Free proxy service fraud allegation

Must say, I wasn't exactly expecting this...

Will be interesting to see how they justify this then.

Sounds like an awful lot of money was effectively spent. Zaine was aware of it being spent, and he should've had a pretty good idea how much was being spent if he's the one that mentioned a R40/gig figure for 200GB blocks.

And all this for an essentially free service?

Stranger than fiction?

From that article it would sound like James is the one at fault...
 
I was wary from the start. Perhaps MyBB should be more careful before punting sh*t like this.
 
ZA Portal owner Zaine Lourens said that the person in charge of his finances, James Rourke, was responsible for the billing information passed on to the hosting providers. “James is my billing's person he passed all information from the proxy towards me and I just helped users to set it up and to get things working the best I could,” Lourens explained in response to questions from MyBroadband.

“I do not think anyone will trust in my words since James caused quite a lot of damage by the sounds of things, so I can not blame anyone for being angry and doing certain things towards me but I advise them to please understand that if I knew such events was going on I would not have opened the service in the first place and James would not even be considered a partner for anything,” Lourens said.
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I don't know how the partnership is setup between Zaine and James.
But even if Zaine was not responsible for the billing details supplied to the hosting services.
Zaine would still have to contribute to the payments right?

So why then did Zaine not notice whichever account it is that he uses to pay for it being debited?
200GB @ R40 per gig, you're going to notice increments of R8000 going of your accounts.
Or at least be expecting it to right?
So how long was the ZAPortal running for?
Why did Zaine not notice that he was not being billed and raise it with James prior to the now public debacle.

Anyway, would still like to hear more about this.
Been trying to keep up with it as much as possible.
 
JasonH said:
It's difficult when he PM's rpm sounding very legit about the whole thing..
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PM's....

You saying that one of most visited websites in SA published an article of this nature based purely on PM'S???? Seriously i can be anyone I want and sound like the most "legit" person on the planet in a PM.

I would expect more from a website that has such a big influence on the south african online community.
 
Loop said:
PM's....

You saying that one of most visited websites in SA published an article of this nature based purely on PM'S???? Seriously i can be anyone I want and sound like the most "legit" person on the planet in a PM.

I would expect more from a website that has such a big influence on the south african online community.
Click to expand...

MyBroadband the right thing, they put up an article punting a free proxy service, nothing wrong with that at all. I'm sure after this ordeal checks will be done before putting up an article on a members request.
 
JasonH said:
MyBroadband the right thing, they put up an article punting a free proxy service, nothing wrong with that at all. I'm sure after this ordeal checks will be done before putting up an article on a members request.
Click to expand...

Well that depends on how credible MyBB wants to remain with its visitors.

A unknown person appears on our forum, only provides his first name and offers free international bandwidth, personally financed, to the many thousands of MyBB visitors. Without saying where the money comes from. Should have sent warning signals.

Although to be fair the proxy was running for +/- 2 months without any problems or even a murmer of illegal activited. And no one complained or questioned it while they were using it.

But like you said, hopefully MyBB learn a lesson.
 
Local hosting company Elitehost said that the "ZAPortal Fraudster" had purchase hosting services from the company using fraudulent credit card details. MyBroadband was furnished with two authorized credit card transactions where ZA Portal allegedly used fraudulent credit cards from City Band, Dakota and NBMA America Bank.
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And this did not send of warning lights left, right and centre?

The registrar is from South Africa, trying to host a SA site BUT uses international banking details from two different banks????

COME ON, they should have seen this from a mile away, or at least tried and contacted the banks to see if it was legit?

Something tells me that the automated process (I take it he probably ordered the service on-line and it was activated immediately) of these hosting companies leaves much to be desired... and how long did it take them to notice the fraudulent transaction?

This is very, very worrying to say the least!

Also, he scammed at least 3 companies and only one is laying charges? How can this be that the others take fraud so lightly? Or is there more to this story behind the scenes that cannot be disclosed right now?

Admins, please keep us posted on what happens to Zane and "James". I'm keen to see how serious our local law enforcement takes cybercrime.
 
MyWorld said:
And this did not send of warning lights left, right and centre?

The registrar is from South Africa, trying to host a SA site BUT uses international banking details from two different banks????

COME ON, they should have seen this from a mile away, or at least tried and contacted the banks to see if it was legit?

Something tells me that the automated process (I take it he probably ordered the service on-line and it was activated immediately) of these hosting companies leaves much to be desired... and how long did it take them to notice the fraudulent transaction?

This is very, very worrying to say the least!

Also, he scammed at least 3 companies and only one is laying charges? How can this be that the others take fraud so lightly? Or is there more to this story behind the scenes that cannot be disclosed right now?

Admins, please keep us posted on what happens to Zane and "James". I'm keen to see how serious our local law enforcement takes cybercrime.
Click to expand...

I believe Zaine Lourens will not be easily caught... He is like Zorro - the common folk love him and he probably has a secret lair somewhere along the knysna coast! No but seriously, has any major cybercriminal ever been apprehended in SA?
 
Two months after opening his hosting account someone realizes he's using fraudulent card info? :rolleyes:
Ouch... how embarassing.
 
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