March 25, 2010 by sharky
STN was one such tracker that thrust the pay-to-leech (P2L) scheme back into the spotlight; but many others - trackers that are much more popular - are essentially doing the same thing. It’s one thing for a tracker to charge its members for invites on the account (ie - pay2invite through donations) yet it’s an entirely different beast when invites are sold directly to the public. Aside from questionable moral aspects whereby a tracker is directly profiting from copyrighted content, it’s also alarmingly insecure & risky both for the tracker and its members. Nothing positive can ever come out of this method of "recruitment".
P2L Trackers Selling Invites…
Love it or hate it, P2L isn’t going away anytime soon. Below is a mostly-complete assembly of trackers that charge cold hard cash for entry.
• http://www.iptorrents.com/signup.php
— Unquestionably the most popular tracker on this list is IPTorrents, who went invite-only well over a year ago. Although IPT invites are incredibly easy to find, there will always be a handful of n00bs (or MAFIAA members) that opt instead to pay the $20 "VIP-Donor" fee to get through the door.
• http://heavensource.org/login.php?act=inviteme
— Newly-formed HeavenSource is an amalgamation of HeavenTracker and PolishSource; two once-popular Polish trackers. HS has never been open directly to signups, although members from one of the two original trackers are able to login with their account details. Moreover, both HT and PS offered IRC recruitment in the past, but this has been replaced with P2L access. 10€ (Euro) is the asking price.
— With an Alexa Rank of ~1 million, it’s amazing that this little drum & bass music tracker is able to charge for invites. We searched high & low for a GetTorrents review, but came up empty. $10 gives you VIP access and 2 invites on the account.
• http://www.thailandtorrent.com/vip2.php
— The minimum entry fee at ThailandTorrent (which includes 3-month VIP and an invite code) is 500 Thai Baht = $15.50 USD. We’re not exactly sure how this works internationally, but the payment is run through the Thai website called ‘truemoney’.
• http://scenefz.net/signuphelp.php
— It’s unknown whether or not non-Romanians are able to use SceneFZ’s telephone SMS-style of invite system, but the cost for an invitation is 4€ plus SMS fee and VAT.
• http://polskitorrent.pl/platnosci1.php
— Polskitorrent.pl claims to charge 10 PLN (złoty) for an invite but when we attempted to process the PayPal transaction, 13 PLN was implied (or $4.50 USD).
• http://hd-torrents.org/donate3.php
— Registered members at HD-Torrents who opt to donate will see a slightly different donation page than those who aren’t members. The biggest difference is in the donation price, which starts at a whopping 25€ for VIP access. What’s interesting is that on the donate3.php link (above) there’s no mention about how donators will evidently receive an account at HD-T, or even how to contact staff.
• http://www.arabfilms.org/donation.php
— Way down at the bottom of the ArabFilms registration page, you’ll need to supply an invite code or else find an invitation from an existing member. That, or make a donation for VIP access - which costs $20.
• http://www.appzuniverse.org/signup-donate.php, and…
• http://www.proaudiotorrents.org/signup-donate.php
— Both AppzUniverse & ProAudioTorrents are open for registration on the first of each month, but aspiring members who just can’t wait until then can pay the £5 (GBP) entry fee.
• http://forum.gfxnews.ru/pincode.php, and…
• http://forum.audionews.ru/pincode.php
— Similar to AU & PAT above, gfxnews.ru & audionews.ru are predictably open for signups a couple of days each month, usually from the 2nd - 4th. For those that absolutely must have instant access, check for their hourly signup code - or else pony up the minimum 10€ (Euro) donation.
• http://www.bttrove.org/public_forum/lwdonate.php
— We love this line at BTTrove, "We are sorry to inform you that we do not accept anonymous registrations at the moment. As a result you need an Invitation Code to register". Wha?! No anonymous registrations?! Newsflash to BTTrove: you’re charging $10 for a passcode, and everyone is using PayPal business accounts nowadays.
— You’ll need to cough up 3€ (+ VAT) either via SMS or PayPal in order to receive an invitation to XtremeZone.ro.
• http://mma-torrents.com/donate.php
— Non-members can pay (donate) $5 and up for a quick invite to MMA-Torrents.
• http://www.bit66.com/donateout.php
— No PayPal option on this Thai tracker, but a donation of 300 Bhat ($9.25 USD) to Bit66.com will get you in the door.
• http://diablotorrent.hu/signupsms.php
— DiabloTorrent doesn’t play games - their registration link points immediately to two different pay options. Non-members can pay via PayPal or SMS, and the price starts at 1,500 HUF (or about $7.50 USD).
• http://www.kannadatorrents.com
— KannadaTorrents blatantly charges $10.50 as a "membership donation".
— Depending on your geographical location, SMS prices will vary for access to Lapache. Also allows for PayPal donations at 5€, which is more expensive than SMS.
— We’ve no idea what kind of donation it’s going to take to get into Omnilounge, but to quote the site, "Sorry but all invitation codes already taken… However donations have been known to work magic…"
• http://www.desitorrents.com | http://www.dtinvites.com
— It’s certainly no secret that Desi-Trackers march to a beat of a different drum, and P2L/donations have become an acceptable part of the registration process. DesiTorrents price is a one-time cost of 10€.
• http://www.bwtorrents.com/donate.php
— BWTorrents is another high-ranking Desi tracker that charges for admittance. This one-time fee is $10 (or more, depending on VIP options).
• http://dctorrent.com/premium.php
— Desi Club Torrents doesn’t charge for all their accounts, and a donation is not required to signup, but ‘free’ signups won’t be able to access any of the movie torrents. And what’s a desi tracker without movies? - an empty tracker. Cost = $5.
• http://www.banglatorrents.com/donate.php
— From all of the Desi trackers in existence, we could only find 4 sites that charge a membership fee, and BanglaTorrents is one of them. Cost = $5.
• BONUS: http://soloestreno.com
— This one doesn’t charge anything, but beware anyways. At least two popular Spanish trackers (portorrent.com & torrentmas.com) now redirect to Soloestreno, which then links to another dubious 3rd party site where members must first create a profile, in order to download anything on the other sites. Not only will you have to supply a fair deal of personal info, so expect a lot of email spam, but the torrents are using public trackers. Avoid anything that has to do with perfilunico.com.
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