Lost Faith in the Anime Community.
I recently just lost some faith in the anime community when I found out that a particular group that streams anime is in fact using the fans good faith to commit acts of Fraud. Kind of Ironic considering I guess, but at the same time quite frustrating.
Basically, he was asking for donations of up to $200 to support 2 servers. He claimed that the anime was streamed from these servers, only then to find out later that this was untrue. A member of the forum posted information about how a third party application was reporting him as leeching off another website, and although I had my doubts at the time it turned out to be true. So all these donations he was getting was going into his own personal pockets to spend how he wishes (And some people had already donated). I won't name anyone or any group, as for the moment we are awaiting his response to the whole mess he left behind (He's been inactive on the site for about a month now). I also want an explanation that either confirms these things or one that (And a miracle it would take) defends himself with.
The thing that interests me, is the fact that he registered the websites domain with the company that he apparently works for. The dumbest thing is, the fact he put his photo in his Forum profile, and there's a photo of him on the Employee section of the company website (The company is a webhost obviously, which I tracked down when I did a whois on the domain). Plus the fact that he put some personal information on his forum profile which could identify him simply by checking the employee information with the webhost he works for. So even if the photos arn't good enough, if the information matches up he's been caught red handed.
I took screenshots of everything just in case he tries anything. I even took screenshots of the profiles of everyone involved in the discussion in case he tries to frame any of us. I have two different versions for the profiles too (One has recent visitor pictures blanked out for privacy, other is in case any modification to the picture would void it as evidence, and thus is the original left completely unedited). I also took a screenshot of his employee profile, so they can compare it with the screenshot of his forum profile to match the pictures up (I also saved the pictures locally in case they're needed). Call me cautious, but with something that involves fraud, and could give a rather negative outcome, i'd rather not take any chances.
But jeez. Man is he dumb.
Basically, he was asking for donations of up to $200 to support 2 servers. He claimed that the anime was streamed from these servers, only then to find out later that this was untrue. A member of the forum posted information about how a third party application was reporting him as leeching off another website, and although I had my doubts at the time it turned out to be true. So all these donations he was getting was going into his own personal pockets to spend how he wishes (And some people had already donated). I won't name anyone or any group, as for the moment we are awaiting his response to the whole mess he left behind (He's been inactive on the site for about a month now). I also want an explanation that either confirms these things or one that (And a miracle it would take) defends himself with.
The thing that interests me, is the fact that he registered the websites domain with the company that he apparently works for. The dumbest thing is, the fact he put his photo in his Forum profile, and there's a photo of him on the Employee section of the company website (The company is a webhost obviously, which I tracked down when I did a whois on the domain). Plus the fact that he put some personal information on his forum profile which could identify him simply by checking the employee information with the webhost he works for. So even if the photos arn't good enough, if the information matches up he's been caught red handed.
I took screenshots of everything just in case he tries anything. I even took screenshots of the profiles of everyone involved in the discussion in case he tries to frame any of us. I have two different versions for the profiles too (One has recent visitor pictures blanked out for privacy, other is in case any modification to the picture would void it as evidence, and thus is the original left completely unedited). I also took a screenshot of his employee profile, so they can compare it with the screenshot of his forum profile to match the pictures up (I also saved the pictures locally in case they're needed). Call me cautious, but with something that involves fraud, and could give a rather negative outcome, i'd rather not take any chances.
But jeez. Man is he dumb.