The Myka BitTorrent Box Looks Like a Scam

Written by Ernesto on January 18, 2009

Myka, a new BitTorrent enabled set-top box was about to enter the market last year, and received widespread coverage online. The project soon went silent, but this weekend they have made the news again with another promise to ship soon. Don’t fall for it though, it has scam written all over it.

scam Initially, the pre-ordered Myka boxes were scheduled to be shipped in the Summer of 2008, but months have passed, and nothing happened. When we reported on the ‘product’ last year, we noted that we hadn’t seen one “in the flesh” and now, almost a year after the product was announced, all the people who ordered a box are still waiting for it to be shipped.

In addition, the company ran banner campaigns on several websites that were never paid for – TorrentFreak included. Myka’s Dan Lovy contacted us last year to ask if we were interested in promoting Myka through a banner campaign. After several emails back and forth we agreed on a good rate, and put the banner up in the sidebar. The campaign ran for over a month, but we had no choice but to remove it when Dan went silent.

We never received any money for the banner campaign, and we were not the only site Myka scammed into advertising their ‘product’ for free. From then on all emails remained unanswered, until May 2008 when Dan emailed us to say that they had received a round of funding, and that he would pay up soon. That was the last time we heard from him.

Around the same time, a discussion on DigitalSpy got quite heated when someone seemed keen to promote the device and was confronted by users who were concerned at the lack of a real company name, amateur website, no real-world address and no contact details other than an email address. Indeed, even the Myka.tv domain details are protected. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

Then the whole project seemed to die. Customers who had ordered the device never heard from the company again, and the website was never updated. Only a month ago NewTeeVee reported that they were still promising to ship the pre-orders in the Summer of 2008, while through neglect the Myka forums were taken over by spammers.

Six months later after being informed of the mess on their forums, someone claiming to be Dan Lovy posted on CrunchGear yesterday, saying “I’m Dan Lovy, chief cook and bottle washer at Myka. Just spent a lovely evening cleaning out the forum. YES, the factory is springing to life.”

But what inspired this reappearance by Mr Lovy? In an unforeseen turn of events, Myka has announced it is ready to ship their set-top box in the coming weeks. The news was picked up by Engadget and the previously-mentioned Crunchgear, with Dan Lovy himself encouraging people to order a box, saying “Have you ordered your MYKA today?”

No thanks. When building a business and embracing partners and customers alike, you have to build trust. Our advice; don’t buy on their promises, they break them. Time and again.

Update: Only a few minutes after we published this article Dan Lovy contacted us to say [insert all possible excuses here].

So, he is alive, and we have no doubt that he’s a real person. We did find out that he never got the funding he told us about a while back. Last week he wrote this at the Small Business Ideas Forum: “Most recently I launched www.myka.tv We generated hundreds of news articles and orders (alas, in this economic climate we have been unable to raise the money needed).”

Saved in: Tor-Rant
Tags: dan lovy, myka, scam

Previously: Music Piracy Not That Bad, Industry Says

Next: Web Sheriff Takes Down RLSLOG

114 Responses

1 Jan 18, 2009 at 19:02 by Roze

Did they think that the BitTorrent community were good targets for scamming or what?

2 Jan 18, 2009 at 20:30 by none

off topic sorry,

but is demonoid down or is it just me that cant connect

3 Jan 18, 2009 at 21:47 by pink panther

Sounds like a bizarre product since anyone hardcore on BT would probably be able to build their own. I have a neat little BT appliance, running Linux, that can also double as a high-powred computer workstation :) Heck, you could buy a gPC for less.

4 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:05 by MykaGuru

Sorry all for running silent. We picked the worst time in the last 75 years to launch a product. The credit crunch hit us at the worst possible time. Just as we were making arrangements for our first production run.

The good news is our first run is in production. We should have them here in 4 to 6 weeks.

Stay tuned, the website is being updated and I finally cleared out all the spam on the forum.

Torrentfreak, you will get your money.

5 Jan 18, 2009 at 18:12 by ??neh

What the hell, this too?

6 Jan 18, 2009 at 18:23 by dxtr

Someone actually though about this… I guess people are really bonkers about torrents.
http://stuckinframes.blogspot.com

7 Jan 18, 2009 at 18:26 by Waldo

Yay I'm so glad TorrentFreak got scammed, couldn't have happened to a more shitty site :)

8 Jan 18, 2009 at 18:28 by lll

Why would one pay 300-460$ for this anyways. One could just buy a PC for that money.

9 Jan 18, 2009 at 18:32 by TorrentFreak

Thanks, love you too :)

10 Jan 18, 2009 at 18:58 by EZEE

LOL!

11 Jan 18, 2009 at 19:02 by EZEE

Or an XBox with a nice big HDD to stream movies to your big ass HD flatscreen (or in our case, small ass big performance HD projector), but since we already had that discussion a little while back…

I hate cheats, and con men. Hope you didnt lose much TF.

With ad-block on FF I dont really see many ads.. in this case its an extra good thing ;)

Cheers!
eZee.se

12 Jan 18, 2009 at 19:05 by Ethereal

the price is but a petty detail

13 Jan 18, 2009 at 19:07 by Roze

I would say that price is not a trifle.

14 Jan 18, 2009 at 19:28 by EZEE

Working for me…

15 Jan 18, 2009 at 20:04 by Nat The Cat

Yh looks like its down cant get my lost tracker working what a bummer..

16 Jan 18, 2009 at 20:08 by Waldo

Ahh ok sorry I was just jokin, I love TorrentFreak thats why Im even here. Sorry you got scammed.

17 Jan 18, 2009 at 20:29 by Anon

What exactly was supposed to come with the "Mykaa BitTorrent Box"?

18 Jan 18, 2009 at 20:29 by TorrentFreak

Let's hug…

19 Jan 18, 2009 at 20:55 by dragus

why would anyone buy this why you can buy best media player on market the popcorn hour which does torrent and whole lot more and is abit cheaper.

20 Jan 19, 2009 at 02:58 by Roze

I wrote "for everyone," not just for me.

Second, words in general are not "tuff" to me but reading yours is somewhat troublesome, irritating, and problematic – to everyone. Each language, including English, has syntactical rules which define valid sentences, and sentences which do not follow these syntactical rules either lose their meaning or have their meaning obscured.

21 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:01 by Roze

I wrote "for everyone," not just for me.

Second, words in general are not "tuff" to me but reading yours is somewhat troublesome, irritating, and problematic to everyone, due to the fact that it does not follow proper English syntax.

22 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:03 by Roze

I wrote "hard for everyone," not just hard for me.

Second, words in general are not "tuff" to me but reading yours is somewhat troublesome, irritating, and problematic to everyone, due to the fact that it does not follow proper English syntax.

23 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:58 by Roze

If you are Dan Lovy, the only reason why there would be a fallout is if it is true that it is a scam. If you have actually fulfilled (or will fulfill in the near future) your promises and agreements, then there would be no fallout.

24 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:21 by Roze

I agree, North Korea is much better… isn't it?

25 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:23 by Jim

Please post this to http://www.scamhell.comso others can easily find out scammers in one place.

26 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:27 by DaronK

Something you have to deal with, People hate america and scammers :) I love good old red white and blue.

Why don't they just steal your identity instead?

27 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:42 by Mr. Broom

Why stop there?

28 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:43 by mister_playboy

I also had some trouble using it. Working now, though.

29 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:50 by mayormc

LOL! The Myka web site proudly says "Not built by kids" I'm sorry but nothing says "built by Kids" more than that. Maybe it should say "Designed mostly in California by Apple Computer". "Made by Thieves"

30 Jan 18, 2009 at 22:54 by abercrombie

you'de have to suffer from some carpal tunner syndrome type shit to even want to pay for this anyway. no?

31 Jan 18, 2009 at 23:27 by Myka Owner

Because they're not gay.

32 Jan 19, 2009 at 05:30 by Roze

However, the majority of the U.S. voters did.

33 Jan 18, 2009 at 23:37 by JohnJones

well ya never know until ya try it now do ya?

anonweb.pro.tc

34 Jan 18, 2009 at 23:37 by OhMightyVlog

Let the DMCA begin *lol*

35 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:33 by wostrich

I love the internet and you crazy mofos.

36 Jan 19, 2009 at 06:34 by haskins69

yes I feel the rich and those In power would kill us.
not only would , but could and have already
big middle class you don't know any mericans do you?
if you did you'd know the middle class is going the way of the doo doo just as the rich want you poor so they can use you as cheap labor
they want the middle class poor too , the poor are to busy trying to live and get by to stop them
you know you people really only see the Gov. and rich from here the "people" like me are not like them and if you ever met any of us and didn't pre- judge us you will find we're just people like you struggling daily to eat , pay bill, ect…. and being screwed by our gov.
so you feel bad they screw you , well you don't pay them like us
our taxes pay them and they still screw us how you think that feels , fucked but no kiss the story of my life , LOL

37 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:42 by Freak

Maybe you shoudl remove this afrticle http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-on-tv-080321/as they are referencing it on their own webpage as being good news.

38 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:42 by Not a myka owner

How do you know?

39 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:55 by captain kirk

beam me up scotty!!!!

40 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:55 by scotty

ah haven't got the power captain

41 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:56 by Roze

That article has already been edited so that it has the words "Myka might be a scam" on it.

42 Jan 19, 2009 at 00:58 by Justin Thyme

Its guy love… between two guys

43 Jan 19, 2009 at 07:07 by Andrew

All the scammed promoters should do a hardcore ad campaign with banner ads reading something like “Myka scams its business partners, they’ll scam you too.” That’d be fun.

44 Jan 19, 2009 at 07:40 by slowbowels

I heard the tobacco lawsuits were initiated by state govs (who receive lots of lobbying funds to keep tobacco taxes low) to keep the tobacco industry alive. The damages to the states’ medicaid funds paled in comparison to what a class action lawsuit of individuals (lots of them and plenty of lawyers to jump on that bandwagon) would’ve done to the tobacco industry. Not to mention how much damage could be done to the status quo by thousands of recently rich deathly ill smokers and families willing to take a payout for their judgement.

45 Jan 19, 2009 at 02:39 by haskins69

if dots make it hard for you to read then words must be real tuff for you

46 Jan 19, 2009 at 02:55 by Roze

I wrote "for everyone," not just for me.

Second, words in general are not "tuff" to me but reading yours is somewhat troublesome, irritating, and problematic – to everyone.

47 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:13 by crappy

This is the 2nd time torrentfreak has promoted scammers…first it was the LIFETIME VPN services now this…what the hell is going on torrentfreak?

48 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:16 by Roze

Perhaps you might not have remembered, but the "Lifetime VPN Service" was actually never promoted, because there were doubts about it from the very beginning.

49 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:17 by Dan Lovy

Dan Lovy here. Myka is not a scam. This is doing a disservice to everyone working very hard on this project. I am not hiding behind any online alias. If anyone would like to discuss this issue, they can write me at dan@myka.tv

thanks

50 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:19 by Say it isn't so Joe!

I'm going to try my best not to make this comment as a bash TF, but I want to just express an opinion that I'm sure has crossed a few minds at TF lately. Has our lack of investigative proceedures compromised our credibility with our readers? The answer is, unfortunately, YES. The credibility of TF should, once written, be trusted by the readers. Not viewed and thought of, as a story or article posted today – ok ignore it now and if in a week it is not retracted I can read it so as not to get scammed.____Start doing your homework please… but that is just one opinion I guess.

51 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:23 by Roze

If you are Dan Lovy, you are not exactly an impartial source of knowledge or judgment.

52 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:27 by Stuffy (Bob S.)

I will write you here Dan since you seem to respond more frequently by those bashing you publicly than those asking for a refund at the very email addy you've posted. So when can we expecting a refund to something that was paid for and pre-ordered yet doesn't even exist yet? Why don't you post your address so we can communicate by real mail or a phone number for your customer service people? I suspect you are not Dan Lovy at all, or you're just trying to shoot us a load of horse hockey.

53 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:35 by Dan Lovy

It's really me. A quick answer to your questions. Our address will be posted on our new website, We have charged NO ONE. The pre-order list was simply a list. We told google check out that the price was $0.00. To be honest, we were overwhelmed by the initial response and picked the worst time in 75 years to finance a new venture like this. We have our act together now. Watch how we execute.

54 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:38 by Dan Lovy

I never claimed to be. I have to defend my team. We have a lot blood sweat and tears at stake here.

55 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:38 by Roze

Even if you are Dan Lovy, you are still not an impartial source of information. If you are Dan Lovy, everything you write as of now is still not corroborated.

56 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:41 by Roze

If you are Dan Lovy, you would do a lot better to defend your team by corroborating your statements and fulfilling your agreements than to make unsupported and uncorroborated statements on TorrentFreak comments.

57 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:42 by Dan Lovy

That's the challenge in the internet journalist world. Pointing the 'scam' finger at someone would require a legal vetting in the print world. Here, it can be done with the press of a button and once out there it's damage can be significant. I am sure we will be dealing with the fallout for months. We have no recourse but to go about our business, make a great product and be judged on that.

58 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:51 by Dan Lovy

Again, I'm not claiming to be an impartial source of information. Nothing is corroborated on a comment board. That's the nature of the beast. A public shouting match rarely gets at the truth. It is entertainment. I'm happy to return any emails.

59 Jan 19, 2009 at 03:57 by Roze

A public shouting match rarely gets at the truth.
If you are Dan Lovy, then why do you continue posting these unverified statements on TorrentFreak? It is an exercise of futility. The only way to corroborate these statements is to actually show it, not just say it.

60 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:01 by Dan Lovy

What unverified statements. What do you want me to show?

61 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:01 by Roze

Wherefore do you inquire? Have you an interest in me or what?

62 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:06 by Roze

Like:

Myka is not a scam.

Our address will be posted on our new website, We have charged NO ONE. The pre-order list was simply a list. We told google check out that the price was $0.00. To be honest, we were overwhelmed by the initial response and picked the worst time in 75 years to finance a new venture like this. We have our act together now. Watch how we execute.

You see, you have made a lot of unverified statements as of late. If you are Dan Lovy, then it may be in your best interest to corroborate them rather than continue to make unverified statements.

63 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:06 by Roze

Like:

Myka is not a scam.

You see, you have made quite a few unverified statements as of late. If you are Dan Lovy, then it may be in your best interest to corroborate them rather than continue to make unverified statements.

64 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:15 by Dan Lovy

Interesting.

Myka is not a scam –
In the next few days we will be showing our UI, our team etc. and in a few weeks shipping our product. Don't know any better way to verify.

It's a simple truth, we have not charged any one. How do you suggest I verify that statement? Were we overwhelmed with our responce? I could attach screen shots of our google analytics showing the 145,000 visitors to our website.

How do you verify comments in an internet comment forum?

65 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:16 by haskins69

Uh……….did you really poll ever one??

and if it irritates you so much don't read it!

66 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:24 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone."

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable to others, then I suggest that you make it less irritating by using proper English and proper English syntax.

67 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:25 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone."

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable to others, then I suggest that you make it less irritating to others by using proper English and proper English syntax.

68 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:26 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone." I am not personally complaining about my ability to read your comments, but I am making a suggestion so that other people are able to actually understand what your comments are attempting to convey.

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable to others, then I suggest that you make it less irritating to others by using proper English and proper English syntax.

69 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:26 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone." I am not personally complaining about my ability to read your comments, but I am making a suggestion so that other people will be able to understand what your comments are attempting to convey.

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable to others, then I suggest that you make it less irritating to others by using proper English and proper English syntax.

70 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:26 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone." I am not personally complaining about my ability to read your comments, but I am making a suggestion so that other people will be able to understand whatever meaning your comments are attempting to convey.

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable to others, then I suggest that you make it less irritating to others by using proper English and proper English syntax.

71 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:26 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone." I am not personally complaining about my ability to read your comments, but I am making a suggestion so that other people will be able to understand whatever meaning your comments are attempting to convey.

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable to others, then I suggest that you make it more understandable by using proper English and proper English syntax.

72 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:27 by Roze

Perhaps you did not read my comment, but it said "irritating… to everyone." I am not personally complaining about my ability to read your comments, but I am making a suggestion so that other people will be able to understand and comprehend whatever meaning your comments are attempting to convey.

If you have any interest in making comments that are understandable and comprehensible to others, then I suggest that you make it more understandable and comprehensible by using proper English and proper English syntax.

73 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:30 by Roze

If you are Dan Lovy, I suggest that you have an independent party verify your statements. As I have stated already, you are not exactly an impartial source of information.

I do not know the mechanics of how this pre-ordering thing, but perhaps they can verify it.

You can do one simple verification and that is to post your address on your website immediately. It does not require a long time to do this.

Of course, shipping the product is the most important part of this verification, one that could not be done immediately. But there are other things that could be done immediately, and they have been suggested above.

74 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:32 by Roze

If you are Dan Lovy, I suggest that you have an independent party verify your statements. As I have stated already, you are not exactly an impartial source of information.

I am not familiar the mechanics of how this pre-ordering thing, but perhaps they can verify it.

You can do one simple verification and that is to post your address on your website immediately. It does not require a long time to do this.

75 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:51 by Roze

Well, it seems like you were you were speaking of the country itself, not of its people. If you were, then I would say that it is reasonable to judge the country of Nazi Germany (but not its people) by Hitler.

If, however, you were speaking of the people, then I would agree.

76 Jan 19, 2009 at 10:52 by Pantman

If Dan wants to do something to show he is genuine, how about him paying his TF bill? TF could confirm here that he has done it.

77 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:58 by Roze

this is true in all country's and more so in ones where they are poor or where you have no choice
Does this imply that it is less true in countries where there is a big middle class?

they get in they do what the rich want not what the people what
In actuality, they do what the rich want only so far as the people want. If the people want things to be done in favor of the rich, then that is what shall happen. Around the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, that is essentially what happened in many cities, where "political machines" have formed: many poor immigrants voted for these corrupt political machine bosses because those immigrants supported them, because they provided for these immigrants in various ways. Even so, the rich do not always get their way, especially considering the 1898 Spanish-American war, which businesses were more against than for.

78 Jan 19, 2009 at 04:59 by Roze

this is true in all country's and more so in ones where they are poor or where you have no choice
Does this imply that it is less true in countries where there is a big middle class?

they get in they do what the rich want not what the people what
In actuality, in a democratic society (thus, assuming that we are post-feudal here) they do what the rich want only so far as the people want. If the people want things to be done in favor of the rich, then that is what shall happen. Around the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, that is essentially what happened in many cities, where "political machines" have formed: many poor immigrants voted for these corrupt political machine bosses because those immigrants supported them, because they provided for these immigrants in various ways. Even so, the rich do not always get their way, especially considering the 1898 Spanish-American war, which businesses were more against than for.

79 Jan 19, 2009 at 05:12 by haskins69

Uh syntax , proper english?? huh I might of missed a few periods or commas, but that really shouldn't make it hard to read since , well if you understand english it should be easy , if not the don't read it as I said.
I may have miss spelled a word or two but their close enough for some one who knows english

and I did read your post thats why I asked "did you really poll everyone ??" just miss spelled "everyone"
reason I asked is well everyone is not bitching about it , just you.
so are you the site english teacher , or do you just enjoy giving people hell about periods , commas, and spelling ?

Oh and syntax [ what ever the hell that is they don't teach syntax in the midwest high schools and devry collage I went to was just worried about plagerisum] so I stupid there , you got me on that tell what it is and I'll try and fix it

hell I been trying to live by your rules , less……….. and !!!!!!!!!!!! and ????????????
what the hell else you want?

80 Jan 19, 2009 at 05:19 by Roze

Maybe it is not so bad to the extent that it be completely unreadable, but I do suggest that you improve your English syntax.

they don't teach syntax in the midwest high schools
Well, they should have taught proper English syntax, and even if you were never taught, I do suggest that you improve it by yourself.