17 Apr 08 Letter sent to the Editor, WindowsSecrets.com

Seattle, WA 98101-1323

Dear Editor[at]WindowsSecrets[dot]com

Because of the popularity of your newsletter, I thought I’d write in hopes you will do your readers a great service by warning them about the activities of a web hosting company that has been defrauding its customers for several years. I’m a recent victim of this fraud and have taken it upon myself to expose the duplicity of this company.

To start off I suggest that you do a search using the search term “GISOL FRAUD”. You will be astonished at the number of complaints that surface alleging deceptive advertising, extortion, intimidation, credit card fraud and forgery.

GISOL is the corporate acronym for Global Internet Solutions (www.gisol.com), a corporation claiming to be located in Los Angeles, CA. Their scam begins by offering unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited sites, 6 months free hosting, a free domain name, a claim that the cost will never go up and a 100% Satisfaction Guaranty all for only $5.95/month

The problems begin some time after the customer signs up. An unsophisticated customer may only become aware there’s a problem when after a year he learns that his domain name has been allowed to expire and that his site is no longer accessible.

Other customers that monitor their sites more carefully may become dissatisfied early on with GISOL’s service outages and incompetent tech support, motivating them to try to cancel. It is then that the customer is made aware of GISOL’s Terms of Service (TOS).

According to the TOS, all domain names registered by GISOL on behalf of its customers are “the intellectual property of GISOL” making it impossible to move to another host without GISOL’s concurance. Depending on how dissatisfied the customer is and on how much vested interest he has in keeping his domain name, the scam can take several different routes.

In one scenario, the scammer at GISOL offers a customer that insists on moving his site to another host a “DNS Management Package” which allows the customer to point his domain name to an alternate hosting provider. The fee for this “service” is “solely at the discretion of GISOL” but typically runs $500.

Alternatively, the scammer may convince a customer to stay by offering to migrate the customer’s site to a better server or offer other considerations but this will require that the customer obtain an “Upgrade/Consolidation Package”. The scammer will then deceptively make it seem as if the customer can obtain the Upgrade/Consolidation Package at a cost of $49.95/year instead of the price stated in the TOS of “$49.95 per month and prepaid for 36 months”.

The customer only realizes that he has been scammed when he gets his credit card statement showing a charge $1798.20. The customer of course then attempts to contact GISOL to correct what appears to be a mistake. However, his phone calls never go through and his emails are never answered. (Once the customer has been fleeced, the scammer simply “call blocks” the customer’s phone number and marks his emails as spam which are automatically trashed.)

Occasionally, the scammer makes a mistake and doesn’t call block the customer’s number or the customer uses a different phone number to call from and the call does go through. Depending on his mood, the scammer then takes on different personas and different names to hide his true identity.

Sometimes its Shaun, at others its Brian or Mike. Depending on how irate the customer is, the scammer can be consoling but suggest that he can do nothing but pass on the complaint to the “administration” or “refund” department”. Of course the customer is never contacted and his subsequent attempts to contact GISOL are frustrated.

At other times, the scammer becomes intimidating and threatens to shut down the customer’s site or take legal action against the customer. If the customer initiates a charge back on his credit card, the scammer forges the customer’s signature “authorizing” the charge.

There are many other onerous provisions of the GISOL TOS that are sometimes invoked and the scenarios I’ve described are common but not inclusive of all the scams attributed to GISOL. The Better Business Bureau has been made aware of GISOL (it has received over 400 complaints) and has assigned GISOL an F rating. Many customers that GISOL has scammed have also written letters of complaint to various law enforcement agencies.

Even though my losses were minor, I myself have written to the California Attorney General, the Los Angeles District Attorney, the Federal Trade Commisson, the National Fraud Information Center and even senator Dianne Feinstein pleading with her to urge the CA AG to investigate GISOL.

I have to believe that eventually these thieves will be brought to justice but in the meantime, the public must be warned of this corporate predator hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet.

Thanks for your consideration

Jesse xxxxx

ps. Feel free to contact me if you would like any additional information such as copies of the letters I have sent , etc.

17 Apr 08 Gisol FRAUD: Report to POLICE

Everyone that has been ripped off via fraud, please report them to the police:
My signature was forged twice in two places on their rebuttal to my credit card company.

I figured others, like me, didn’t know who to call.
So yes, I politely called 911 and explained it was not an emergency and spoke of forgery. Yes, they were ok. I even asked the officer if there was another department I should be contacting. I wasn’t taking no for an answer in filing a report.

People should approach making a criminal report as a learning experience. I think many are not sure it is OK to report may be why this company used this technique. Think about it.

I am NOT relying on my police department to send the report to the LA Sheriff for me. I am getting a copy and sending it myself.

I really made the report so that I can say to GISOL that there is a criminal report made against them. If anything, this shows I am willing to take action.

And I may contact GISOL to let them know about the report, so hopefully they figure not to deal with me because I am on to take action.

NOTE: I made my criminal report (forgery in the 2nd degree) only after they sent rebuttal documents to my bank about how I ’signed’ agreements of 1700 (when it should be 73).
The officer wasn’t sure at first, but I was insistant.
I even used the argument: ‘If I owned a business and started forging names of my customers and sending out the invoices, how would they report me?’ This got through to the officer.

Do the same if they forged your name like myself.

17 Apr 08 Email letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein

Dear Senator Feinstein

i would like to advise you that their are internal threats to our homeland every bit as serious as those from abroad. I speak of the loss of confidence by our citizens when government agencies charged with protecting the public against corporate fraud allow such criminals to thrive.

In particular, I would like to inform you of a company that has been defrauding its customers for over seven years continuing to this day. The name of this company is Global Internet Solutions (also dba as GISOL, Inc. – www.gisol.com) located in Los Angeles, CA. That GISOL is rated F by the Better Business Bureau should give you a hint that something is terribly wrong.

Your office was informed of this company’s illegal behavior in a letter from a Mr. Kerry Jones late in 2003. Your response to this letter dated December 18, 2003 included the statement “I firmly believe that we cannot stand idly by and allow companies and the heads of companies to continue to act dishonestly and without integrity (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=217739).

Well, five years later this same company is still defrauding the public (including myself) with seeming impunity. To my knowledge no action has ever been taken against GISOL by any law enforcement agency. Yet the web is replete with complaints against GISOL alleging deceptive advertising, extortion, intimidation, credit card fraud and forgery.

Luckily my particular loss was minor but there are hundreds of others that have lost thousands of dollars to these thieves. I implore you to search the web using the term “GISOL FRAUD”. You will be astonished at the number of complaints that surface.

I am sure as a busy Senator that you must prioritize your time. Yet, by your own words five years ago “we cannot stand idly by and allow companies…to continue to act dishonestly”. Surely five years is long enough to wait for justice.

Some might contend that GISOL’s fraudulent behavior is not important enough to warrant your attention. However, there are hundreds of your fellow citizens that have been injured by GISOL and even more will suffer in the future because law enforcement has been so lax. Its no wonder that law enforcement is often considered irrelevant or held in disdain.

What can you do? As a Senator you are in a position to correct this injustice. I ask simply that you contact the Attorney General of California and advise him that this has gone on long enough. Nations don’t always fail due to conquest, some simply wither from within due to the apathy of their citizenry when their leaders and institutions fail to act.

Sincerely