You can see the long version here
Being a curious guy and having nothing else to do, I watched the entire ad and then tried to find their website.
The site duvamis.com wasn't hard to find with a simple Google search, but there wasn't much content.
Duvamis also has a blog at duvamis.blogspot.com which claims to offer users a place where they can "express their inner selves" or some bullshit like that.
A quick WhoIs search informed me that duvamis.com is an anonymously-registered domain and its IP address is out of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Now, my instincts began to warn me of a potential scam. Why Bulgaria - a country whose law enforcement abilities against Internet crime are not exactly stellar, mostly because they have no law applicable to the Internet - and not the United States or Western Europe? If they have nothing to hide and only want to help me "find-out who I really am", why hide behind a cloak of anonymity?
Hey, it's entirely possible that these guys are on the level, but too many questions about Duvamis are left unanswered.
As a side note, I found it rather interesting that "Duvamis" is also the name of a fictional person in World of Warcraft. Duvamis was an 80th level gnome mage who was last active on WoW in July 2010, which is only a few months before the domain duvamis.com was registered.
I found that to be particularly interesting.
Personally, I'd advise anyone to stay away from these people.
Special thanks to a reader who did more thorough background research into Duvamis than I had the time or opportunity to do. With his permission, I have added it to the body of this blog:
A friend asked me to look into this. Message I sent to him below.Since the posting of this blog entry, I haven't seen any more ads for Duvamis on YouTube. I'm not saying that one had anything to do with the other. Looking through the comments sections of both of their videos, I discovered that I wasn't the only person who had doubts about it.
"It is definitely weird. The WhoIs information for Duvamis is private but the WhoIs information for the site they're hosting the CSS information on is not.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=dvcdn.com
Which lead me to:
http://bip-invest.com/index.php
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=bip-invest.com
WhoIs information for that opens up a connection between them and:
http://www.orel-invest.com/index.php
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=orel-invest.com
Both Bulgarian Innovation Projects and Eagle (formerly Orel) Invest look like private equity firms focused on investing in technology. It isn't really suspicious that a fledgling social media site with enough money to launch a relatively high profile ad campaign on Youtube would have investors, and these sorts of companies create shells within shells within shells in the US to dodge regulations, not sure how it works in Bulgaria though.
What is suspicious is that all the names listed under the WhoIs are aliases, two out of three of which seem to share a naming convention with a Youtube commentor named Dragomir Dmitrov with a brand new account that's affiliated with Duvamis.
The person for dvcdn.com is Atanas Rakov, and the person for bip-invest.com is Atanas Dimitrov, there's a third name on orel-invest.com that doesn't fit the convention. All names listed under WhoIs appear to be aliases with no internet history at first blush.
In addition both bip-invest.com and orel-invest.com share the same real world address, which appears to be an apartment complex, not office space, although I'm not overly familiar with Bulgarian architecture and zoning so don't quote me on that.
The only thing that makes me hesitate to call this an out and out project with malicious purposes is that everything not directly associated with Duvamis has been around for more than a few years and there isn't any chatter about past scams that I'm seeing. So maybe legit, maybe not, I don't think there's anything else for me to find without engaging in dirty tricks."
Signing-up for an account reveals Duvamis to be a sort of social networking site. As of right now, there's very little in the way of content on the site and very few users, most of whom aren't active beyond setting-up their homepages or "Visions" as Duvamis calls them. The website even has its own way of telling time (too complicated to explain, but it's weird) and they use odd terms for the various sections.
I'm not sure if Duvamis is a social networking site that's trying to be a religion or a religion trying to be a social networking site.
Either way, it's too weird for me.
Duvamis' ad campaign is the perfect example of doing it wrong.
Duane Browning
15 comments:
I agree with you. The CONCEPTS in the ad are good, i don't think we should live our lives in fear of who we are, restrict ourselves because others will judge us. Others should respect us for who we are too.
However, the way this is presented sounds like something that could be used to lure others to some other hidden purpose.
If we are to take anything out of the Duvamis ad, take the message, and don't bother with the website.
A friend asked me to look into this. Message I sent to him below.
"It is definitely weird. The WhoIs information for Duvamis is private but the WhoIs information for the site they're hosting the CSS information on is not.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=dvcdn.com
Which lead me to:
http://bip-invest.com/index.php
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=bip-invest.com
WhoIs information for that opens up a connection between them and:
http://www.orel-invest.com/index.php
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=orel-invest.com
Both Bulgarian Innovation Projects and Eagle (formerly Orel) Invest look like private equity firms focused on investing in technology. It isn't really suspicious that a fledgling social media site with enough money to launch a relatively high profile ad campaign on Youtube would have investors, and these sorts of companies create shells within shells within shells in the US to dodge regulations, not sure how it works in Bulgaria though.
What is suspicious is that all the names listed under the WhoIs are aliases, two out of three of which seem to share a naming convention with a Youtube commentor named Dragomir Dmitrov with a brand new account that's affiliated with Duvamis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiWTu7_lIkc
The person for dvcdn.com is Atanas Rakov, and the person for bip-invest.com is Atanas Dimitrov, there's a third name on orel-invest.com that doesn't fit the convention. All names listed under WhoIs appear to be aliases with no internet history at first blush.
In addition both bip-invest.com and orel-invest.com share the same real world address, which appears to be an apartment complex, not office space, although I'm not overly familiar with Bulgarian architecture and zoning so don't quote me on that.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=han+krum+31+sofia+bulgaria&ll=42.687635,23.326177&spn=0.001674,0.003484&hnear=ulitsa+%22Han+Krum%22+31,+1142+Sofia,+Bulgaria&gl=us&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=42.687724,23.326191&panoid=KUvVQGwQRECJoO2NRe7mkg&cbp=12,103.78,,0,0
The only thing that makes me hesitate to call this an out and out project with malicious purposes is that everything not directly associated with Duvamis has been around for more than a few years and there isn't any chatter about past scams that I'm seeing. So maybe legit, maybe not, I don't think there's anything else for me to find without engaging in dirty tricks."
I just saw this Youtube video and your post was very informative, thanks. I am curious but I also am a bit skeptical. Strange message.
I just saw this Youtube video and your post was very informative, thanks. I am curious but I also am a bit skeptical. Strange message.
I've come to similar conclusions and actually found your post trying to answer the same questions you are. The questions that they pose on the ad are pretty legit personal exploration questions, what decisions have I actually made in my development, etc. However, the lack of detail online and the Scientology-esque style raises all of my red flags. Declaring that there is some kind of inner power that you can tap if you come to their website and give all of your info screams cult-scam.
Thanks 4 th info duane, i saw th long version of th video & was curious 2. But decided 2 watch ur's 1st. Don't want no part of anythg tht sum1 feels th need 2 hide their identity. Thanks again!
I just seen it and got curious, thank you for the information - although it sounds genius at first glance...this BE YOURSELF concept.
Anyone know what does the starter kit phrase means?
Very fascinating. I saw this commercial and thought it was out of the ordinary, but then you went and did all the research for me. I appreciate the effort you took to check it out.
I agree, completely with you. Good message but it's sketchy as fuck in origin. I checked out their facebook page and there was nothing but curiosity for it or skepticism of it. There's nothing really showing what it's all about, what the point of the video is aside from possibly waking you up. It doesn't explain how Duvamis is the path to freedom or what they intend or why. Probably a campaign using curiosity to get facebook likes. Also, the ad isn't off youtube. I just saw it today a few moments ago, hence why I'm here.
It is another cult. Free thinking is NOT encouraged by their group as they state. Try it for yourself - be skeptical, ask questions, have doubt, and watch how they fight your open mind.
whats crazy is that in order to live the life they speak of free of influence and just doing things your own way first you must go to Them so They can tell you how to find your own way ahahahahaha
On their website, they call their parent company "Astral Media." Since the idea of the astral plane or astral projection relates to out of body experiences, it certainly comes across cult-like. However, if you click on the "advertising" like on their front page, they come across very much like a start-up social media site. Either way, they come across as bullshit all around.
On their website, they call their parent company "Astral Media." Since the idea of the astral plane or astral projection relates to out of body experiences, it certainly comes across cult-like. However, if you click on the "advertising" like on their front page, they come across very much like a start-up social media site. Either way, they come across as bullshit all around.
I also just saw the add on youtube and must admit I was intrigued mainly in the message - it also had the Fight-Club feel of "you are not the shit you own."
I personally think it is funny that anyone would call out the research as "racist" because you called out the fact that the final home base is an apartment looking building in Bulgaria - that is an idiotic statement - no offence to those reading but it is analogous to buying "bargain lobster off the back of a pickup truck in Ohio" - I wouldn't do that because of inherent trust issues - well I also don't trust someone that says they have the answers to me finding my innermost person who is very obviously hiding the fact that they 'probably' live in a small apartment in Bulgaria.
My career is in R&D and I really appreciated the Research you did - great job man and great post - you saved me the "let down" on something I saw as original but knew inside that was probably just "bad Ohio lobster." :)
I'm more inclined to think this is a part of some alternative reality game, or possibly the beginning of an absurdist advertising campaign for some movie or video game. Get people caught up in the intrigue, and you have a loyal customer base to start with.
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