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Anybody know something about this skyrimmods hoster?


Tasheni

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www.modskyrim.com

I stumbled over the site and tried to figure out who is the owner, but they use privacy tools to hide informations from who is requests.

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1 hour ago, Tasheni said:

www.modskyrim.com

I stumbled over the site and tried to figure out who is the owner, but they use privacy tools to hide informations from who is requests.

I would say that it most probably is not a legit site, as while I was checking it in response to your post, I came across SkyUI for download, in direct violation of the permissions on its Nexus Description page:

SkyUI - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12604

Under Permissions:
Upload permission
"You are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances"

I have already informed the SkyUI team of this.  Also, on that Modskyrim site, there is this that is posted on each mod page:

"This content was uploaded by website visitors. If you notice any mistake, please let us know."

Going by that, it would seem that anyone can upload anything - and with no checks to see whether permission has been received to do so.

Frankly, it seems kind of shady to me.

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Quote

"This content was uploaded by website visitors. If you notice any mistake, please let us know."

I did not find any option to upload anything. But I agree, this looks like a pirating site. If you click on downloads you strand here: https://dl-file.com

And this company let you make money if people download your content.

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I first checked for the Unofficial Special Edition Patch - which is not hosted there, and then checked for SkyUI.  Once I saw SkyUI, that pretty much was all I needed to see, and I stopped checking further.  
But, just now, checking further, they are hosting the Legendary Edition Patch.  Have messaged Arthmoor about that.

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They host my Frost SE as well... who is gave me just the country code LT - no idea how and where to contact to adress this violence.

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Also came across Arthmoor's Alternate Start, and Pandorable's NPCs - males (messaged her, as well).  I am sure I could find a whole bunch more.  Am going to notify Nexus about the site - maybe they can send an advisory out or post something regarding that site to inform a wider base of mod authors (I'm guessing most authors here will probably see this - at least I hope so).

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Just sent off a message to one of the Nexus staff that I have communicated with in the past.  Don't know what, if anything, they can do, but at least they have been informed of this issue.  Will post if and when new information becomes available.

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I just saw my "Kill Velehk Sein and Get His Treasure" mod, which I did not give permission to upload. My policy is that you are not permitted to distribute my mods, or any derivatives or patches thereof, unless you explicitly ask me and I approve.

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I think that the best thing would be for anyone who has contacts with mod authors, to inform those that you know to check that site.  I don't know what can be done, as it seems that it is purely a pirate site and, more than likely, will just ignore mod authors.  I have not seen anyone link it anywhere, and this thread is the first I had heard of it.  If I do see it linked in the Steam forums (and I have not mentioned the name of the site there so as not to encourage people to visit it), I will immediately report it as a pirate site.  Steam can be fickle at times as to their responses to reports (especially the SSE forum), but they do seem to have improved somewhat.  In the meantime, I am using what resources are available to me to do what I can - though this is more along the lines of keeping people informed and making them aware of the situation.

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I just heard back from my contact at Nexus.  As regards posting something to inform Nexus members:

"I will pass your suggestion on via an internal channel.
Well, the admins might be off already (weekend) and most likely will not read it before next week.
Anyway, it will at least be visible for all members of the staff/moderation team."

Every little bit helps.

As for me, I have messaged the few mod authors that I know and have informed them of this site and the need for them to check it, and have warned several people on the Steam forums via personal message that if they see any links to that site, they should report it to Steam as a mod piracy site.  Should I get any further information, I will post it here.

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2 minutes ago, Tasheni said:

I posted in the Skyrim Forums on nexus and on Discord, creator's channel.

Great, Tasheni!  The more the word gets out, the more likely it is that something can be done.  I am thinking of contacting Bethesda, as well (though I have no contacts there - not that that ever stopped me - LOL), but they are usually not very responsive.  Of course, If we can find a Creation Club mod posted to that site, that would make a major difference.  But that will have to wait till Monday,

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The site is definitely shady as hell, and I'd strongly suggest you cease visiting it since they're not even bothering to encrypt the connection. Sites like this are notorious for embedding malware into their code and since this is clearly a warez site, it's definitely dangerous.

After backtracking their DNS data to their provider, it's very clear that it's not  legit operation even at the ISP level. Their website is literally an ascii art of a pony and a bunch of garbage following it. It's very likely the site is being run by a cracking group.

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I've passed along the warning to as many people as I can and have posted about it in the SSE forum on Steam in the major discussion thread (without providing the link in the forum itself); there really is not much more that anyone can do except as Arthmoor says - don't visit it.  It's bad enough they are stealing people's mods, what we don't need is them stealing people's personal information, as well, or spreading viruses.

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I've been told on one of the Discord servers I'm in that this site, and the poneytelecom.eu provider in general, has a history of dealing in warez, malware, trojans, and other illegal activity. It's apparently bad enough that supposedly the French government is aware of it, but for some reason has yet to remove them from the net.

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One of the people in our informal group on the Steam forums also ran a check and came up with this information:
Altbert - 
"I haver run a DNS check on this website (dnschecker.org) and found it to be (co-)hosted on various servers: US (7), Canada (1), Russia (1), South-Africa (1), Netherlands (1), France (1), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), Austria (1), UK (1), Denmark (1), Germany (1), Mexico (1), Brazil (1), Malaysia (1), Australia (2), Singapore (1), South-Korea (1), China (1), Turkey (1), India (1), Portugal (1), Ireland (1), and Bangladesh (1).

It would be a good idea if everybody in each of those countries would report the malicious site (modskyrim (dot) com) to the hosting provider. You can find the hosting provider through dnschecker.org (you may have to google a bit, but it's important to find the culprit)."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/154643795211522292/?tscn=1631317970#c3038230013027140568

 

Though, obviously, from what you have posted, Arthmoor, reporting to the hosting provider would accomplish nothing as it would seem that the provider may in fact be part of the problem and co-operating in and supporting the site's activity.

I have forwarded all this new information to Nexus as well, and come Monday, will see what further steps I can take.

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On the off chance that the FBI is as opposed to the international theft of IP and follows through on their claim to investigate every case reported, you might take all the data you have collected to https://www.ic3.gov/ and file a report. 

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The IP resolving to multiple locations just means they're also using a CDN. That CDN provider may not know what kind of content they're dealing with and if they can be uncovered it would be prudent to let them know.

The FBI won't get involved since this isn't a big money case like Megaupload was.

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Great topic... shite site!  Great catch Tasheni :highfive:

Thanks to everyone who helped out here.  These kinds of sites are nothing short of predators and totally illegitimate.  It's good to see the community in action here to stop these people.

Adventure on dear friends, Phat:blackhand:

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I informed the BSI in Germany about it and contacted a security expert I know from austria for informations about what to do or who to inform. I guess there will be no satisfying solution, but one has to try. The security expert knows many authorities and maybe has an idea whom to contact further.

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12 hours ago, Tasheni said:

I informed the BSI in Germany about it and contacted a security expert I know from austria for informations about what to do or who to inform. I guess there will be no satisfying solution, but one has to try. The security expert knows many authorities and maybe has an idea whom to contact further.

Sounds good, Tasheni!  At the very least, if enough people in authority are approached about this matter, and by a sufficient number of people, that increases the possibility of something being done.

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