CyberCriminal.com

InternationalWealth.info

We are investigating InternationalWealth.info for allegedly attempting to conceal critical reviews and adverse news from Google by improperly submitting copyright takedown notices. This includes potential violations such as impersonation, fraud, and perjury.

InternationalWealth.info

PARTIES INVOLVED: InternationalWealth.info

ALLEGATIONS: Perjury, Fraud, Impersonation

INCIDENT DATE: 18 Sep 2024

INVESTIGATED BY: Ethan Katz

TOOLS USED: Lumen, FakeDMCA, SecurityTrails

CASE NO: 3030/A/2024

CRIME TYPE: Intellectual Property Scam

PUBLISHED ON: 26 Nov 2024

REPORTED BY: FakeDMCA.com

JURISDICTION: USA

A summary of what happened?

InternationalWealth.info is a platform offering services in offshore company registration, foreign bank account opening, and asset protection. While the platform has received positive feedback from clients, there are concerns and criticisms that potential users should consider.

Client Feedback:

  • Positive Reviews: Clients have praised InternationalWealth.info for professionalism and effective service delivery. For instance, a business owner named Natalie Parker commended the conscientious assistance she received in setting up her company in the Marshall Islands.
  • High Trust Scores: The platform has garnered favorable ratings across various review sites, with an average score of 4.7 out of 5 based on 81 reviews. This suggests a generally positive client experience.

Concerns and Criticisms:

  • Domain Perception: Some potential clients express reservations about the platform’s use of a “.info” domain, perceiving it as less credible compared to other domain types. This perception may influence trust levels among prospective users.
  • Allegations of Fraud: There are allegations labeling InternationalWealth.info as a scam, with claims that services provided, such as account setups, may lead to unfavorable outcomes. However, these claims are not substantiated with detailed evidence.
  • Anonymity Concerns: The platform’s use of services to conceal the identity of its owners has raised questions about transparency. While this practice is not uncommon, it can lead to skepticism among potential clients.

InternationalWealth.info has a track record of positive client experiences and high trust ratings. However, concerns regarding domain credibility, allegations of fraudulent activities, and transparency issues warrant careful consideration. Potential clients are advised to conduct thorough due diligence, seek independent reviews, and directly engage with the platform to address any concerns before utilizing its services.

 

InternationalWealth.info Fake DMCA

 

 

 

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

 

 

 

What was InternationalWealth.info trying to hide?

InternationalWealth.info‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling InternationalWealth.info in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information InternationalWealth.info may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: InternationalWealth.info – Analyzing Allegations, Complaints, and Concerns

Overview: InternationalWealth.info is a platform specializing in offshore financial services, including company registration, foreign bank account opening, and asset protection strategies. It markets itself as a solution for individuals and businesses seeking to optimize tax strategies, protect assets, or expand globally. While it has attracted clients and received positive feedback, there are notable concerns, complaints, and allegations about its operations, transparency, and credibility.

This report investigates the full spectrum of issues associated with InternationalWealth.info, providing a comprehensive review of its services, criticisms, and implications for potential clients.


1. Background and Services Offered

InternationalWealth.info offers a range of offshore financial services, targeting individuals and businesses seeking privacy, tax optimization, and global financial opportunities. Core services include:

  • Offshore company formation in jurisdictions like the Marshall Islands, Belize, and Seychelles.
  • Opening foreign bank accounts in locations with favorable financial regulations.
  • Assistance with asset protection strategies, including trusts and other legal structures.

While these services are legal and widely used by international businesses, they often attract scrutiny due to their potential misuse for tax evasion or money laundering.


2. Positive Feedback and Trust Scores

Client Testimonials:

  • Many clients report satisfaction with the platform’s professionalism and expertise. For example, a business owner highlighted the platform’s seamless support in registering a company in the Marshall Islands, praising the speed and clarity of the process.
  • Reviews on platforms like TrustPilot and ScamAdviser show high trust ratings, with scores averaging 4.7 out of 5.

Reputation Among Loyal Users:

  • Repeat clients commend the platform’s ability to navigate complex international regulations and its understanding of global banking systems.

3. Concerns and Complaints

Despite the positive feedback, InternationalWealth.info has been subject to several concerns and criticisms:

a. Allegations of Fraud and Misrepresentation

  • Some users have labeled the platform as a scam, alleging that promised services such as bank account setups or company registrations either did not materialize or led to unfavorable results.
  • A few complaints detail dissatisfaction with the outcomes, such as accounts being flagged or frozen by banks due to insufficient compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.

b. Lack of Transparency

  • InternationalWealth.info uses services to obscure the identities of its owners and operators. While this practice is not illegal, it raises red flags about accountability and credibility.
  • Critics argue that the lack of publicly available information about the company’s leadership undermines trust, especially in an industry where transparency is crucial.

c. Domain Credibility Issues

  • The use of a “.info” domain has drawn skepticism from some users who perceive it as less professional or credible than “.com” or “.org” domains. This perception, while subjective, can impact potential clients’ trust levels.

4. Potential Legal Risks for Clients

a. Offshore Structures and Legal Compliance

  • Offshore financial structures are often misunderstood. While legal when used properly, they can inadvertently expose clients to legal risks, especially if local tax laws are not followed.
  • Complaints have emerged from users who faced difficulties with tax authorities or regulatory bodies after using InternationalWealth.info’s services. In some cases, clients alleged that the platform failed to adequately advise them on compliance requirements in their home jurisdictions.

b. Risk of Bank Account Freezing

  • Reports indicate that some clients who opened foreign bank accounts through InternationalWealth.info had their accounts flagged or frozen by banks for failing to meet AML standards. This suggests potential gaps in the platform’s due diligence processes.

5. Regulatory and Industry Scrutiny

Offshore financial services are inherently controversial due to their association with tax evasion and money laundering. While no direct lawsuits or sanctions against InternationalWealth.info have been documented, the following factors raise concerns:

  • Jurisdictional Risks: The platform operates in jurisdictions known for lenient financial regulations, which often attract scrutiny from global regulators.
  • Industry Perception: Offshore financial services face increased regulatory oversight, and platforms operating in this space must adhere to stringent compliance standards to maintain credibility.

6. Online Allegations and Negative Reviews

Specific Complaints:

  • On forums like OffshoreCorpTalk and Revizor, users have raised questions about the platform’s legitimacy. Some posts allege that the platform overpromises and underdelivers, with claims of misrepresentation of services and hidden fees.
  • Complaints about slow response times and unfulfilled service promises are recurring themes in negative reviews.

Unverified Allegations:

  • Certain users have accused InternationalWealth.info of fraudulent practices without providing detailed evidence. While such claims warrant further investigation, their existence can tarnish the platform’s reputation.

7. Positive Aspects Amidst Criticism

Despite the criticisms, InternationalWealth.info retains a loyal client base and continues to receive praise for its:

  • Expertise in Complex Jurisdictions: Clients appreciate the platform’s knowledge of international banking and offshore corporate laws.
  • Comprehensive Service Offerings: The ability to manage company formation, bank accounts, and asset protection under one roof is a significant advantage for many clients.

8. Recommendations for Potential Clients

Due Diligence:

  • Clients should thoroughly research the platform and verify the credibility of its services before engagement. Independent reviews and consultations with legal professionals are advisable.

Understand Local Laws:

  • Offshore structures can expose clients to significant legal risks if not managed correctly. Clients should ensure compliance with tax and regulatory requirements in their home countries.

Request Transparency:

  • Prospective users should seek clear information about the platform’s ownership and operational practices to assess accountability.

Conclusion:

InternationalWealth.info operates in a complex and controversial industry, providing services that are both essential and contentious. While many clients report positive experiences, concerns about transparency, unverified allegations of fraud, and potential compliance risks highlight the need for caution.

Potential users must approach such platforms with a critical eye, conduct thorough due diligence, and seek independent legal advice. InternationalWealth.info’s mixed reputation underscores the broader challenges of operating in the offshore financial services sector, where transparency, accountability, and compliance are paramount.

 

 

 

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of InternationalWealth.info (or actors working on behalf of InternationalWealth.info), we will inform InternationalWealth.info of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that InternationalWealth.info may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from InternationalWealth.info, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to InternationalWealth.info to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

 

 

Since InternationalWealth.info made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which InternationalWealth.info is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for InternationalWealth.info

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

 

 

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is InternationalWealth.info Committing a Cyber Crime?

Faced with these limitations, some companies like InternationalWealth.info have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. InternationalWealth.info is certainly keeping interesting company here….

CompanyNames Fake DMCA

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

 

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by InternationalWealth.info creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

 

 

In committing numerous offences, InternationalWealth.info either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about InternationalWealth.info, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

 

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

 

 

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. InternationalWealth.info is in great company ….

What else is InternationalWealth.info hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [InternationalWealth.info] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

 

 

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on InternationalWealth.info that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.

Authorities we may contact and share this report with for further actions

GOOGLE LEGAL HEAD

Halimah DeLaine Prado

NEWS DESK

Washington Post & NY Times

The above decision-makers and authorities will be provided a comprehensive dossier of our findings, including anonymously submitted evidence and tips. We invite journalists to contact us to receive a copy of our complete investigation here

Credits and Acknowledgement

16/10/2024

Many thanks to FakeDMCA.com and Lumen for providing access to their database.

Photos and Illustrations provided by DALL-E 3 – “a representation of InternationalWealth.info censoring the internet and committing cyber crimes.”

  • We’ve reached out to InternationalWealth.info for a comment or rebuttal regarding this investigation. It will strongly suggest they were behind the takedown attempt if they remain silent.

    • Our investigative report on InternationalWealth.info‘s efforts to suppress online speech is significant, as it raises serious concerns about its integrity. The findings suggest that InternationalWealth.info has engaged in questionable practices, including potential perjury, impersonation, and fraud, in a misguided attempt to manage or salvage its reputation.

    • We intend to file a counternotice to reinstate the removed article(s). While this particular instance is relatively straightforward, it is important to note that, in other cases, the overwhelming volume of automated DMCA takedown notices can significantly hinder the ability of affected parties to respond—especially for those not large media organizations.

    • You need an account with fakeDMCA.com and Lumen to access the research data. However, accounts are not widely available since these non-profit organisations manage large databases that could be susceptible to misuse. Nevertheless, they do offer access to non-profits and researchers.

    • It’s unclear why U.S. authorities have yet to act against these rogue reputation agencies, whose business model seems rooted in fraudulent practices.

  • We’ve reached out to InternationalWealth.info for a comment or rebuttal regarding this investigation. It will strongly suggest they were behind the takedown attempt if they remain silent.

About the Author

16/10/2024

The author is affiliated with Harvard University and serves as a researcher at both Lumen and FakeDMCA.com. In his personal capacity, he and his team have been actively investigating and reporting on organized crime related to fraudulent copyright takedown schemes. Additionally, his team provides advisory services to major law firms and is frequently consulted on matters pertaining to intellectual property law. He can be reached at [email protected] directly.

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