Written by: krystian carnahan
7/24/2007 1:03 PM

Howard signed up for a dedicated server from us on a Saturday. Richard signed up for a dedicated server on Monday. Howard and Richard seemed like decent guys. They had a lot in common. In fact, they had TOO much in common.

As a matter of course, I always call my dedicated server sign-ups so that I can make sure that everyone will be happy. I called Howard on Monday and asked him a few questions. "What will you be doing with the server?" I asked. "I want to sell wigs" said Howard. "Is our standard OS setup OK for you or do you need something custom, like Free BSD?" "I'd like Debian if possible."  That's not a problem, I thought to myself. I notified the customer that I'd have it ready for him asap.

I then received another sign up from our website for a dedicated server. THIS is where it got interesting. The sign-up was for the same model server, this time from a man named Richard. I called Richard and asked all the same questions.  I noticed that his phone number was that of a call forwarding service. The phone rang normally twice, and then an auto attendant picked up and said "Please wait while I contact the party you are trying to reach." and then the phone would start ringing again. "I'd like to sell prosthetic arms" he said. Which OS would he like? Debian, of course. And to top it off, Richard sounded a LOT like Howard. Same slight accent, same tone of voice.

Red flags were popping up left and right. An examination of the sign-ups indicated that they both came from different parts of Florida. The credit card information was different. The addresses and phone numbers were different. I had some more investigating to do. I alerted Travis to the possible fraud we had on our hands and I suspended the sign-ups until further notice.

We traced the IP's that the sign-ups came in from. Both traced to the general area of where the sign-up came from. My gut still didn't feel to good about this situation. We called our credit card merchants and spoke with them about the two sign-ups. Howard's sign up was found to be fraudulent by the merchant. They were highly suspicious of it and shared their feelings on the matter. We agreed. The sign up was cancelled manually.

When it came time to look into Richard's card, everything checked out OK. The billing information matched the sign up. "Well, we'll see how this one turns out." I proceeded with the sign up and I realized that I was missing some vital information. I called Richard and asked him for the key information. While I had him on the phone, I asked in curiosity where it was that I called. He told me the name of the town. I asked how the weather was. "Oh, its really hot, about 98 degrees." I got the information I needed and hung up the phone. I immediately went to Google weather for his zip code. The "hot weather" he was complaining about being almost 98 degrees was actually a pleasant 75 degrees, according to Google. He wasn't where he said he was.

At this point we were almost sure that Howard and Richard were the same person. A bit more digging found that the towns they actually signed up in were only 60 miles apart and connected by a major highway. The problem is that all we had at this point was a gut feeling. I had no proof. So it was up to us to devise a bullet proof test to see if Howard and Richard were indeed the same person.

I picked up the phone and dialed Howard's number. The call forwarding service voiced its message and the phone started ringing again. The phone picked up.

"Hello?"
"Hi, may I speak to Richard please?"


"This is Richard"

Gotcha.

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