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Tech

Someone Is Pretending to Be an FBI Shell Company

One of the fake companies flying spy planes has a thing for Kim Dotcom.
Janus Rose
New York, US

Yesterday, a new report confirmed that the FBI is flying unmarked surveillance planes over major US cities, using the cover of fake companies with names like "OBD Leasing" and "FVX Research"

Now it seems someone—though probably not the FBI—is posing as one of those companies, attempting to deny affiliation with the Feds via a hilariously bogus website, complete with stock photos.

The website of "FVX Research," which came online just today, has all the hallmarks of a fake company—from the stock Wordpress theme to the cookie-cutter praises posted to its "Testimonials" page. The homepage lists an address in Washington, DC and includes a press release, which is linked to by an FVX Research Twitter account, denying government ties.

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"Let us make this clear, we (FVX Research) are not associated in any way, shape, or form with the Federal Bureau of Investigations or commonly known as (FBI) or any governmental entity," the website's message states. "Our brand and identity is being used in slanderous allegations, and we are working closely with our legal resources to combat this."

Screencap of the fake FBI shell company site. Image: Pixelbat/Imgur

The message also starts with special mention of Reddit, implying FVX's parody web presence could be a prank by one of the site's users. The FVX Twitter account later tweeted at Kim Dotcom, then replaced the entire site with an image of him, making it pretty clear that whoever is behind it knows their audience—or that this whole thing is really a viral ad for MEGA (please god, no).

Most hilariously, as Imgur user pixelbat points out, a simple Google reverse image search reveals that the company's suspiciously attractive "staff" is actually a bunch of stock photos. The same fake people can be found with different names on other obviously fake websites.

Doing a quick WHOIS lookup of the domain reveals several more pieces of (likely false) information. The registration lists one "Robert Hastings" and a 202 number which I tried calling, but no one answered and I was directed to a generic voicemail inbox. Then about 10 minutes later, the same number called me back, but there was only silence on the other end of the line.

The site transformed into a Kim Dotcom ad. Image: Josh Kopstein (screencap)

The address "NSA.GEN.IN" is also listed as the organization name in the WHOIS. Traveling to that site generates a pop-up login prompt, and after hitting "cancel" the site displays the following ominous message:

"UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THIS SYSTEM IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND PUNISHABLE BY FEDERAL LAW. UNAUTHORIZED INDIVIDUALS SHOULD TERMINATE THEIR ACCESS NOW. Individuals using this computer system, with or without proper authority, are subject to having all their activities monitored and recorded by authorized employees and should have no expectation of privacy. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and to all appropriate disclosure of any evidence of criminal activity to law enforcement officials."

Creepiness aside, the website's blunders are just way too obvious to be a bumbled FBI attempt to salvage one of its front companies. In the AP article about the spy planes, a spokesperson even admitted that the Bureau will have to create new fake companies to replace any that the report publicized.

From any angle, the site smells much more like someone's Reddit joke than an FBI cover-up campaign.

Update: As of late afternoon, the site has returned to its original pre-Dotcom state and the silly tweets that followed have been deleted. It's similar to what might happen if a real company were hacked, but it's more likely pranksters are just making it look that way for the lulz.