Internet billing scam?

[szabo@netcom.com (Nick Szabo)]

DNS indicated that this organization does in fact
have one site, mary.iia.org.  Even so, this is not
enough for me to trust them with my credit line.
This conclusion may apply to many other, more legitimate-looking 
operations that spring up in the near future. 

This demonstrates that privacy is only one reason to go
to digital cash; the biggest reason may be the massive
fraud commonplace in the current electronic system.
Online billing is moving towards this incredibly 
insecure system where our $multi-thousand credit lines
are exposed by giving out their short "keys" to numerous
unknown entities.

Nick Szabo					szabo@netcom.com

 Forwarded from COMMUNET:

 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 16:18:44 -0500
 >From: Scott A. Ward 703-614-4719 <wards@AMOMEGA.ACQ.OSD.MIL>
 To: Multiple recipients of list COMMUNET
 Subject: Warning: International Internet Association

A company calling itself the International Internet Association, and billing
itself as "the largest non-profit provider of free Internet access in the
world" has started advertizing in the Washington, D.C. area, and offering free
Internet accounts to individuals who will FAX them, among other things, a
credit card number.  As an active member of the Member Council of the National
Capital Area Public Access Network (CapAccess), I wanted to find more about
this organization that supposedly has offices NOT THREE BLOCKS FROM CAPACCESS.
Here's the result of my search for the IIA.

1.  Their address, listed as "Suite 852 - 202 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. Washington
D.C. 20006", is actually a post office box at Mailboxes, Etc.

2.  The company lists no incorporation, trademark or service-mark licenses.

3.  They claim your E-mail address would be <userid>@iia.org.  However:
      a.  No iia.org is listed in the hq.af.mil hosts table
      b.  No iia.org is listed in the acq.osd.mil hosts table
      c.  No iia.org is listed is the INTERNIC 'whois' database
      d.  No iia.org is listed using the INTERNIC 'netfind' Internet lookup
In other words, IIA.ORG does NOT, at this time, exist.

4.  Although they apologize profusely in the application, they state that
"Without receiving a credit card number, the IIA _cannot_ process an account."

5.  Although I have left a message on their voice-mail system, I have received
no response from them.  (they also apologize in the voice mail that, due to
demand, they are operating at a 3-week backlog for applications.)

I cannot judge an organization in advance.  However, I do think it highly
suspicious that, to use their propaganda, "The International Internet
Association is able to make this service available through generous private
donations, and the extraordinary dedication of its membership."  I can say that
I am not convinced this organization exists, and highly discourage any Internet
user from sending information until you make certain that the IIA is real.

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