ShopTech EM2

scottalanmiller

Well,... they do (did) plan to be around a while longer:

Domain Name: SHOPTECH.COM
Registry Domain ID: 72657728_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Registrar URL: http://networksolutions.com
Updated Date: 2015-01-29T00:17:40Z
Creation Date: 2006-07-18T06:26:25Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-06-14T04:00:00Z

That these things linger on for years after they are purchased is what makes dead websites so suspicious.

scottalanmiller

@gjacobse said:

And not that it is the proper way to manage things,.. but some years ago when my server was being attacked, I used the Firewall (Untangle) to block whole Octects of IPs from countries... like China

This is not actually blocked. Blocking means it looks like this site is gone. This is the content blocked but the site isn't blocked. They are actively serving me a website that claims I'm had a security issue and acts like I am an internal user that should have access to the firewall.

They use the word blocked, but they didn't actually block me from their server in any way.

Making it that much more suspicious.

scottalanmiller

For anyone wondering, it has been five hours and neither of their two Twitter accounts nor their Facebook account has responded.

scottalanmiller

They went a full working day without responding on any of their available channels. Does "out of business" seem like such a crazy assumption now? Imagine someone non-technical getting that web site, no response on any channel for a full day and no public activity and every advertising link that they have going nowhere.

scottalanmiller

Just an update, it has now been a full day and a half of what they list as being their business hours and neither Twitter feed, the Facebook account nor their website are responding nor have their posted here. They have been sent the links to the thread, screenshots of their downed site are posted to their Facebook feed.... no responses. They've been asked publicly in three different places if they are still in business. No responses anywhere.

gjacobse

I was about to come back to this and follow up.

That is a shame.

scottalanmiller

Gives stuff to chat about, at least I don't need support right this moment so it because a point of interest that they have disappeared. If they were fully functioning it would be far less interesting.

gjacobse

@scottalanmiller said:

Gives stuff to chat about, at least I don't need support right this moment so it because a point of interest that they have disappeared. If they were fully functioning it would be far less interesting.

Just out of curiosity - is email one of the avenues you reached out through?

coliver

@gjacobse said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Gives stuff to chat about, at least I don't need support right this moment so it because a point of interest that they have disappeared. If they were fully functioning it would be far less interesting.

Just out of curiosity - is email one of the avenues you reached out through?

Is their email publicly listed if you can't get to their website?

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

Is their email publicly listed if you can't get to their website?

Listing their phone number is one of the things that they "block". If you try to look it up they show you the blocked web site up above

scottalanmiller

@gjacobse said:

Just out of curiosity - is email one of the avenues you reached out through?

How would one look that up if every public channel of communications is either "down" or "down with a message claiming that it is blocked?"

Suppressing their phone number and email is the very thing that they are doing.

scottalanmiller

Following up again. Nearly a week. I think there is little question that they are out of business. Not responding to any channel at all. It seemed like a silly thing a week ago based off of their website being allowed to remain down in such a horrific fashion for some locations. But now, it seems that there is little chance of them being actually in business.

JaredBusch

If you ever stop being so damn childish and accept the fact that it is you not them you can easily get to their website from anywhere with a US based IP address.

Once there, you can easily see their number listed on their homepage.

Or you could even stick their damn name in google and get their phone number.

Then you could call them like any normal person would instead of only complaining about it and hitting them via social media that they obviously do not monitor.

JaredBusch

And call them inside normal US business hours. Like normal people do.

IT-ADMIN

the same webpage for me (country : qatar)

JaredBusch

@IT-ADMIN said:

the same webpage for me (country : qatar)

Yes, that is not a surprise because we have already discussed and determined it is a poor WordPress plugin that displays this.

scottalanmiller

@JaredBusch said:

If you ever stop being so damn childish and accept the fact that it is you not them you can easily get to their website from anywhere with a US based IP address.

Once there, you can easily see their number listed on their homepage.

Or you could even stick their damn name in google and get their phone number.

Then you could call them like any normal person would instead of only complaining about it and hitting them via social media that they obviously do not monitor.

But I've reached out to them through all of the channels that they have provided to their customer. That's an important component. I've given them a full week to respond through any means that they themselves provide publicly.

scottalanmiller

@IT-ADMIN said:

the same webpage for me (country : qatar)

Thanks, that helps to verify that this is not just an issue here. They are picking and choosing who can see their website, whitelisting probably.

scottalanmiller

Or did when they were still in business. That they are not responding to questions of being out of business implies that they are, indeed, not in business any longer. I've contacted them directly through three different direct channels that they own and no response for a week.

coliver

@scottalanmiller said:

@IT-ADMIN said:

the same webpage for me (country : qatar)

Thanks, that helps to verify that this is not just an issue here. They are picking and choosing who can see their website, whitelisting probably.

Probably not manually. It sounds like a CMS plugin that blocks "known" attack vectors. Not the right or even reasonable thing to do but that's what it sounds like.