[vntok]

> I brought down a scamming operation

This seems like clickbait. Being told your server's Apache config has been deleted and you need to recreate it is barely an inconvenience for a scammer whose operation probably brings home much more cash than the hour it will take them to get back to normal ops...

Why would you even tell them what you did to their server in the first place?

[dewey]

> for a scammer whose operation probably brings home much more cash

There's probably a very long tail of scamming operations that are only profitable because the operator is in a country with very low cost of living. Based on the short list of domains on the server, it might not be the biggest operation.

[_yyku]

Author here. I did wrong. And I'm sorry I didn't stay on the right side of the law. I advise against doing the thing I did. I know it can be found on archive.org. I removed the post so people don't follow it for "guidance" on how to break the law. Sorry to everyone. I wish I could remove this post from hacker news. It is a dark page for me today.

[yellow_lead]

Yeah you need to install a rootkit or something more persistent.