This is Part Two of an Ongoing Series on Internet Spell Casters. You May Want to Also Read Part One, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five
Update: After posting this article, and several thousand people reading it, all the websites listed here have now disappeared. I have collected and compiled screen captures of most of them however, and you can still see what they look like. Most are interspersed within these two articles, but the following are the most important: FastSpells.com's Homepage, FastSpells.com's Health Spell Section, and the page for RateTheCaster.com. As I piece together more screen grabs, they will be listed here as well.
Second Update: I should note that I missed one of her sites. Brittney is also the operator of http://www.magickthatworks.com/, which at this moment is still operating. (Note: Within the time it took me to post this update the site was down)
In my last entry to The Craptacular Web I wrote about FastSpells.com and their Front Website RateTheCaster.com. For those of you who haven't read that particular article (and I seriously recommend you do), FastSpells.com is a scam website that claims they will cast Magick on your behalf for various sums of money. They claim to be able to find you love, give you an abortion, cure your cancer, grant you immortality, and change you sex organs.
No, I'm not kidding about any of those.
RateTheCaster.com is a front website they run to promote their scam sites (there are at least 3 they own... but I'll get to that in a minute) which pretends to be an independent review site. The scam is a fairly dirty one, and needless to say, as it uses the name of my faith to perpetuate itself, it's one that pisses me off quite a bit.
They prey on people, and if what I've read on RipoffReport.com is true, the refund policy is just as much the lie as I assumed it was when I read it. Because of that, I couldn't leave well enough alone with the last installment. I just had to dig... deeper.
One thing FastSpells.com severely lacks is any real world contact information. For most people this should be the first sign of a scam by the way. I had to know more about the people and/or person running the website, and that was going to make it difficult.
It became fairly clear to me early on that the supposed "Kimberly Rose" was a construct created for Marketing purposes. The book, the websites... all a ruse to add an air of legitimacy to an otherwise totally fraudulent site. The only contact information available through the entire website was the PayPal account that they accept money through: frenchchick227@gmail.com
The Supposed "Coven of Four" - Note "Brittney" on the Right
A quick google search for frenchchick227@gmail.com first led me to stores.ebay.com/The-Coven-Of-Four-Magick-Shoppe, the dead eBay store for a group called "Coven of Four." If you've looked at "RatetheCaster.com" you might recognize that name as one of the "Top Rated Sites" -- the only one of the top Three that isn't FastSpells or folded into FastSpells. The one strange bit here is that this eBay store led me to discover that there are, in fact,
two different websites for the "Coven of Four" -- covenof4.com and dreamthroughmagick.com. The coven of Four is supposedly led by a girl named Brittney. At first I thought this was a false name... but I discovered it might be our culprit. I will mention that all of the details about the "Coven of Four" appear to be total Bull Malarky. I won't bother to go too deeply, since I covered the ludicrous nature of what they're doing so much in my earlier article.
Brittney's Creepy Website
Dave? Kevin? Brittney Reynolds with a hair cut? Two of the Scammers Behind TheMillionDollarPiggyBank.com |
Further searching for frenchchick227 led me to a Yahoo review for a Virginia based computer store. I don't know if there is any connection or if it's a genuine 5 star review, but it confirms that our frenchchick227 at least lived in that general area at some point.
That in mind, I kept going. Things finally clicked when I switched search engines, and ran across the excessively creepy part of this journey: www.xanga.com/VanillaBlades
This is the Xanga page for Brittney from Virgina. Brittney, whose IM username is (you guessed it) frenchchick227. And what is this Xanga page about of all things? How she's "Pro Ana." Yeah.
For those unaware, Pro Ana is the exceptionally creepy Pro Anorexia movement. You heard me. It also gives us her a possible birthdate (12/25/1986 - but as its Christmas I take it with a grain of salt), along with the creepy details of her creepy life when she was 17. So, "Kimberly Rose" is really young Brittney from Virginia (who has an eating disorder) it seems.
Maybe.
Things continued to get strange as I looked through MySpace and Facebook. A MySpace search for frenchchick227@yahoo.com brought up myspace.com/themilliondollarpiggybank -- a website for an earlier scam. Now, this particular MySpace page claims it is for two guys who were running the most basic of lottery scams over a year ago. Two
guys. One looks a bit like a Dave or something. Now, this is what I was expecting before I ran across "Brittney," but I digress. Following that I did a quick Facebook search for the e-mail address and came up with one name: Kevin Reynolds of Norfolk / Virginia Beach, VA.
Kevin Reynolds?
From this I presume that Kevin
might be one of our "Pigs?" The fact that he shares his initials with the supposed "Kimberly Rose" seems more than coincidental as well. Sadly, there are a ton of people named "Kevin Reynolds" in Virginia, so it's difficult to narrow it down. Is this several people working together? If there are more, I'm not sure. Are they related? Is he her father and the photos are two random other guys? Are they dating? Who knows.
But I wasn't done.
I decided to do some undercover work to find out what I could. I posed as a potential client and sent a message to Fastspells. I dug up one of my spare GMail accounts and sent this message:
OMG Im rlly interestd in buying a luv spell from U but I dont use PayPal - culd I send U a check instead?
I signed the message as "Lynn Baxter," a character name the five people who read "Full Circle" might recognize. I know the actual message is painful to read... but the last thing I wanted was any chance she might connect it to my writing style. Also... I wanted to emulate one of the stereotypical kinds of people who would genuinely write to them. Thankfully, Kimberly sent me a response:
From: Kimberly Rose
To: Lynn Baxter
Subject: (none)
Hi lynn,
Yes, absolutely - why don't you tell me some more about your situation and we can go from there? I can recommend something TOTALLY perfect for you - and that would definitely help us get along, with this =) I want you to be happy - so let's start with more info =)
Love
Kimberly
My first thought was "Oh crap, now I have to come up with a story." My second thought... I sent to her:
From: Lynn Baxter
To: Kimberly Rose
Subject: Re:
I just found out my bf has been cheating on me w/ my supopsed best friend for liek the last 2 months. I want him 2 stop messing around, and I want her 2 get like giant crabs or sumthing.
if U could help, it wood mean a lot 2 me.
~~lynn
I know, my english is absolutely painful in that one. I got a very fast reply from "Ms. Rose" though:
From: Kimberly Rose
To: Lynn Baxter
Subject: Re:
It's ok hun.I can help you - I will offer you my stage iv premium custom work - regular price 2250.00 -for the price of materials only. Materials run 284.00 - that IS ALL You'll pay - this work will cover revenge, him FEELING your pain, him getting back with you SHOWING YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS ETC =)
You will LOVE THIS =)
<3 I can start as soon as tonight! Please let me help you. I know you are just going to LOVE THIS SO MUCH! and It would be my PLEASURE to help you.
Dear lord... she's trying to claim that 284.00 is a
deal. Got to love a scam artist with balls like that. I quickly wrote back, as I still hadn't gotten what I came for... a real name. So I fished for more:
From: Lynn Baxter
To: Kimberly Rose
Subject: Re:
OMG that is so nice of U!
But I dont have paypal, so culd I send you a check instead?
~~lynn
And then... finally... the holy grail. "Kimberly Rose" wrote back to me:
From: Kimberly Rose
To: Lynn Baxter
Subject: Re:
Sure =) and NO PROBLEM. Alright =)
You can make the money order out to:
Brittney Reynolds
(do NOT make it out to me please, I am not in this state to cash it, this is my accountant and her office addy)
And mail to:
Brittney Reynolds
20770 US 281 N #108-104
San Antonio, TX 78258
United States
Make no reference or markings on the money order itself instead, =) Include a piece of white paper with my name and yours neatly printed. This way she can let me know that you have paid ok =)
That should do it!
Love
Kimberly
Jackpot! Mystery Brittney is Brittney Reynolds, originally of Virginia, moved to Texas, and possibly born 12/25/1986. The address listed, after a little bit of sleuthing, is a drop box at a UPS Store. As Brittney is 21, I seriously doubt she's an actual accountant. I think we all know who the "real" Kimberly Rose is now.
The Location of the Drop Box
Where does this leave us. We know that she must have been in on the Million Dollar Piggy Bank scam, as they used her e-mail address. We know that at one point a Facebook page was made using that e-mail address for a "Kevin Reynolds" from Virginia. We know that the young woman has had an eating disorder, and likely a rocky adolescence. We also know that everything Fastspells.com says on their website is a lie.
And that is the lesson.
Comments:
Even more interesting, a Yahoo search for frenchchick227 turned up a photo sharing website profile with all of its pictures removed or made private:
http://community.webshots.com/user/frenchchick227
But there is still a search result for one of the albums from that site:
http://community.webshots.com/rss?contentType=rss&value=frenchchick227
"Mexico
Tuesday, April 20, 2004 8:30 AM
Cruise to Belize, Cozumel and Progresso with Brittany
by frenchchick227"
Looks like the business is doing well. 
I saw that account, but after seeing all the photos removed I hadn't bothered looking for an archive of it.
Thanks!
odd item of note, her Xanga page has mysteriously been cleared. It still says it's hers and still has a big (and hideous) pink pro-ana banner across the top, but the posts have all been deleted. Perhaps she found your post here?
Aremis
Considering this has been featured on the Consumerist today (Hello Consumerist readers!) I bet she did see it.
Which is why I archive everything: http://www.trhonline.com/craptacular/vanillablade.png
They've also deleted the eBay store.
Again, I have screen shots of all of it. http://www.dreamthroughmagick.com/ seems to be gone, and while I don't have screenshots of it, the information is almost exactly the same as the other Coven of Four page... and I did save the WAV file of Brittney talking they had on there. 
Also, a Virginia based IP just tried the weakest DoS attack I've ever seen.
Methinks I touched a nerve.
My bet is that the site disappears entirely and a new one under yet another mysterious pseudonym pops up in a year or so.
Just sent a scam warning to their webhost asking for them to take a look into their sites.
I used to do info brokerage for private investigators I have verified her residence and cellphone number as follows:
Current Residence:
24245 Wilderness Oak, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas 78258, United States
Current Cell:
757-813-5945
Other information that may be useful/helpful:
She has a blockbuster account at the blockbuster in the same complex as her maildrop.
She orders from Domino's Pizza
Her email address returned this information from a spam database:
frenchchick227@yahoo.com
Brittney Gross
12724 Sandpebble Cir APT#23
Newport News VA, 23606
757-813-5945
Alleged DOB: 12/25/86
Enjoy!
I forgot to include her apartment number;
24245 wilderness oak APT #1003
San Antonio, TX 78258
Little Houses on the hill side, little houses made of ticky tacky...
Searches for the phone number resulted in two "car must sell today!" threads in a forum by a ... Kevin that used to live in Virginia and now lives somewhere else.
http://dragva.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4
http://www.dragva.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1318
http://dragva.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3436#post3436
"So I feel kind of ...pissed. It's one of my Virginia Regrets.
pssh
good thing I don't live around idiots like you anymore."
dave; look at the DATE on those forum posts, 2005. They're in San Antonio, TX *NOW*, The address I posted is verified.
Hahaha, I popped their photos into tineye.com (an image search machine) and found 'Kimberly' on a Russian dating site or something: http://uk.anastasia-international.com/photo-profile-Russian-woman-online-Ksenia-1107351.htm
'Abby' also had herself posted on bride.ru but her photo has been deleted.
@maggock
That is officially the best thing ever.
Covenof4.com is down, the book site is down, Ratethecaster.com is down... lots of their sites are now down.
Except FastSpells.com.
It's only a matter of time though.
Anyone read the terms and conditions on fastspells.com? They violate the VISA merchant agreement by claiming customers cannot dispute charges and will be held liable for disputing charges. Anyone feel like making a complaint to VISA?
"You agree not to report that credit card (or other approved facility) as lost or stolen. Nor will you dispute any authorized charge by our authorized agent or the Company. You agree and acknowledge that if you fraudulently report the credit card (or other approved facility) used to obtain the Service or goods from the Service as stolen, or if you fraudulent report that an authorized charge by the Company or authorized agent is unauthorized, you shall be liable to this authorized agent and the Company for liquidated damages of up to $10,000.00." - http://fastspells.com/terms.html
Their Terms of Service, if you googled them, are actually copied from Porn sites.
But that's neither here nor there, as FastSpells.com has disappeared now as well.
A.) That's sick. not you guys, obviously, but them. you guys are amazing. seriously.
B.) it's hilarious that in the span of a day all that "went down". Only a matter of time, indeed.
C.) I hope one of you DID complain to VISA, 'cause that's a load of crap. Correction: loads. that's loads of crap.
D.) You don't need the ego boost, but Trae, you're amazing. Kick those scammers where it hurts, man.
Dani, Your local Ninja Kitten of Doom
Wow, I figured this all might have made a dent, even a significant hole in their business. I didn't think it would fold like a deck of cards in a few weeks time. It's apparent the initial post Trae made, if it was noticed by fastspells.com folks at all, was brushed off as typical consumer snooping. But the detail and breadth that Trae went into with post 2 and the rallying cry and assistance from the peanut gallery definately caught someone's attention. Hopefully that someone was a fraud investigator, but I doubt it. My only worry is that this site will reincarnate as yet another scam by the same folks only smarter because they now know how people can follow their trail (which I won't go into in hopes that I'm wrong and they're not that smart).
Meep
Well, now that we have their actual names, it means that if they set up another scam they are much easier to find for people who get scammed. It would just be a matter of a simple inquiry to a Bank, Credit Card Agency, PayPal, etc.
If Kevin or Brittney starts this again, they can be found and stopped - and law enforcement can get involved if need be.
The FastSpells.com front page is back up, but the rest of their site is still offline
It's down again. All they have is an 'down for maintenance' splash now.
Great detective work. While I'm not strictly Wiccan, I do try to adhere to the beliefs as much as possible. This type of scam that takes advantage of people's weaknesses really gets under my skin. I just wish there were more people like you exposing these asses.
Wolf
I signed up just to comment on this. Of course, I like the site, so I might stick around a bit.
I think you've managed to really annoy these scam artists. Based on the original article linked from The Consumerist, I didn't see that the sites mentioned were all down. So, I visited ratethecaster.com. Oh, they're really annoyed and taking it out on anyone who visits.
It says it's a suspended page link in the address bar. But what you get are endless (and I do mean endless) java pop-up windows. Each with a little message, telling a story of how the page is designed to annoy. When it finally ends, it starts all over again. It hijacks your browser. It won't let you close the browser, click back, close the tab, etc. The only way out is through the Task Manager and praise the developers at Mozilla! When I restored the session, I had enough tabs open that I was able to click that tab shut before the endless pop-ups started.
Also, I had never heard of the piggy bank scam. So, I took a trip to My Space. Heh. The owner of that profile visited yesterday and removed whatever had been there. Nothing like trying to cover your tracks, eh?
I thought they'd take it down. Which is why I archived screenshots of most of it. I'll get those up eventually too.
Hmmm...
I noticed the former links for dragva.net also lead to that annoying pop-up page. So, I did a bit of checking on truevalueweb.com, which is the website all these defunct links seem to hit.
It seems to be owned by a 22 year old in... Norfolk, VA by the name of Andrew Bucklin. Hit his My Space page fast, as I'm sure it won't be there tomorrow. Especially since it seems to be the same blond guy as in the million dollar scam thing.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=9187283
I hate posting too fast. This little scammer lists his current school as...
Liberty University
Lynchburg,Virginia
Graduated: N/A
Degree: In Progress
Major: Computer Management Information Systems
Minor: Computer Science
He's due to graduate next year.
What makes Liberty so special? It's a fundamentalist Baptist college. So I guess it's ok for "Christians" to scam those looking for spellwork or readings, as they're not saved. The lad even has a passage from Corinthians on his My Space. What a hypocrite.
What do you want to bet that the DoS attack came from this upstanding fundamentalist?
Nope, not deleted, but made private.
Good thing I made screenshots, eh?
Also, I won't post it because I don't know how much he's involved (i.e. Did they just get their webspace from a friend, or was he in on the scam?) but I found his Cell phone number.
Posted to a public webpage. *shakes head*
Wow, this story keeps getting better and better, as per Ms. Reynolds being annoyed.. she was SHOOK! Just look at what the webhost wrote about me posting her home address and cell:
Jen replied on September 18, 2008:
I can tell you that your actions in particular freaked the woman that I spoke to out. Part of me felt somewhat sorry for her - her voice was shaking, she was clearly frightened, and she was obviously stunned that there was this much information available on her.
She did, though, confirm her identity and stated that it all started with the site being mad at “her” web site, so everything you all did and posted was clearly accurate, as the number she called from was, in fact, the one posted.
It’s clear the never expected their identity to ever be exposed. I imagine it was traumatic for her. About as traumatic, I imagine, as it was for the people she told she could cure.
Love Google Cache. Here's the saved version of Andrew's myspace page and blog. He is originally from Texas, has a friend named Kevin, and has a very close friend named "Brit"...
cache 1
cache 2
Yeah, I suppose the 'naive college student trying to make a quick (albeit dishonest) buck' should have occurred to me as a scenario. But just because you don't run your scam like a superspy doesn't mean you shouldn't be held accountable for it. You gotta know this isn't legal/ethical.
That said, while I haven't ever run a scam or, to my knowledge, done anything illegal, I've said some pretty attrocious things on the net over the years. I know what people could get on me off the net and I wouldn't be as surprised as to the depth of info someone could get. But it would freak me out if some actually demonstrated they had gone out and gotten it.
Hopefully this scares her enough to pull her off the scammer rosters for good, at the very least. I don't think anyone here is about to initiate any lawsuits, especially given the fact that none of us were actually victims of this scheme. But if I were her I'd be seriously worried about that at this point. You don't even need the address, just a name and a town of residence and a disgruntled customer could start some serious trouble for you.
I don't have to tell any Wiccans here that when it comes to harming others, you reap what you sow. Perhaps she should have read that chapter of her Wicca 101 book a little closer before she embarked on this little escapade.
meep
Well, I mentioned this young man for three reasons. He is the web host that has put up the neverending java pop-up windows that cause you to need to reboot your browser on the pages he suspended. Any other webhost would suspend a user who put up a browser hijacker. Also, he bears a striking resemblance to the blond guy in the MillionDollarPiggyBank.com and he mentions his good friends Kevin and Brit. So, I felt he deserved a mention. I'm sorry if I shouldn't have mentioned him.
Well, I mentioned this young man for three reasons. He is the web host that has put up the neverending java pop-up windows that cause you to need to reboot your browser on the pages he suspended. Any other webhost would suspend a user who put up a browser hijacker. Also, he bears a striking resemblance to the blond guy in the MillionDollarPiggyBank.com and he mentions his good friends Kevin and Brit. So, I felt he deserved a mention. I'm sorry if I shouldn't have mentioned him.
Oh no, I'm glad you mentioned him. He deserves to be mentioned -- I just don't know if I should drop all the information I've found on him or not.
On ratethecaster.com there was another website by the name of moonspells.org that was supposedly "rated" the 3rd best. This website has also been removed. I bet there was some type of affilliation. I was actually scammed by Kimberly Rose of fastspells.com. I am so glad that I know the real truth now. That picture on that Russian dating site is definately of her...there is no doubt about that. I have learned a very valuable lesson from all of this.
I hope you are also forwarding this informaiton to http://www.ic3.gov/
I was never defrauded, so I don't have grounds to make a claim.
However, I hope that by providing this information, I have made it easier for those who have been victimized to make any necessary claims.
Juicy Details! Fastspells.com is not even a registered business located in the government database. Brittney Reynolds ( aka Kimberly Rose ) scam was based completely off google ads for exposure. Why would someone like Kimberly spend between $900 - 2,400 USD per day in advertising, while offering her services starting at a mere 39 USD?
This link shows how much she was spending daily on advertising: http://www.spyfu.com/Domain.aspx?d=4743440473731742836
This would support the evidence that Kimberly had scammed many people per day out of thousands! Ask yourself... why would Kimberly pay advertising expenses of up to 2k per day if she was not bringing in so much more?
I wouldn't doubt if Kimberly Rose was making anywhere from 8 - 12 thousand per day off her scams.
Her days are numbered. I'm just waiting to hear news of her arrest!
Their / her ebay-id is coven_of_four. Interestingly not a registered member anymore since a coulpe of days.
On ebay she introduced herself as BRITTNEY GROSS and her contact-address was frenchchick227@yahoo.com, later frenchchick227@gmail.com.
First they claimed to have been casting together for 10 years, later it were many years, she said they almost couldn’t remember how long and their young looks allegedly were due to youth spells … she said they wouldn’t reveal their real age.
On ebay they also sold under another id shadows_of_light. When asked about the 2 shops looking so much alike and both sellers located in Bena, VA she claimed it was a „sister-shop“ run and designed by the same guy… interestingly the leader of that shadows_of_light-coven also was young, blonde and named Brittney Nicole.
Additionally coven_of_four also have the site http://www.magickthatworks.com/ which isn’t down yet. I know it’s them first hand, as she told me it’s their side when I was suspicious about it.
IMO there are no words for such evilness and cold-heartedness. If karma and the Wiccan 3-fold-law really exist, I hope they strike back really bad on these persons.
I'm fairly certain Gross is Brittney's maiden name.
And yes, that does appear to be one of her sites. I'll add that to the top of the page.
It now appears that www.magickthatworks.com is currently down. I think someone is getting a little scared.
Yes, www.magickthatworks.com seems to be down now as well.
By the way she started dealing on ebay on Apr-07-05 under the username brittandkev and changed her name on Mar-05-06 to coven_of_four.
And there was another magick-miracle-spells-site probably linked to her as well (say probably because it didn’t go under the name Brittney but it used the same introduction of her coven of four) www.weightlossspells.net (down now as well).
Actually, I don't think weightlossspells.net is one of hers -- the Paypal account is different, and the site actually isn't down for me at least.
Just a note: That Virginia based Computer store review mentioned early in this article actually comes back to exist.
Andrew Bucklin is employed at MicroHelp, Inc. (the previously mentioned business).
So, here's our team: Andrew Bucklin, Brittney (Gross) Reynolds and Kevin Reynolds.
Thus endeth the lesson.
How realistic is it at all to get any money back from them if you paid with credit card/direct debit through Paypal?
I mean as far as I know Paypal will not refund for intangible goods anyway and spells are something widely believed not real, so how would this work out?
WOW.... remind me not to get ya'll made at me, you guys get hardcore about this issue... though i agree, great reporting TRHO!
So all this said and done what can we as the consumer do who is apparently stupid and trusted these people? I am quite sure the money back refund is useless! Any ideas?
I believe that getting a refund is highly unlikely.
It doesn't hurt to dispute the charges with Pay Pal if that's how you paid. It's no guarantee, but its worth a shot.
Is there any specific hotline or number to call to possibly get a refund? Paypal does not seem like a hopeful place to call. Also, I am embarrassed to report something like this regarding spells. What steps would I have to take??? I am a pretty smart consumer and I admit I never thought being scammed would happen to me, but, hey, I am taking it in stride and I did get conned. But, certainly was a wake up call for me...ANYONE is subject to get scammed. If I cannot get a refund....I dont expect to....but thought I would inquire anyway. I hope a specific hotline would eventually be of availability.
Question....what if a copy of this 2 part article was sent to Paypal??? Would they issue refunds at that point???? Like...e-mail them the link???
Doesnt Paypal have their own fraud department? And what if we sent a copy of this article, plus the many several reports posted on Ripoffreport.com??? Would this help at all?
Just to update everyone, as of this past weekend the website, fastspells.com has gone offline & all e-mails to kimberly@fastspells.com are bouncing back.
It looks like good 'ole 'Brittney Reynolds is now running magicksoftheworld.com.
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