HeXagon’s Hut

So today, one of my close friends gets an e-mail stating that she had been invited to a scholar program. The “North America Scholar Consortium”. It was delivered to her UNT e-mail. By the lack of information in the e-mail, and the fact that it was the following:

3 April, 2009

Dear K*****, K**** L,

As a result of your dedication to scholarly success in University of North
Texas, North
America Scholar Consortium extends to you an invitation to apply for
membership in the NASC Honor Society. Membership application is by
invitation only; therefore, membership is a special honor afforded to
a small group of outstanding students.

Membership applications are available at
http://inv.naschonor.org//lt.php?id=ZkgDBQxQxxxITQMfBxxxCAME Please use
your
assigned invitation code when you apply.

Invitation Code: xxxxxxx

To learn more about the opportunities that accompany NASC Honor
Society membership, please visit
http://inv.naschonor.org//lt.php?id=ZkgDBQxQV1EBTQMxxxVCAME for more
information. I encourage you to seize this valuable and rewarding
opportunity and look forward to seeing your name among the next list
of new NASC Honor Society members!

Sincerely,

Louis Birch
President 2009-2010
NASC Honor Society

So I start to do some digging. I had never heard of this scholar program and shes psyched that shes done so good in school that she’s gotten this e-mail. Just by the way the e-mail was formatted, a lack of phone number and further details as to what they do got me suspicious and made me smell a rat.

So I google the name to find the #1 search result to see if this may be a phishing scam. Nope, the website referenced is the #1 result. Okay so far so good. Whois returns:

Created On:30-Oct-2008 17:55:00 UTC

okay, 6 months old… kinda fishy but not completely out of the question.

Registrant ID:GODA-055102752
Registrant Name:Registration Private
Registrant Organization:Domains by Proxy, Inc.
Registrant Street1:DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street2:15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province:Arizona
Registrant Postal Code:85260
Registrant Country:US

You would think a legitimate organization would have contact details. Strike 1.

Membership Application Form

By Invitation Only

Application submission is free of charge. Please DO NOT send us any payment at this stage.
A life-time membership fee of $68 will be required only if your application is approved.

BZZZZ strike 2. Something like this is usually sponsored and free.

No phone number on the contact us page? Strike 3. Its a scam.

I go to tell my friend this and she has called her mom and told her how cool it is and i tell her its a scam. I swear she almost started crying.

UPDATE: As it turns out. She did cry after she left the room. ASSHOLES I’m going to find you.

It’s one thing to phish and spam. But to use something like a fake scholars program, that’s just not cool.

Thanks assholes, now i feel like a douche bag for something you got her hopes up on.

Jackasses. I hope you burn in hell.