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PSA: Avoid 365NAP. Yet another Joshua Prout Scam - Page 2
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PSA: Avoid 365NAP. Yet another Joshua Prout Scam

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Comments

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    @Cryptonite said:
    Hi guys, my account got activated, hurray. Yeah, we customers did not do a thorough DD on 365NAP. Big part of the blame lies with us (and the law enforcement not taking care of that ass@#$%, should have been put at least out of business a long time ago)

    Trust was placed in 365NAP by being endorsed by the Obelisk team and some well regarded and trustworthy Sia community members (they are on the receiving end of this scam as well, not only regarding miner hardware and services) You had to dig to find clues, superficially everything looked okay. The fact Joshua uses fake last names does not help as well.

    A lot of the 365NAP customers are European I suppose. We chose to colocate in the US because we were faced with huge unexpected import charges. Everyone expected an European distribution channel, thus bypassing those taxes. We had to make a somewhat quick decision to colocate when faced with this fact.

    If anyone is interested pursuing legal action after the dust settles, please let me know. Especially @jar and @MikePT seem to have some legal grudges? This guy needs some jailtime. There are at least 3 users including myself considering legal action.
    Did quite some digging on Joshua. Have more information that can be shared in private with trusted people.

    I find some solice in the fact he probably faces an arrest warrant soon for not paying his child support. The guy truly is human garbage.

    I was not affected by any of his scam techniques. I do find it very horrible to do, he has been opening multiple businesses and all end up scamming his clients. I mentioned that I am more than willing to investigate him further and help reporting him. FBI would be the agency that would bust this guy.

  • @AnthonySmith said:

    IThinkUFailed said: He's hurt multiple people financially several times over but you'd rather show him sympathy? By withholding any information that could help you're enabling him to scam further.

    I think you failed... in understanding him.

    He is saying he does not want to for warn him by putting it out in public because he would rather use it to hurt him financially and sharing it in public would likely remove or reduce the impact.

    This. ^

    Me and some other users are currently figuring out the optimal order of steps to take steps against Joshua to our advantage.

    Since he is lurking everywhere most will be kept private. Joshua, I will come for you, don't worry about that.

  • classyclassy Member
    edited October 2018

    @MikePT said:

    @Cryptonite said:
    Hi guys, my account got activated, hurray. Yeah, we customers did not do a thorough DD on 365NAP. Big part of the blame lies with us (and the law enforcement not taking care of that ass@#$%, should have been put at least out of business a long time ago)

    Trust was placed in 365NAP by being endorsed by the Obelisk team and some well regarded and trustworthy Sia community members (they are on the receiving end of this scam as well, not only regarding miner hardware and services) You had to dig to find clues, superficially everything looked okay. The fact Joshua uses fake last names does not help as well.

    A lot of the 365NAP customers are European I suppose. We chose to colocate in the US because we were faced with huge unexpected import charges. Everyone expected an European distribution channel, thus bypassing those taxes. We had to make a somewhat quick decision to colocate when faced with this fact.

    If anyone is interested pursuing legal action after the dust settles, please let me know. Especially @jar and @MikePT seem to have some legal grudges? This guy needs some jailtime. There are at least 3 users including myself considering legal action.
    Did quite some digging on Joshua. Have more information that can be shared in private with trusted people.

    I find some solice in the fact he probably faces an arrest warrant soon for not paying his child support. The guy truly is human garbage.

    I was not affected by any of his scam techniques. I do find it very horrible to do, he has been opening multiple businesses and all end up scamming his clients. I mentioned that I am more than willing to investigate him further and help reporting him. FBI would be the agency that would bust this guy.

    FBI is for large scale criminal investigation. Do you really think they’re going to care about some small internet scammer?

    Edit: oh and if you want this guy in jail, you’ll need to be wronged by him in his state and file a police report. Then they at least have jurisdiction. It will be lost in paperwork otherwise.

  • @Cryptonite said:
    Me and some other users are currently figuring out the optimal order of steps to take steps against Joshua to our advantage.

    Since he is lurking everywhere most will be kept private. Joshua, I will come for you, don't worry about that.

    He's so obvious in his behaviour anyway. I've called out several of his operations in public too and nothing has come of it. People still fall for his bs but at least fewer people when some information is public.

    Honestly, I don't think anything will happen to him... He had the district attorney's attention a year or two ago and nothing happened. I don't see what will be different this time around. Each time his scam operations pop up he nets a few thousand bucks then disappears for about 3 weeks and comes back again.

  • EasedEased Member, Host Rep
    edited October 2018

    How is this thread not doxxing? 🤔 And the mods have the audacity to sticky it? Maybe the members and staff need to review the LET rules?

  • @Eased said:
    How is this thread not doxxing? 🤔 And the mods have the audacity to sticky it? Maybe the members and staff need to review the LET rules?

    You clearly don't understand that he's scammed thousands from here and is a registered sex offender which means his information is public knowledge.

  • EasedEased Member, Host Rep
    edited October 2018

    @IThinkUFailed said:
    his information is public knowledge.

    So is yours if someone tried hard enough.

    Sure warning people of a scam is one thing, but plasting anyone's personal information and picture goes a bit beyond. This is the kind of shit that makes LET look bad. Lets be professional around here at least once in a while. This thread is doxxing. Period.

  • PieHasBeenEatenPieHasBeenEaten Member, Host Rep
    edited October 2018

    im hangry!

  • MasonRMasonR Community Contributor

    @Eased said:

    @IThinkUFailed said:
    his information is public knowledge.

    So is yours if someone tried hard enough.

    Sure warning people of a scam is one thing, but plasting anyone's personal information and picture goes a bit beyond. This is the kind of shit that makes LET look bad. Lets be professional around here at least once in a while. This thread is doxxing. Period.

    While I get where you're coming from, I respectfully disagree. This individual has shown time and time again that he is incapable of being a decent human being. All information provided in this thread is available publicly and has been posted many times previously in threads. Even his address is publicly attainable (though that was left out of this thread for obvious reasons).

    If posting his picture here helps prevent a single person from handing over their own property worth thousands of dollars into his malicious hands, then I'd consider that a victory.

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran
    edited October 2018

    @Eased said:

    @IThinkUFailed said:
    his information is public knowledge.

    So is yours if someone tried hard enough.

    Sure warning people of a scam is one thing, but plasting anyone's personal information and picture goes a bit beyond. This is the kind of shit that makes LET look bad. Lets be professional around here at least once in a while. This thread is doxxing. Period.

    We have always protected our members. He's a registered sex offender, his picture can be found everywhere in the interwebs. What people are are doing is actually preventing others to fall for his scam techniques.

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    @classy said:

    @MikePT said:

    @Cryptonite said:
    Hi guys, my account got activated, hurray. Yeah, we customers did not do a thorough DD on 365NAP. Big part of the blame lies with us (and the law enforcement not taking care of that ass@#$%, should have been put at least out of business a long time ago)

    Trust was placed in 365NAP by being endorsed by the Obelisk team and some well regarded and trustworthy Sia community members (they are on the receiving end of this scam as well, not only regarding miner hardware and services) You had to dig to find clues, superficially everything looked okay. The fact Joshua uses fake last names does not help as well.

    A lot of the 365NAP customers are European I suppose. We chose to colocate in the US because we were faced with huge unexpected import charges. Everyone expected an European distribution channel, thus bypassing those taxes. We had to make a somewhat quick decision to colocate when faced with this fact.

    If anyone is interested pursuing legal action after the dust settles, please let me know. Especially @jar and @MikePT seem to have some legal grudges? This guy needs some jailtime. There are at least 3 users including myself considering legal action.
    Did quite some digging on Joshua. Have more information that can be shared in private with trusted people.

    I find some solice in the fact he probably faces an arrest warrant soon for not paying his child support. The guy truly is human garbage.

    I was not affected by any of his scam techniques. I do find it very horrible to do, he has been opening multiple businesses and all end up scamming his clients. I mentioned that I am more than willing to investigate him further and help reporting him. FBI would be the agency that would bust this guy.

    FBI is for large scale criminal investigation. Do you really think they’re going to care about some small internet scammer?

    Edit: oh and if you want this guy in jail, you’ll need to be wronged by him in his state and file a police report. Then they at least have jurisdiction. It will be lost in paperwork otherwise.

    You would be amazed on what the FBI investigates. And it's definitely not mass-scale only.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    A quick reminder to everyone here, and especially to @Cryptonite:

    Prout often returns first as a "customer" of his latest scam, contradicting stories that he has run off by saying things that might look like "My service is still online" or "My hardware was delivered to me." The assumed intent behind this is to stop people from doing chargebacks before he's cashed out and run with the money. Look out for that lone guy, it'll be Prout.

    Thanked by 2MikePT Cryptonite
  • @Eased said:

    @IThinkUFailed said:
    his information is public knowledge.

    So is yours if someone tried hard enough.

    Sure warning people of a scam is one thing, but plasting anyone's personal information and picture goes a bit beyond. This is the kind of shit that makes LET look bad. Lets be professional around here at least once in a while. This thread is doxxing. Period.

    Sure, the same way a wanted post for a criminal posted by a police department is doxxing.

    Just don't commit crimes.

  • stefemanstefeman Member
    edited October 2018

    @Eased said:

    @IThinkUFailed said:
    his information is public knowledge.

    So is yours if someone tried hard enough.

    Sure warning people of a scam is one thing, but plasting anyone's personal information and picture goes a bit beyond. This is the kind of shit that makes LET look bad. Lets be professional around here at least once in a while. This thread is doxxing. Period.

    Joshua Leonard Prout
    (Aliases: Prout,joshua; Prout,josh; Prout,joshua Leonardo)
    
    Crime: oral sexual battery, Conviction date: 2006-08-23, Statute: LOUISIANA REVISED STATUTES 14:43.3, Victim's age: 9, Victim's sex: Male
    

    Sue me to the river.

    The fact his stealing hardware on mass scale, this thread only serves to warn others about this person. besides the info is all public.

    If you miss your hardware, pay him a friendly visit and I'm sure he'll be happy to give the stuff back.

    2013 ELLIS SCHOOL RD APT 7
    BAYTOWN TX 77521
    

    http://www.city-data.com/so/so-Baytown-Texas.html
    https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/SexOffenderRegistry/Search/Rapsheet?Sid=07683448

  • A quick view of articles I saw VyprNetworks, at first I thought it was related to VyprVPN... Luckily it's not...

  • PhotonVPSPhotonVPS Member, Host Rep

    Reading the Reddit thread, if you asked me I would say Transit America is part of him as well.

    Thanked by 1sibaper
  • @PhotonVPS said:
    Reading the Reddit thread, if you asked me I would say Transit America is part of him as well.

    He's done this before and I would be 99% sure that's him or someone closely associated with him.

    Thanked by 1netomx
  • @IThinkUFailed said:

    @PhotonVPS said:
    Reading the Reddit thread, if you asked me I would say Transit America is part of him as well.

    He's done this before and I would be 99% sure that's him or someone closely associated with him.

    Yep — Transit America was one of many scams that Joshua Prout has pulled off.

    :/

  • MadMad Member

    Have you ever heard of "BytesRack" ?
    The attitude is really similar and he used to scam people by "selling" colocation services and/or hardware equipment without delivering anything.

    References:
    https://www.facebook.com/Bytesrack/
    https://www.whtop.com/review/bytesrack.com

    All the evidence seem pointing to a man known as "Marx Ranaweerage":
    https://lk.linkedin.com/in/marx-ranaweerage-2548a224
    https://twitter.com/marx82

    Is he the same person? Or someone else following in his footsteps?

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran
    edited October 2018

    @Mad said:
    Have you ever heard of "BytesRack" ?
    The attitude is really similar and he used to scam people by "selling" colocation services and/or hardware equipment without delivering anything.

    References:
    https://www.facebook.com/Bytesrack/
    https://www.whtop.com/review/bytesrack.com

    All the evidence seem pointing to a man known as "Marx Ranaweerage":
    https://lk.linkedin.com/in/marx-ranaweerage-2548a224
    https://twitter.com/marx82

    Is he the same person? Or someone else following in his footsteps?

    Wouldn't be surprised.
    http://www.bytesrack.com/ it's blank.
    Private WHOIS enabled.

    @WHTOP.com - "Website research for Bytes Rack on November 15, 2012 by WebHostingTop" - Image can be found in the Google + profile https://plus.google.com/117424098274607673302

    I think that company is no longer operational tho? https://bgp.he.net/dns/bytesrack can't find any ASN announces under their name, and everything seems to be just down.

    Their cPanel acc which hostes bytesrack.com and their DNS servers is tied to the IP: 178.128.34.188, not sure if @jarland can look at it, it's part of DO, though I'd absolutely understand if he doesn't due to obvious privacy reasons.

    Edit: SSH open in port 22, accepting passwds for root - maybe they're moving their server to somewhere else...DO this time...?

    Edit 2: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1311204 looks like that guy owns lakhost.com. Which domain is for sale now. I'd say this is NOT Joshua Prout. Tbh. Haven't investigated much, other than a basic research but not seeing any ties to each other.

    Edit 3: Posts he posted in Bytesrack fb were stolen: https://www.google.pt/search?q=eaton+rack+mount+ups&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlwEJ_16a1OSVHI2gaiwELEKjU2AQaBAgVCAMMCxCwjKcIGmIKYAgDEiimGKgYqwzODcYMoxjNDZcYoBjLDK8zsTPuPPY89Ty4M5EztTPfJvM8GjA0GY1cwCJRrh8cQUJSK88T7oE3YkqIBmlX433rWejoTJZ4Z7HbJNoFCER-a5K3Q4QgBAwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBIYOAv4M&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq-IPb0pzeAhXnB8AKHQsvDA0Q2A4IKSgB&biw=1920&bih=969 https://www.google.pt/search?q=eaton+rack+ups&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlQEJy6UXIpFdLGQaiQELEKjU2AQaAggVDAsQsIynCBpiCmAIAxIo5gznDPUMgw3lDOAM9gzzDPgM3QyxId4msiHdNdg16zWmM-E1qjPPNRow_1PADEviJ7BaWB1TvFkC7nMMSTxY9Jab17muqiXqBDoBcwML0xvlOfXAs54K55cYPIAQMCxCOrv4IGgoKCAgBEgRHXRZcDA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIv-HY0pzeAhUlgVwKHcnpCaYQ2A4IKSgB&biw=1920&bih=969

    Edit 4: Found a few reviews: https://startupcompete.co/startup-idea/internet-social-entrepreneurship-services-it/web-hosting-amp-ecurrency-processing/63267 image found at: https://www.tripadvisor.pt/Hotel_Review-g304132-d12392528-Reviews-Upul_Residence-Anuradhapura_North_Central_Province.html it says he's from Chicago, Illinois, United States, but native from Sri Lanka. 27 reviews @ tripadvisor. Joshua seems to be from Houston/Baytown area, TX, he's not exactly from Chicago. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't seem to be the same guy.

  • MadMad Member
    edited October 2018

    @MikePT yes, it's not a new case though. I just took the opportunity to bring it back since it's related to the topic. The main activity of this "company" is probably related back to 1 year ago (From 2012(?) to 2017), there was a proper website up and running with a legit WHMCS license.

    They are even here:
    https://www.lowendtalk.com/profile/bytesrack

    And this is a "general" thread concerning them:
    https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/1963545

  • Wasn't he a sex offender as well?

    Thanked by 1xlucasonepvp
  • SplitIceSplitIce Member, Host Rep

    After reading that reddit thead thumbs up to TransitAmerica for likely preventing the theft and sale of approx 74 of the units.

  • @SplitIce said:
    After reading that reddit thead thumbs up to TransitAmerica for likely preventing the theft and sale of approx 74 of the units.

    Uh... That's likely Proud himself...

  • Transit America
    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1735990&p=10086156#post10086156

    so suspicious, colocation provider hosted on namecheap shared hosting.

  • @sibaper said:
    Transit America
    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1735990&p=10086156#post10086156

    so suspicious, colocation provider hosted on namecheap shared hosting.

    Who could it be?? A new colocation provider located in Texas hosted on NC.

  • SplitIceSplitIce Member, Host Rep

    @IThinkUFailed said:

    @SplitIce said:
    After reading that reddit thead thumbs up to TransitAmerica for likely preventing the theft and sale of approx 74 of the units.

    Uh... That's likely Proud himself...

    Damn I didn't think of that. That's two levels of scams.

    Transit America Data Center is a premium member of Data Center Map, we therefore recommend them.

    Well that's an unexpected investment.

    Mall 003 3,202 Former data center space. Extra HVAC & power. $19.50 NNN

    Well I think you are right. Supposedly available for rent.

  • CryptoniteCryptonite Member
    edited October 2018

    Thanks everyone for sharing information. If any one in here is still pursuing legal action sent me a DM (@jar?). We've set up a strictly vetted chat to discuss further steps against the guy.

    I'd also like to add Trans America has been cooperative for all we know right now. I would be carefull pointing fingers in their direction. This could be a mix-up, but also scam inception like @IThinkUFailed mentioned..

  • @Cryptonite, username checks out.

    Plot twist: Cryptonite is Joshua Prout, he set up the private chat to find out all the dirt people has on him and how to mitigate it. Also, to piss off @Jar even more. Stay tuned, folks!

    Thanked by 1Cryptonite
  • lol, you really need to do it yourself like here in mexico...

    Thanked by 2Aidan inthecloudblog
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