According to local news reports, a 24-year-old man based in Gabriola Island, near the south end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia,

Canada is facing multiple charges related to a fraud operation run out of the resort town of Whistler, BC, involving sending out phony

invoices for web hosting services.

Whistler-based RCMP Sargeant Steve LeClair told local newspaper the Whistler Question that since September, the local office of the

Canadian federal law enforcement group has been investigating the scam, which involved about 1,000 invoices sent out by Enterprise

Corporate Web Hosting, for “work not performed,” asking for amounts ranging from $130 to $155.

The potential impact of the fraud is close to $150,000. While there’s no information in the report about the rate of response to the

fraudulent invoices, it’s probably safe to assume it was somewhere short of the 100 percent it would take to reach that number.

LeClair tells the Question, however, that “it is believed companies received invoices from this suspect and many people paid the

invoices believing they were legitimate.” The suspect reportedly used fake identification and a bank account in Whistler to cash the checks that

came back.

While the local reports understandably focus on the crime, rather than the web hosting angle, it is not entirely clear from the report whether

the suspect charged in the case was actually associated with the company Enterprise Corporate Web Hosting, which has just the

appearance of being an actual company, based in Whistler. Enterprise Corporate Web Hosting has bare-bones website, and Better

Business Bureau listing with a string of mostly “billing/collection issues” complaints that date back to August of 2012.

It is tough to say definitively whether Enterprise Corporate Web Hosting is a fake company, set up for the purpose of the fraud in question, a real web hosting company that also commits fraud now and then, or a real company that was unknowingly used in the fraud. However, the single-page website points strongly toward “fake company.” It claims the company has “over seven thousand clients” and “two

hundred employees,” which already seems like a wildly unsustainable ratio for a hosting business, even if those $130 invoices were

monthly bills.

The more-than-a-little-bit-suspicious website also claims the company offers “web design and promotion” along with “customer

software applications,” “network management” and “hosting services & co-location,” but it doesn’t offer any pricing or other

details on those products, and it includes an unattributed “consumer’s choice award for business excellence 2008” graphic.

Calling the toll-free number on the website leads directly to a voicemail box.
On Friday, November 9, the RCMP arrested the suspect, who reportedly “attempted to fight and flee,” but was apprehended successfully.