SMS Spam From PeekabooTV

Terence Eden — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:30:22 +0000

I've been investigating some rather nasty SMS spam.

I have finally heard back from Switchfire, the SMS gateway who sent the message.

According to them, the originator of the message was PeekabooTV.com. Take a look round that site - it hasn't been updated since 2007, and the Contact page leads to a 404.

A quick wander into the DNS registration produces this rather stale information:

GPRS Solutions LTD
   David Berney
   11 Gower Street
   London
   WC1E 6HB
   phone: +44.8707414151

So, using the utterly brilliant WhoRunsIt I can get their latest information from Companies House.

GPRS SOLUTIONS LIMITED
MASONS YARD, 34 HIGH STREET
WIMBLEDON VILLAGE
LONDON
SW19 5BY
Company No. 05966632

Why! It's exactly the same as our friends at EKASure! And identical to Peek A Boo TV Ltd. And, indeed, identical to a whole web of companies run by Md Shamimul Haque.

All roads seem to lead back to EKASure. I've contacted them for an explanation - but so far none has been forthcoming.

All very curious. With so many different companies, each supplying domains, redirects and services to each other - all registered out of EKASure... it's almost like they're trying to hide something.

SMS Spammers

Terence Eden — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:20:45 +0000

As I've mentioned before, I hate SMS Spam.

Last night, I received this unsolicited message. Now, I can try to unsubscribe using STOP ALL - and I have forwarded the text to VSPAM. But that's not enough for me. I want to stop them sending any more spam SMS to anyone.

Let's do a little ~~stalking~~ investigating and find out what we can.

Who Supplies Their SMS Gateway?

The people who provide the SMS gateway services ought to do a better job of policing who uses them.

PhonePayPlus allows us to look up any SMS short code and see to whom it belongs.

We can quickly see that the people responsible for sending the message are

Switchfire Ltd
2nd Floor
66 Wilton Road
London
SW1V 1DE
Tel: 020 7798 2800
support@switchfire.com

I rang them and got them to block my number from their system.

I also asked them where they got my number from - they are going to try and find out.

They wouldn't tell me who they are sending the campaign on behalf of, so I set about trying to find out...

Where Do They Live?

The domain name "hoho.me.uk" redirects to the not-exactly-confidence-inspiring "blablabla.me.uk".

A quick WHOIS gives us

    Domain name:
        hoho.me.uk

    Registrant:
        EKASure

    Registrant's address:
        Masons Yard 34 High St
        London
        UK
        SW19 5BY
        United Kingdom

    Registrar:
        eNom, Inc. [Tag = ENOM]
        URL: http://www.enom.com

    Relevant dates:
        Registered on: 07-Oct-2011

    Name servers:
        dns1.registrar-servers.com

The results are identical for blablabla.me.uk

A little dig around Companies House gets their phone number.

So, the registrant is EKASure of 34 High St, Wimbledon, telephone +44 208 946 6739.

Main URL ekas.co.uk/.

Jennings - who is the owner of HotSexChat.info among many others - is the director of several companies.

A phone call to the Ekas offices confirmed that - although they are accountants - they do register domains for some of their clients.

I've dropped Mr Jennings a mail, linking to this blog post, to try and find out more information.

ekas – Terence Eden’s Blog

SMS Spam From PeekabooTV

SMS Spammers

Who Supplies Their SMS Gateway?

Where Do They Live?

Who Provides Their Web Presence?

Other Complaints

Who Is Behind This?