OcUK puts £10K bounty on the heads of DDoS varmints
Overclockers.co.uk is offering a £10,000 ($13,830) reward for information leading to the conviction of attackers who have targeted the technology enthusiast site in a DDoS lasting over a week. In a forum posting on Wednesday, Overclockers.co.uk (OcUK) placed a bounty of the head of cybercrooks who have mounted an attack that has …
I was going to buy a new monitor from them, but on the evening of placing the order the site was unusably slow, so I ended up at Aria instead.
I wondered at the time why it was only OCuk that had the problem.
This sort of thing is pathetic, and I hope whoever is 'responsible' for the attack is caught and punished.
Don't worry (too much) OCuk, I'll be buying my next system bits from you.
ttfn
I would be really miffed I was paying £25,000 per year to host the sites and this happened.
So if I anonymously submit info how do they know where to send my reward?
OcUK have a dire reputation on the Internet (as of this moment they have a 1.67 out of 10 rating on ResellerRatings.com), they actively banned any negative opinion about their service on their forums, and consternated customers aren't even allowed to use the forum to make enquiries about their orders, etc - they had to use the premium-rate phone numbers. If they did dare to post an enquiry they'd get banned.
The staff make a point of flaunting their excess on the forums with hardly a week going by between one of them posting whichever supercar they've been able to buy with the considerable profits they make.
This development comes as no surprise to me at all, I'm only surprised it hasn't happened before.
....watch the scumbags get turned in by their "friends".
Funny I should read this story as I think it was either last night or this morning I recieved an e-mail from them regrading the website / forums and providing the full list of contact numbers in case I wanted to order anything, quite nice of them actually..
I do hope they get the swine, I don't use the site that often as well I upgrade systems that often :).
I'd be going through a list of "customers" who've returned big value items for clues, if they've not done so already..
I guess their 'customer service' finally upset the wrong person.
I wonder if racisim by the founder and in the forum has anything to do with it.
It's like a BNP Jamboree in that place.
Cheers for this news, I was wondering what was happening to OcUK.
Dam good sight that as well, so easy to use, good goods and good service. So I personally hope they get that bot net using, basement hiding, unwashed geek.
Criminal gangs will always have the jump on law and order as criminals will kill any suspects when the police can only ask them questions.
Or to put it another way if presidunce Bush was allowed to carry on regardless regardlessly, someone would have had to do for him. You can call it terrrrism if you like.
Or if you are a USAn on July 4th, victory.
Do you mean etailer / webshop?
I'd suspect a pissed off customer.. maybe someone who has fallen foul of RMA conditions...
They messed up an RMA of a motherboard for me once, but made up for it by replacing the board with one twice the value.
They deserve it, I detest overclockers UK.
Ever built a PC and had a problem? I.E. it wouldn;t boot correctly, I suspect the Moherboard, take it back. Nope, you can't do that. I had to log the issue 1st which wasn't easy, then wait for an RTM off them for a NUMBER OF DAYS, then returned. BUT, I can only return ONE thing at any time and as it could be a faulty Motherboard or the CPU, or maybe the memory or the PSU, I had to do ONE at a time. Wait for them to test, FEW DAYS LATER .. nope not that, pick it back up, called them to RTM cpu .. wait days ... take it in ... wait days .. nope not that sir ... RTM motherboard ... wait few days ..... ahhh yes it's faulty, come get your replacement.
I don't recall the exact issue but either way it took me WEEKS to finally locate the cause and get it fixed.
Another time was a suspected PSU, can you just check this for me? No sir, you have to strip it all down and RTM that item. But can't you just check it while it is in situ and then with another PSU to confirm you sold me a faulty PSU? No sir. Why? Because last time we did we blew all the trading estate out. You mean a faulty PSU got through the 13Amp plug fuse, through the RCB circuit breaker on your unit, I'm guessing that like a house you have a 100 AMP consumer unit fuse which it went through, and then managed to go through every other unit in the building? I don't know sir electrics are not my area. It's a 12 volt transformer!!!! Yes sir.
And so ends the story of why Overclockers UK are so shite. They are having DDOS problems? Maybe it's there mobile phones causing an issue wih there unusual wiring, or aunty vera's email is interfering with there server, or maybe they treated everone else like crap and one or more of them knew more than just how to build PC's and they are DDOSing them.
I give them a medal personally!! Anonymous as I've had enough of those muppets and blacklisted them for home and work purchases, and have no plans to become their scapegoat.
"OcUK is a hybrid hardware hacker enthusiast site and online computer kit reseller"
Any posts about "hacker" activity or warez software are immediately deleted! Where does the "hacker" allegation come from!
Is a shame they're having problems, I've never had an issue with them. Pain to get through to on the phone though (if you'd ever been to the store and seen the room full of phones no-one anwers behind the counter you'd see why!).
Good luck to them - I hope they get the critters
When they can't be bothered to sort a promised £10 refund, it seems unlikely you'd see £10k out of them. Couldn't happen to a nicer company...
Get some perspective please, do you normally call for people to kill themselves over comments posted on the Internet? Sounds like you need some anger management training.
As for posting anonymously - I stand by my comments, however I have a vested interest in staying anonymous (least of which because I'd only get banned from their fascist forums for dissent). Pro-tip: If it weren't for anonymous whistleblowing then OcUK (and companies in general) would be shafting far more customers than they do already, given their attitude to censoring all negative opinion or experiences on their forums.
You don't have to look very far for unbiased bad press about this company, just Google their name. Their profteering is almost as legendary as their hit-and-miss customer service.
As for the odd shill, sorry, customer who posts rave reviews - well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.
As remarked already - couldn't happen to a nicer company.
Re Mike Timbers - I read it not as an allegation, but a description of the forums where modding is encouraged. Ie hacking hardware in a good sense.
I have plently of backbone, I remain anonymous as I don't trust OCUK or muppets who feel protecting your sanity = no backbone.
Accept that many people (see resellerratings.com) hate them and that they have crap customer service. Try building a complete PC and find nothing works and THEN call them, see how your psychic powers help YOU find what is wrong then!! A PC that wont boot could be a faulty PSU, or CPU, or Motherboard, and they wont help in any way to test it to locate the faulty piece of kit. You'll just have to arrange 1 at a time to return every bit, you'll find out 1 day. Meantime DDOS please continue!
Despite their prices not being competitive, their customer service being frankly terrible and their forum being populated by idiots and little Hitlers, it's a bit of a shame when a company which is primarily web facing is targeted like this... I can’t imagine how I’d react if I was in charge of such an operation.
I quite like OCuK these days, and have ordered a moderate amount of kit of late with no problems.
Cant find any reviews newer than about 2005 moaning about them in general, other than "waaah i had a faulty GFx card" - yeah, get over it, it happens.
Hope they nail the DDOSing scumbags - P.S. - Anyone else think of a large retailer who doesnt allow negative comments? - Amazon deleting Spore bad reviews anyone?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/22/amazon_crysis_warhead_anti_securom_review_missing/
Would any of you pay for / host a forum that slagged your company off? Dont see anyone else doing it... why should they?
We will be back..Dont worry guys!!
Just come back a few hours ago from the coast, just tested spies new speedboat its amazing!
Anyway need to change me Dodge charger! Got 100k to spend..any idea folks?
Cheers
Gibbo
How many tech savy customers did OCUK think they could pi** off before if eventually blew up in their face. As a victim of their atrocious warranty returns policy I am lolling till my sides hurt.
If they were a real shop and treated their customers so badly they would probably have faced an equivalent physical attack by now. When they act so badly as keyboard/phone warriors hiding behind the internet then they have to expect something like this would happen. It amuses me greatly that someone is giving them their just desserts.
Also who's brilliant idea was it to spam all their ex customers just to let us know that if we wanted to buy something then we couldn't?
Given the reports of disgruntled customers, perhaps it isn't a single DDoS, but actually a number of individual DoSs from many disgruntled customers (I'm calling it a Massively Multiple Denial of Service).
Uncompetitive pricing.
Scan Ltd. better customer service and price.
I'm glad OcUK are losing money out of this.
I would like to personally thank the guy doing these attacks!
To the person who is posting under the name of Gibbo, may I ask why? Is this how childish OcUK are that their staff members resort to signing up and posting here under my name?
First things first I no longer work for OcUK, me (Andrew Gibson aka Gibbo) have moved on too a much better career with Novatech, a company who looks after its customers and is competitive on pricing.
I am down on the coast all the time now as surprisingly Novatech's HQ is on the South Coast. I've spent the day really busy with work actually because were mental busy.
Anyway hope you guys to get your site fixed, but take a tip, stop acting like childish idiots because your doing yourself no favours.
Thanks
The REAL Gibbo
... rip people off for the cost of returning faulty goods and then expect them to be happy about it.
Ever notice how all the user reviews are 4.5 -> 5 stars... Odd that.
Try submitting a review that gives 2 stars or lower or any hint that perhaps you'd be better off with a different product, guaranteed it will not appear.. no matter how well it's written.
As John says "Chickens coming home to roost"
Seems to be a comments section full of one person posting several times... result!
OcUK now do have a customer support forum so I do not see where you are coming from when you say you cannot get help on the forum. Get your facts right as it was shot around on email and iirc its on their front page.
Loving the mis-informed trolling going on in these comments, get a grip.
I've had mixed experiences with OcUk, most orders have arrived on time and have met my needs, but when it comes to RMAs frankly OcUK suck. Especially when the RMAs are raised because they've sent out the wrong parts.
On one occasion they sent me the wrong tube connectors two times in a row! I gave up and figured that they must have put the 1/2" fittings in the 3/8" fittings bin in the warehouse by mistake. On another occasion they sent the wrong motherboard, I sent it back after obtaining an RMA and they refused to replace it, stating that I'd already opened the package. I had to suck up the cost and pay again for the motherboard I wanted in the first place. Another occasion saw me receive a front bay display panel that came without cables or driver CD. I never resolved that one after I sent it back, they refuted their receipt of a recorded delivery package.
What is happening to OcUK is wrong, and it must be costing them a fortune. Despite my negative opinion of DDoS attacks, I can't help but feel a little sympathy if the person behind it has had a bad experience with returned products. The old saying "two wrongs don't make a right" comes to mind.
It's not just customers they treat like crap, long term staff get the same treatment: http://www.mocgb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=24289
From my experiences and what I hear about them I'm amused greatly that someone has shafted them back. Disagree with the methods but it's very effective!
I started jotting down potential suspects in the hope of bagging the £10K. Here's what I came up with:
1) disgruntled ex-employees - I hear a purchasing manager was headhunted by a competitor in Pompey, and the MD no longer works there after the owner abandoned plans for a management buy out. Let's add them to the list.
2) unhappy customers - a quick Google search returned a lot of comments about (the lack of) OCUK's customer service. Add them to the list too.
3) ...there is nobody else.
Then I remembered seeing the posts that the owner of OCUK, and the moderators and administrators of the forum were posting in the secret "Dons Room" section of the site. If we assume that everyone else has read these too then we need to add all the people that have been offended by the comments that were made to the list. At this point I ran out of paper.
I don't think I'll be getting that reward money after all.
"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"
I do not believe it is Gibbo because you usually start your posts with Hi there! And if it is you, you should have kept the CSL.
For all you haters above, you really are quite bitter and twisted IMO.
I recently stumbled across this thread and can say that OCUK went way beyond the call of duty here
http://www.avforums.com/forums/computer-systems/895671-ocuk-dilemma.html
Ocuk thepharcyde
awful service they have, just took me 2months to get a refund on a motherboard twice damaged in transit by inferior packaging.
Forums filled with teenage mini Hitler moderators, and customer service who are either inept or couldn't be bothered to test faults properly,
good luck gettting £10k off them, most struggle to get a refund for 1/100th of that
Why are you saying it's an ocuk member of staff posting as you?
Is it because you're on a crusade to discredit them just in case the real facts about your departure are ever made public?
How can I?
Everywhere else charges stupid sums for delivery to Northern Ireland, and usually on something like 6 Day delivery times or something retarded as opposed to Next Day at OCUK.
So while I might very well save money on the products themselves elsewhere, the postage generally negates that and then some. And on top I have to wait a couple of extra days over people on the mainland.
Sod that.
It's all about their terrible prices on their products. Not exactly competative. Fair do's they sold a truck load of 280gtx's off cheaper than other places, maybe that angered other places, then with their prices on the new 295's, excesivley overpriced compared to other places. Then add all the other complaints of customer service and the nazi forum politics on competitor naming or price naming in the forums. After sales issues on bad products sold, second hand products passed off as new. Don't agree with the method these folk have taken upon ocuk but it's cetainly making a point. But on the other hand ocuk are gaining great emedia attention here which at the end of the day can't hurt after all the ddos ceases.
Nice one. Glad the rip off merchants like OCUK got whats coming.
Fat Proudfoot has been shafting the staff, customers and even the suppliers for YEARS.
That 666 offer was pure desperation. Looks like times were hard and now even harder.
I would be very happy to see them go out of business.
Scan.co.uk are light years in front of the OCUK amateurs that they call staff.
They really are poor in every way. My sides are spliiting with this one.
Would love to donate to whoever did this.
How can you complain that they don't allow people to name competitors and competitors prices on their forum?
They pay for it! they're hardly going to encourage people to shop elsewhere on there!
had to wait for 6 months for a rma'ed gfx card once from them ..trading standards could'nt do much so i e-mailed the card makers complained and hit lucky 2 days later i had a new card delivered by sapphire
ocuk just kept giving me the run round and hung up on me twice ....really bad service
Haha! Serves them right. I hate the b*stards.
I used to rave about them to my friends and colleagues until I fell foul of their customer service. I received some shocking emails from them, which I've kept.
It couldn't have happened to a more deserving company.
No, it wasn't me but I bet they've got an awfully long list of aggrieved customers.
Isn't that a TV show?
You know, the OC, set in the UK....?
Then you are either trolling or are simple. OcUK are far better than Novatech, especially for support (use Novatechs sales line only when telephoning if you want anyone to actually pick up). I've just built a great pc with all bits comming from OkUK (and 4 Gb RAM due to arrive today) and have yet to fault them. I'm sure that they're not perfect, and if they overcharge DON'T BUY FROM THEM, FOOL! I suspect at least some of the ppl who have had problems with their customer support deserved it ('ooppss, I just killed my new mo'board, now to try and convince the supplier that it was their fault').
What goes around comes round and OCuk are finding that out the hard way. Karmic payback by the bucket load and as has been said before couldn't have happened to nicer company. OCuk = scum. Paris coz she doesn't mind giving you a good shafting, just like OCuk
hah hah, fantastic, nice work whoever did it., hope it's cost them a fortune in lost business.
Yeah I've bought off them, never again.
As so many people are chipping in with their opinion of whether OCUK is good or shite, I feel it is only fair that I add mine, because I use information like this to choose who I buy from. In my experience of buying from OCUK since 2003, their prices have always been the lowest, or close to the lowest I could find, delivery has been prompt (perhaps sometimes 1 day later than I expected), and after sales service has been good. I have had to return faulty goods on three ocassions, and each time I got an RMA number within a day, and they replaced the goods without any hassle. Considering the tiny profit margins on PC components (I have a friend in the industry, so I know the kinds of margins these people work to), I would rate OCUK as good. I have never had a problem with and neither has anyone I know, unlike another, sometimes slightly cheaper etailer.
I returned a faulty mobo, I had tested it with another CPU, another set of memory, another power supply and it was certainly the mobo. I took it back to the shop and they didn't want to replace it. They wanted to take it in for testing and then replace it a week later.
I spent the next quarter of an hour outside the front door telling potential customers my experience, with no bias giving the facts only. The shop manager called the police who told him to sort it out himself I was not doing anything illegal. I got my replacement mobo that day, but I am barred from purchasing from them.
I don't mind.
I understand why people post AC, they don't want to be blamed for the DDOS attack. I don't give a shit, they deserve it and I didn't have anything to do with it.
Jolly roger, it should be flown outside the OCUK showroom.
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