Farm Owners Sue The Company That Sent The Whole Internet To Their Address

A couple renting a farmhouse discovered that they shared it with millions of phantom lodgers and have now sued a company for over $75,000. All default IP addresses were being directed to their home.

Over 600 million people were known for living at this address as all default or unknown IP addresses were redirected to the farmhouse and many different people visited the home looking for numerous identities. People knocked their door, harassed them and woke them up in the morning asking or searching for missing people, computer fraudsters and more.

How Did This Happen?

It seems as though everyone who hid his or her IP address in the US would then be seem to appear in the same location. This meant millions of people were thought to be surfing the Internet from the Kansas farmhouse. The distressed couple had to deal with calls from police, people searching for a missing smartphone and IRS agents. The location used by company MaxMind was an even address that they never comprehended people would actually visit. They were very wrong and all types of individuals went knocking on the household making demands, there has been some immense confusion and the couple have suffered as a consequence of this mistake.

Sueing MaxMind

MaxMind have now been fined and the figure is thought to be in excess of $75,000. The database was full of IP Addresses which ultimately point people in the direction of where someone is using the Internet from. The difficulty with this is that some IP addresses are hidden or redirected and in this instance they all pointed towards the same place. The managers have since spoken out and declared that their mistake was down to them not realising it would be reached on a household level where people would physically search for a particular address.

Avoiding Confusion

Although this was due to a mistake from MaxMind and how they conducted their database it is possible for hackers or other computer fraudsters to copy your address or IP address. It is easily preventable but it has been known in similar reports to avoid being associated with online wrong-doers then be sure to secure your device. It’s important to find software and hardware from MyMemory, Cartridge People and Currys PC World vouchers. Secure the safety of your computer with an anti-virus or malware protector with numerous software to keep your internet browsing safe.

 By Daniel Treasure, 10th August 2016