Thank you for posting your message. I have some doubts about the legitimacy of this offer though. This appears to be one of the more sophisticated scams I have seen. If this is a legitimate offer, then I would expect that you would be able to answer the few questions I pose for you.
1) Why does the website listed in the information package not come up?
I would expect that any company backing a Sydney-Hobart class boat to have a functioning website. It is also interesting that your (14ting’s) website and that found in the information packet are the same. I'd also like to point out that there are no whois listings for
www.compasspointenterprises.com from what I can find. This is a bit strange, as if the domain were registered, it should have such an entry. The website that does show up appears to be an error page from a large ISP, much like Comcast would be in the USA.
2) Why is the information packet so brief and generic?
The information packet I was sent was a single pdf file that anyone could have generated—no logos or other corporate identifiers were used in the PDF file, which makes it seem very unlikely that it is genuine. Even the two photos in the packet are very generic and do not have anything in them to identify them as Team
Compass Point.
However, the phone number and photos do appear to match those of the other websites I have found on Team Compass Point.
3) Why do you only accept BANK TRANSFER as the only form of payment?
The fact that they
only accept BANK TRANSFERS as the only form of payment raises a lot of warning flags. Any legitimate company would accept credit cards in this day and age.
4) Why do other websites say that the crew has already been selected?
The last point I'd like to make is that the article on this
webpage, among others, says that Team
Compass Point has already selected a crew of eight, so how can they still be offering spots on the Sydney-Hobart race still?
5) Of more technical interest, why does the IP address for www.compasspointenterprises.com come up as assigned to a client of an ISP in Hoboken, NJ, USA?
When you ping
www.compasspointenterprises.com, you get an ip address return of 64.27.98.202. According to arin.net this IP address is registered to a company in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, not to an IP address assigned to Woosh.com, the Australian ISP, which is at IP address 202.74.207.101.
According to the ARIN results, this IP Address is assigned to a private residence of a customer of Datapipe, the New Jersey-based ISP. Either this computer has been hacked, or less likely, is that the person using owning the machine is involved, but this can not be determined at this time. The mirroring of the site is a clever attempt to lead to mislead people into believe that the error page is from an Kiwi ISP, rather than a compromised machine located in New Jersey.
I also found it interesting that the mail server you sent your e-mail from is located in Hoboken, New Jersey, not New Zealand, as which is what the e-mail server header spoofs.