Very strange discovery

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:34 pm

I don't even know if strange things like this are even allowed on this board, but...

I found this very strange site recently and thought you ought to see it.

"euchel.5u.com" <<click link

Here's all the strange stuff I thought I'd mention:

-"George Johnson" mentions his services and even another page, but does not give links or offers for people to get them!
-He also mentions "Me" or "I" several times at the start of the site - then, halfway down, he talks about himself as "we."
-There is no such program as Microsoft Pagemaker 5.0 Plus. Perhaps it is a mistype of Corel/Aldus PageMaker?
-The link that he gave for the page making program merely shows a 404 error, although who hasn't seen that?
-On the other page, he mentions that free samples can be downloaded "in the third row." See below:
1. There is only one paragraph, so he couldn't mean the third paragraph.
2. There is no table or anything anywhere on the page, so there are no actual rows.
-"George" talks (on the main page) about all the benefits of his services - however, he only mentions two.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

There is an apparently valid e-mail address on the "useful links" section, perhaps we could find out for sure. I still have no idea whatsoever what this is all about.

NKAc_Street · Post by **NKAc_Street** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:56 pm

Hard to say, maybe e-mailing that guy will just give him a valid e-mail address to sell to spammers.

NIR_PitBull · Post by **NIR_PitBull** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:14 pm

WEIRD place for sure. Dont trust those places, LoL

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:01 pm

And what exactly are "swayers?"

Malibu350 · Post by **Malibu350** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:20 pm

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=swayer

NIR_PitBull · Post by **NIR_PitBull** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:24 pm

Mat-Allum wrote:And what exactly are "swayers?"

I'm blind Mat. I dont see that.

Swayers=One that talks you in to some-thing. LoL

ZOtm_BigDOGGe · Post by **ZOtm_BigDOGGe** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:32 pm

no doubt it's an old webpage no longer associated with anything....You can find them everywhere.

Post by **Phineus** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 7:46 am

Since we're on the topic of weird, this just came in email.

Hi

I am using a new service to keep in contact with my friends. Use the link below to become part of my address book. In the future I will be able to see any changes in your contact details.

[ link removed ]

Thanks.

It came from nobody I know, so I didn't click the link. Places like this are just spammers looking for any angle to get you email address... or install spyware, spamware, or anything like that. Stay away. Honest people don't resort to stunts like this. And active web pages, even ones with broken links, will always lead to a real person. If it doesn't, turn and run in the other direction as fast as you can.

;-)

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:09 am

NIR_N4SCharles wrote: I'm blind Mat. I dont see that.

Swayers=One that talks you in to some-thing. LoL

"We do NOT sell or produce swayers, however, due to customer complaint."

Useful Links page

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:19 am

ZOtm_BigDOGGe wrote:no doubt it's an old webpage no longer associated with anything....You can find them everywhere.

Well, it's obviously not very old, as it says it's been updated "February 17, 2005" - but somehow, I don't think that's right. I only discovered it on February 17, 2005 - which is yesterday - and there was no "last updated" thing on there anywhere. Perhaps this is another mistype, with whatzisname meaning February 17, 2004.

Yeah, I turned and ran, but George stuck out his foot and tripped me.

Ponderer · Post by **Ponderer** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:05 pm

Seeing as how the text looks like more layers of baloney than can be found in Tarres' sandwich, I could guess that the pages were slapped up there for no other purpose than to fill space and make the webhost think things are afoot, while the space is used purely for personal filehosting behind the scenes. The true mystery in this fascinating saga is how you, Mat, came upon that site of wonders. [:P]

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:15 pm

I found it from a search engine somewhere, but I lost the URL when I found the site.

You're probably right about the personal file cache, but why would the site show up in a search engine...

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:31 pm

Although there'd be a pretty good way, as I just realized, to find out of the site is legitimate or not. We just set up a new (we should only use it for this purpose) free e-mail account, such as Yahoo. Then, using that account, we send this guy a message asking if the site is real or not. If he made up the address, he'll probably reply with something about it being legit. If not, we know. But if, by chance, it's a hoax to sign people up with spam, we'll be safe from it - because it's an internet-based free mail account separate from our own real messages.

Why don't I, you ask? I did and got a reply - but if I just say it, I don't think many people will believe me. Not that they have to.

ZOtm_BigDOGGe · Post by **ZOtm_BigDOGGe** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:18 pm

Since we're on the topic of weird, this just came in email.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi

I am using a new service to keep in contact with my friends. Use the link below to become part of my address book. In the future I will be able to see any changes in your contact details.

[ link removed ]

Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got the same email.....I traced the return address to a member in one of the Vales forums.....apparently he's trying out some free service that is automatically supposed to fill out an online address book for him.....

I didn't trust sending my info to an unknown company, so I deleted the email. The guy can fill out his own address book as we all do.

Note: I deleted the email, and I cannot recall which member it was, but I visited the service company via their home page (instead of clicking on the member's link), and it proved harmless to do so. A system scan afterwards showed no malicious software was placed on my machine during the visit.

I still wouldn't sign up for their free service though. I don't trust any companies with my personal info anymore, regardless of what they promise. Fop instance, Freeipods promised to keep member data secret, and they recently got caught selling it, according to recent news.

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:48 pm

It's obviously a hoax or something. If he really wanted to "add you to his address book," he'd just examine your profile on the forum and add your e-mail address listing to his contact list. And he says, "In the future I will be able to see any changes in your contact details." I highly doubt you can see contact detail changes from standard e-mail. Don't reply to that message, it probably... well, I don't know.

About the strange site, I did a little examination and discovered that George, as appears to be his name, is actually using a 50megs account. I thought that the "5u" thing was a little familiar, so I went to 50m and found out. Anyhow, I tried typing in
http://euchel.5u.com/cgi-bin/fm
since that's the file managing thinger in most 50megs account systems, and - please keep this a secret - I found out what the password was. Anyhow, I just took a little look at what's in that directory.

>>I could guess that the pages were slapped up there for no other purpose than to fill space and make the webhost think things are afoot, while the space is used purely for personal filehosting behind the scenes.

I don't really feel guilty about peeking in there, because if it's a filehosting site, someone would probably see the files anyway when whoever would show them off. But when I took a look in there, all that was in there was the page, a "page2," and some other file.

Since I now think that it's possible this is some kind of joke, I have another idea. Let's go with the e-mail thing (get a[nother] free e-mail account from some place like Yahoo so we're protected in case of spam, and send him a bunch of e-mails. If, by chance, he gets them, he might be so overwhelmed by so many messages that he might give up and let out the secrets of why this crazy site is on there.

ZOtm_BigDOGGe · Post by **ZOtm_BigDOGGe** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:43 pm

And he says, "In the future I will be able to see any changes in your contact details." I highly doubt you can see contact detail changes from standard e-mail.

He can see changes because the company sends emails to everyone in the address book every 3 months, asking them to update threir information if anything has changed during that period.

I don't believe it's a hoax, but it's a service I'd rather not use. It seems to me that too many companies that pledge to protect your information aren't doing so,

You can check out their offering yourself if you wish. It seems to be a legit business.

As I said earlier, nothing appears to get installed on your system just for visiting their website, so it is safe to take a look. ...Just don't sign up for their service or fill in any of your info, unless you really want to (I won't be participating myself).

http://bebo.com

Of course, the only info I normally store in my email address book is names and email addresses of my friends and associates. Since the company contacted me, they already have that info (lol).

.

legwon · Post by **legwon** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:46 pm

ZOtm_BigDOGGe wrote:no doubt it's an old webpage no longer associated with anything....You can find them everywhere.

actually its fairly new. i did a search for it in the archive site and nothing came up i tried a few times.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/euchel.5u.com/*

but as what its for....

i dont have a clue.

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:06 pm

Well, I sent him another e-mail and he replied.

Hello Kelly Corcoran

I am happy to see that you are interested in my services. I would also like to say that my Web site is not a hoax but it may look like that, please spread the word about it.

If you have any questions regardng this site, please send me another e-mail message. Thank your for sending me your message and I hope to hear from you again.

George

I noticed several strange things about the message, too. First, he seems to be extrememly vague in his words about services. Second, I did not say in my letter that I was interested, which I am not. Also, "regarding" is spelled wrong.

Here's what I sent him in the first place:

Hi, George.

I am sending this e-mail message on the suspicion that some part of your site is some sort of hoax. Please tell me what the site is all about.

-MatAllum

Obviously he got my name from my e-mail message, since my e-mail program sends my name as the "sender" thing (I'm using Outlook Express).

Since I didn't get a virus or spam or anything, maybe we should send him a "mass message" and see what's going on. Judging by how vague his message was, I think he might be up to something.

NKAc_Street · Post by **NKAc_Street** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:32 pm

Well, I'm still get the feeling that it is to collect e-mail addresses that are valid.

Several reasons.

I have gotten spam mail that says the very same kind of thing.

I also believe that the initial reply is probably an auto message, why would it be asking you to send an e-mail again when your initial inquiry was to ask what it was all about in the first place.

In my opinion the spam business that buys e-mail lists may pay more for true working addys rather than domain lists.

I get spam that you can tell the header is just generated for the cox.net domain until it actually hits mine.

I'm wondering if there is a legal loophole that when you reply to the initial reply of that guy that you can't sue him for all the spam you may get in the future considering the spam laws that exist. If you replied using your normal e-mail who knows what might happen.

Spammers aren't stupid they work the system to the breaking point. they are hard to track down and even harder to bring a suit against them. This seems just another way to cover thier tracks.

My opinion of course.

ZOtm_BigDOGGe · Post by **ZOtm_BigDOGGe** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:38 pm

They aren't stupid, no.....They simply lack class, decency and basic morals and social graces.

That's MY opinion, and it's a popular one.

Very strange discovery

Very strange discovery

Re: Very strange discovery