"Stay out bad web neighborhoods" .. and that's a true saying! First of all, I'm a freelance graphic designer that fell victim of a "dirty download" from an otherwise "normal" looking Photoshop content website. Here's what happend -
Not too long ago, I was randomly surfing the internet trying to find some new Photoshop add-ons to use on some of my projects (I use Adobe Photoshop CS3) that are sometimes use in my professional work. Somehow, I came across site called "StreetCarCircus.Net". It was an odd looking photoshop hobbyist site that got my attention and it seemed to offer a variety of different PS downloads. After taking a look at this place, reading some comments left by the "users", I decided to download a few .abr's and other PS content files - thinking it might be worth a try... and boy was I wrong!
After downloading from streetcarcircus.net I installed the .abr files (or "brushes") to the PS3 application as normal. Almost immediately afterwards, my photoshop started really acting up... it froze, messed up projects and some of the 'tools' stopped working... well, the program was essentially damaged. Not only that, but my computer was started acting a little weird along with it.
I had no idea was the heck was going on. After opening whatever it was that I downloaded from SCC.Net (aside from the abrs') - my computer froze, I had to reboot the system, and run a virus scan and it found nothing - yet the firewall was sending out warning alerts??? EVERY time I try to use something from that site it always crashes my PC. Now I was becoming very skeptical of StreetCarCircus.Net.
Before I started to blame this place of wrong doing, I had to selectively investigate those shady PS files from that site... With help from my friend (who is also computer tech) that worked on my PC and indefinitely ruled out it indeed was PS files from StreetCarCircus.Net. Even after uninstalling/deleting the .abr and PS files (it also toke a particular long time figure out and delete the other corrupted files that was damaged by SCC.Net content) - now, my computer is substantially "infected" by some kind of strange malicious coding.
An email was sent to the webmaster ([email protected]) about this problem and not surprisingly - my complaint obviously went nowwhere - but I did received a nasty emails back. They denied having any foul code, and once I threatened to report them to their hosting service - they changed the site layout and possibly removed the code. With my computer in such bad condition, I lost cool with this and StreetCarCircus.Net was reported. This complaint is also going to be posted on different "blacklists", forwarded to surpasshosting.com and to all the major Photoshop communities.
StreetCarCircus.Net is "privately" owned. This site must be apart of a "network" within many other sites. However this site owner, so called "Sarah-Jayne" is, or could possibly have many other 'filthy' Photoshop content sites under different names, and URLs.
...a little research at GoDaddy.Com's 'WHOIS database' confirmed this -
Registrant:
Sarah-Jayne Harris
Banda Lodge
Binfield Heath
Henley-on-Thames, England RG9 4NF
United Kingdom
Registered through: Domain Name: STREETCARCIRCUS.NET
Created on: 30-Jul-06
Expires on: 30-Jul-08
Last Updated on: 30-Jul-07
Administrative Contact:
Harris, Sarah-Jayne [email protected]
Banda Lodge
Binfield Heath
Henley-on-Thames, England RG9 4NF
United Kingdom
07787701575
Technical Contact:
Harris, Sarah-Jayne [email protected]
Banda Lodge
Binfield Heath
Henley-on-Thames, England RG9 4NF
United Kingdom
07787701575
Domain servers in listed order:
Aforementioned, this "person" might have more sites registered with other web hosts using multiple aliases.
The reason why I came to ukconsumercomplaints.com.Com is to publicly voice my problem and bring attention to wrongdoers. I just hate to see innocent people get fall prey to spiteful online pranksters who get their kicks by causing trouble for others...
No one should have to put up with the abuse I did.
Hopefully other graphic artists will read this and avoid StreetCarCircus.Net.
anonymous
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.
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