This is going to be a short one. You’re probably here after searching for “PSK Hosting” or “AlphaRacks”.
AlphaRacks is a web-hosting provider that deadpooled around May-June of 2019. My only experience with them was a short lived VPS package in 2017 (I cancelled it), and a small shared account for testing purposes. I only used it to track their abysmal uptime and make fun of it in public forums. Ha.
Anyone who used AlphaRacks knows their never ending wave of email spam. Their unsubscribe links almost never work. I eventually got them to actually unsubscribe me, but I completely forgot about my personal data that still existed within my dormant AlphaRacks account.
Fast forward to the 14th of June, and I get an email from “PSK Hosting”. Huh. They mention a “rescue effort” for AlphaRacks’ prior customers. Neat. But wait, how did they get my details?
After a quick glance at LowEndTalk, I see a thread where someone who got the same email discovered that they can login at PSK Hosting using the same credentials previously on AlphaRacks. I try it, and it works?! All of my personal data, address, etc is listed. Interesting.
A quick look at cached copies of AlphaRacks’ Privacy Policy show a sudden new clause that was introduced between May and the 13th of June that says:
Business Transfers
AlphaRacks at anytime may choose to buy, sell, or transfer assets. In these type of transactions, information about Customers as well as aggregated and anonymized data is typically one but not limited to the amount of business assets that are transferred. Moreover, if AlphaRacks or substantially all of its assets were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is reviewed and transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of AlphaRacks may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Cunts. OK, let’s contact these PSK Hosting peeps and see what they have to say. I open a ticket asking for complete removal of all personal information that was obtained without my permission and I receive a reply in less than a minute confirming the deletion of my data. At least they got that right.
Looking into this PSK Hosting join, it seems like they appeared out of nowhere around June 2019, how convenient. If I was to guess, they’re a shell company that wants to absorb previous AlphaRacks customers (that seem clueless, honestly) and then deadpool in a few months. It is summer after all… it’s only fitting we get yet another summer host!
TL;DR: I have no direct with PSK Hosting, but it appears to be a shady scam that is willing to illegally purchase user data (and probably sell it). Avoid like the plague.
I had a $7/yr VPS with AR for a couple of years. They stopped it a few times, maybe because it over used the resources. Overall it was a great deal. I knew it couldn’t last – and it didn’t . But that’s OK, I’ve signed up for a $7 /yr shared account with PSK. I’ll load all my sites high resource demanding sites onto that and flog that to death until I either get the boot or they close the show down like AR did. Yeah, I know they’re a probably bunch of scammers like AR, but it’s the… Read more »
It’s a vicious cycle. The more people pay for their services the more likely they are to continue scamming.
I do get you though, you can certainly make your money’s worth with the right expectations 😉
Please keep me posted! 🙂