[geniusgoalie]

Oh no... I've just been informed that there was a user on my free hosting site who was posting phishing scams to paypal and ebay. My host terminated my account, and apparently I've been reported to the FBI. What should I do from here? I don't want to have my door kicked down... has anyone else been in this situation? This is a disaster...

[DKM Hosting]

Hello,
That's bull. It is whoever owns the server is responsible. Plus I know how PayPal handles this stuff. They just inform the host of what is happening and ask them to remove it. They never contact the FBI about the host. PayPal is usually very nice, they just ask for their IP address and to delete the account.

I think your host got scared and overreacted. Nothing is going to happen to you. The user is responsible not you.

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[ZendURL]

Well you can't do anything about your host terminating your account (I got kicked off once before because of phishing). I think you are fine otherwise... especially if your TOS mentions that the user is liable for his own actions.

[hostfree]

Actually you can do something about being terminated. They must have this in the TOS as thats the action they will take for violation of there TOS and they must provide you access to pull your site files and content or have it backed up. They by law are not allowed to just delete your files.

Also they must keep record of the phishing site so that will also be backed up.

It more then for sure was reported to the FTC as they investigate this stuff. It would be in paypals best interest to report this as thats they only way the fraudsters will ever get caught. Now i doubt you will ever be even contacted as we have had this happen quite a few times and have never had our reseller account or dedicated servers terminated or been contacted by the authorities including ebay, paypal.

I would not worry. Just request from your host all your users files and find a new host that will not shut you down for the first issue that even happens to paid hosts.

[peterz]

After reading all of this it is interesting to hear what everyone has said. Has anyone read the TOS for the hosting provider? It is a standard industry TOS that is designed to protect the provider. There are no protections for the customer.

If a Pegasus Web Technologies account violates this Acceptable Use Policy or our TOS, we reserve the right to terminate your service without notice.

After looking at the prices from your hosting provider all I can say is that they are extremely expensive. Find a host that does not charge so much.

I have dealt with this phishing problem before but it was reported by paypal. They make the report to the owner of the IP address, not the domain name. Before you get all upset with your hosting provider, think of what you have done to prevent this kind of problem and how you can prevent it from happening again. Have you contacted them to see what can be done to reactivate your account?

Hosting providers have no legal requirements to save your data. Your space on their server is not the same as your apartment. They do not need a search warrant to enter your account and they don’t need a court order to evict you or delete your data. Your hosting provider does not even think about you “subletting” or using your account for hosting. If there are any problems, they hold their customer, you, not your customers accountable.

Ok, some good news. I would not worry about the FBI. You have protections as a service provider and if it was not you but a customer that posted the data you are pretty safe. That and if it was actually submitted to the FBI, chances are they have bigger things to worry about.

[geniusgoalie]

Originally Posted by peterz

After looking at the prices from your hosting provider all I can say is that they are extremely expensive. Find a host that does not charge so much.

I get 100GB of bandwidth and 10 GB of space for $10 per month... I'd consider that overselling, not expensive!



Thanks for the reassurance, guys- this whole thing made me really nervous.

[peterz]

Originally Posted by geniusgoalie

I get 100GB of bandwidth and 10 GB of space for $10 per month... I'd consider that overselling, not expensive!

Looks like I may have gotten my information from a different place. I used the IP address which belongs to Pegasus Web Technologies

[geniusgoalie]

Wow... so the FBI calld my house yesterday, and I have a meeting with them, at my house at 4:30. I have no idea what to expect, but I don't think my parents will allow me to run a website until I can legally have my own internet connection (I'm 15 and my parents are livid). So I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens. Nobody else has been in this situation before?

[geniusgoalie]

Ahh, great news- the two agents that came to my house came because they were responding to my email to them, which I sent to clear it up. Apparently, I had overreacted- they didn't have anything on record about the incident before I emailed them, but they are investigating now. Hopefully this scumbag will get what he deserves, and I think my parents might allow me to keep my websites up, with the exception of anything to do with free hosting. Oh well, I guess it could have been worse.

[S3RiOUS]

no because noone else would ever contact the fbi, you must remember 90% of the stuff you see on the internet is bs, i could say i reported you to the pope, but have i? i could have. Host your servers offshore if you are that worried.

also, i have checking scripts constantly checking every uploaded file, simply create one that replaces paypal with a whitespace and prevents any upload of files which have paypal in the filename, also delete any images from paypal and prevent linking to the paypal site. It makes it very hard to make a fake paypal then, and use dedicated servers with an understanding host. Also you are protected various laws which state as long as you remove it when you know about it there is no way you can be charged.