all. Looks like a scam to me.

If you don't enter an email address, but click the "submit" button, you'll find yourself looking at an error page, on a US-based site, again, with a completely different domain.

This practice is known as "phishing" (fishing). The site is actually getting people to provide information willingly, but under false pretenses — information that has value and will be sold for revenue. If you have done this, your email address has probably already been sold to multiple spammers, and most spammers are outside the US to avoid prosecution. Spammers make additional revenue by selling their email lists to other spammers.

The URL itself is a sub-domain, which is identifiable by the additional dot (i.e., period), which separates it from the top-level domain (sub-domain dot top-level-domain dot com). A sub-domain, simply by itself, by no means indicates a scam in and of itself. For example, zootoo dot com is a top-level domain. Someday, they may want to separate animals, so they could create multiple sub-domains, such as dogs dot zootoo dot com (dogs.zootoo.com), etc. Common practice and very legitimate ... usually, especially when the sub-domain is like a division of the company, which is the top-level domain (e.g.,dogs.zootoo.com).

The URL listed in the comment "dog-training" — so it seems legit, right? But, it's a sub-domain that seems unrelated to the top-level domain: 1upon dot com — who are they?

1upon dot com is an affiliate marketing organization, and actually specifies that their name is read correctly as: "One Up On" ... as in they are one up on you. They offer a member-based service providing, among other things, a personal sub-domain, for the purpose of making money. They also provide instructions on how to pull in revenue by getting people to click.

Abusing legitimate click-based advertising is known as "click fraud" ... and since it is truly fraud, it is illegal and prosecutable. Disclaimer: I am not stating categorically, nor even accusing this site of click fraud — I'm only presenting what I discovered.

Online businesses who want to advertise on the Web will contract with reputable companies, such as Google, to target their ads to those who may be potential customers. That legitimate advertiser provides information to Google that defines their typical customer, allowing Google to place their ads on relevant sites, those which draw the advertiser's desired target market.

Hence, if someone takes interest in the ad on a legitimate site, and clicks on it for more information, that click represents a referral per the advertiser's contract with Google; hence the advertiser just paid Google for that click. They pay whether the person buys anything or not ... only the click is tracked.

Google then pays a portion of that click revenue to the site owner where the ad appeared. That's how it is meant to work. Scammers have continually developed ways to get this revenue without providing the actual service. Thus, the name "click fraud."

I can go much deeper with my discoveries, but I believe I've presented enough to raise a big red flag. I will also add that if one did indeed check out the site with the puppy, it has one link to a "dog-training" video which is actually on YouTube — accessible by anyone, and potentially the video has no relationship with this Web site. It also includes pages of animal information that is easily obtainable on other sites, such as Wikipedia, etc.

I would especially be interested hearing from any of those 64 "friends" — did you receive any, now-suspect, direct correspondence with broganorama? Keep in mind, that if member becomes a non-member (on their own or by zootoo), expect that they will return with a new identity. Potentially, this is not the first identity of this individual, nor the only member involved in such a practice.

Don't be a popsicle. Use your head. It is so easy to blend in with sheep, on this site, or anyplace else on the Web.

If this is of concern to you, please prove it to yourself. After you have arrived at your own conclusion, I invite you to return here and present your findings in a comment.