By chance, I became a VPS/VPN service provider in China... well, somehow it worked out How did it happen? I'm already telling you ↓ I am the owner of the hosting company "Mikrus", where enthusiasts can buy VPS servers for their projects. I also have a second brand called "FROG", where the server "for fun" can be grabbed for an activation fee of PLN 5. The fee is only used to identify the user. FROG has been operating for several years and has been gathering users. Usually 5-10 new users a day. In April, someone asked me if I could activate a payment via PayPal because I live in Norway and don't want to make an international transfer. Activated. I don't look at the payment system very often, so I didn't notice an anomaly. The counter of new FROGs jumped from 5-10 units per day to 100-200 A strangely large increase in users. Mainly because PayPal accidentally opened FROG to new countries. All new users chose PayPal as a payment method, their names were kind of "generic" Kowalski, Nowak, Wójcik, Wiśniewska. They all lived in small villages in Poland For some strange reason, a large number of new users had an e-mail... on a Chinese portal Something didn't fit here. I logged into PayPal with my merchant account and downloaded a list of my customers' personal information. The names were a bit unusual... Chen, Zhang, Ma, Tang, Zhau, Womo, Liu. And so several hundred times Location of all buyers? China. What I see in my sales system is the data provided by the customer (they can enter whatever they want). What I see with the payment agent is verified account details. In this way, Jan Kowalski became Zhang Chienthang ♂️ The situation is strange because my servers have China cut out on the firewall, and the accounts were created almost entirely by Chinese. I wrote to one of my "new users" asking what was going on. Now I know. All well-known VPS and VPN solution providers are cut out in China by the "Great Firewall of China". So it is not easy to use popular services. Mikrus' servers, on the other hand, cut out almost all of Asia. But... An anomaly has appeared. There is one server (FROG02) that somehow is not blocked by the Chinese firewall, and the Chinese discovered that it can be reached through one of the net providers in Guangdong province. This information spread quite quickly in some "Chinese trench" ♂️ 100% of the new servers contained only one type of software: HTTP PROXY server for traffic tunneling. FROG was advertised as a way to circumvent censorship and access to the "free internet", and it was available at the only fair price, i.e. for free. However, Mikrus' infrastructure is not used to provide access to TikTok, YT and Facebook to Asians, so I had to tighten the configuration. My email inbox now consists of 50% emails in Chinese. I have been processing returns for 3 days. It is worth considering the consequences of introducing PayPal
·
ICG Price at posting:
0.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
How did it happen?
I'm already telling you ↓
I am the owner of the hosting company "Mikrus", where enthusiasts can buy VPS servers for their projects.
I also have a second brand called "FROG", where the server "for fun" can be grabbed for an activation fee of PLN 5.
The fee is only used to identify the user.
FROG has been operating for several years and has been gathering users. Usually 5-10 new users a day.
In April, someone asked me if I could activate a payment via PayPal because I live in Norway and don't want to make an international transfer. Activated.
I don't look at the payment system very often, so I didn't notice an anomaly. The counter of new FROGs jumped from 5-10 units per day to 100-200
A strangely large increase in users. Mainly because PayPal accidentally opened FROG to new countries.
All new users chose PayPal as a payment method, their names were kind of "generic" Kowalski, Nowak, Wójcik, Wiśniewska. They all lived in small villages in Poland
For some strange reason, a large number of new users had an e-mail... on a Chinese portal
Something didn't fit here. I logged into PayPal with my merchant account and downloaded a list of my customers' personal information.
The names were a bit unusual... Chen, Zhang, Ma, Tang, Zhau, Womo, Liu. And so several hundred times
Location of all buyers? China.
What I see in my sales system is the data provided by the customer (they can enter whatever they want). What I see with the payment agent is verified account details.
In this way, Jan Kowalski became Zhang Chienthang ♂️
The situation is strange because my servers have China cut out on the firewall, and the accounts were created almost entirely by Chinese.
I wrote to one of my "new users" asking what was going on. Now I know.
All well-known VPS and VPN solution providers are cut out in China by the "Great Firewall of China". So it is not easy to use popular services. Mikrus' servers, on the other hand, cut out almost all of Asia.
But... An anomaly has appeared.
There is one server (FROG02) that somehow is not blocked by the Chinese firewall, and the Chinese discovered that it can be reached through one of the net providers in Guangdong province.
This information spread quite quickly in some "Chinese trench" ♂️
100% of the new servers contained only one type of software:
HTTP PROXY server for traffic tunneling.
FROG was advertised as a way to circumvent censorship and access to the "free internet", and it was available at the only fair price, i.e. for free.
However, Mikrus' infrastructure is not used to provide access to TikTok, YT and Facebook to Asians, so I had to tighten the configuration.
My email inbox now consists of 50% emails in Chinese. I have been processing returns for 3 days. It is worth considering the consequences of introducing PayPal