My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice?

Posted by gotcompromised on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @12:21AM
from the self-post dept.

My Rackspace VPS was compromised and it wasn't until today (nearly 2 months later) I find out my dev box and blog server were both compromised. The first bill is over a thousand dollars and I can't afford it.

Unfortunately while chatting with customer server, I hit backspace by mistake closing the chat where the rep was telling me my server was compromised rather than shutting it off. So since it wasn't shut off, I didn't know they could be shut off (not available option for end-users), and I didn't want to keep getting billed (he didn't seem very receptive of my concern at that point) - naturally I deleted the 2 VPS servers. So now I have no idea what happened and the phone rep has filed a ticket with billing.

I'm trying to get my issue resolved, but I'd also like to know if anyone has some advice? Right now I seem to be stuck in a very difficult situation.

( 10 comments | 5 points | on HN )

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by fmisle on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @12:04PM (#9257456)

Hi there. I work at Rackspace and would like to try to help. Can you send your account number and/or ticket numbers to my team at [email protected]? I'll personally look into this for you. Thank you!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by gotcompromised on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @09:10PM (#9260681)

Sent, I'd appreciate any help. This is a difficult situation for me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by gotcompromised on Friday March 27, 2015 @05:30AM (#9275328)

Update: Still no help.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by viraptor on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @01:42AM (#9255064)

Call them up and try talking to billing directly about your case. They are likely to cancel your charges, or part of them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by rajadigopula on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @09:46AM (#9256474)

LOL.. they are reputed to steal money with unknown charges, not cancel and refund them. If they are that honest, they won't be charging the users unnecessary charges in the first place. Search online, there are thousands of people ranting about how they charged accounts even after the account deletion. Looks like the OP is one more poor soul victimised by the beggars. Fortunately in my case their greed acted much quickly, hence I escaped them within 15 days of opening account. However, thanks for your reply, I don't need to listen to any more jokes for a week at least.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by viraptor on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @07:55PM (#9260421)

The one place that can make the decision is Rackspace. OP didn't press on with contacting them, even though it's pretty much his only option at this point. What exactly do you propose to do? I haven't heard any idea from you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by rajadigopula on Wednesday March 25, 2015 @06:30AM (#9262052)

When one makes the sin of going with a company like them, unfortunately, there is no escape from the karma that follows. What you and me can really do is pray for the poor guy.

Looks like they made it their official policy to force small/medium account holders to flee so that they can spend their quality time with bigshot organizations who can throw money at the beggars without second thoughts - my personal understanding based on what I read from users in various online forums.

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Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by gotcompromised on Wednesday March 25, 2015 @12:58PM (#9264231)

This is spot on, they wont do anything.

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Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by gotcompromised on Tuesday March 24, 2015 @09:04PM (#9260653)

I have contacted them. I have called, e-mailed, and have an open ticket. So far no help, I will update later.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Rackspace VPS was compromised, thousands charged, advice? by gotcompromised on Wednesday March 25, 2015 @01:01PM (#9264256)

So far they won't cancel ANY of it. They are not receptive at all. I can't afford this and they don't seem to care.

[ Parent | on HN ]