if you’re affected by this scam, then contact us to move your services with good incentives.
On Monday, 09 December 2019, 20 VPS Hosting services providing companies shut down due to odd reasons that are still unknown. Customers were left with small details, shared via email that explained that the companies were undergoing challenges.
The announcement of the sudden shut down was made on Saturday, December 7, 2019, when the companies informed the existing customers to download, retrieve, save their data from accounts before the servers are shut down permanently.
A little suspicion has been affiliated to the case as customers are assuming it to be an “Exit Scam”. Also, the companies stated that all the data will be wiped out, which confirms the fishiness in the matter.
Here’s the list of the 20 VPS providers who notified their customers about the instant shut down:
- X4Servers
- StrongHosting
- ArkaHosting
- WelcomeHosting
- n3Servers
- Bigfoot Servers
- SuperVPS
- HostBRZ
- MegaZoneHosting
- UMaxHosting
- DCNHost
- TCNHosting
- SnowVPS
- LQHosting
- KudoHosting
- SupremeVPS
- Hosting73
- HostedSimply
- ServerStrong
- SparkVPS
Interestingly, all the aforementioned VPS Hosting providers were offering “Cheap low-end VPS” services. Where some were baffled to know about this move, other customers are demanding authentic elucidation that could legitimize the shut-down step.
But that’s not it. ‘zdnet.com’ revealed that these VPS providing companies used the same email template to let their customers know about the sudden shutdown. In addition, these companies were also using similar webpage structure, same CAPTCHA technology, and same large chunks.
Angrily Disappointed: Customers Left in Dismay
After the shutdown announcement, the forums, discussion platforms on VPS, web hosting websites were bombarded with various topics linked to this news. Some suggested it as a ‘sabotage approach’ done by a competitor to migrate customers.
But that’s not the case, spoofed emails are in existence since the early 2000s. Those who’re in the IT sector since then, know very well that this is a simple common phishing scam.
Therefore, ‘sabotaging’ allegation was a false-flag. Existing customers, few hours after the shut-down announcement, contacted the support staff and confirmed about the email.
After the shut-down surprise, customers claimed refunds and flooded the support tickets. Unfortunately, no refund claims have been entertained so far except some are dealt with inquiries.
Therefore, the customers were damaged because some either couldn’t save the data or had so much of it that it wasn’t possible within 2-days-notice. In other words, Customers who had less invested in the company worked on weekends and feasibly retrieved their data.
Money Heist: Online
“Exit Scam” is trending top on various web hosting dashboards. Similarly, majority of the users believe that the prime company behind these 20 companies has creeped away with all the money it made on Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
“Deadpooling” is another terminology that is in the highlight since Saturday. It is a scam practice in which a small-scale web hosting company offers cheap VPS servers, web hosting at the lowest prices for a few months and then vanishes with the money without refunding the customers.
An anonymous person informed zdnet.com. about this practice. He further added that it is a ‘systematic issue within the low-end market’ and called it ‘Deadpooling’. It’s very company practice amongst VPS, Web Hosting coampnies today.
Heading towards the right direction
Few impacted users told Value Hosted that they refund tickets, but none replied to it. Also, it came as a surprise to most users as they either did not receive or are unaware of the seriousness were surprised as they had no idea of this sudden shutdown.
In conclusion, it is important for us to understand that scam-rate is directly proportional to the vast exposure of the internet. But, as discussed above, it happens rarely within the low-end market of web hosting.
**IMPORTANT**
Value Hosted (Pvt.) Ltd. is a customer-oriented web hosting company that serves its customers with best of the best web services, leaving no stones unturned. We had and have no affiliation with the afore-discussed companies in any manner. Above all to us, customer’s data protection and satisfaction with our services mean everything to us.