FileMates Part III: The Sell Off.

by Editor on July 20, 2012

FileMates.com have been looked at extensively on this blog. In fact when we first looked at them they were happily hosting pirate movies, software, pornography and music. As with so many of our targets they promptly lost Paypal payment processing and then they rose from the ashes like a Phoenix, so we took a second look at the site.

UPDATE: April 21, 2013: FileMates has been shut down by their hosting provider.

ping ns235194.ovh.net
PING ns235194.ovh.net (178.33.122.17): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4

File Mates have burned through all of their available options for processing payments. They simply do not have any other option than to cash out on the site and the sum they are seeking is a whopping $60,000.

File Mates claim that “We started on march with 9000 income and we reached on June 38000″ they then go on to say “These prices are in EUROS… so above you see estimated dollars amount!”

It seems crime has been paying for these commercial copyright thieves. However now, without payment processing options, they are forced to try and sell the site. All this while affiliates and uploaders are crying about not being paid by the site.

Filematesnotpaying

Read on for more about the great File Mates swindle.

[Read more click here.…]

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UltraMegaBit: Piracy outfit to be shut down

by Editor on April 4, 2013

UltraMegaBit.com is a criminal copyright infringement conspiracy designed to deprive rights holders of income by making copyright material available in an unlawful manner.

UltraMegaBit.com has been featured before on this site. The first time was last year when we labeled UltraMegaBit the new pirate cove. The second and third time were when we explored vast amounts of copyright infringement taking place on the site.

Umb homepage

[Read more click here.…]

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Lumfile. Worst of the worst.

by Editor on April 2, 2013

Lumfile.com is a file locker that has been on our radar for many months. We have taken various mitigation actions against Lumfile over the past nine months. Unfortunately, the site remains a problem however it’s a problem we are determined to resolve.

Last year Lumfile lost it’s hosting in Canada due to the prevalence of illegal content on the site, then in November 2012 the site was one of many terminated by payment processor Avangate. Now the site uses alternative methods of payment processing and routinely ignores DMCA notices issued to it.

Lumfile

[Read more click here.…]

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Mega Piracy: It’s just the beginning

by Editor on January 23, 2013

Mega has only been live a few days, however it’s already becoming a go to place for pirates wanting to share copyright infringing content.

We have detected numerous instances of Mega being used to distribute copyright content including cracks (software to circumvent copyright protection), music, movies and software.

Given that Mega says that it encrypts every file uploaded to it, many pirates are seeing it as the perfect storage vehicle for content that they are wanting to share with other pirates or that they wish to store in safe keeping to hang on to should their other distribution methods come under attack by anti-piracy groups.

Let’s examine some of what we have found so far.

Movies are being shared on Mega from piracy websites. This 2008 movie “Defiance” is being shared from a piracy blog and hosted at Mega for download.

Moviedownloadmega

Megamoviedownloadexample

[Read more click here.…]

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Hotfile terminated by Paypal.

by Editor on January 21, 2013

Today Paypal took action to terminate it’s relationship with Hotfile.

Hotfile is one of the largest sites on the Internet. A site which has attracted criticism from numerous anti-piracy groups, rights holder associations and rights holders. Having been embroiled in litigation over allegations it encouraged and facilitated copyright infringement it should have expected this day to come.

Hotfilehome

Unfortunately it is too often the case that where we find a blatant disregard of copyrights we also find a blatant disregard of human rights.

Recently a young woman was raped in the presence of her partner on a bus in India, a crime which took the life of an innocent victim. The case sent shockwaves around the world as it was noted for it’s savagery and ferociousness. At the same time as the world condemned the mistreatment of women, Hotfile was busy allowing people to share content purporting to depict rape, torture, incest and bestiality.

While the MPAA was taking Hotfile to task for breaches of copyright, we took a holistic view of the systemic problems with the Hotfile service. After substantial examination and research we came up with one simple conclusion. Hotfile is a haven for the sharing of copyright and illegal content.

Paypal took the appropriate action against Hotfile and we would encourage any other payment processor considering doing business with this site to think twice before allowing Hotfile to continue.

[Read more click here.…]

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Pay.mobi: A front for Mega Payments. Accepts Paypal

by Editor on January 20, 2013

One other site accepting payments for Kim Dotcom’s new venture, Mega, is pay.mobi which appears to be nothing more than a front for the site.

UPDATE: 26th Jan 2013 – Pay.mobi no longer accepts Paypal payments for Mega Memberships

Paymobihome

Clicking a payment button takes you to a checkout page where you are able to pay via a credit card third party payment processor or via Paypal

Paymobipaypal

Like all of the resellers for Mega, we will be working toward shutting down payment methods for Mega.

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DigiWeb accepting Payments for Kim Dotcom via Paypal and Credit Card

by Editor on January 20, 2013

New Zealand company Digiweb is accepting payments for Kim Dotcom’s new venture Mega via credit card and Paypal.

Digiwebmega

Below is a screenshot from the DigiWeb shopping cart showing credit cards and Paypal as payment options.

Digiwebpaypalcreditcardcheckout

DigiWeb, like all other resellers for Mega, is providing payment processing facilities to Kim Dotcom to circumvent the likelihood that nobody would process payments for Kim Dotcom’s company directly.

We will be working to shut down all payment processing options for the new Mega.

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Voucher Reseller accepting payments for Kim Dotcom via Paypal and Credit Cards.

by Editor on January 20, 2013

Voucher Reseller is processing payments for Kim Dotcom’s new Mega operation using most credit cards and Paypal as payment methods.

UPDATE: 26th Jan 2013 – Voucher Reseller no longer accepts Paypal payments for Mega Memberships

Voucher reseller mega

At the bottom of the sales page is the following statement:

You hold the keys to what you store in the cloud.

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” Article 12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Secure Online Collaboration

Share encrypted folders with coworkers or business partners and exchange confidential documents with transparent end-to-end encryption.

Powerful File Manager

View and manage your files in your web browser, with integrated accelerated batch up – and downloading.”

We think that rights holders have the right to be safe from unlawful copyright infringement and that this reseller arrangement will probably not last very long.

We shall be working hard to shut down all reseller arrangements for Kim Dotcom and Mega.

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