BRONIES BEWARE – Cruise Scam!

thechefponyspodium:

horsenews:

This morning we were alerted to a new kind of fan event that was supposedly being planned for the future. Not like a convention or meetup, but rather a brony theme cruise. Instantly we were suspicious, as that’s the type of thing another pariah was known for a couple years back.

After a morning of digging, it is certain: Be Warned – this cruise is likely a scam.

As soon as you visit http://ift.tt/1LUSUot something seems…off.
Update: It’s fucking GONE
Prior to the nuking of the site, the banner image was the first google image result for the search “rarity”, implying whoever made it, did so in a hurry.

There was no contact page, and the only contact email “admin@bronycruise.com” was a fake. we discovered that when we attempted to contact them earlier.

Luckily we found a working email, as whoever was running this, saw fit to send emails out to several other pony sites asking for promotion. Also: we had this!

The registrar – Jacob Dominguez – didn’t put privacy protection on his site when he registered it with godaddy, so we have all the info we needed to see if he was on the up-and-up.
Short story: He’s not.
Within minutes, we found DOZENS of hits on his name for being a Cruise Scammer, who has been doing this sort of thing for YEARS. 

Using his address we also found an extensive criminal background that may be linked to him.

 Here are just a few of the testimonies of the people who have been scammed out of money by him and his cruises.

http://ift.tt/1LUSUET
Here are several other links, from organizations such as the Better Business Bureau detailing his scams in the past, with one of his shell companies – the now defunct “Soundwave Cruises”

http://ift.tt/1C1akYv;
http://ift.tt/1LUSUEZ

It looks now like Jacob may have got the message and made a run for the hills, so it’s fortunate we caught this before he was able to get a dollar from anyone.

But, if he returns, be cautious.

IMPORTANT! Don’t let anyone you know get caught out by this!