Kickass Torrents shutdown latest news, update 2016: People warned against mirror KAT website that steals credit card details

Miguel Salonga Saturday, August 20, 2016

A fake Kickass Mirror website is operating to steal people's credit card details. | Twitter/KickassTorrents

A malicious fake website has popped up to take advantage of the torrent-hungry public and empty their wallets.

In the absence of one of today's top torrents resource, the public has been looking for alternatives to illegally continue downloading and sharing digital copies of several file types. It was a huge blow for the online community when U.S. federal authorities were finally able to seize the Kickass Torrents (KAT) website.

The Next Web reported that after the KAT website was successfully shut down, a bunch of fake websites hiding under the disguise of KAT's signature platform emerged online. Because these mirror websites are not actually genuine, they are not only useless for file sharing, they threaten to steal from people's bank accounts.

A particular KAT website clone, Kat.am, was already taken down once, but it managed to return. With the mirror website's return, it now asks people to sign up for their own personal accounts. It might look like the usual website sign-in procedure until users are asked to provide their credit card information.

Note that KAT never asked for bank account details or any private information from its users. Divulging such personal details to a highly suspicious torrent clone website will only bring about harm.

People might be fooled by the fake mirror site's message, saying that signing up for an account is absolutely free. Little do they know that by sharing their credit details, they might be paying for their downloads with a huge amount money, stolen by those taking advantage of KAT's disappearance.

Instead of looking for KAT mirror sites, people may resort to other popular torrents resources such as The Pirate Bay. When KAT was seized, The Pirate Bay became the top torrent website for 2016, International Business Times reported. The Pirate Bay was the top torrent destination of the online community, before KAT took the number one spot in 2015 and early this year.