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Trustdata.pro - Scammers! Fake VPS and dedicated server offers
Hi,
I would like to show the indecency and sly nature of TrustData. You most likely wouldn't of heard of this company as it is new - opened in February. Here is another drama, like any other which I fell victim into. Please note that while most of the site is in Russian, the owner/staff members speak English and can communicate fine. In short, I've been scammed by this business as no valid virtual server information was provided. The server information received was not valid and the IP belonged to someone else. The business is an absolute scam, with no legal contact information and fake offers which I realised only after waiting several hours for the virtual server information. Too late for me!
The query:
On Saturday, I talked on livechat with Radmir. I asked him many questions on the service, virtualisation and ddos protection. He gave me satisfactory replies and answered in the affirmative. He could offer VMWare, VPS based in St Petersburg and adequate DDoS protection for just $35 USD per month. I've paid him not shortly after and then he said virtual server provisioning should be done in under 3 hours. I waited during that time, and after about 2.5 hours, he abruptly left the chat. No response and no email regarding the VPS.
He provided me test IPs which were: (the network seemed to be really good (TeliaSonera, RENT etc)
5.19.168.100 - Petersburg
89.223.64.3 - RU
31.47.64.50 - FI
The offer: http://i.imgur.com/T1z85zy.png
The VPS is to provisioned on 100Mbps bandwidth and I had the choice of choosing Finland.
The payment:
A PayPal invoice was sent, as he stated that payment cannot be made through their website and must be done manually. This seemed a little suspicious to me, as to why a PayPal checkout/API system was not implemented. I continued as I thought a PayPal was fair enough. The payment was 1944,94 RUB. (~$35 USD)
Screenshots:
http://i.imgur.com/E6y104D.png
http://i.imgur.com/0eK5GSH.png
The business prided itself on their control panel but after investigation, it is merely a copy and paste login box with lazy coding. The source linked to a blog, which teaches the reader exactly how to make the login box. Trustdata just changed the colours.
Screenshots:
http://i.imgur.com/sHdImy6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yyuGsTF.png
False virtual server information:
After I confronted him on livechat today (just a few hours ago) to provide the virtual server information. He made up a story by saying that the information was sent yesterday (12th) and asked me to check spam. There was nothing in my email and since he is using Yandex mailservers, it shouldn't end up in spam on cPanel. I told him to resend it and it took him 30 minutes before I got the email. To my surprise, I couldn't login to the server (no SSH) and no control panel details was given. When I port-scanned the IP, several ports were already opened (port 80, 443, 8080, 8000 etc). When going to port 8000, there was a media server active. If it was a clean OS install, there shouldn't be any media servers or additional third-party software installed! When I searched the IP on google, the IP is active and in use by a streaming business.
http://vk.com/wall-87026_1221
When I mentioned to livechat that the IP belonged to a streaming service, livechat was immediately disconnected!
http://i.imgur.com/TzJ5MiP.png - making up a story
http://i.imgur.com/Zt7mt8y.png
http://i.imgur.com/9tsctq0.png- ended abruptly
Fake dedicated server offers:
TrustData offers a E3-1240 server with 64GB RAM. This is impossible as according to Intel, the CPU can only support a maximum of 32GB RAM. The offer is either a typo or fraud.
http://i.imgur.com/g1UkOMH.png
The payee on PayPal (Radmir) seems to linked to another Russian company: protectwire.ru (now dead) and the owner is said to be an extortionist. You can refer to the thread here: http://searchengines.guru/showthread.php?t=887771 (use google translate)
The evidence I've collected as follows:
a) Same name mentioned/revealed (Radmir)
b) Website uses same nameservers (reg.ru)
http://i.imgur.com/4jcCI0L.png
http://i.imgur.com/PE4DNMO.png - St. Petersburg area code for phone
c) Radmir's VK profile is linked to gameservers (lineage). His facebook profile is also linked to lineage and mentions that he is from "Saint-Petersburg, Russia". This is where the site's contact details is located. His facebook post, references to a dead domain "jteam.pro" - His love of servers and .pro domains? (a coincidence?)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008071068065&fref=ts
http://vk.com/wall89878947?offset=20 - You will find Radmir's post there
Next step:
I haven't disputed the payment yet as I would like to see if Radmir will refund me or not. I've sent him multiple emails demanding a refund. If no response or refund is provided, I will dispute the payment.
Thank you and I hope you will enjoy the actions of the business.
Comments
The business' site is now offline (trustdata.pro) after I sent him some emails demanding a refund. Google cache is your friend, and you can see all of the content of the site when you search via google.
If I were you, I will open Paypal dispute and submit fraud record.
I've opened PayPal dispute as there is no point trying to reason with a scammer.
TrustDATA owner is the same as protectwire.ru which closed down!
Details on him can be found here: http://searchengines.guru/showthread.php?t=887771
Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/L5C3uDv.png
I could not edit my post as someone is wrong with the javascript/editing buttons on LET - they do not work.
New screenshot confirming that he is the same person that runs protectwire.ru - shown in his primary PayPal email:
http://i.imgur.com/L5C3uDv.png
Update:
Unfortunately I lost the dispute due to PayPal not protecting the buyer for virtual items. I did not specify on dispute process, but as I mentioned 'server', it was regarded as virtual/services.
Very smart of the seller.....
Where did you find this company? Why would you buy from a company with a ".pro" website anyway?
I found the company through Google as I was searching for a virtual server in Russia. They have offers on multiple 'Russian' forums and there was no major complaints. I did not have any reason to believe it would be a scam. I decided to take a risk for a new company with a ".pro" domain.
i recall someone here mentioned calling paypal and explain with detail may get you better result. it was something to do with a reseller of hetzner. I don't have the thread on hand but try look for it and try again.
I was able to get the money back after hostrail exit scam eve though they said it's virtual goods. Just be pushy
Next time, I advise to contact someone from Russia first. Hosters are too volatile nowadays. Personally, I have good impressions about Zenon N.S.P. (zenon.net), I hosted at them private email box, several sites (I still keep a backup copy of a site on their virtual hosting).
Didn't they just not reply to any disputes?
I've had success with disputes (no matter what item) when the seller hasn't answered any of the emails by PayPal or made replies.
With this dispute, the seller responded and provided PayPal with relevant information.
Seems like an awful lot of work to rip somebody off $35 thought.. Weird.
Ahhhh ok, must have got my wires crossed!
When an IDC which history is less than 1 year and launches annual plans, be careful.
Better use well know hosting company..
IP address refer to - http://ztelecom.ru/vds2.php
May be they help if contact them?
ztelecom.ru is not related to interzet.ru (IP of the SPB virtual machine).
Ztelecom is simply a reseller of NetPlace in Moscow (RTCOMM datacentre). Netplace is independent of any other provider.
They only local ISP in StP for home internet and TV
OK. Sounds like some kid try start make business and possible related to Ukraine, owner has a Ukrainian full name, not typical for Russians. Domain owner also. He may hide under Russian based hosting company.
Nice, you got him down for just $35.