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09-18-2007, 07:05 PM
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Captec Software - Elacont Ventures Corp
I am trying to get this information out to every site I can find. I hope it helps someone avoid what has happened to myself and my company.
I am not sure where to start with this scam. First of all, let me be very clear about the company we are talking about. The company goes by a couple of different names - and there are other companies that are similar - but completely legitimate. This company calls itself Captec Software, Inc. Sometimes it will list itself at CaptecSoftware, Inc. Here is the website so there is no confusion. Captec Software Inc.. They are located in St. Petersburg Russia. I was contacted by a representative of that company (Katya Smirnova)through a job board, Employment911.com. They asked me if I would like a position as a Financial Manager with their company. I have seen quite a few of the Nigerian Scams and felt I knew what to look for. As the situation unfolded, they were supposedly looking for partners in the United States to expand their business model. According to their website, specifically the Partnership tab, they were resellers of Website Templates, hosting services, and web development tools. The American partners responsibility was to have a corporation (or to be able to open one), provide a method to accept credit card transactions (including arranging for the proper security procedures - ie a gateway to process the information and check for fraud, and a Merchant Service Provider to credit the funds to the corporate bank account) They provided all of the necessary partnership documents and would create your storefront (a website with the your logo, all the information regarding the program, the actual templates, privacy policy, terms of use, and return policies.) They also were to handle customer and technical support. The American partner was to handle accounting, finance, banking, and logistical arrangements here. The partnership paperwork calls for an escalating percentage of profits and Captec’s percentage (and for those wondering if it was sent my Western Union to some person in Nigeria - that was one of the first things I had targeted on my list.) Proceeds for sales were sent via ACH to a company called Elacont Ventures Corp, which used Duetsche Bank Trust in New York City. The reason I am giving so much information is I researched this company every way I could. I did corporate research and I literally scoured the web. I still have not found anything outside a half dozen articles linking bank to their website. On that basis I accepted the position and the partnership agreement. For the first three months, we had daily contact, (via email) and supposedly we were working through some glitches (those would be the chargeback’s we were receiving.) They went into great detail to explain their CMS (Customer Management System) and how it tracked everything from the template number ordered - to the IP address it was ordered from. That was up until a little over a month ago, when all of sudden, I heard nothing. This was right after they had told me they had made some adjustments to their CMS system to better prevent unauthorized credit cards from going through the system. (Please keep in mind that we are using a major - third party gateway designed to catch any fraudulent credit cards from being used and\or accepted.) It didn’t make a bit of difference because Visa\MC do not consider a charge that passes through the AVS (Address Verification System) or the CCV number as proof of a valid charge, (even though this is what the gateway’s use to determine if the credit card holder is indeed real.) Long story made short, is this company is going to great lengths to appear legitimate and obviously isn’t. I want to get their name - Captec Software - and the name of their holding company - Elacont Ventures Corp - out there in the search engines so no one else will have to face this. If anyone has any other blogs that they know I can put this out on, or if they know of any agencies that would put this information to good use, please leave it here on the blog. I am going to do everything I can to make sure no one else ends up having to deal with these people. Oh, and one last thing… they still have not disconnected the numbers on their phone site, and I have three email addresses just in case anyone else has already run into this problem. They created an email address using my company as the site. It is WebSoft and websoftllc.com. I have absolutely no access to this email and it was created without my permission. They also had at least three associates that I was emailing and IM’ing with. The boss was supposed to be a gentleman named Polyakov Alyeksyey. The two associates I spoke with were Katya Smirnova (Katya@captecsoftware.net & smirnova_katherina@yahoo.com) and Sergey Ilchenko (ilchenko@captecsoftware.net) 
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10-15-2007, 09:52 PM
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Captec Software - Elacont Ventures Corp Update
Here is another update on Captec Software – Elacont Ventures Corp. Since my last posting – I have noticed that the website that they created – has been discontinued. In addition, the email addresses they set up have also been discontinued.
The email addresses they used to contact them at Captec still seem to be functioning – both the Yahoo email and the captecsoftware.net. Also, I have noticed that there website Captec Software Inc. is still up and running, but the website captecsoftware.com is no longer working. I was told that they owned both domain names. The .com address was one of the typical parked addresses you would see pointing to a variety of services or providers. One item I feel is important to mention is that - when I had originally done a “who-is” search on the company website they set up – I was very surprised to find there were only two websites assigned to this specific server. When I checked on the other website – it had a completely different name “MTDDesign” – yet went to the main webpage they had created using my company name. When I asked them about this – they said it was common practice to create “numerous” websites and then funnel the business to one site. When I asked them how a client would know who they were doing business with – I was told that they really don’t! This was a major point of contention – and when I confronted them about this I received no real explanation – only a promise to discontinue that website. The odd thing was the MTDDesign website was owned by someone completely different. Just a quick explanation of why this caused so much grief: 1) They (Captec Software – Elacont Ventures Group) create a website with your company name and logo – and you have no access to it – and therefore absolutely no control over it. They do the same thing with email addresses and phone numbers. 2) The company owner is told that they (Captec Software – Elacont Ventures Corp) will handle all customer service and technical aspects of the company. 3) They then funnel business to that site (through what I am finding out - turns out to most likely be stolen credit card information) – without your knowledge. 4) Within about 30 days you start to receive chargeback’s from Visa and MasterCard. When I asked Captec about this I was told that was normal. They process thousands of orders every month and you are seeing (in the beginning) about a dozen chargeback’s. You don’t really see the extent of the chargeback’s until a couple of months go by, and then the number increases significantly. By the time you recognize the fact they aren’t responding to the chargeback’s (and please keep in mind – you have NO access to the sales information) it is too late. 5) You start getting calls from your Merchant Service Provider and if you are like me – you are wondering why the client didn’t call the customer service line you have set up - to ask for a refund. Some call the number listed on their credit card statement (and get no response – even though Captec has told you they respond to each call) – or the real fact is they have no idea of who your company is because the credit card used to purchase the product is stolen. Of course you have no idea of that at the time. 6) This entire process takes can take 3-4 months to build to a point of no return. Captec Software – Elacont Ventures Corp has maintained daily contact with you until about the fourth month. Then, you hear nothing. By this time you realize that each chargeback is costing you 2-4 times the amount of the original sale – and you are stuck for not only refunding the purchase price – but also for paying the chargeback fees. A $10 dollar charge will cost you $25.00 to $40.00. Of course – any funds that were available – are quickly gone due to paying the MSP for every chargeback they do. The end result is everyone makes money (Captec the crooks), the Gateway, the MSP, but you will lose.
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