A couple of days ago, there was this whole hype about SeedNation, a new Seedbox provider. Apart from offering the usual services, Seednation was providing some 600 odd boxes absolutely for free. The offer was very attractive and it immediately got publicity from several BitTorrent forums and blogs, driving a lot of traffic which was a very important factor for any new online service. We too got several E-mails requesting us to post an article about Seednation - these mails appeared to be from fans of the service, but we believe at least one of them was sent by a Seednation staff member. Either way we postponed publishing about it until we verified the service was legit. For us, this simply seemed to be too good to be true, and apparently, it wasn't just us who had similar thoughts. Several private trackers soon issued warnings about Seed Nation, raising security and privacy concerns. Quoted below is one such Mass PM sent by BitMe’s administration (BitMe is a well respected E-Learning tracker that is over 5 years old).

A site, http://www.seednation.net/ has come up and they are offering something that is literally too good to be true. A free seedbox. Here is the bad news boys and girls, with such things, if it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.

So far, I have seen reports of stolen passkeys, stolen accounts, stolen invites and the like. I can’t tell you what to do or don’t do, however, if you find your passkey or the like is stolen you will receive zero sympathy from staff for this.

So what is the point of this mass PM. Simply this, you use this exceptionally dodgy site at your own risk, and if you have been found to have been compromised, after you have received this warning (25/10/2010 at 20:15 GMT) you will have lost your account here. There will be no exceptions, there will be no.. “Oh I’m sorry I didn’t know.” Use this site at your own peril, but be aware that if your passkey or otherwise is found to have been compromised your account WILL be disabled, and any other private trackers you are on will probably toss you as well.

You have been warned.

BitMe wasn’t the only site to issue such warnings – a similar message was also seen on BitMeTV and a few other trackers. Either way, in a rather unsurprising turn of events, SeedNation soon shut down. For a brief period of time, their homepage displayed the following message:

SeedNation is closed. SLDKluster / Dhruv are the same person. He also was behind the scam of Leechbox. Seednation is now closed. If you where a member of SeedNation or had a seedbox, please join the IRC server to get your seedbox. The host / sponsor of seednation is now the owner of the domain, and has opened a case agaianst him. The old staff members foxhound, p, and d4rk have started #seedmasters, which will provide seedboxs on gigabit boxs legit. But not for free. It will be for people who purchase VIP.

or IRC: irc.digitalrebels.org #seedmasters

Come Hangout, and get your seedbox today! or come join and find out how you can get yours free!

Know linux? Know seedboxs? Become staff & get paid! Join IRC!

Seednation homepage, http://www.seednation.net/ appears to be down right now. While the new service may actually be legit, the whole SeedNation fiasco will no doubt be a public relations disaster for its owners. In the meantime, if you were a user of SeedNation’s free seedbox service, you might want to change your tracker passwords and reset passkeys just to be on the safe side.