Busted! A Bait and Switch Website Operator Caught Asking Me How I Track Them

I received this email today:

Hi Dave,

I have been researching a new camera for a while now, and I came across your website while I was checking out the reputation of one of the “virtual cybershops”. I must say, the information you write is very informative!

I was wondering how you can tell which companies are safe to buy from and which ones are connected to other fraudsters? All these stores look the same to me, and I don’t want to get burned!

It seems like there are new cybershops sprouting up all the time. If you could tell me how you were able to tell which ones are related, I would be grateful. I would hate to make a big mistake on a large purchase.

I look forward to hearing back from you, and also look forward to your future posts.

 

Taking a look at my site visitor logs revealed at the exact time that the message was sent the following visitor was on my site:

 

Domain Name		xchangetele.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address		66.128.5.# (Technet International)
ISP		Technet International
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  New York City  :  Brooklyn Lat/Long  :  40.6525, -73.9554 (Map)
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.13) Gecko/2009073022 Firefox/3.0.13
Javascript		version 1.5
Monitor		Resolution  :  1600 x 900 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Aug 5 2009 12:50:55 pm
Last Page View		Aug 5 2009 1:15:32 pm
Visit Length		24 minutes 37 seconds
Page Views		3
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...8L1KyXf75AuCmS7L1NPA
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		thoughts of dave
Visit Entry Page		http://thoughts-of-dave.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page		http://thoughts-of-dave.blogspot.com/
Out Click		dave.michael@rocketmail.com mailto:dave.michael@rocketmail.com
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Aug 5 2009 3:50:55 pm

 

I guess I’m starting to affect their business, because I’ve had over 20 visitors from Brooklyn today alone.  If you are reading this and you operate a bait and switch website, I can assure you that I’ll leave you alone the minute you stop defrauding people.  Until then, I’ll track down each and every website that you put up.  How I do that will remain my little secret.