A popular file-sharing site has been revealed to be a pirate ‘honeypot’ which was collecting data from thousands of users and file hosters.
The revelation accompanied the purchase of the UploaderTalk website by US-based anti-piracy company Nuke Piracy.
The website was run under false pretenses that encourages criminal behaviour in an effort to collect incriminating data.
"That’s right – the biggest swerve ever," the operator of UploaderTalk, known only as WDF, said in a statement about the purchase of the site.
"I, WDF, work for the anti-piracy people!"
WDF, having previously been a senior member of another high-profile filesharing site called WJunction, started UT a year ago, a website designed to attract people who upload copyrighted files to file-hosting sites for profit, as well as representatives of file-hosters touting affiliate and incentive schemes.
"UT was set up for a number of reasons. But mostly to be a sounding board, proof of concept … and to collect data," said WDF.
"I collected info on file hosts, web hosts, websites. I suckered shitloads of you," WDF bragged.
It is not yet clear what WDF or Nuke Piracy, a private anti-piracy firm, intends to do with the data collected. Nuke Piracy clearly states on its website that it uses "proprietary and unconventional methods we do not discuss or disclose our methodologies, processes, and procedures publicly."
"I work for Nuke Piracy now, this is very bad for anyone profiting from piracy," proclaimed WDF.
Nuke Piracy, which launched its own site and "IP theft and copyright infringement detection, mitigation, and prevention" services inFebruary 2013, has reportedly made several moves to acquire active piracy sites, set up honeypots, as well as an anti-piracy news site called CashWhore.net.
