SiteLock Scam

My website was originally hosted on a server that became a habitation of script kiddies. I moved it to a better place. That host was later taken over by A Small Orange (a.k.a. SHITHOST, beware!). Since they offered it, I thought it might be nice to have my site scanned for malcrap, so I stupidly, naively, signed up for SiteLock. Well, ASO was at least not easily infestable, so I didn’t renew the subscription and just kind of forgot about SiteSchlock.

Eight years and a better webhost later, out of the blue I start getting scan reports from SitePox! WTF, I think. The emails are legit, but I never asked for this. My current webhost is not affiliated with ShitCock, thank goodness; there just isn’t any connection.

So I dug up my old SL login info (NEVER get rid of old logins, just keep the shit encrypted!) and lo! I was able to log in to my old, useless account. Only to find that they take no responsibility for the unauthorized subscription, passing the buck to me and whatever unknown agent initiated the sub.

I have told them over and over that I am not responsible for it nor is my current webhost. I word it differently each time. I ask them over and over and over to delete my account. They keep sending back the same boilerplate bullshit.

The cream of the jest is, I’m not paying for it! ShiteCock doesn’t have my current payment infos – things have changed a lot, including my bank! – and, obviously, neither does the perpetrator. No money has been transferred from my bank account. So who benefits? What’s the point of the scam?

I can’t cancel the sub, but I have changed the site contact info in my ShitePox profile so that the stupid reports go to a blackhole email account, and other details point to – well, somebody somewhere else.

Meanwhile, I continue to plague them the best I can with account deletion requests while making their name stink every way I can. They have the worst excuse for customer service I’ve ever run up against. I also wonder about how closely they are tied to the scammer, and how good their security is if just anyone can initiate a subscription in my name.

Stay away from SiteLock! They’re a tarpit, and they don’t give a shit about their cash cows. It’s impossible to change a lot of personal info on their goddamn site, too, so if all your deets are up to date, you could end up paying for a sub you didn’t want. I’m just lucky that all my payment info has changed, or I probably would be getting skrewt good.

This site is squeaky clean, BTW.

Absurdity of Spam

mustclickspam

If you really have to follow a link in spam, if you just can’t help it, totally can’t control yourself, must do it, will die of stupidcuriosity if you don’t, SLAP YOUR HAND. Then, carefully move the cursor to the Delete button and annihilate the temptation.

Your computer will now have a slightly better chance of survival if the purpose of that linked page is to launch a hidden malware attack.

This post was inspired by a spam email from “Alaska Appellate Court” with a Japanese return address and a link to a page in a German gaming forum. I can hardly imagine a less likely mixture. Yet there must be people who will blindly bite on something this idiotic, or the crap would stop happening. Parasites can’t survive without a host.

Oh — how did I know where the link went? I copied it and pasted it into a text editor. Then I copied the part from “http” to “/com”, leaving out all the gibberish after, and pasted it into my browser. See, I’m curious. Just not curious enough to be a dead cat.