New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Comments
I was not affected by any of his scam techniques. I do find it very horrible to do, he has been opening multiple businesses and all end up scamming his clients. I mentioned that I am more than willing to investigate him further and help reporting him. FBI would be the agency that would bust this guy.
This. ^
Me and some other users are currently figuring out the optimal order of steps to take steps against Joshua to our advantage.
Since he is lurking everywhere most will be kept private. Joshua, I will come for you, don't worry about that.
FBI is for large scale criminal investigation. Do you really think they’re going to care about some small internet scammer?
Edit: oh and if you want this guy in jail, you’ll need to be wronged by him in his state and file a police report. Then they at least have jurisdiction. It will be lost in paperwork otherwise.
He's so obvious in his behaviour anyway. I've called out several of his operations in public too and nothing has come of it. People still fall for his bs but at least fewer people when some information is public.
Honestly, I don't think anything will happen to him... He had the district attorney's attention a year or two ago and nothing happened. I don't see what will be different this time around. Each time his scam operations pop up he nets a few thousand bucks then disappears for about 3 weeks and comes back again.
How is this thread not doxxing? 🤔 And the mods have the audacity to sticky it? Maybe the members and staff need to review the LET rules?
You clearly don't understand that he's scammed thousands from here and is a registered sex offender which means his information is public knowledge.
So is yours if someone tried hard enough.
Sure warning people of a scam is one thing, but plasting anyone's personal information and picture goes a bit beyond. This is the kind of shit that makes LET look bad. Lets be professional around here at least once in a while. This thread is doxxing. Period.
im hangry!
While I get where you're coming from, I respectfully disagree. This individual has shown time and time again that he is incapable of being a decent human being. All information provided in this thread is available publicly and has been posted many times previously in threads. Even his address is publicly attainable (though that was left out of this thread for obvious reasons).
If posting his picture here helps prevent a single person from handing over their own property worth thousands of dollars into his malicious hands, then I'd consider that a victory.
We have always protected our members. He's a registered sex offender, his picture can be found everywhere in the interwebs. What people are are doing is actually preventing others to fall for his scam techniques.
You would be amazed on what the FBI investigates. And it's definitely not mass-scale only.
A quick reminder to everyone here, and especially to @Cryptonite:
Prout often returns first as a "customer" of his latest scam, contradicting stories that he has run off by saying things that might look like "My service is still online" or "My hardware was delivered to me." The assumed intent behind this is to stop people from doing chargebacks before he's cashed out and run with the money. Look out for that lone guy, it'll be Prout.
Sure, the same way a wanted post for a criminal posted by a police department is doxxing.
Just don't commit crimes.
Sue me to the river.
The fact his stealing hardware on mass scale, this thread only serves to warn others about this person. besides the info is all public.
If you miss your hardware, pay him a friendly visit and I'm sure he'll be happy to give the stuff back.
http://www.city-data.com/so/so-Baytown-Texas.html
https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/SexOffenderRegistry/Search/Rapsheet?Sid=07683448
A quick view of articles I saw VyprNetworks, at first I thought it was related to VyprVPN... Luckily it's not...
Reading the Reddit thread, if you asked me I would say Transit America is part of him as well.
He's done this before and I would be 99% sure that's him or someone closely associated with him.
Yep — Transit America was one of many scams that Joshua Prout has pulled off.
Have you ever heard of "BytesRack" ?
The attitude is really similar and he used to scam people by "selling" colocation services and/or hardware equipment without delivering anything.
References:
https://www.facebook.com/Bytesrack/
https://www.whtop.com/review/bytesrack.com
All the evidence seem pointing to a man known as "Marx Ranaweerage":
https://lk.linkedin.com/in/marx-ranaweerage-2548a224
https://twitter.com/marx82
Is he the same person? Or someone else following in his footsteps?
Wouldn't be surprised.
http://www.bytesrack.com/ it's blank.
Private WHOIS enabled.
@WHTOP.com - "Website research for Bytes Rack on November 15, 2012 by WebHostingTop" - Image can be found in the Google + profile https://plus.google.com/117424098274607673302
I think that company is no longer operational tho? https://bgp.he.net/dns/bytesrack can't find any ASN announces under their name, and everything seems to be just down.
Their cPanel acc which hostes bytesrack.com and their DNS servers is tied to the IP: 178.128.34.188, not sure if @jarland can look at it, it's part of DO, though I'd absolutely understand if he doesn't due to obvious privacy reasons.
Edit: SSH open in port 22, accepting passwds for root - maybe they're moving their server to somewhere else...DO this time...?
Edit 2: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1311204 looks like that guy owns lakhost.com. Which domain is for sale now. I'd say this is NOT Joshua Prout. Tbh. Haven't investigated much, other than a basic research but not seeing any ties to each other.
Edit 3: Posts he posted in Bytesrack fb were stolen: https://www.google.pt/search?q=eaton+rack+mount+ups&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlwEJ_16a1OSVHI2gaiwELEKjU2AQaBAgVCAMMCxCwjKcIGmIKYAgDEiimGKgYqwzODcYMoxjNDZcYoBjLDK8zsTPuPPY89Ty4M5EztTPfJvM8GjA0GY1cwCJRrh8cQUJSK88T7oE3YkqIBmlX433rWejoTJZ4Z7HbJNoFCER-a5K3Q4QgBAwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBIYOAv4M&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq-IPb0pzeAhXnB8AKHQsvDA0Q2A4IKSgB&biw=1920&bih=969 https://www.google.pt/search?q=eaton+rack+ups&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlQEJy6UXIpFdLGQaiQELEKjU2AQaAggVDAsQsIynCBpiCmAIAxIo5gznDPUMgw3lDOAM9gzzDPgM3QyxId4msiHdNdg16zWmM-E1qjPPNRow_1PADEviJ7BaWB1TvFkC7nMMSTxY9Jab17muqiXqBDoBcwML0xvlOfXAs54K55cYPIAQMCxCOrv4IGgoKCAgBEgRHXRZcDA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIv-HY0pzeAhUlgVwKHcnpCaYQ2A4IKSgB&biw=1920&bih=969
Edit 4: Found a few reviews: https://startupcompete.co/startup-idea/internet-social-entrepreneurship-services-it/web-hosting-amp-ecurrency-processing/63267 image found at: https://www.tripadvisor.pt/Hotel_Review-g304132-d12392528-Reviews-Upul_Residence-Anuradhapura_North_Central_Province.html it says he's from Chicago, Illinois, United States, but native from Sri Lanka. 27 reviews @ tripadvisor. Joshua seems to be from Houston/Baytown area, TX, he's not exactly from Chicago. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't seem to be the same guy.
@MikePT yes, it's not a new case though. I just took the opportunity to bring it back since it's related to the topic. The main activity of this "company" is probably related back to 1 year ago (From 2012(?) to 2017), there was a proper website up and running with a legit WHMCS license.
They are even here:
https://www.lowendtalk.com/profile/bytesrack
And this is a "general" thread concerning them:
https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/1963545
Wasn't he a sex offender as well?
After reading that reddit thead thumbs up to TransitAmerica for likely preventing the theft and sale of approx 74 of the units.
Uh... That's likely Proud himself...
Transit America
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1735990&p=10086156#post10086156
so suspicious, colocation provider hosted on namecheap shared hosting.
Who could it be?? A new colocation provider located in Texas hosted on NC.
Damn I didn't think of that. That's two levels of scams.
Well that's an unexpected investment.
Well I think you are right. Supposedly available for rent.
Thanks everyone for sharing information. If any one in here is still pursuing legal action sent me a DM (@jar?). We've set up a strictly vetted chat to discuss further steps against the guy.
I'd also like to add Trans America has been cooperative for all we know right now. I would be carefull pointing fingers in their direction. This could be a mix-up, but also scam inception like @IThinkUFailed mentioned..
@Cryptonite, username checks out.
Plot twist: Cryptonite is Joshua Prout, he set up the private chat to find out all the dirt people has on him and how to mitigate it. Also, to piss off @Jar even more. Stay tuned, folks!
lol, you really need to do it yourself like here in mexico...