A few years ago, the American Government seized a number of domain names that belonged to MegaUpload. Today the authorities still control those domains, but it seems that they failed to secure them. For example, Megaupload.org currently links to a soft porn portal.
MegaUpload was shutdown almost 5 years ago, but the investigation against it is still ongoing. Back in 2015, a New Zealand District Court judge ruled that Kim Dotcom and his fellow colleagues can be extradited to the US to face charges, but Dotcom appealed this decision. In the meantime, the American Government retains control over the company’s assets, including cash, cars, and a dozen of MegaUpload’s former domain names. Initially, they served a banner saying they had been seized as part of a criminal investigation. But now you will be quite surprised if you visit those domains.
For example, Megaupload.org is now hosting a website dedicated to soft porn ads. Other seized domains also show adverts. At the same time, it is taking place under the watch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is still listed as the administrative and technical contact for those domain names.
You may remember that something similar happened to the main Megaupload.com domain in 2015. At the time, it was traced back to an expired domain the FBI used for their nameservers, where someone else took over the domain name and linked Megaupload.com to scammy advertisements. Last year, the American authorities eventually fixed the situation by removing the nameservers altogether, but apparently they didn’t do this for other seized domains.
As a result, a few weeks ago the domain used for nameservers expired once more and was taken over by an outsider who tried to generate some cash from the FBI-controlled domains.
According to the domain WHOIS data, Megaupload.org still uses the old nameservers, so an outsider is currently able to control several of the seized MegaUpload domain names. Although the hijacked domains don’t generate much traffic, it’s still quite embarrassing to have them linked to soft porn and other ads. Kim Dotcom noted that the sloppiness was exemplary of the entire MegaUpload criminal case and FBI’s actions.
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