This occurs when someone uses false information and (usually) a stolen a credit card in order to sign up for a DreamHost account. While we do have a number of protections in place to prevent this from occurring, occasionally some will slip through. We usually catch these down the road - they often engage in other types of fraud once they are on our servers - though sometimes we don't find out until the true owner of the purloined credit card used to sign up contacts us.

This occurs when a customer creates a fake web site (usually a bank, an eBay/Paypal login screen, etc) in an attempt to fool people into entering their sensitive information into a web-based form. Such information may include a login and password, a credit card number, etc. These are then collected by the criminal for their own use. Victims are typically directed to the site via spam email designed to appear to be coming from a bank, eBay, etc.

Some of these phishing sites and emails are quite convincing in appearance. For that reason, it is advised that you never follow a link contained within an email purporting to be a bank or transactional site such as eBay - no matter how convincing it looks. Such institutions, if you ask, will give you the same advice. Go to the site directly by typing their true URL into your web browser.

This is a form of fraud where criminals send large volumes of spam in order to hype a stock (typically a penny stock), usually citing some sort of "breakthrough!" or upcoming product announcement. Recipients of the email are encouraged to buy the stock and achieve a windfall. The true purpose of the scam is to artifically inflate the value of the stock after the criminal has purchased at a lower price so that they may sell it at a profit. In the end, those who bought the stock at the direction of the criminal hold an over-valued stock which drops in value shortly thereafter.

The 419 scam was named after the Nigerian criminal code this type of fraud violates (Nigeria is where the scam originated and is often practiced).

The scam works like this: The victim receives an email from someone (often a prominent person from an African country) asking them to help move some large sum of money out of the country. In exchange for their help, the victim is promised some percentage of the money transferred. At some point the victim is asked to send the criminal some amount of money to facilitate the transaction, after which the criminal is never heard from again. Variations on this include references to the victim receiving a large inheritance, winning a lottory (with a significant "administrative fee"), etc.

There are many types of advance fee scams. Below are a few of the more common varieties.

Escrow and shipping scams are actually a common variation of the advance fee 419 scam mentioned above.

In these scams, the criminal posts for sale a high value item (ie. a motorcycle, laptop or TV) for an unusually low price, often though eBay. When potential buyers put in a bid, they are asked to instead pay via an escrow service of the seller's choosing in order to lower the cost of the transaction (cheating eBay out of their cut in the process, with the victim's greed taking precedence).

Of course, this escrow service does not actually exist, but is rather a fake web site created by the criminal. The buyer is directed to wire their payment to the false escrow service, after which neither the escrow service or the seller are never heard from again. A variation of this works the same way, except that the criminal creates a fake shipping company web site instead.

These are another common variation of the advance fee 419 scam, wherein the criminal create a fake storefront with incredibly under-priced goods for sale. The buyer is instructed to send their payment, often via wire, to the criminal. Once the payment is sent, the seller is never heard from again and the site taken down.

One last common type of advance fee 419 scam is the employment scam, which works like this: The victim is sent an email from a company or employment service expressing interest in employing them. If the victim expresses any interest, the criminal asks them to wire an administrative fee of some kind. Once the funds are sent, the so-called employer is never heard from again.