Universal Sims...

[redisenchanted]

Now it's being alleged that Delphy is hosting them and that's who they owe the big bill to. Anyone got any info on that?

[GoddessByline]

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

Yes, there's lots of reports comming from simmers, that say they have never visited that site before, or registred there, but still they get this begging email.

I see two explanations for this, either Universal Sims is retriving email addys of simmers from forums and similar, like N99's POBS. Or another site is providing Universal Sims with the email addys from that sites database.

[rocket]

I got the same email, but didn't bother opening it until I saw this. I don't remember the Universal Sims site, and I see I'm not alone. Their stuff must have been quite craptastic.

[Lorelei]

One of the few things I hate more than paysites is SPAM. So if I failed to conceal my email info well enough to avoid getting e-panhandled, it won't do them any good.

[Jojoba]

Yep I got an email as well. Never been there, never joined, never even heard of it.

So, I went and *politely* left a message in the Introductions forum saying that I want them to delete my account as I didnt make it...its now gone, and so is the message I left.

>.< I'm annoyed at this exceptionally bad spam - i mean, if you going to get spam then it may as well be good! Something like 'Click this link if you want trees with udders on them'.

[Tchannie]

The only sites I'm a member of are MTS2, InSim, here, SFV, a couple of tiny forums, InTeen, SS2, and a very very very very very long time, I might have signed up at Simbella's.
But that's IT.
Here and SFV I've hidden my addy, and the forums are unknown.
That leaves MTS2, InSim, SS2 and InTeen.
Who will we point the finger at, hmm? Do you think they surfed the member pages of everyone on MTS2?


EDIT FOR STUPIDITY: Oh yeah, and I'm a member of TSR! A free one, mind...and I NEVER go on w/ my addy...

[Jojoba]

Well according to 'my account' I joined in April 2006...so that rules out InSim (woo! love it there) S2C, TSR...and leaves MTS2  :roll: Oh dear

eta: i joined MTS2 in April >.< Have just checked

[Quorneater]

I am not sure the contract that these sites are under is all that well suited to less technical site owners.  Didn't Sapphire get into a similar (not so huge maybe) spot of bother with mounting up server costs?   Maybe it would be better to go for the more standard hosting agreement where you get the site temporarily suspended when something begins to go badly wrong.  Who wants to be clobbered with those debts?

[Saskatchewan]

What a scam... I hope people don't fall for it.

[Tchannie]

Well according to 'my account' I joined in April 2006...so that rules out InSim (woo! love it there) S2C, TSR...and leaves MTS2  :roll: Oh dear

eta: i joined MTS2 in April >.< Have just checked

You signed up at all?? :?

[Jojoba]

Nope I didnt join to Universal Sims. Recieving that email the other day was the first time I've known about the account that was set up with my email address

...or I may have an exceptionally bad memory. If so, I blame the rum and generally being a pirate  :wink:

[redisenchanted]

Over at N99 (at least for now) there's an interesting thread on it. Apparently Delphy is the host. He resells the account from Layered Tech. Layered Tech's policy is to bill for excess bandwidth, rather than shut down the site. So Layered Tech billed Delphy who then billed Universal Sims.

So they screwed up by not noticing a bad script that asploded their bandwidth. Delphy got the huge bill from Layered Tech and sent it on to Universal sims.

Blah, blah, more technical stuff I don't understand. Maybe someone can analyse it a little better.

[Jojoba]

Could you put a link/text of it?

[Quorneater]

Well like I say, it shouldn't have been unexpected or unprepared for.  Saphire sims who Delphy also hosted under a similar agreement I assume, also had this problem and ended up having to pay him back loads.

[redisenchanted]

You can only see the forum if you're a member. It's under Sims2/Another Scam if you are. It's a PITA to register, so don't unless you really want to be a member. It will probably be cut pretty soon anyway, such discussions are rarely allowed there. A few of the posters in the thread (me included) are posting over here too. Hopefully one with a better understanding of the technical aspects will do that.

Here's a few quotes though:

"No, he (Delphy) does not work for Layered Tech. Universal Sims has a dedicated server under Layered Tech, and Delphy is handling the server for them. As quoted from Delphy: It's a standalone server - they don't run on a shared account, but it's hosted by LayeredTech as a reseller server of mine.

I guess you could call him their host, then, if you define it like that. He calls Layered Tech the host, and himself the administrator of the server. I don't know what technically qualifies as a host exactly."


"well he is 'hosting' reseller
layertech is the 'server'

meaning he pays to layertech and universal sims pays to him
meaning HE sent the bill to universal sims

also meaning, typically, when you are a reseller your fee to your customer is higher then what you pay
like wholesale but in the website hosting world

this is getting weirder and weirder

it still sounds fishy"


"and if the servers the actual host knows that its a malicious script they would be going after the actual person the script came from which is easy to do by ip addresses they would be taking legal action right now AND the site would be shut down, there stating this bill is from the past month, meaning PAST DUE, besides the fact their going over bandwith, their bill is past due, their site would have been shut down"


"As I posted earlier, Layered Tech's policy on bandwidth is that they don't shut down the site, they just bill the site for the extra bandwidth."


I don't understand all the technical stuff, but it appears Delphy is quite involved on this one. It is like the Sapphire Sims deal.