Post by Shun Minamoto on Aug 1, 2014 16:56:30 GMT -5
Some of you are waiting for an explanation, so here it is.
On Tuesday the change of ownership forms for www.bleach-gotei.com (and the associated hosting account) finished processing and ownership of the game passed out of my hands. These forms are required to be signed and notarized. Obviously, I signed no such thing.
From there we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle. I pulled together our administrators and we’ve been working together since, though most of this problem fell in my lap as the owner. Typically I just handle the technical side of things (like our eventual migration to IPB 4 after release), but I also handle the financial and legal aspects of Bleach Gotei.
Tor was contacted first to see if I could get some information on this person. They’ve never actually committed a crime through Tor, so that was a very quick bust. A police report was then filed, but the lack of actual evidence (posts on a forum do not a crime make) means it probably won’t go anywhere or yield results.
This left the situation of the actual forms. It’s hard to steal someone’s identity and harder still to convince a notary public of that. Because of a previous job opportunity with our host I had a contact there, who I called on. They managed to press for a deeper inspection of the forms (which they had no obligation to do). This led, over the course of 48 hours, to some very interesting revelations
The notary seal was likely photocopied or otherwise forged. The notary public in question had never had an interaction with the person on the forms (the name, while faked, will not be released to me or anyone else for legal reasons) and this obviously rendered the forms entirely invalid. There are required fees associated with having a document notarized, along with a record kept by the notary public, that render a notarization invalid if not fulfilled.
Once this was discovered early today, and once I verified my identity through standard security questions and checks, ownership was transferred back to me.
Now for the questions some of you are going to have!
Who was it?
We don’t know, we may never know. Whoever has been posting behind that Daishi account did one thing very, very well: They’ve protected themselves. Not that it's hard to do when you’re dicking around on the internet. That said, in doing so they cut off the best avenues they had for going about this. We would have had a real problem if they stuck their neck out and actually forged my identity and signature to get these documents officially and properly notarized.
What are you going to do now?
Legal avenues are being pursued, but not by me directly. Like I mentioned, a police report was filed and they’ll be informed of this development and do what they can. Investigations into matters like this typically don’t go well. The only reason my place of employment was able to go after someone for breaking into our e-mail, for instance, was because we had hard evidence going in.
Could this happen again?
It can always happen again, to anyone. I seem to be the unlucky fellow who is targeted by someone both dedicated and at least somewhat competent. To help mitigate this risk I’m looking to have my hosting account exempted from any transfers of ownership, ever. Should the community ever need to be passed on to a new legal owner they can create a new hosting account of their own first at the host of their choosing.
So this is all your host’s fault/this guy’s fault and we should bash them as much as possible?
This crossed into a very thick and serious legal environment given the severity of what happened. The last thing I want is to deal with any allegations of libel, so keep the bashing to yourselves. Not to sound rude or uncaring but this is my business relating to my property and a business agreement with a private company. That means I’m the one who has to handle it and am also the one responsible for the behavior of those on the community should it turn libelous or otherwise unbecoming.
Are you okay?
I’ll end this by confirming to those few worried: Yes, I’m perfectly fine. None of the charges mentioned materialized. While my account could have been charged with numerous Dedicated Server purchases, this never happened. I froze my appropriate cards and since the billing information is not laid out plain, even if it is still able to be used for on-site purchases, my financial information was most certainly not compromised. I hadn’t even updated my address to my new apartment yet! Regardless, my bank has been notified and apparently has really thorough fraud protection. They’ve assured me that I won’t be charged for anything I don’t authorize and any big or suspicious charges will result in me being called first.
There, you now know pretty much everything I know! Our Administrators (except Mitsutaka because he’s a loser) will probably have more to say on the matter. If you have any further questions for me regarding this, or anything else related to my role as Site Owner, please do ask away. You guys should know by now that I don’t bite!
Oh, do try to keep this thread free of le funny memes XD
Thanks for reading and bearing with us! Your support—as much as you show it everyday—was very nice to see! To anyone who helped try to secure our hosting account for us, thank you for taking the time out of your day to do that. Some of you for a community you’ve only recently been a part of!
Bleach Gotei, in its stubborn perseverance, has become something special. Not only the most actively and posted-in Bleach community out there, but easily the most friendly and welcoming. It’s sad that we’ve become the target of people like this, but it also says a lot that we’re still here and bigger than ever despite it! Can you believe that it was only April last year that we hit 100,000 posts and now we’re sneaking up on 200,000?
Looks like the internet is stuck with us, at least for a while longer!
On Tuesday the change of ownership forms for www.bleach-gotei.com (and the associated hosting account) finished processing and ownership of the game passed out of my hands. These forms are required to be signed and notarized. Obviously, I signed no such thing.
From there we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle. I pulled together our administrators and we’ve been working together since, though most of this problem fell in my lap as the owner. Typically I just handle the technical side of things (like our eventual migration to IPB 4 after release), but I also handle the financial and legal aspects of Bleach Gotei.
Tor was contacted first to see if I could get some information on this person. They’ve never actually committed a crime through Tor, so that was a very quick bust. A police report was then filed, but the lack of actual evidence (posts on a forum do not a crime make) means it probably won’t go anywhere or yield results.
This left the situation of the actual forms. It’s hard to steal someone’s identity and harder still to convince a notary public of that. Because of a previous job opportunity with our host I had a contact there, who I called on. They managed to press for a deeper inspection of the forms (which they had no obligation to do). This led, over the course of 48 hours, to some very interesting revelations
The notary seal was likely photocopied or otherwise forged. The notary public in question had never had an interaction with the person on the forms (the name, while faked, will not be released to me or anyone else for legal reasons) and this obviously rendered the forms entirely invalid. There are required fees associated with having a document notarized, along with a record kept by the notary public, that render a notarization invalid if not fulfilled.
Once this was discovered early today, and once I verified my identity through standard security questions and checks, ownership was transferred back to me.
Now for the questions some of you are going to have!
Who was it?
We don’t know, we may never know. Whoever has been posting behind that Daishi account did one thing very, very well: They’ve protected themselves. Not that it's hard to do when you’re dicking around on the internet. That said, in doing so they cut off the best avenues they had for going about this. We would have had a real problem if they stuck their neck out and actually forged my identity and signature to get these documents officially and properly notarized.
What are you going to do now?
Legal avenues are being pursued, but not by me directly. Like I mentioned, a police report was filed and they’ll be informed of this development and do what they can. Investigations into matters like this typically don’t go well. The only reason my place of employment was able to go after someone for breaking into our e-mail, for instance, was because we had hard evidence going in.
Could this happen again?
It can always happen again, to anyone. I seem to be the unlucky fellow who is targeted by someone both dedicated and at least somewhat competent. To help mitigate this risk I’m looking to have my hosting account exempted from any transfers of ownership, ever. Should the community ever need to be passed on to a new legal owner they can create a new hosting account of their own first at the host of their choosing.
So this is all your host’s fault/this guy’s fault and we should bash them as much as possible?
This crossed into a very thick and serious legal environment given the severity of what happened. The last thing I want is to deal with any allegations of libel, so keep the bashing to yourselves. Not to sound rude or uncaring but this is my business relating to my property and a business agreement with a private company. That means I’m the one who has to handle it and am also the one responsible for the behavior of those on the community should it turn libelous or otherwise unbecoming.
Are you okay?
I’ll end this by confirming to those few worried: Yes, I’m perfectly fine. None of the charges mentioned materialized. While my account could have been charged with numerous Dedicated Server purchases, this never happened. I froze my appropriate cards and since the billing information is not laid out plain, even if it is still able to be used for on-site purchases, my financial information was most certainly not compromised. I hadn’t even updated my address to my new apartment yet! Regardless, my bank has been notified and apparently has really thorough fraud protection. They’ve assured me that I won’t be charged for anything I don’t authorize and any big or suspicious charges will result in me being called first.
There, you now know pretty much everything I know! Our Administrators (except Mitsutaka because he’s a loser) will probably have more to say on the matter. If you have any further questions for me regarding this, or anything else related to my role as Site Owner, please do ask away. You guys should know by now that I don’t bite!
Oh, do try to keep this thread free of le funny memes XD
Thanks for reading and bearing with us! Your support—as much as you show it everyday—was very nice to see! To anyone who helped try to secure our hosting account for us, thank you for taking the time out of your day to do that. Some of you for a community you’ve only recently been a part of!
Bleach Gotei, in its stubborn perseverance, has become something special. Not only the most actively and posted-in Bleach community out there, but easily the most friendly and welcoming. It’s sad that we’ve become the target of people like this, but it also says a lot that we’re still here and bigger than ever despite it! Can you believe that it was only April last year that we hit 100,000 posts and now we’re sneaking up on 200,000?
Looks like the internet is stuck with us, at least for a while longer!
