ISPreview investigate the fraud @ VisualDepth

As part of my job instruction I am currently looking into accounts that have been activated through a company named "Visual Depth". Unfortunately these accounts are not authorised through any of our Reseller Schemes.

I would be extremely grateful if you could assist me by providing information the service provided, the charges applied to your account for the service and your full username.

Once I have these details, it would be extremely helpful if I can contact you later to advise the outcome of these accounts. Under our trading terms, your credit card must be debited by Ezesurf Ltd and no other company unless authorised in which I must advise that "Visual Depth" isn't.

• Kind Regards
• Ian
• Customer Services

By publishing such information EzeSurf had already helped us fill in the missing gaps by showing an un-connected support. Soon after they published an official notice in the same EzeSupport group:

"Several companies online are charging customers in excess for a service then supplying them with an ezesurf.co.uk username at higher rates. If this has happened to you we advise you to request a refund from that company or your credit card company as this is not permitted by Ezesurf. It is permitted if you are only charged the Ezesurf Rate and billed by Ezesurf directly, in addition to this the companies authorised by ourselves must state that this product is "provided in association with Ezesurf"."

Worryingly EzeSurf said, 'Several', we are actually aware of one more but don't know full details so can't speculate. Through later communications with EzeSurf we uncovered the truth, VisualDepth had been signing up under the same name and address but with different logins via EzeSurf.

Phase 3 - Conclusion:

With EzeSurf on our side we could easily conclude that we had been correct, VisualDepth was unofficially reselling EzeSurf accounts and for far higher prices. The other services such as web hosting had come as part of reselling services from people such as FastHosts (web hosting) etc.

Some investigation into legal rules shows that such activity constitutes as a form of fraud, it's like re-bottling Coka-Cola and calling it 'pepsis', then charging more for it. EzeSurf advises that people seek a full refund from VD.

Having finally concluded and dusted off the investigation it was now early August, so we contacted VD and awaited a reply. In the E-Mail we requested they make a formal and public apology to all those directly involved, namely, ISPreview, EzeSurf and VD's own customers. We requested that any reply be made publicly addressable.

To our amazement the support member who replied denied any such goings on and said the E-Mail would be passed on and a proper reply would follow shortly. Now bare in mind that up until now not even EzeSurf could contact VD and get through to the managers.

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