Electronics goods scam, 2022 version

It has been a while, I’ve previously written about similar scams in 2021 and earlier.
I stopped being able to find active sites towards the end of 2021 and, sadly, lost interest in checking after a while.
A recent comment on that page has highlighted that they’ve finally returned.

Here are sites which I believe are scams where they will take your money (often by Stripe card payments) and never deliver anything. If you paid via this method you should be able to do a chargeback via your card company for goods not delivered.
A few of the sites don’t even offer card payment and ask for direct bank transfers. If you made a direct bank payment it becomes a lot more complicated to claim the funds back.

In any case, if you’ve been a victim it is important you raise a case with ActionFraud. This won’t do anything specific but the more people who complain about a type of fraud or a specific website the more likely it is that the police will be able to do something about it. If you don’t report it then you leave it wide open for others to become victims; help others and yourself by reporting loss and fraud to ActionFraud!

Likely fraud and scam sites:

akielectronics.co.uk – Registered 16th November 2021.

bscgadgets.com – Registered 16th November 2021.

gadgetspad.co.uk – Registered 23rd November 2021.

gadgetsaids.co.uk – Registered 5th December 2021.

chappliances.co.uk – Registered 2nd January 2022. (Related keyword “daniel”)

dynamicappliances.co.uk – Registered 8th January 2022. (Related keyword “odessy”)

digitalstoreups.com – Registered 11th February 2022.

appliancesaheadltd.co.uk – Registered 20th February 2022.

gadgetslondon.co.uk – Registered 1st March 2022. (different scam group? Related keyword “vibesvilla”)

electsales.co.uk – Registered 4th April 2022. (different scam group? Related keyword “vibesvilla”)

generalgadgets.co.uk – Registered 3rd March 2022. (different scam group? Related keyword “vibesvilla”)

appliancesplace.co.uk – Registered 30th April 2022. (different scam group? Related keyword “riaj35277”)

atomgadgets.co.uk – Registered 27th May 2022.

extremegadgets.co.uk – Registered 28th May 2022. (different scam group? Related keyword “vibesvilla”)

If you’ve come across these or any others please let me know how you found them. What were you searching for and on what website did you see the link to the scam site.

How to make Speedify use multiple gateways on linux

This has been tested on a virtual guest with multiple virtual adaptors provided by the host (no vlans). It may work with linux virtual adapters (e.g. ens10:1) too but untested.

Default adaptor and gateway are as normal. No changes required.

The other two adaptors:

Add a route in on /etc/iproute2/rt_tables by adding the following to the bottom of the file:
1 rt2
2 rt3

ip route add default via 10.67.89.11 dev ens19 table rt2
ip rule add from 10.67.89.254/32 table rt2
ip rule add to 10.67.89.254/32 table rt2

ip route add default via 10.67.89.10 dev ens20 table rt3
ip rule add from 10.67.89.253/32 table rt3
ip rule add to 10.67.89.253/32 table rt3

You may wish to run tcpdumps on each interface:
tcpdump -nn -i ens20
tcpdump -nn -i ens19
tcpdump -nn -i eth0

Then connect on speedify and run a speed test to check that all windows scroll data and it is using all the connections.

Webmin not updating Debian firewall.

This is again mainly for my own reference. If you are stuck in “I don’t like CLI” land – like I am sometimes – this is how you get Webmin configured iptables rules to apply if the GUI isn’t applying them.

ip6tables-restore /etc/iptables/rules.v6
and
iptables-restore /etc/iptables/rules.v4

(Rebooting also seems to apply any unapplied changes but rebooting is also very inconvenient!)

Gaining full root access to the Hyperoptic ZTE ZXHN H298A

Here I will go through the rough and very technical steps to gain root access to this router.

Beware – it is very technical, needs a working GenieACS server and a DHCP server which allows you to set an Option 43 response.

Attack Vector:
The takeover of this router hinges around the default configuration of the router picking up an ACS / TR-069 server from DHCP on the WAN.
ACS / TR-069 is a remote management protocol for routers, SIP phones and other network items. This means we can plug the H298A WAN port into a network we control and respond with our own ACS Server.
Once the router is communicating with our ACS server we can then reset the root password and log into the web admin interface with this root password.

Features Gained:
You gain the ability to edit the WAN settings of the router. Possibly use a 3g dongle as backup and you can configure it to use your own VoIP service.

How:
Install and make sure you have a working GenieACS server. I’m afraid this is a bit of a mission. I installed VMWare Player; debian as a guest with bridged networking to my LAN.

Once debian was up and working I then followed the instructions on the GenieACS documentation to install Node, MongoDB and GenieACS. I also referenced a good summary on Mikrotik’s forum.

Make sure you can bring up your GenieACS UI in a browser using port 3000.. e.g.
http://10.100.1.81:3000 (replacing the IP with the IP you are running GenieACS on, on your LAN).
I had to reboot my debian guest after doing all the install before this web page would work.
I’d also check the port that the router will communicate with.. e.g.
http://10.100.1.81:7547 (This page will give you method not allowed error, but that is expected).

Go into the Admin tab on GenieACS.
Go to Provisions on the left.
Click Show on the default line.
Add the following at the bottom of the existing script:

const password = "wenowknowthis";

const informInterval = 30;
const daily = Date.now(86400000);

declare("InternetGatewayDevice.ManagementServer.ConnectionRequestPassword", {value: daily}, {value: password});
declare("InternetGatewayDevice.ManagementServer.PeriodicInformInterval", {value: daily}, {value: informInterval});

declare("Device.ManagementServer.ConnectionRequestPassword", {value: daily}, {value: password});
declare("Device.ManagementServer.PeriodicInformInterval", {value: daily}, {value: informInterval});

declare("InternetGatewayDevice.DeviceInfo.X_ZTE-COM_AdminAccount.*", {path: hourly, value: hourly});

And then save it. What this does is, along with the other default stuff GenieACS does when a router first communicates, will set the password on the routers ACS “connection request url” to be something we know. This allows easy access to change settings via Genie ACS. If we didn’t do this step then GenieACS would fail to push settings to the router with an authentication error.

We now need to set DHCP Option 43 on your LAN DHCP Server.

On OPNSense you add an option 43, select String from the drop down box and then the value in this format:

01:18:68:74:74:70:3a:2f:2f:31:30:2e:31:30:30:2e:31:2e:38:31:3a:37:35:34:37:2f

Which is
01 (start)
18 (length, in hex, of the url string to follow, windows calculator in programmer mode is your friend here)
68:74:74:70:3a:2f:2f:31:30:2e:31:30:30:2e:31:2e:38:31:3a:37:35:34:37:2f (http://10.100.1.81:7547/ in hex; cyberchef is your friend here to convert to and from Hex).

Save and apply your DHCP config.

Plug in your Hyperoptic router WAN port into your LAN.

Wait for it to boot up – then refresh your GenieACS interface and you _should_ see the Hyperoptic router in there!

Go to the device by clicking on the serial number.
In the grey box below “All parameters” type in AdminAccount.

Click the little pencil icon to the right of “blank” on the password line.
Type in a secure password. If you try and set something like “rob” it will error with task faulted and invalid parameter value. If this happens you need to click on the fault at the top and delete it from the queue.

So after setting a secure password like Underground123! click Queue then Commit.

You should see green status lines saying the change has been sent ok. You can now log into the Hyperoptic router interface using the username root and the password you just set in the last step.

Good luck and I hope this information helps someone :)

systemd

I suck at systemd.. this is just a post so I can find the information I need in the future:

systemctl list-unit-files --type=service --state=enabled --all
systemctl enable asterisk.service
service --status-all

My daily drivers / tools

I wrote about this back in 2013 and things have changed since then.

My current daily drivers and important tools are..

Wireshark – still use this constantly and almost daily

CyberChef – An easy to access tool for data conversion, encryption and decryption.

PowerToys FancyZones – Incredible desktop snapping and organisation tool.

Alt-Tab Terminator – I now have so many screens open at once; this tool allows me to search the alt+tab list.

(The last two functions are built into the Pop!_OS linux distribution which I intend to try one day as Windows slowly gets more bloat and less customisable.)

nmap – Network scanning and service discovery.

PuTTY – SSH client.

TightVNC – Simple and versatile method to remote to computers.

“Order Renewed” tech support refund scam

FROM: blizzardnicholas109@gmail.com

Payment Approved!
Invoice: NRT-2D06M2021YY
Dear aaaaaa
Thanks for showing your trust upon us once again. your order has been renewed and is active now, the payment will reflect into your account within few moments to next 48 hours. Order description is given below:
Product Name: N0RT0N_36o
Product Key: 33NT-LB78-NNSA-J219
Total Amount: $443.43
Mode: Direct online debit
For any help or cancellation: +1 (347) 380 6987
Warm Regards
Tam Support

The above is a scam. Using phone number 13473806987 aka 347-380-6987

Credit Card Scam Shop (kerten.co.uk)

This one has become so prevalent that I’m starting its own article.

Just one of the many names and stores.
(Click to enlarge image)

Victims: You probably want to approach your bank with “I ordered this item from this website and I didn’t get my items and I can’t reach the retailer.”. Approaching it from a “Someone stole my card details and spent my money” may not cover you because you willingly handed over the details. I’m not an expert on that. Citizens advice may be the best people to speak to. Do not give up. Chase it through to the financial ombudsman if the bank is uncooperative. You may wish to remind your bank about their code of conduct about reimbursing scam victims.
Once you’ve dealt with the payment card issues it is important to also report the fraud to ActionFraud: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-a-fraud-including-online-crime

These scam shops advertise on google under numerous white goods and electronics goods keywords. They often claim to have stock of items that most retailers do not and the price is normally well below the normal price.

Upon purchase you are taken to a slick looking credit card page.

The sites they operate under are:

“Techtop Best Online Store” / “Techtop Ltd.” (techtop.shop – Registered 9th January 2021).

“Larris Best Online Store” / “Larris Retail Limited” (larris.shop – Registered 15th October 2020).

“Kentis Best Online Store” / “Kentis Limited” (kentis.shop – Registered 15th December 2020).

“Rettis Best Online Store” (rettis.shop – Registered 24th January 2021).

“Stargon Online Store” (stargon.shop – Registered 7th January 2021).

“Bennis Online Store” (bennis.shop – Registered 4th February 2021).

global-pay.site and global-payment.site

green-monkey.xyz

10th February 2021 they’ve moved to using checkout.diespay.com (which seems to be related to a potentially legitimate payment processor “begateway.com”).
Other related indicators / information: “rettisshop@yahoo.com” and russian phone number “+794500522551”.

“Techen Best Online Store” (techen.shop – Registered 5th February 2021).

“Ketron Best Online Store” (ketron.shop – Registered 28th March 2021).

“Besten Online Store” (besten.shop – Registered 2nd April 2021).

“Rettop Online Store” (rettop.shop – Registered 6th March 2021).

“Frantis Meilleur Botique En Ligne” (frantis.shop – Registered 23rd March 2021).

“Dextron Best Online Store” (dextron.shop – Registered 27th May 2021).

Also related cloudpayments.services Registered 27th May 2021.

Also related securepay.tinkoff.ru for the back-end card payments using “cargo-rh.com” (CargoRoadhouse, Cargo-roadhouse) merchant account.

Also related api-payments.cc registered 22nd June 2021.

They’ve now moved to using the spoof domain “checkout–diespay.com” (similar to what seems to be a genuine payment service checkout.diespay.com”). Domain only registered 7th July 2021. (One day ago at time of updating this post).

Payment has moved to “spanish-speaker.com”, what looks like a genuine site but the payment gateway is being used to collect payment for the scam online store. The spanish speaker site then redirects the visitor to a genuine card processor company.

“Retten Best Online Store” (retten.shop – Registered 9th June 2021).

“Zerten Best Prices Every Day” (zerten.co.uk – Registered 12th July 2021).

Fake payment site has been setup on “pay-core.com” (Registered 12th August 2021) which then forwards to try to take payment on tinkoff with the account “euatanov@yandex.com”, “express-trassa.com”, “IP “ATANOV EVGENIY MIKHAYLOVICH””, “+79620033841” which also looks like a fake business.

Fake payment has moved to “pay-alpha.com”.

“KIPSTEN Best Prices Every Day” (kipsten.com – Registered 12th July 2021).
Hosted at “92.119.115.100” but hidden behind cloudflare.
This site seems to be using a checkout system on a fake company “themarketingacademy.biz” (Registered 22nd July 2021) which in turn uses a genuine payment processor “ecommpay.com”.

The fake marketingacademy website seems to be a clone of “londonmcg.co.uk” (also doesn’t look too legitimate itself either!). Whoever set up both had a copy of the website code and database of the original. I suspect whoever made londonmcg stole the code and is using it on the fake marketingacademy site.

“Optitech Best Online Store” (optitech.shop – Registered 27th July 2021).
This site attempts to send PayPal payment to “bier.arielle@yahoo.com”.
Hosted at “92.119.115.100” but hidden behind cloudflare.

“Wirsten Best Prices Every Day” (wirsten.co.uk – Registered 3rd September 2021).
Hosted on the same CloudFlare account as zerten.co.uk and kipsten.com.

“Lotren Best Prices Every Day” (lotren.co.uk – Registered 29th September 2021).

Also related “bepaid-processing.info” domain being used as a fake card payment screen. Registered 8th December 2021.

“Hintech Best Prices Every Day” (hintech.co.uk – Registered 11th January 2022).

Also related “skill-market.pro” and “cloud-processing.info”.

“Kerten Best Prices Every Day” (kerten.co.uk – Registered 8th February 2022).

“UAETECH Best Prices Every Day” (uaetech.shop – Registered 5th April 2022).

“TECHERT Best Prices Every Day” (techert.co.uk – Registered 24th January 2022).

Also related fake payment gateway / human based credit card relaying “cardpanel”: hxxp://payture.icu/admin/ maybe with a Russian developer named “cosmocoder.site”

I’ve a long history of tracking electronics good scam websites (The 2015 to 2019 saga is here)… and the 2020 follow up is here.

Other technical notes: A strange development version of the site is on 185.219.83.120 as of 26th August 2021.

Older technical notes:
Hosted on 45.88.76.214 but hidden behind cloudflare. Payments appear to be partially sent via websockets to “kufar-dostavka.me”.

global-pay.site – just sends your card details to the scammer in Russia via chat service telegram (mikhartamonov1990, Михаил Артамонов, global-pay.site andreysafonov70@ya.ru)

Who are threesixtymaintenance.co.uk (a review of osint data)

Leaders and Romans estate agents are recommending, without further comment or clarity, maintenance on properties by a company:

we can certainly recommend Three Sixty Maintenance who will be able to assist with arranging an EICR at your property.  You can liaise with them direct on electric@threesixtymaintenance.co.uk.

Email from Leaders 06/12/2020.

The website, at time of writing, contains no details other than a contact number and email address. No postal address or company registration details.

This caught my interest. Who is this company, where are they based and why are Romans / Leaders recommending them?

Low hanging fruit – Hidden pages on their website…
https://threesixtymaintenance.co.uk/welcome-leaders-romans-group/

https://threesixtymaintenance.co.uk/team/jason-farrimond/

Oh right.. there we go. I see, they are recommending a company who is actually….. the same company!

Is this ok?
I feel like this association or “part of the Leaders Romans Group” should be made clear in their letters to tenants and landlords!

Slightly higher hanging fruit:
The IP address of the website is “68.183.153.109”.. hosted on that same server is “threesixtymaintenance.com” among other domains. For clarity on who is hosted on the same website as Leaders Romans Group…

hislinsurance.com
threesixtyliving.co.uk
threesixtymaintenance.com
revolutionpropertymanagement.co.uk
bodeinsurancesolutions.co.uk
revolutionpropertymanagement.com
lrg.co.uk

More onlineresolve scams

If you look back through the last few posts you will see that a fake tech support company, onlineresolve, have been sending phishing and other junk to their vicitms.

Today is slightly different. Instead of a fake Amazon order it is an email claiming that the victim has renewed their “Tech Protection Plan” for “Premium Tech Support”.

The message came from a gmail account and the content is entirely images so there is no easy way for spam filters to check the text / wording.

The email reads:

Dear Customer,

Greetings from Premium Tech Support!

This notice is to keep you informed that your existing Tech Protection Plan has expired on November 2nd, 2020 at 23:59:59 hrs

To ensure continued protection of your computer, your account has been AUTO-RENEWED of your service effective after expiry date for $429.99 which will be valid for the next 3 years.

However, if you wish to CANCEL your service and GET YOUR REFUND for today’s transaction $429.99, we request you call to us at: (805)-284-9888 to discontinue.

NOTE: You are required to deactivate the service before getting your refund.

THIS IS A SYSTEM GENERATED EMAIL. ANY REPLY TO THIS EMAIL WILL NOT CANCEL YOUR MEMNERSHIP. PLEASE REACH US TO CANCEL.

Details:
Name: PC-PROTECT 6.81.3.3
Price: $429.99
Period: 3 YEARS

Best Regards,
Premium Tech Support, LLC
1110 Gold Street, Van Nuys, CA 91405

Customer Service:
Phone: (805)-248-9888
Mon-Sat: 08:00 AM – 04:00 PM (EST)

@ All Rights Reserved Premium Tech Support, LLC

It is important to note that the victim that was sent this message did not give the previous tech support scammers any payment details. The above message is a fake designed to get the victim to call up and, likely, give over their bank details in a “refund scam” where the scammers will likely “refund too much” and then request the remainder back by Google, iTunes or other gift cards (which are impossible to then cancel and get a refund on!).