1 Jan, 2018 → by ClaimboUser614883
website held hostage by hostmonster and sitelock!
2
9/13/2017 My website was shut down on 8/30/2017 for "violation of terms/malware" issues. There was no notice -- just completely shut down on that date. I didn't realize the site was down because I was busy WORKING, and only discovered it when trying to show something to a client on the site. I called the support number for Hostmonster, but was switched over to Sitelock from the Hostmonster support line. I was told by the person on the phone that my site did indeed have malware, and that for a mere $99/month PER SITE (I have 2 subdomain sites) they could clean up the site, protect me in the future, and get my site up and running again. I said that's a ridiculous amount of money and then the price came down to $59/month for the primary site, and $10/month for each of the subdomain sites. I still declined and told the rep I was being held hostage -- either pay up on my site stays down. I was informed I could try to remove the malicious code myself but they didn't recommend it. I used the chat feature for Hostmonster and got someone who SAID they ran a scan to see if there was malware. The tech said she found malware, and that I would need to remove it before they could get the site back up. She gave me a price of $99/ YEAR to get Sitelock to clean up the site and scan/clean up malware and viruses for a year. I needed the site up, and I'm not tech-savvy, so I had to capitulate. Got Sitelock, scan was apparently run for malware -- none found. So basically I was extorted into purchasing a product from a company that owns both Hostmonster AND Sitelock (EIG.) I've been a Hostmonster customer for years and never had a problem until recently. I'm beyond frustrated and angry that this scam is going on, and that I was a victim of it. I'm looking for a new hosting site, although EIG owns many of them as well. I took screen shots of the chat (interesting that they do NOT provide a transcript as most companies do) and also the Sitelock scan results showing no malware found on my site. I plan to blast on social media to warn others about this -- found many occurrences of the same thing happening to other websites. How is this different from the people who lock down your computer and demand a ransom to unlock it???