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Launch promo burned me twice, am I cursed?

Deals & Offers by tinaworm 26 replies 1.8K views
tinaworm

Member OP

6 #1

I do not believe in curses. I believe in insufficient due diligence. I am listing my errors for the community.

- Founding customer deal one: OVHcloud, november 2024. 40 percent lifetime discount. Folded march 2025.
- Founding customer deal two: Vultr, june 2025. 50 percent first year. Folded august 2025.

Identical marketing language. Identical "limited to first 100" urgency. Identical control panel. I did not notice.

Red flags I now recognize:

  • No company registration number on site
  • About page photos from stock image library
  • Ticket responses at identical hours despite "24/7" claims
  • ASN registered 2 months before launch

Others may add to this list. I will not fall for this again.

-t

worst bandwidth, best stories
lucgone

Member

Le Baguette

#2

Since 2 days I search if they are back under new name your list is good I add: the "founder story" with photo from unsplash it is possible to do that? Reverse image search always lol

Vive la résistance... électrique
hankels

Member

52 VPS and counting

1 #3

I run 52 boxes across 9 providers and I've been burned 4 times my rule now: $/GB/RAM under market by 30%+ = exit scam in 6-18 months. No exceptions. Vultr was offering 8GB for $3? Yeah. Bye.

Also: check ASN history. Same upstream? Same routing policy? Same weird packet loss pattern to Frankfurt?

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite
tomchan

Member

3 #4

The kernel is 5.4.0-42-generic from 2020 and the 

hostnamectl
shows "cloudimg" just like... well. Just like OVHcloud did.

Not saying. Just saying.

works on my bench ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
KE

Member

#5

The hosting world is small, there is Vultr and OVHcloud, same heart, different skin. I check the ASN, same /24 announced from same upstream in the same city. You are not cursed, you are just not looking. Sorry, but true.

LichunLars

Member

#6 
OVHcloud:  154.2ms to FRA via 3356
Vultr:   154.5ms to FRA via 3356
HostHatch:   154.1ms to FRA via 3356

Route via 3356 adds 12ms vs direct peer. All three identical. Same pop, same congestion pattern 14:00-18:00 UTC.

Not a curse. A rebrand.

1ms or I don't want it
prague1983

Member

btw I use Arch

#7

Same upstream same scam, classic rebrand

oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
MA

Member

#8

Same control panel but did you check WHOIS dates?

larryjeong

Member

#9

8GB for $3 is screaming exit scam I feel you

$3/year. 128MB RAM. Pure happiness.
tinaworm

Member OP

8 #10
hankels said:
$/GB/RAM under market by 30%+ = exit scam in 6-18 months

I had this rule for hardware, not for cloud. Lesson learned. The Vultr deal was $2.50 for 1GB, not $3 for 8GB. Still too cheap. I am updating my spreadsheet.

keywill said:
You are not cursed, you are just not looking

I looked. I looked at price, at panel screenshot, at "reviews" on a site that now redirects to crypto casino. I did not look at ASN, at WHOIS, at traceroute. This is the due diligence I failed.

My new checklist before any "founding customer" offer:

  • ASN registration date > 2 years
  • Route to my target city not via same single upstream as previous scam
  • Company registration verifiable in that country's business register
  • Price within 15% of Hetzner or BuyVM for same specs

Hetzner is not perfect. They are boring. Boring is good.

worst bandwidth, best stories

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