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We should note these are not even slightly legitimate hosting companies, lest anyone worry too much about their non-KYC offshore servers. These aren't hosting c

We should note these are not even slightly legitimate hosting companies, lest anyone worry too much about their non-KYC offshore servers. These aren't hosting companies that ask little, they are just directly front companies for Russian intelligence, owned by members of Russian intelligence, they don't do anything else, they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried). Unlike in Germany where I lost several social media accounts because my email service provider (pissmail) went to jail because someone signed up for his service and sent spam.

nalekberov 4mo ago
Any source to back up your claims? Otherwise it seemed pretty much a conspiracy theory to me.
- consp 4mo ago
  The company inherited all their customers and equipment from a sanctioned company (according to the Dutch news report). Should be enough for most people.
  - chatmasta 4mo ago
    That just means the sanctioned company was selling to sanctioned entities, not that it was only selling to them.
    - consp 4mo ago
      Who cares, that's a due diligence failure on their part. No consumers were involved. Do business with shady companies risk shady shit happening...
  - nalekberov 4mo ago
    Sanctioned company != works for the government.
l23k4 4mo ago
[flagged]
- locknitpicker 4mo ago
  > The article literally has photos of their english-language customer-facing communications. Providing a website is hardly evidence they were a legitimate business.
  - l23k4 4mo ago
    >Providing a website is hardly evidence they were a legitimate business. legitimate business? Of course they weren't. This is a bulletproof hoster specializing in offering hosting to people doing illegal stuff. That's not OPs claim. You can go on the website and rent a server for a couple of dollars in cryptocurrency right now, you don't have to work for the Russian government to do so.
orbital-decay 4mo ago
>they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried) That doesn't sound right. I used PQ.Hosting once when I needed a quick temporary VPS, just like many other legitimate users. Yes they never asked much, but they also used to ban users left and right even for torrenting, so it wasn't bulletproof in any meaningful sense. I'm sure they were into shady stuff though, since their IP quality used to be absolute crap, but they did provide legitimate services as well.
- red-iron-pine 4mo ago
  legal threats of torrenting == lots of attention. not really something that the SVR or GRU want on their secret servers. plus they just gobble bandwidth. you want a bit to ensure your company looks real / makes some $$$ but you don't want to threaten your C2 nodes
MuffinFlavored 4mo ago
> email service provider (pissmail) I'm sorry this happened to you.
- DetroitThrow 4mo ago
  it was a good alternative to cock.li for some time. alas
  - pocksuppet 4mo ago
    German authorities arrest people for running email services and then they are confused about why doesn't Germany have a Silicon-Valley-style tech industry.
- califool 4mo ago
  I too am sorry! Thank for taking the piss, while you did! hear hear!
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
dominikz 4mo ago
Dear Dr [my name] After reviewing your updated customer information, we have decided to deactivate your account because of some concerns we have regarding this information. Therefore, we have cancelled all your existing products and orders with us. Best regards Your Hetzner Online Team --- This is the email that I received, after I mistyped my credit card data, when creating an account on Hetzner Cloud. You don't have to be a big cloud company to enforce the KYC rules to defend against fraud. I wonder how big/small wa pissmail? Would be good to know where is the threshold of sanity: 1. staying with smaller providers is cheaper (and you usually get non-AI customer support) 2. at the risk of stepping into something that makes you lose your data (like you did)
- pocksuppet 4mo ago
  Maybe don't use any German service you can't afford to lose. Their government hates the tech industry, no matter how much it sings its praises. Same government just labeled watermelons as illegal antisemitism, btw.

nalekberov 4mo ago

Any source to back up your claims? Otherwise it seemed pretty much a conspiracy theory to me.

consp 4mo ago
The company inherited all their customers and equipment from a sanctioned company (according to the Dutch news report). Should be enough for most people.
- chatmasta 4mo ago
  That just means the sanctioned company was selling to sanctioned entities, not that it was only selling to them.
  - consp 4mo ago
    Who cares, that's a due diligence failure on their part. No consumers were involved. Do business with shady companies risk shady shit happening...
- nalekberov 4mo ago
  Sanctioned company != works for the government.

l23k4 4mo ago

[flagged]

locknitpicker 4mo ago
> The article literally has photos of their english-language customer-facing communications. Providing a website is hardly evidence they were a legitimate business.
- l23k4 4mo ago
  >Providing a website is hardly evidence they were a legitimate business. legitimate business? Of course they weren't. This is a bulletproof hoster specializing in offering hosting to people doing illegal stuff. That's not OPs claim. You can go on the website and rent a server for a couple of dollars in cryptocurrency right now, you don't have to work for the Russian government to do so.

orbital-decay 4mo ago

>they don't provide hosting service to regular people even if you want it (I have tried) That doesn't sound right. I used PQ.Hosting once when I needed a quick temporary VPS, just like many other legitimate users. Yes they never asked much, but they also used to ban users left and right even for torrenting, so it wasn't bulletproof in any meaningful sense. I'm sure they were into shady stuff though, since their IP quality used to be absolute crap, but they did provide legitimate services as well.

red-iron-pine 4mo ago
legal threats of torrenting == lots of attention. not really something that the SVR or GRU want on their secret servers. plus they just gobble bandwidth. you want a bit to ensure your company looks real / makes some $$$ but you don't want to threaten your C2 nodes

MuffinFlavored 4mo ago

> email service provider (pissmail) I'm sorry this happened to you.

DetroitThrow 4mo ago
it was a good alternative to cock.li for some time. alas
- pocksuppet 4mo ago
  German authorities arrest people for running email services and then they are confused about why doesn't Germany have a Silicon-Valley-style tech industry.
califool 4mo ago
I too am sorry! Thank for taking the piss, while you did! hear hear!

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

dominikz 4mo ago

Dear Dr [my name] After reviewing your updated customer information, we have decided to deactivate your account because of some concerns we have regarding this information. Therefore, we have cancelled all your existing products and orders with us. Best regards Your Hetzner Online Team --- This is the email that I received, after I mistyped my credit card data, when creating an account on Hetzner Cloud. You don't have to be a big cloud company to enforce the KYC rules to defend against fraud. I wonder how big/small wa pissmail? Would be good to know where is the threshold of sanity: 1. staying with smaller providers is cheaper (and you usually get non-AI customer support) 2. at the risk of stepping into something that makes you lose your data (like you did)

pocksuppet 4mo ago
Maybe don't use any German service you can't afford to lose. Their government hates the tech industry, no matter how much it sings its praises. Same government just labeled watermelons as illegal antisemitism, btw.