Universal Sims...

[Xerolize]

is back but WAIT they want money from you. I was greeted with this unexpectant email from universal sims a day ago and just had to share their pathetic attempt at getting money. who knows if this so-called "attacker" is real. even if it is my question is what happened to all the subscriptions that were going through even though the site hasn't been updated in months?

Hey Xerolize4,

Over the past year, the content team at UniversalSims has been working on an exciting new line of releases for the 2007 year! We can't wait to show everyone what we've been working so hard on.

However first, there is an important announcement to be made. UniversalSims needs YOUR help!

In late January, and all of Februrary 2007 UniversalSims.com was attacked by someone trying to shutdown our site. This resulted in over a terabyte of bandwidth being used by the attacker. It was so clever that it went unnoticed by our meters, thus no block could be issued. Our hosting company slammed us with a $2,250.000 bill, you can imagine that feeling when I saw it.

We are looking into what happenned, we think it may had been executed via a series of malicious scripts. We have requested our hosting company re-evalute the bill, but they would not negotiate, and we don't have the funds to cover a bill like this.

If you could please, donate something to help cover the bill, 99% of our creations are downloaded by free accounts, if you ever thought about donating to help, now is the time. Myself and all the people who help make Universal Sims to be the best it can be appreciate all your support over the years, and hope that we can survive this incident to show everyone the surprises we have been working on the past year.

Donate by amount:
Click the button below, and type in the amount you would like to donate:


Donate by subscribing: You can also donate by purchasing a subscription plan, click the gold button below to view the plans:


Total needed: $2,250.00 USD

EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS. Every one who helps, makes a difference, and brings a much needed smile to our faces.

Thank you for everything over the years, let's make 2007 the best of them all.

Nathan & and the Universal Sims team.

P.S. I will try to get some of the surprise updates out sooner as the donation drive progresses, depending on how things go.

www.UniversalSims.com
Copyright 2004-2007 Universal Sims. All rights reserved.

[Anouk]

Holy crap, if that's true, how will they ever get any money from all the people they dissapointed by never updating?

[Emma]

LOL I got that email today too!

Luckily I don't respond to begging letters..... This was binned immediately after reading it.

[Fresh-Prince]

I got that too, I was shocked though, and I think they are lying. Because, they said those attackers forced them to recieve a higher bill with more money. That's completely wrong. The hosting company doesn't charge you for going over bandwidth, because you can't unless you pay for it yourself as an upgrade. If they reached their bandwidth for the month, it would just come up of with something like "bandwidth exceeded". There's no way they can get that much of a bill unless they said to themselves, "We need more bandwidth, or lets buy more bandwidth", they can't pay more money for what was planned before.

[RedLove]

Apparently they are lying. They have this thread over at SFV and Sims graveyard keeper found this out
 

edited to add: i just checked the domain and its still being hosted by delphy. So this sounds like a ploy for extra funds to pay for last months or this months hosting--this is what happens when you run a paysite and don't update for over 6 months--you stop getting paid! lol

So yea If you want the rest of the thread its Here

[OneEyedWillie]

ummm red your link goes to an unauthorized page...

[RedLove]

=] Are you signed up for SFV?

[OneEyedWillie]

yeah of course

nm it's working now...

don't know why it wasn't before *shrugs*

[RedLove]

Oh ok! Glad its working for you Its a good read

[Sunkiss]

I got the email too yet I do not remember ever going to the site before.

[Randomness]

nm it's working now...

don't know why it wasn't before *shrugs*

I also had that problem because I was logged out. Once I re-logged in, I got the Unauthorized Page message, but when I clicked on the link again I got in just fine. *shrugs* No big deal.

[Jysudo]

It's pathetic. i like Universal Sims....but this really disses me off.

The last line of the notice

P.S. I will try to get some of the surprise updates out sooner as the donation drive progresses, depending on how things go.

sounds like a threat. It stinks of :

Hell, Shove the money up my ass. If not, don't count on seeing those SURPRISE CRAP we have been spending the last 15 mins on!!!

I am really kinda sad that so many people are trying to make money off the sims...do they really think simmers are millionares when most of us are just trying to survive day to day?! Jeez  :roll:

[Quorneater]

I don't understand how they get those costs mounted up like that.  On Lunarpages that amount could get you a dedicated server for six years.

[GoddessByline]

I will try to get some of the surprise updates out sooner as the donation drive progresses, depending on how things go.

What they're basically saying is, "As a thank you for donating for nothing, we will toss together a set that you can donate even more money for. You see, we need your hard earned money more than you do, suckers!"

No seriously, why in pirate heavens name, would anyone direct an attack at an obscure site, that almost no one has heard of, and that has been dormant for a year or more?

Now the community will be polluted with these type of requests. Other site owners, that's only into this for the money, will think, uh, that's a clever way of bleeding the simmers dry. I'll wait a month, and then I'll stage an attack on my own page and put up a sob story asking for donations.

[Tchannie]

I got that too!! I've never even heard of the site! HOW DID THEY GET MY EMAIL ADDY?!?!?!?!?!