Hacker News Reader

I use my bandwidth to cost people who host "Flash Updater" Trojans money. When you find a site with a downloadable Trojan, just run a download script which downloads in a loop a hundred times simultaneously.

I'm very public about it:

https://twitter.com/AnachronistJohn/status/12343139528652144...

I do hope someone reports me, because if they do, then I'll know who they are. So far, I've cost one scammer close to $2,000 before their links died completely.

View on HN

Unfortunately all to often they are hosting these files on a hacked server, or using a stolen card - So your good deed may backfire

Would that be classified as a denial of service attack? (which is apparently a federal crime)

No. I'm not denying or attempting to deny anyone service. I'm simply taking them up on their offer of a free download, but just a million times.

Web sites WANT to be popular. If they get too popular, though, they have to take responsibility for the costs that come with popularity.

If someone wants to claim that the I'm costing them money because their intention wasn't to allow their file to be downloaded millions of times, they'll have to come out of hiding to make the claim. I welcome that.

The real mvp here. Amazing work.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com