"StarCraft 2 Tower Defense" and starcraft2.pro – Scam or Spam?
To begin, I’m a computer nerd. That being so, I’m eargerly in anticipation of Blizzard’s coming StarCraft 2 sequel. Having only taken a few random glances at SC2 screenshots and the like, imagine my surprise when I received the following email (which made it past the usually spot-on Gmail spam filter):
Dear Friends,
Today we have added new gameplay screenshots. We are coming to the release very fast and hope to complete developing the game by the end of May, 2009.
We really work hard to deliver best quality but we need your response very much. If you think you have a good suggestion or noticed something that need to be fixed, please go to forums and post there. The more you help us the better game you’ll have!
Go to our website – hxxp://www.starcraft2.pro to see all cool new stuff yourself.
New screenshots – hxxp://starcraft2.pro/screenshots/
Units gallery – hxxp://starcraft2.pro/units/
Towers gallery – hxxp://starcraft2.pro/towers/Starcraft 2 Flash Tower Defense website – hxxp://www.starcraft2.pro
Sincerely yours,
Starcraft2.pro Team
Web: hxxp://www.starcraft2.pro
E-mail: info@starcraft2.proP.S. If you do not want to be our premium subscriber and recieve Starcraft 2 Flast Tower Defense updates ans special promotions, please forward this email to no-more-vip@starcraft2.pro and we will immediately remove you from our friends’ list.
Now, to be fair, this was a fairly convincing email for a scam (or whatever it is — more later). The grammatical mistakes are relatively minor, the links (and domain) look professional, and the email comes from the starcraft2.pro domain. So far, it could be a legit message from a non-native English speaker.
What’s wrong? First, either this game is not really StarCraft2 (i.e. just using the name), or their release date seems to have Blizzard releasing their title in, oh, a day or so. Huh? Also, THIS IS UNSOLICITED! (Big hint there!) I’ve always gotten my info from the official site or other, well-known gaming sites. I’ve never heard of starcraft2.pro, no matter how legit the domain might sound. That is the definition of spam, ladies and gentlemen!
Looking at the site’s whois data:
Domain ID: DN11413-RSC
Domain name: starcraft2.pro
Domain statuses: clientTransferProhibited
Creation date: 2007-09-05 03:26:05
Expiration date: 2009-09-05 00:00:00
Last updated: 2009-02-13 18:14:18
Registrar ID: 455
Registrar: encirca
Registrar URL: http://www.encirca.com
Registration Type: SecondLevelResolving
Right to Use: PrivateRegistrant Contact:
Andrey Starchenko (CT4738-RSC)
15 line V.O. 34-10
Saint-Petersburg, None, 199178
RU
Phone: +1.78123252956
Fax:Administrative Contact:
Andrey Starchenko (CT4738-RSC)
15 line V.O. 34-10
Saint-Petersburg, None, 199178
RU
Phone: +1.78123252956
Fax:Technical Contact:
Andrey Starchenko (CT4738-RSC)
15 line V.O. 34-10
Saint-Petersburg, None, 199178
RU
Phone: +1.78123252956
Fax:Domain servers in listed order:
ns5.secureserver.net
ns6.secureserver.net
…I see a lengthy registration period (good), and a registrant in…
St. Petersburg, Russia. With an anonymous email. Call me biased, but not so good.
And what’s the point of this all, pray tell?
To tell you the truth, I really don’t know! The site itself looks rather professional:
…and has screenshots of what looks to be a SC1 mod (or flash game, according to a forum post), banking on the SC2 name for popularity’s sake. The “game” has yet to be released, so there’s no chance of a piece of malware there (yet). No exploits or redirects that I can tell, either.
Let’s take a look at the site’s forum, then…
…pretty standard stuff. When we get into the so-called “Forum Rewards,” however, things start to sound fishy:
500 posts and you receive a boxed edition of StarCraft2? Hmmm. 2,000 for an iPhone? Really? Not to mention the exotic cars or $20,000 prizes…perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but still, this posts-for-rewards idea doesn’t sound kosher.
Drilling-down further, checking the profiles of the two “heads” of the forum, zxcvbad and sc2freak, reveals…not much. The posted email address for zxcvbad is seobypro@gmail.com, which a Google search links to a lot of, you guessed it, SEO optimization offers and discussions (including his home page, seoby.pro). Apparently the man’s name (if the registration is legit) is Andrey Starchenko, though on forums he seems to like to call himself Michael (and Andrew on another site). The profile name “zxcvbad”, however, seems to be used across the ‘Net both by someone in St. Petersburg and someone in London, so I’ll refrain from posting anything from the name in order to protect the innocent. 
As for sc2freak’s e-mail…dotarank@gmail.com. That’s the official correspondence account for dotarank.com, which (as far as I can surmise) is an entirely legit DotA (Defense of the Ancients, a WarCraft 3 mod) site. That site, too, is registered out of St. Petersburg (friends?). No name this time, though.
There’s a lot more I could post, but it’s mostly random information about the aforementioned accounts. I wasted hours poring over it — I won’t make you do the same!
So, what to make of all this? After hours of searching across random forums and the site itself, I’m about as lost as you! As far as I can tell, the site it legitimate, but is using less than scrupulous means to get the word out about their SC2 (knockoff) Flash game. It pains me to see just how many people posted on the site, though, with some variation of “I didn’t ask for this email, but I’m glad to join!” NO! NO! NO! Do NOT visit spammed links, or support those who send them! That’s what keeps V!@gr@ and C!@l!$ emails coming into each of our accounts: people who click when they know they shouldn’t.
Anyways, those are my thoughts: steer clear of starcraft2.pro, until someone clears this all up (and apologizes for the spamming!). Me, I’m off to play DotA. A real product, and one that doesn’t need spam emails to get players!
- DIO
Addendum: Are you someone who got a similar message? Are you signed-up at the site? Do you own the site and want to explain things? Post a comment, or send me an email at bytesandbadges[_at_]gmail[_dot_]com!
NOTE: As thinker correctly points-out, DotA is NOT a Blizzard product. I’ve changed the language in the post — thanks for the correction!
We really work hard to deliver best quality but we need your response very much. If you think you have a good suggestion or noticed something that need to be fixed, please go to forums and post there. The more you help us the better game you’ll have!
Go to our website – http://www.starcraft2.pro to see all cool new stuff yourself.
New screenshots – http://starcraft2.pro/screenshots/
Units gallery – http://starcraft2.pro/units/
Towers gallery – http://starcraft2.pro/towers/
Starcraft 2 Flash Tower Defense website – http://www.starcraft2.pro
Sincerely yours,
Starcraft2.pro Team
Web: http://www.starcraft2.pro
E-mail: info@starcraft2.pro
P.S. If you do not want to be our premium subscriber and recieve Starcraft 2 Flast Tower Defense updates ans special promotions, please forward this email to no-more-vip@starcraft2.pro and we will immediately remove you from our friends’ list.
Hey there -
Glad you did all the research for me =D. I just got that e-mail recently & instantly knew there was something fishy with the .pro TLD and the fact that e-mails from Blizzard are usually rather fancy. I couldn’t resist clicking one of the links and peaking at the site though. The link I picked so I could tell whether they were using SC2 stuff as a cover up was the screen shots one – which to my surprise revealed they weren’t. I assumed that as you said they were just riding on Blizzard’s publicity wave to release their little tower defense game. None the less, I decided to google the site as I couldn’t be the only one who got such e-mail – which lead me here.
That site aside however, what has gotten me more disconcerted is that I received said e-mail on my gmail account as well & that a number of spam mails actually made it into my inbox yesterday and today (between 10 and 15 I’d say.)
I’m glad the article helped! I’d like to believe that the hours I spend researching benefit someone
As for the Gmail thing…that’s odd. Only had the one email come through for me. Maybe just a fluke?
nice work (: got my self one of those.. and decided to google it, got me here..
I got the same email, thanks for clearing things up. Any idea of how they’re targeting specifically Starcraft2 Fans?
Thanks for the research!
Not so sure about that myself, unless they’ve got some DotA information or they just don’t, and we’re the only ones who care.
Thanks for posting what you found…I probably would of spent forever tryin to figure out what the hell it was too.
Thanks for the research. As everybody else I feeled the fishy smell of the spam and google’d starcraft2.pro and landed here.
Thanks for the helpful info — got the same message, was curious, and found your helpful blog post. Thanks!
Thanks for the research! Just opened the mail, saw the .pro and google’d the mailadress!
Thanks again
// Jonas
Thanks for doing this research! Saved me a lot of time. En Taro Adun!
Yep, got this e-mail in my spam box, but yahoo tends to put some important e-mails in spam. I’d never heard of a .pro domain, so I googled, and found this. Thanks for all the research <3 you!
Maybe the link connecting everyone who got the email (as I got it aswell) is a registration at some DotA website? As I see many people already mentioning that game it may be likely that some admin there passed on e-mails. Or one of two guys running the .pro site is an admin himself using the emails for other purposes than intended (in his own interest).
Strange though how they state they’re not affliated with blizzard entertainment in any way but however use all their official logos and layout on their website, kinda fishy and not totally legal I think. Me thinks they’ll get an email from the blizzheads soon
I received the e-mail too. Mine says “by the mid of June, 2009″. Thanks for the research!
Interesting…guess they’re not giving-up the spam campaign so soon!
I got me one of those too… As I don’t usually get ANY spams on that e-mail acc it surprised the hell out of me. The account is only used for communication with trusted people and for membership in very few sites. Strangely enough, I got 2 other identical spams (filtered) with it; urging me to install some software to keep my bank account “safe”, with the address of bradesco@ktv.com so the person that stole my e-mail also had access to where I’m from sustaining the theory of it happening in the DotA Allstars official forum as it’s the only dota related site I’m registerd in.
Thanks for the research. The lack of spam I receive made me believe Blizz had set a release date for SC2 before I read the e-mail and finally thought “when did I ever sign in for any news regarding sc2?”
PS: For their methods, I guess they figured anyone who played DotA heard of SC2 and can be interested in a TD game.
Wolfspam: wish you’d used a real email! Can you contact me at bytesandbadges [_at_] gmail [_dot_] com? I’d like to look into those emails further.
I’m sorry, but I really think your overreacting about all this. Starcraft II tower defense’s been in development for a long time now and its only a flash game nothing more. It never claimed to be starcraft II, it’s just called SC2 Tower defense because it uses units and sprites from SC2.
The reason that it got past Gmail’s spam check is because it was just sent like a normal email to a bunch of people.
Actually, I don’t see it as “overreacting” when people are suspicious of anyone, even a legitimate project, sending unsolicited email to people. People, no less, whose addresses were either (a) trolled from the Internet, (b) taken from another legitimate service to which users were subscribed, or (c) bought in bulk. Any of the above is shady and not the way to run a project.
It’s spam – bulk unsolicited mail. And here at Bytes and Badges, we’re not big fans of the stuff, or those who send it.
DotA is NOT a blizzard product. Be clear about this.
DotA is a map you play using an official Blizzard product.. chill…
Anyways, i got the same email, and so did one of my friends and obviously i was curious enough to end up here…
So what I don’t understand is: What is the purpose of that site?
Duly noted, and corrected.
Once the game is done, it’ll be (ostensibly) the distribution site for it, as well as the community. For now, it’s development, testing, and “getting the word out” — again, not malicious or bad in and of itself (I’m a big proponent of fan creations), but the spam used to push it is not kosher.
Ah, some stupid admin at dota-allstars.com sold, apprently, some emails of users. Either that or the SC2 TD guys extremely unlikely stole emails from the dota-allstars database..
its the only logical explanation I can think of. I got this email on not-garbage email account where the only sites i signed up for with it were dota-allstars, youtube, collegebored, and other huge companies that would never let this happen.
I received this spam late June. A long time ago I did register at the dota-allstars site. I’m thinking this SC2 Tower Defense site stole or bought e-mails from dota-allstars.
It’s definitely spam, definitely unsolicited, and I’m definitely not downloading jack from it no matter how long it’s “been in development”
It could have been different if dota-allstars had sent me an announcement (which I agreed to receive from them) about a cool new thing — but that isn’t what happened.
Hi
Thank you for this!
I just wanted to say that I am not registered to dota allstars or any dota forum
It might be something else.
Peace !
Dude it’s just a fan-made mini game, It’s a tower defence game BASED on starcraft 2, it isn’t the actually starcraft or starcraft 2 game, it’s just a mini-game.
Dude, it’s spam. Read the posts, then reply!
Interesting! Thanks for the heads-up!
Hi, i’ve just recieved an e-mail from those guys. think they’re not giving up
… i’m also registered in dota’s site and i think they are getting emails from there…
The email says : SC2 Tower deffence beta is finaly out… bla bla bla… fan art contest with $500 prize…bla bla bla… i think they will ‘put their product on sale’ just before SC2…
p.s. i don’t belive the flash is based on SC2 because if i’m correct it’s started in 2007…
Hooray!
Today we have released our Starcraft2 pro’s Tower Defence for public testing and you can play it right NOW!
Here is the link: LINK
Also we have started fan art contest with awesome $1500 prize! So if you are talented you have chances to make yourself a great Christmas present!
You can find more info about fan art contest at LINK
Sincerely yours,
Starcraft2
TeamWeb: LINK
E-mail: EMAIL
P.S. If you do not want to be our premium subscriber and recieve Starcraft 2 Flast Tower Defense updates ans special promotions, please forward this email to EMAIL and we will immediately remove you from our friends’ list.
——-
Of course LINK & EMAIL aren’t in the actual email.
I always thought it was the real SC2, until they released their beta which is just a flash TD. Then I googled around and found your post, and I was simply filled with anger for a short while. Stupid me, damn them.
Good job – we got said email too and dismissed it immediately as junk. Typos and a .pro just doesn’t look Blizzard-approved. Googled to see if there was such a site (and there was your blog for a search result too!), turns out there is but we’re not keen to visit should it install some spyware or whatnot, heh.
I just got an email associated with starcraft2.pro, and I say we criminalise such spam activities. My country has already instituted laws criminalising unsolicited e-mails of a commercial nature, and I think it’s a good way to start.
If you remember a few months back, around the time these spam messages started appearing, Icefrog and the guy who ran dota-allstars.com had some sort of falling out. There was more than a few messages about the disassociation of DOTA from the dota-allstars site, which was then later brought back up with a new design. Could these events be linked. It seems that most of the people posting replies here had there email accounts connected with the DOTA site. Selling of member info could have been a cause in the change of site admin, or a reaction to an unrelated falling out with Icefrog.
-Just some thoughts on the matter. Oh and .pro is super shady
Hey i just got this email aswell, funny thing is today is the FIRST AND ONLY day i have EVER looked at starcraft2. I actually made a battle.net account and merged so i could get access to the sc2 beta, a few hours later i get this in my spam box thinking “woah the was fast”.
I was also looking at various sc2 blogs/forums but it just seems really strange to me, that the only ever time i have been looking into sc2 – i get a email regarding sc2 literally a few hours later.
Then again, i am a member of dota-allstars aswel, maby just random luck? who knows.
Its really annoying that someone has bought/stolen private email data, and it should really be looked into
I’m sure if we polled all the respondents we would see that everyone had indeed signed up at the dota-allstars website. I wouldn’t have been frustrated getting the spam from them had they just come out honestly with it.
instead of dota-allstars, it’s more likely to originate from http://www.eurobattle.net.
here’s an excerpt from dotarank news that triggered my suspicions:
21.04.2009 – Moving Servers
Hey guys, we are moving servers to Eurobattle. Their website is http://www.eurobattle.net, you will find all the information you need to be able to log onto their servers.
it’s not entirely rational to point fingers at dota-allstars since almost ALL dota players are likely to have an account there.
Thanks for the research buddy! Just got a mail from these dodgy ruskies today. If anybody is going to look further into this I just thought I’d mention that I too am signed up at the dota-allstars site.
I’m receiving these emails for some time now, and thought that I have registered on something and forgot about it. Since I’m brazilian and have a games-related blog, I’m always searching and registering at those stuff.
But my memory didn’t fail me, ’cause I was sure that I have never entered the website when I first accessed it. Just now, when I saw that it was offline (as David pointed out, the domain expired september 5. And today is 7) I found this post.
Just to add my two cents: I’m also registered at dota-allstars.com. Looks like the first source of e-mails could be this, but I think they didn’t stopped there.
(sorry for my bad english, I’m a bit rusty. =P)
i dint get a registration confirmation from dota-allstars.com