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P R I V I L E G E D & C O N F I D E N T I A L INVESTIGATION: T&C Network Solutions and ToddAndClare.com REPORT 17 October 2016 P R I V I L E G E D & C O N F I D E N T I A L

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INVESTIGATION: T&C Network Solutions and ToddAndClare.com

REPORT

17 October 2016

P R I V I L E G E D & C O N F I D E N T I A L

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INVESTIGATION: T&C Network Solutions and ToddAndClare.com

Executive Summary/Overview

A preliminary investigation of T&C Network Solutions was conducted to identify

whether the business entity is a legitimate organization. Throughout the investigation, no official

records for T&C Network Solutions were identified in any of the jurisdictions the company has

claimed as their corporate headquarters. Additionally, all attempted contact with the company

and its few identified associates currently remains unsuccessful -- all telephone numbers

identified as being associated with this organization were either not valid or inoperative; none of

the emails sent to the company’s customer support, domain administrator, press addresses or

identified affiliated individuals were responded to.

T&C Network Solutions is listed as the owner of ToddAndClare.com, which purports to

be an online dating and cellphone messaging platform. Despite the online dating company’s

pretension of being founded in 2011, ToddAndClare.com’s online presence has only been

identified as early as 1 September 2015. The social media presence for ToddAndClare.com on

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram indicates the utilization of “commercial zombie accounts”

which can be purchased from a 3rd party to artificially inflate the perceived user activity. No

independent website has been identified for T&C Network Solutions.

Research was conducted to establish the bona fides of T&C Network Solutions and

ToddAndClare.com, including searching city, county, state, federal and international databases

for any official records, corporate filings, fictitious business registrations, civil litigation history,

trade and service mark registrations, and real property records, with negative results for the

business entity, in each of its various names.

No official government records for T&C Network Solutions were identified throughout

the course of this investigation other than recognition as a Participant with the United Nations

Global Compact, since 6 May 2016, and a “United Nations Communication on Progress” report

filed by ToddandClare.com on 4 October 2016.

T&C Network Solutions was delisted by the UN Global Compact program on 12 Oct

2016. The delisted entry states that T&C Network solutions failed the program's “Integrity

Measures”.1

It is our conclusion that T&C Network Solutions exhibits the characteristics of a highly

suspicious and likely fabricated business entity.

*******

1 https://archive.fo/ooZNN

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T&C Network Solutions

T&C Network Solutions was investigated to identify business filings and the entity’s

directors, with negative results.

T&C Network Solutions is listed as the owner of www.ToddAndClare.com.2 A search of

the ICANN WHOIS database results in a Registrant, Admin and Tech contact, which are all

identical. The name of the contact is Julia Phillips. The organization is T&C Network Solutions.

The mailing address is listed as 10685-B Hazelhurst Dr., Houston Texas 77043. The phone

number is listed as 1.713.091.6111. The email address is listed as [email protected].

The domain was registered on 20 September 2015.3

Google Streetview of the address shows a large anonymous warehouse or storage depot, with no

references to the company.4

2 See Appendix 13 See Appendix 24 https://www.google.com/maps/@29.797081,­95.561557,3a,75y,175.59h,95.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sFQGbuIQwWTsGbmakSpMdTQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1?hl=sv

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A search for social media, press, local civil court records or other identifying information

for Julia Phillips with relation to toddandclare.com or T&C Network Solutions produced no

results. A search of the mailing address listed indicates that it is located at the same address 5 of a

commercial mail forwarding service called USA2ME.com.6 The telephone number provided by

T&C Network Solutions, 1.713.091.6111, is not a valid number in the United States. An email

sent to the [email protected] email address requesting a reply was not responded to.

A search of business organizations in Texas was conducted with the Texas Secretary of

State.7 Searches for T&C Network Solutions, T & C Network Solutions, ToddandClare, Todd

and Clare, Todd & Clare, and toddandclare.com resulted in no identified matches.

A search of Texas taxable business entities was conducted with the Texas Comptroller of

Public Accounts,8 with no matching results.

A search was conducted with the Better Business Bureau in the Houston and South Texas

areas,9 with no matching results.

Searches were conducted with Texas’ Harris County Clerk for civil, probate, real

property, Uniform Commercial Code, and assumed business name records,10 11 with no matching

results.

ToddAndClare.com

ToddAndClare.com’s homepage currently states that they are “The Leading SMS Dating

Network” and that “This online dating site is a United Nations Global Compact member, with

100,000+ female singles in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, and RSA, seeking men.” 12

The homepage has a few pictures of women and a brief description of ToddAndClare.com,

including “We’re a real couple who started this in Indianapolis”. At the bottom of the homepage

is a link to customer service with the email address [email protected]. At the bottom

of the homepage, there is the disclaimer “TM & © Todd and Clare. All Rights Reserved.” 

A random selection of photos of the women on Toddandclare.com website were investigated to

see if they correspond to legitimate users of the site. The investigation revealed that the photos

5 https://archive.fo/YzpGc 6 https://archive.fo/meAWy 7 http://www.sos.state.tx.us/Corp/sosda/index.shtml8 https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/ 9 https://www.bbb.org/houston/get­consumer­help/10 http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/edocs/public/search.aspx 11 http://www.cclerk.hctx.net/applications/websearch/home.aspx 12 https://archive.fo/mYIC5

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have been obtained from other sites on the Internet, have been slightly cropped, and have been

mirrored left to right, a known technique to prevent reverse image search services, such as

Google's Reverse Image Search, from locating the true origin of an image.

For example, the image of purported user “Bianca” on Toddandclare.com:

https://www.toddandclare.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bianca31-247x300.jpg

which corresponds to an image uploaded to a wordpress site in 2014:

https://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/da2cde7810888f048748f267b3259acf.jpg?

quality=85&strip=info&w=600

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Another example, of the Toddandclare.com profile picture for “Molly” (also identified as

“Emma”) shows this technique: the writing on the T-shirt is the wrong way around:

https://www.toddandclare.com/invitee/molly-9/

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An  email  was  sent  to  [email protected]  requesting basic company information.    Noresponse has been received.  

An Indiana business organizations search was conducted with the Indiana Secretary of

State,13 with no matching results.

A trademark search was conducted with the United States Patent and Trademark Office’sTrademark Electronic Search System for any Word and/or Design Mark,14 with no matchingresults.  

A   trademark   search   was   also   conducted   on   the   World   Intellectual   PropertyOrganization’s Global Brand Database,15 with no matching results.

A   trademark  search  was  conducted  with   the   Indiana  Secretary  of  State’s  TrademarkSearch,16 with no matching results.

A review on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine indicates the first capture ofToddAndClare.com was on 27 October 2015.17   That page indicates Todd & Clare’s address as645 7th St., San Francisco, CA 94103.  

A search for ToddAndClare.com together with the above San Francisco address resultedin a match from SearchInCalifornia.com.18   On that page, the name Todd Hammond was listed,as   well   as   the   email   address  [email protected]  and   telephone   number510.655.9219.  An email sent to the provided email address was returned as “Undeliverable.”  Atelephone call to the number provided revealed that it is “not in service.”       

A California business organizations search was conducted with the California Secretary

of State,19 with no matching results.

A search for fictitious businesses registered in San Francisco County was conducted,20

with no matching results.

A search for civil case information was conducted with the San Francisco Superior

Court,21 with no matching results.

13 https://bsd.sos.in.gov/publicbusinesssearch 14 http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=search&state=4802:dav7a.1.115 http://www.wipo.int/branddb/en/ 16 http://www.in.gov/apps/sos/trademarks/initialResults.jml?action=searchAgain 17 https://web.archive.org/web/20151027144110/https://www.toddandclare.com 18 https://archive.fo/P9zKI 19 http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/20 http://www.criis.com/cgi­bin/fbn_search.cgi?COUNTY=sanfrancisco&YEARSEGMENT=current&TAB=121 http://www.sfsuperiorcourt.org/online­services 

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A search for fictitious businesses registered in Alameda County was conducted with the

Alameda Clerk,22 with no matching results.

On www.ToddAndClare.com/about the company describes itself.23 The heading on the

page is “PRESS AND BRAND MANAGEMENT” and states “If you’re interested in writing

about Todd and Clare in a new article, please email: [email protected].” An email sent to

the provided email address requesting a reply was not responded to.

The page continues saying “news and announcements can be found on our blog” and a

link to the Todd and Clare blog is provided. There are a total of 18 blog posts, the earliest being

on 24 October 2015.

The ToddAndClare.com/about page also provides some “facts about us” saying that

“We’re a real couple... We’re not big users of social media... and rarely update our

twitter/facebook pages... We don’t give telephone or in-person interviews due to an informative

experience with Buzzfeed News. We ask that all press correspondence be in to [sic] writing...

We don’t like Big government. We feel uncomfortable with everything that’s occurring on

Capitol Hill on all sides of the Aisle...”

The page goes on to say “We are still sponsors of the KATIA project... however, due to

changes in Notre Dame mathematician and R programmer Scott Drotar’s funding, the project is

now only available for female members on Todd and Clare...” Mr. Drotar’s website, at

ScotDrotar.com,24 was identified and provided a contact email address,

[email protected]. An email sent to this email address requesting a reply was not

responded to.

A Terms of Use page for ToddAndClare.com was identified. The Terms of Use refers to

the company as “T&C Network Solutions” throughout and has sections covering “Community

Standards”, “License”, “Use”, “Moderation”, “Prohibited Content”, “Payments”, “Disclaimer”,

“Claims”, “Misc.”, and “Notification of Claims of Infringement of Copyright or Other

Intellectual Property”. The Terms of Use states “T&C Network Solutions use is governed by

Texas (“TX”) law regardless of your location or any conflict or choice of law principle... Claims

must be resolved exclusively by state or federal court in Houston, TX...”

A Wikipedia page for Todd and Clare was identified.25 Wikipedia entries are user

supplied and not fact checked. The entry claims that Todd and Clare are owned by T&C Network

Solutions and the company headquarters is located in Houston, Texas. [As noted above, no

documents have been identified in the State of Texas, in Harris County, Texas, or the city of

Houston, Texas for either T&C Network Solutions or Todd & Clare.] The Wikipedia article then

says Todd and Clare “is the first dating business to be accepted by the United Nations Global

Compact.” The article claims that in 2016, “over 45,000 women members were actively using

the site.”

22 http://rechart1.acgov.org/search.asp?cabinet=fbn23 https://archive.fo/rY3wD24 https://archive.fo/GoiWw 25 https://archive.fo/XJwEF 

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A Facebook page for Todd and Clare was identified.26 Only seven posts have been made

on the Todd and Clare Facebook page, the earliest post identified was posted on 1 January 2016.

There appears to be suspicious activity with these posts; there are hundreds of “Facebook likes”

(almost entirely from accounts outside the United States), but there are zero comments from

users. This represents a large deviation from normal user activity.

On the Todd and Clare Facebook page, in the About section, it is claimed that Todd and

Clare started in 2011.27 “Todd and Clare started life as a Michigan couple’s email dating network

in 2011 for friends.”

A Michigan Business Entity Search was conducted with Michigan’s Department of

Licensing and Regulatory Affairs,28 with no matching results.

A Twitter page for Todd and Clare was identified.29 The first Tweet was posted on 23

October 2015. Since then, there has been almost no user engagement with their Twitter account,

until 30 March 2016, when it appears that Todd and Clare began utilizing a commercial service

to provide automated user activity. Much like Todd and Clare’s Facebook page, posts since 30

March 2016 have received hundreds of “Twitter Likes” and “Retweets”, however zero comments

from users. This represents a large deviation for normal user activity.

An Instagram account for Todd and Clare was identified.30 There have been 19 posts,

with the earliest post from late October 2015. Similar to the Todd and Clare Facebook and

Twitter accounts, the Instagram account has zero comments from users.

A YouTube account for Todd and Clare was identified.31 There have been 30 video

posted, with the earliest post from 5 January 2016 and the most recent posted on 1 March 2016.

In a video posted on 16 January 2016 titled “A Quick Guide to Todd and Clare” a woman

identifies herself as “Ali, your personal Todd and Clare wing-girl.”32 A search was conducted to

identify “Ali” who was identified on Facebook as “Lexi Lee Graboski.”33 It appears that Ms.

Graboski is an actress residing in Los Angeles, California. A message was sent to Ms. Graboski

on her Facebook account requesting a reply was not responded to.

A YellowPages.com page was identified for ToddAndClare.com.34 On it lists the same

Houston, Texas address indicated on the ICANN WHOIS search, 10685-B Hazelhurst Drive,

Houston, Texas 77043. A telephone number was also listed, 832.564.3697. A telephone call to

the listed number revealed it is “a non-working number.”

26 https://archive.is/4JCPV27 https://archive.fo/RzWOS 28 http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/sr_corp.asp 29 https://archive.fo/IehsE 30 https://archive.fo/ACVjr 31 https://archive.fo/Nt4OK32 https://archive.fo/Nt4OK 33 See Appendix 334 https://archive.fo/ENzmd

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An Amazon.com listing for a book, “Todd and Clare Online Dating: How a DySLeXiC

Midwest Couple MARRIED 3,000 Women,” by Todd Hammond, was listed.35 This book is

listed as being 21 pages, published by Traffic Sail Press36 on 2 November 2015. There have been

no reviews posted about this book by or on Amazon.

A search of the ICANN WHOIS database for www.TrafficSail.com results in a

Registrant, Admin and Tech contact, which are all identical.37 The name of the contact is Julia

Phillips. The organization is T&C Network Solutions. The mailing address is listed as 10685-B

Hazelhurst Dr., Houston Texas 77043. The email address is [email protected]. This

contact information for TrafficSail.com is the same as for ToddAndClare.com, with one

difference -- the phone number is listed as 1.713.754.6111. A telephone call to this number

reveals that the number “has been disconnected.” The TrafficSail.com domain was registered on

1 September 2015.38

35 https://archive.fo/SETzA36 https://archive.fo/tq9Wd 37 See Appendix 4 38 See Appendix 5

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Appendix

1)

2)

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3)

4)

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5)

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