Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

At my research for the roots of the Tech Support scam offers in the call center industry I have found the company Systweak India - domain systweak.com. It is one of the sources of the "Tech support calls", which are getting traded at Facebook in the call center and outsourcing groups all over the Asia and India.

The scam is working the following way:

• Once they have programmed system tools on shareware base. Maybe at this time they had some sense, but with the further development and improvement of Windows this tools have been coming obsolete. Other companies are even providing already such tools for free or including similar products into their own offers. So they have been coming greedy and added to their products scare warnings and are showing a phone number where their victims have to call for help.
  
  
• This incoming calls get sold to call centers, which have more or less a script and some provided tools for giving paid help to the caller. The call center is billing for their service directly the customer. This makes the scam dangerous for the call center, because in this case the money flow shows that the call center is the scammer. They will get prosecuted even they know it or don't know it that they are helping in scamming others. 
  
  
• If their victim calls the phone number he has to pay a high price for the help. If their victim agrees and pays the scam fee, then they are installing more fraud software on the victims computer. Even the call center agent, which should solve the problem does not know about the scareware which is included in the provided tools.

Even if the scam has not been planned from the beginning, the system "Pay Per Sale" leaded to the scam. The greediness of the call center owners has driven the agents to sell as much as they can. Each business need to try to earn from their investment. If they buy something on stock then they need to try to make profit out of this stock. Nobody can work for free because we all need some money to pay our daily needs. This leads to such a fraud behavior too. If this has been the real case then it has been the self shot for Systweak. Even if the paid help is planned for one or more years, the problem exists, that the customer is reaching another call center then this one he has paid for his subscription. This new call center likes to get money too and does not work for free - remember the service is a "pay per sale" offer.

They are selling the calls, because they are thinking that they cannot get prosecuted by doing this. The first, which is coming into the spotlight is the owner of the phone number and this one, which takes the money. Indeed it is difficult to follow all the trades, which are done between the brokers, but it is not impossible. The first one, which are getting prosecuted are the helpers of the fraud and scam. In this case are it the call center owners, their agents and the owner of the published phone numbers.

At easycounter.com can get seen how much traffic is generated by the site systweak,com, With this counters can get calculated how many computer user are falling into their trap. You can see a screenshot from April 21, 2015:

In the following screenshot are the top countries listed where the traffic comes from:

It was a coincidence that I found the right domain. As the domain has been suspicious for me, because nobody can give up to 70% commission on his products if the product is competitive priced. I made my standard search procedure as following:

A short reputation research at scamadviser.com brought the result:

ALERT: Low Trust Rating. This Site May Not Be Safe to Use.

I found the following comments at scamadviser:

• 

  Susan Swanson Speulda · Contractor at Apollo Education Group

  Totally got screwed. Owes me a $400 refund but said I had to pay $200 to get it
  Put a startup password on my computer but told me I had to pay to get the password. Told them I wouldn't and the said f you. Computer being worked on but may need a new motherboard. Don't do business with them!

  Reply · Like · Follow Post · January 19 at 5:29am

   

   
• 

  Joanne Jan Naujokas · RITI

  I paid 198 for one year service and they have cleaned up my computer at least 6 times so far. I think they are from India but have always been great and polite and yes try to sell more but I don't accept.

  Reply · Like · Follow Post · December 7, 2013 at 1:31am

   

   
• openid (signed in using AOL)

  I'll tell you the truth. Systweak are an absolute nightmare, son't get involved, don't download shit from these parasites. They are all about scamming. Their "regcleanpro" software is just a hijacked app that they then use to extort more money from you. They are based in Jaipur and they will steal your money and ruin your pc. DON'T DO IT.

  Reply · Like · 2 · Follow Post · October 15, 2013 at 5:55pm

By taking a look at http://systweak.com/ I have found the Microsoft PartnerGold Application Development Logo and the Norton SECURED powered by Symantec logo.

The Norton secured logo means only that they are using a security certificate from Symantec. This only confirms only that the correct server is communicating with you and certificate can get reviewed by clicking on the Norton logo. The result is shown in the following screenshot:

More interesting is the Microsoft Partner Gold Application Development, which really leads to the site https://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-IN/Companies/4295548206 (see the site at the pdf attachment) and confirms the partnership of Systweak India.

As Systweak is offering a Premium Support at their website and the customer complains about "Owes me a $400 refund but said I had to pay $200 to get it Put a startup password on my computer but told me I had to pay to get the password." makes all the surroundings of this company a little bit suspect. So I decided to search a little bit at Google and other sites.

WOT (Web Of Trust) is rating them based on user comments are from 100 ratings 92 complaints about scam, malware and scareware.

Scambook.com reports:

Information about Systweak Inc. was first submitted to Scambook on Sep 10, 2011. Since then the page has accumulated 4 consumer complaints. On average users reported $106.80 of damages. Scambook's investigation team reached out to this company a total of 1 times, Scambook Investigators last contacted them on Apr 23, 2013.

In a comment at downloads.cnet.com we find:

"STOP!!!! DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT!!!!"

Pros

Initially it seemed to be a great system to search my entire computer, find errors and fix them, but....

Cons

I installed the program after what I now know were fake "HP Help" guys from India recommended it. First off, it would install older versions of drivers that would end up causing more problems. My computer ran fine prior to the program and continued to slow down more and more over time. Eventually it got to the point where my computer would freeze after 5 minutes of use. I bought a new hard drive and loaded ASO first, and immediately my computer began to run extremely slow, using 100% of CPU space. I called the tech support number and got another guy from India who again tried to sell me the same "maintenance plan" as before that cost $350. It is an absolute scam to try to get people to pay for more unneeded service.

Summary

DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT. If you have any version of it on your computer, get it off, it will cause you nothing but problems. It is a Trojan Horse that actually introduces more problems to your computer, which Systweak will "fix" for hundreds more dollars. STAY AWAY!!!

Similar complaints are getting found at the site RipoffReport.

At Postseek,com is documented, that the software is not easy to get uninstalled and it is very hard to get rid of all the pop ups.

At the Microsoft community is the scam well documented too. There are 11 pages full of this topic

At the complaintsboard.com you'll also find their fraud described,

2-spyware.com: Lists an uninstall solution and a lot of user comments about the Systweak product RegClean Pro:

As you can see from our review, RegClean Pro is legitimate application, but we do not recommend using it. After testing it, we found that it fails to detect all registry errors and also displays exaggerated scan results that are filled with doubtful issues. If you have already purchased it, its owners offer a money guarantee. We would recommend you to use it. If you want to remove RegClean Pro from the system, you can do that by using  SpyHunter or STOPzilla, or by following these manual removal steps:

Bleeping Computer.com has a removal instruction for the people, which cannot get rid of the Systweak product regclean pro. It shows how difficult it is to uninstall the malware from India.

Spybot has published a removal instruction for this kind of malware too,

This list can get endless continued. A Google search of "systweak scam" returns around 285 000 results, a search about "systweak malware" returns around 343 000 results and a search about "systweak scareware" 74 100 resuilts.

Even a court order for a similar scam gets found at onguardonline.gov:

A U.S. District Court recently ordered the operators of several international tech support scams to pay more than $5.1 million for convincing people that their computers were riddled with viruses and then charging for bogus support services.

We’ve (onguardonline.gov) written before about tech support scammers. They call and claim to work for well-known companies like Microsoft, Norton or McAfee. They say your computer is infected with malware and then ask for remote access so they can “fix” it. Or they place ads in online search results to trick you into calling them.

So don't use their software. You'll get scammed. The calls for the provided numbers are getting traded in the call center industry in Asia. There will be even some others get found, which try to copy the system.

Products from systweak:

• Advanced Disk Recovery
• Advanced Driver Updater
• Advanced Email Backup
• Advanced Email Printer
• Advanced Email Utilities
• Advanced Privacy Protector
• Advanced System Optimizer
• Advanced System Protector
• Anvanced Vista Optimizer
• Boost XP
• CacheBoost Professional
• Cacheboost Server Edition
• Disk Speedup
• Memory Zipper Plus
• Mobile Junk Cleaner
• Mobile Registry Cleaner
• Mobile Startup Cleaner
• Netbook Optimizer
• RegClean Pro
• Right Backup
• System Speedup
• Systweak Photo Album
• Systweak Photo Studio
• TuneupMyMac
• WinClean Pro

systweak.com whois:

Domain Name: SYSTWEAK.COM
Registry Domain ID: 77920662_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: www.enom.com
Updated Date: 2013-07-29T07:59:02.00Z
Creation Date: 2001-09-28T11:40:21.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2022-09-28T11:40:00.00Z
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 48
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4252982646
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: SHRISHAIL RANA
Registrant Organization: SYSTWEAK INC
Registrant Street: E-73,CHITRANJAN MARG,
Registrant Street: C-SCHEME
Registrant City: JAIPUR
Registrant State/Province: RAJASTHAN
Registrant Postal Code: 302001
Registrant Country: IN
Registrant Phone: +91.1412367857
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +91.911412562982
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: GO4HOSTING HOSTMASTER
Admin Organization: CYBER FUTURISTICS-GO4HOSTING
Admin Street: D-61,SHIV HEERA PATH,C-SCHEME,
Admin City: JAIPUR
Admin State/Province: IN
Admin Postal Code: 302001
Admin Country: IN
Admin Phone: +1.911412770440
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +91.911412363604
Admin Fax Ext:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: SHRISHAIL RANA
Tech Organization: SYSTWEAK INC
Tech Street: E-73,CHITRANJAN MARG,C-SCHEME
Tech City: JAIPUR
Tech State/Province: RAJASTHAN
Tech Postal Code: 302001
Tech Country: IN
Tech Phone: +91.1412367857
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: .911412562982
Tech Fax Ext:
Name Server: DNS1.STABLETRANSIT.COM
Name Server: DNS2.STABLETRANSIT.COM
DNSSEC: unSigned

Systweak India _ JAIPUR,...an _ Microsoft Pinpoint.pdf (308.08 kb)

Update Jan. 18, 2017:
Link to the Facebook profile Susan Swanson Speulda (https://www.facebook.com/susan.speulda) removed as it returns error 404 - not found.

Today I got an interesting comment on one of my LinkedIn postings about scammer. This comment explains how the non voice processes are getting traded and why they are only offered with a huge upfront fee.

You can find the original posting in the LinkedIn group: Process Group: BPO, Call Center, Data Entry, KPO by following this link. I have copied the content of the comment:

Vilas Unawane
Owner Quantum Research Systems Pvt Ltd

 

 

Hello Mr Rudolf,

There are another set of scammers..who work very openly and have nice offices,technical support and sell 'work at home type' single ID's.The process is so well designed that an average skill person will never be able to get the desired accuracy. Losing money with very well designed reports which are many a times disputable.After a detailed research it was observed that only 2 to 3% of the people get paid out of which 50% get paid less than 50%.The business goes on like any life insurance company.Only 3 to 4% claim depth benefit.I made and algorithm to simulate the cash flow and it was observed that such companies make money with even 50% qualifying rate.They also have MLM type sales network.To arrest such pratice I started a FREE consulting service and a prepared a detailed manual how to identify such process and how to tackle accuracy to get best performance.There is also a one hour short course on all those interested to understand the pitfalls of the work.

Lastly we also found same data is given again and again with only 20% fresh data with an intention of disqualifying he working agent.The reason is the company has advanced tools to compare the agents data with their 100% correct data in their own database.

In short even a genuine process can be easily scammed only to make more money. 

Typical process in this category are: Book Typing, Proof reading, All types of form filling, HTML Tagging.

Regards,
Vilas Unawane

Remember: Each upfront, any fee - however she is called - and any security deposit is only SCAM.

The article from The Indian Express shows, that the police is working there sometimes too and India is not above the law. Sometimes it can take a little bit longer only, but it is like everywhere in the world: The last are bitten by dogs.

In this case are the last ones the call center and the call center agents, which are doing this fraud job. The backers, the call center clients, will not be so easy to grasp.  

Call centers be aware and don’t support fraudster, you are the one, which are going into jail first!

Source: April 14, 2015 The Indian Express 

As Delhi and NCR has turned into a major educational hub, the region has also become the den of fraudsters duping job seekers of their hard-earned money on the pretext of getting them placed in multinational companies.

Investigations in this connection by Delhi Police and UPSTF reveal that at least 50 such call centers and job portals are running in the region. Similar frauds are being committed by some Nigerian nationals through phishing emails.

On March 25, UPSTF arrested two persons for allegedly running a fake call centre by taking data of job seekers from famous job portals, which unearthed the network of scamsters.

This case is just the tip of an iceberg and the police estimate that over 50 such fake call centers are operating in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon.

Victims of such fraud are spread across India who are initially asked to make a payment of Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for job in IT giants and MNCs.

Recently, an FIR was registered by the Delhi police against unidentified fraudsters after a complaint by Tata that several job seekers were duped on the pretext of getting them placed in it.

The youths were duped to the tune of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 in the name of application and processing fee, police said.

While this case is being investigated by Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police, the wing formed to probe financial crimes had earlier unearthed a similar fraud in which gullible job seekers across the country were duped in the name of Maruti Suzuki India.

“Many of these gangs download resumes from job websites and then target people in faraway cities so that once duped they refrain from travelling to Delhi and registering complaints. We have also seen a case where people were duped in the name of getting them jobs in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation,” said a senior official in EOW.

Explaining the modus-operandi, UPSTF’s Additional Superintendent of Police Triveni Singh said, “Conmen first buy data of job seekers from famous job portals for Rs 25,000-Rs 40,000. Then they make a fake placement website which sounds similar to existing famous portals. They make calls to job seekers that their resume has been selected for a job in leading IT, banking and international companies and then demand money.”

Data of most of the job portals are compromised as they are not following stringent process to keep their data secured, a senior police officer said.

Scams is issued from people all over the world. It targets people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels. In this case we have a scammer from USA, which has scammed a call center from India. The scam happened already more than 5 months ago. The crux of the issues like D. Ganesh reported it:

MODCHA Innovative Solutions Private Limited, the company from India, we are into the business of LPO, in the service of Document review, LDD, Coding and other services. We have received project from Astral Legal Solutions LLC and its owned by Eryka Johnson from Atlanta. The project worth of $5410.36.(excluding $500) I have attached the invoice along with billing date and the payment pending date. I have received only $500 you can identify the details in the invoice. I was expected to receive the entire money on or before 15th November 2014 (refer invoice).

Ms. Eryka, was referred by friend of friend Mr. Vinoth in India. He introduce her to me that the ASTRAL is looking to outsource their legal project in India but, now he himself claiming that she is not responding to his call or email as well.

Once the project is done, she deliberately start avoid my calls and email and after few days she is not responding through skype as well. I will forward the email trail for your reference then you can get the exact picture of this issue.

Skype id eryka.johnson and contact no: +14047909745, +17709643965, (this no. just now I got it from her skype id)
Eyrka Johnson contact no: 404-791-7714,(we used to get connected with this no while doing business)
I found the additional numbers for Eryka - 678-962-9609 from one of her emails and 855-791-7714 from her website.
Email id: erykaj@astrallegalsolutions.com, erykaj_legal@bellsouth.net.

We can see at the following communication how Eryka Johnson is inventing issues why she cannot do the payment. The reason for this is, that she likes to win time for continuing her fraud business. D. Ganesh has given her too much time. Such problems need to get reported earlier. The maximum overtime for a payment should not exceed 30 days before involving a lawyer and bring her in front of law court.

From: erykaj@astrallegalsolutions.com [mailto:erykaj@astrallegalsolutions.com]
Sent: 24 September 2014 05:09 AM
To: Ganesh
Subject: RE: Fund Transfer
Importance: High

Hi Ganesh.

My apologies for the delay in responding, as I have been dealing with a family death & funeral this past week.

Today I am trying to catch up & respond to some emails, as I am still with family in mourning.

The next transfer is being prepared, as I have some business dealings with the bank before I can send additional transfers.

However, I think there is some issue regarding Vino. And I have advised Vino that I should not discuss any financial matters without your permission.

He has also messaged me & is asking for an update, because he is put in some situation.

I have contacted my attorney, and unless I receive written permission from you, I should not discuss any financial details with Vino.

Please give me a few days to get settled & finalize the transfer, & get the details to you.

Until then, please advise whether Vino has permission on behalf of Modcha to discuss the financial situation.

Although in the past, Vino & I speak on family & personal matters, I must remain professional & not violate confidentiality.

I will be available on Skype tomorrow.

Eryka

On September 19, 2014 at 7:47 AM Ganesh <ganesh@modcha.com> wrote:
Hi Eryka.. Kindly respond to my email or Skype.. As per SOW we have to get payment in 45 days but now it crossed more than 100 days. All these days we have supported you and even continued our projects without any hesitation.. but now, it is high time for you to show your business ethics. Make payment immediately. Thanks in advance.

From: Ganesh [mailto:ganesh@modcha.com]
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 1:28 AM
To: 'erykaj@astrallegalsolutions.com'
Subject: Fund Transfer

Hi Eryka,

Kindly do the fund transfer at the earliest. $4,258.73 + $1,151.63 (total pending amount is $ 5410.36). we are in the needy and invoice has crossed more than 100 days. So, initiate the payment asap.

Hope you are doing well. I have pinged you in SKYPE many times but I didn’t get any response, hope you are busy with your schedule but I will appreciate if you make payment at the earliest.

Thank you,

D. Ganesh

It looks for me that Eryka Johnson has tried to start a new and legal business, because she used a real name and a real address for registering her domain. As the business has not been running like expected and she needed to survive too she started scamming other people. In such a case the money will be lost and it will take years until the scammed money can get retrieved. D. Ganesh will only have the satisfaction that he made troubles for her by bringing her in front of the law court. For the money he will have to wait years.

The registration data of the domain astrallegalsolutions.com:

Domain Name: ASTRALLEGALSOLUTIONS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1787823097_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Registrar URL: [link removed] Date: 2015-01-29T01:37:16Z
Creation Date: 2013-03-21T07:16:33Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-03-21T04:00:00Z
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Registrar IANA ID: 2
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8003337680
Reseller:
Domain Status:
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Astral Legal Solutions
Registrant Organization: Astral Legal Solutions
Registrant Street: 1072 West Peachtree Street NW, #7334
Registrant City: Atlanta
Registrant State/Province: GA
Registrant Postal Code: 30357
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 404-790-9745
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Johnson, Eryka
Admin Organization: Astral Legal Solutions
Admin Street: 7345 Amhurst Terrace
Admin City: Atlanta
Admin State/Province: GA
Admin Postal Code: 30349
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.4047909745
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Johnson, Eryka
Tech Organization: Astral Legal Solutions
Tech Street: 7345 Amhurst Terrace
Tech City: Atlanta
Tech State/Province: GA
Tech Postal Code: 30349
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.4047909745
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Name Server: NS19.WORLDNIC.COM
Name Server: NS20.WORLDNIC.COM
DNSSEC: Unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: [link removed] Last update of whois database: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 23:44:51 GMT

Eryka Johnson _ LinkedIn.pdf (5.13 mb)

From a posting in the social network Sperian Engergy has been coming into my focus. I decided to ask for more info and got the following response:

Thank you for reaching out, sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. We are looking for centers that can commit more than 10 existing seats to selling electricity in our Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland and/or New York markets. We pay a Cost per Acquisition commission and each center purchases their own leads. We consistently maintain competitive rate plans in all markets. If this is something you feel your center can assist in, let me know and I will send over commissions, agreements, etc. for your review. This year we are focusing on less partners and building up the production seats with the partners we choose to bring on. We want the best relationships with the best partners.

Sean Wise
Channel Manager
Sperian Energy
O: 702-757-2691
C: 408-355-3480
www.sperianenergy.com

On the first view the offer does not look so bad and does not differ to the standard offers at LinkedIn. As they are searching for a few call centers, which need to buy their own leads, are the following questions open:

• How are the centers coordinate their leads?
• How the centers can exclude already existing customers from Sperian Energy from calling them?

I also have taken a look at the website of Sperian Engergy for getting some price information. There you'll find that you have enter the zip code for a price information. Ok, take it easy and revoke a few zip codes from the US. The site mapsofworld.com let you select the country, state and town/city. 

I have taken tried three cities from Illionois:

The result has been negative: We do not currently offer service in the area for the zip code entered. Please check back soon or call us for immediate assistance at 888.682.8082.

How a call center can offer in such a case a change of the energy provider, if the prices cannot get announced? To say only that we are the best and cheapest is not enough to convince people.

My summary: The same way like Sperian Engergy is searching for the best call center, the call centers are searching for the best partners. The problem is only that Sperian Engergy is at the moment even not a good partner for a call center as long as they are not doing their homework. Maybe they even don't have enough income to update their own database or they like to find customers, which like to change their energy provider first. In both cases is this not a good campaign for a call center. Call Centers can expect that they not getting paid for their work, because their referred customers are not living in the supported area from Sperian Energy. The referred customers are kept by them for a future expansion. As they don't expect to pay something, they even did not offer any amount per referred customer in their offer.

I think that the way Sperian Energy is making their offer, that they are only time waster or they are even not sure what they like. The information given in the email could be written in their posting at LinkedIn too. In such a case they would make some better impressions to their future partners. I expected to get more information then only marketing blah blah on my request.

The first impression a company makes is important for a business relationship. Sperian Energy made the impression of a time waster for me. Call centers have something better to do than to beg for more information.

I think too, that the same way they handle the call centers they are handling their customers, which does not lead them to a good reputation. Sperian Energy need to get more than a very good call center. They need to replace at least their marketing manager and the responsible staff, which has sent me such an email.

Gmail - LinkedIn - Sperian Energy is looking to add Call Centers.pdf (220.8KB)