Playbook Piracy and its Impact

Chances are:  If you know this guy, he’s stolen something from you overtime.  He’s currently selling stolen merchandise online in Vietnam and on eBay, as well as creating large piracy rings.

You see, Piracy on the PlayBook has become a hot topic lately, as piracy has been targeting the small developers more and more (and large developers, less and less).  The flip-side, is it makes pirate ring leaders such as vanphuongvn, a lot more money than it does for the little developers.

For example, the person above, hosts a website that contains over 500 stolen PlayBook applications and Games — almost all of which are being sold by small independent developers for around 99 cents to 1.99 with some over 18.

Now, generally I’m not an advocate for cracking down on Piracy.  And I understand, when your 14 and going to school, you don’t always have a PayPal account, Credit card or ability to put money onto your devices.  But guys like this are actively profiting off of stolen applications by hosting them online with invasive advertisements and on a website containing large amounts of malware.

RIM

Word on the street is that RIM is actively changing the PB’s OS to begin to target these types of people.  But I think that isn’t enough.

What Can We Do?

Not much!  He lives in Vientam and is well out of the reach of ordinary folks for legal action.  What we can do is email/call/mail/bbm/fb/youtube him as much as possible to cause him to stop his actions.  The beautiful part about people like Le Van Phuong, is he relies entirely on his username (vanphuongvn) to bring in his income through his real job.  Which means we may not be able to legally do much.  But we can affect his income, which is a swift justice.

What do we know about him?

Important Notes:
This email account’s login and password were stolen when BKAV (Vientnamese security firm) had details stolen and released on the internet. However it is still being actively used on the BKAV website, as well as many other places. Suggesting the account was recovered by the owner and is still in control of the owner. Be aware though – there is a slim possibility someone could be copying and using all of this persons information. Details here: Bkav cleartext passwords.

Piracy Site Status:
Website Risk: Dangerous (malware/ddos)
Active
Many Apps Primarily from Small Developers

Believed the site is collecting user details via javascript exploits and malware throuhg advertisements. Accessing the piracy site from BB devices will use web exploits to cause DDOS and other problems with the PB. Unsure if data collection exploit over web to contact details is still being used. Avoid visiting at all costs on BB devices. Unknown if they are “Adding” things to the pirated apps.

 

DO NOT TRUST PURCHASES FROM THIS INDIVIDUAL, he has admitted to running online “sales” scams to sell mobile devices to victims.  Watch out when doing business with this individual as his intent is to scam you at all costs

 

Names used:
Liên Hệ, Lê Văn Phượng, Văn Phượng, LÊ PHƯỢNG

Usernames:
vanphuong_vn
congtuthanhdo10
vanphuongvn
vuhai6

Emails he sells “scammed” items from
congtuthanhdo10@gmail.com,
dailybkavhcm@gmail.com,
support@<piracy_site>.<site_suffix>,
<piracy_site><site_suffix>@gmail.com

Websites used:
L
ĐáºI LÝ BKAV
http://<piracy_site>.<site_suffix>/author/vanphuongvn/
* Warning DO not visit this site on your PB or BB. It does steal information from your systems for hackers.

Uses adf.ly for advertisements (must have an account with them?)
Uses a non-standard fileshare site (no report buttons)

Has 10 more, more nefarious websites covering his darker exploits.  However they contain extremely reactive malware – proceed with caution.

Phone Numbers he uses as a sales associate for calling him back:
BB (RIM) Cell: 0908 986 837
Điện Thoại: 0908 986 837

Units he claims to have scammed users with:
8300 BlackBerry, iPhone, many more

SONO S2 UT Tech for Phone Company
PB and Touchpad

PB Details

Case Details:
44.99 RIM FOLIO
Purchased from BestBuy
Purchased Jan 17/ 2012
SN 36881BBR, SKU 2496236
LC 200001123681316

Country:
Vietnam

Address he claims to ship from: 

39 Trần Chánh Chiếu – P.14 – Q.5 – HCM

Yahoo IM:
congtuthanhdo10

Final Details:
Has used blackberry support forums.

CrackBerry ID:
vanphuongvn (looks deleted)

YouTube:
congtuthanhdo10 – YouTube

Photobucket:
Pictures by vanphuongvn – Photobucket

Facebook
congtuthanhdo10@gmail.com

What Does He Look Like?
IMG-20111123-00008.jpg picture by vanphuongvn – Photobucket

PIN

See QR code below

Avoid doing business with him at all costs.