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  1. #1
    DF Rookie simonbeal's Avatar
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    HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    Although we still have the FTP account, and have deleted all the content from our server (hosted by Seem.co.uk) - when you type in our domain-name, after a second the whole thing is automatically redirected to a competitors site, hosted by a German company: schlund.de

    Our site is:

    www.discoveryconcepts.co.uk

    Which then illegally redirects to:

    www.shop365.info

    Any ideas on how they've done this, and what we can do to get control of our website back?

    Seem.co.uk aren't too quick in replying to our emails, and all they did last time was change the FTP password... Useless.

    I've got a Fasthosts reseller account too (I know..) - so will probably try and transfer the domain over to fasthosts for hosting. At least they have 24 hour support which actually answers the phone.

    But I'm really just curious on how they've re-directed our site. Is there some security measure we or Seem.co.uk should've taken?

    I'd dearly like some feedback or answers on this.

    Regards,
    Simon Beal

  2. #2
    DF Rookie simonbeal's Avatar
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    Default Re: HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    Quote Originally Posted by simonbeal
    Although we still have the FTP account, and have deleted all the content from our server (hosted by Seem.co.uk) - when you type in our domain-name, after a second the whole thing is automatically redirected to a competitors site, hosted by a German company: schlund.de

    Our site is:

    www.discoveryconcepts.co.uk

    Which then illegally redirects to:

    www.shop365.info

    Any ideas on how they've done this, and what we can do to get control of our website back?

    Seem.co.uk aren't too quick in replying to our emails, and all they did last time was change the FTP password... Useless.

    I've got a Fasthosts reseller account too (I know..) - so will probably try and transfer the domain over to fasthosts for hosting. At least they have 24 hour support which actually answers the phone.

    But I'm really just curious on how they've re-directed our site. Is there some security measure we or Seem.co.uk should've taken?

    I'd dearly like some feedback or answers on this.

    Regards,
    Simon Beal

    Additional: Well it seems our site's back in our hands again. But don't know for how long. The same guy did this last week, re-directing to another site. We complained and it was taken off-air, then one week passes and they same guy does it again with a different site.

  3. #3
    DF VIP Member wizard1974uk's Avatar
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    Default Re: HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    Stick a .htaccess file on the site, see if that helps.

    Also if you can trace his IP addy, send an email to the abuse dept of his ISP.

  4. #4
    DF VIP Member Crossman's Avatar
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    Default Re: HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    Hmmn,

    That’s interesting, I've really no idea how they did it without accessing your FTP, I presume they could have setup a bogus DNS entry for your domain on a fairly high level DNS server which propagates to others and then it was updates (as they do periodically), returning then domain to yourself.

    Not a particularly easy task to do, but it beats me how else it could be done.

    Crossman.

  5. #5
    DF Rookie simonbeal's Avatar
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    Default Re: HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    Quote Originally Posted by Crossman
    Hmmn,

    That’s interesting, I've really no idea how they did it without accessing your FTP, I presume they could have setup a bogus DNS entry for your domain on a fairly high level DNS server which propagates to others and then it was updates (as they do periodically), returning then domain to yourself.

    Not a particularly easy task to do, but it beats me how else it could be done.

    Crossman.
    I was thinking it must be something along those lines, but didn't know how difficult that would be.

    I deleted all the pages via FTP, even put up my own blank index page, but the site was still being re-directed.

    I since looked at sites such as register.com who do domain forwarding, thinking maybe the hacker's using a third-party system.

    Anyway we now know who the guy is, can you beleive he's in his 60s! So we're now hoping that he's going to behave and stop redirecting our website to his. Otherwise we will just have to take him to court, or send the boys around (or both).

  6. #6
    DF Rookie tomkat's Avatar
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    Default Re: HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    I have just come across this posting and I think that I can throw some light on the matter. The technical explanations are very interesting but completely wide of the mark. I believe that I am the person that is being accused of hacking into the site.

    I am no hacker, have done nothing in any way illegal, and I will correct some of the nonsense of the previous postings.

    Firstly Simon Beal is not and never has been the owner of this domain name or the website where it resided. The domain is registered in the name of Ian Hubbart who was the original author and webmaster for this site. The website is owned by Discovery Concepts Ltd, a holiday company registered in Southampton.

    I took over as webmaster last November (I was also suppposed to become company secretary but, fortunately in the light of subsequent events, the paperwork did not go through). At that time I had no knowledge of the dark side of this company and if I had then I would kept well away from any involvement. Since I live about 250 miles away from Southampton I have no knowledge or involvement in the day to day activities down there.

    In January of this year the truth began to emerge. Discovery Concepts and its MD, Frank Madden were investigated by the OFT in 2003 and their report was published in January.

    http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+rel...2004/02-04.htm

    Since potential members were seeing this report, cancellations grew to a level that made further marketing unprofitable, and loss of the main supplier of surplus timeshare accommodation caused further embarrassment. The company stopped trading leaving lots of debts.

    Since the company seems to be insolvent, the website and other assets (such as the members list) belong to the creditors. I am a creditor, owed several thousand pounds. Nobody informed me that the website had been sold and I continued as webmaster (unpaid for my efforts) and any modifications I made to the site were perfectly lawful. I was forced to divert the site because somebody, at the time unknown but now known to be Mr. Beal, had got hold of the password and was trashing the site. As far as I am concerned he is the hacker.

    It is probable that Mr. Beal was acting innocently in this matter and is a victim of the same con-man that has cost me so much - prior to Discovery Concepts he defrauded me of a great deal of money from activities started in Manchester a few years back.

    I have a lien on the website until my fees and other debts are paid. I don't think that Mr. Beal would wish to pay this sum, and I just cannot imagine what use he would have for this site if he is a honest man. There is much trouble brewing in connection with Discovery Concepts Ltd. and I would strongly advise Simon Beal to keep well clear.

    If you don't believe me then it is worth viewing the BBC report on holiday clubs - you need Real Player to view this 25 minute documentry in which Discovery Concepts and Frank Madden are the main "stars".

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/pr...ain/latest.ram

    There was also some juicy publicity in the local press:-

    http://www.thisisdorset.net/dorset/a..._NEWS14ZM.html

    Mr. Madden and Discovery feature regularly on the Crimeshare website and he even gets his photograph published here (March 27th)

    http://www.crimeshare.net/46.html

    Does Simon Beal really want himself and his company linked to this? I wish that I had never been involved with Mr. Madden, but it is now too late for me and all I can do is to try to recover a few crumbs from the mess, and Mr. Beal seems to want to deprive me of even this. Mr. Madden is very likely to end up behind bars - don't get involved with him Simon.



    David Tomkinson

  7. #7
    DF VIP Member WTD's Avatar
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    Default Re: HELP! Site hacked / redirected to illegal site!?!

    Interesting post, perhaps this will help clear things up for Simon.

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