I dont know if this is the right sub for this and if not please point me to the right one.
I live in Germany and somehow got caught torrenting eventhough I was using a VPN (ExpressVPN). I am not sure if I turned the VPN off while downloading or seeding but somehow they obtained my IP and a law firm here sent me a letter with evidence against me. I dont need legal advice from you guys since I am already getting that from a lawyer. If the VPN was active at all times during the torrenting activity could they have found out my ip? They state that they caught on to me via a software named “Torrent-Logger”. After that they pinpointed it by using a so called Hash. They also state an exact time at which the download happened. The IP Adresse provided with the evidence is a different one than the one i have right now but they say that they’ve obtained my personal information through my ISP.
So my question basically is how did they obtain this data if my VPN worked the way its supposed to?
I’m no expert, but either: your VPN is leaking, you did not have it running, or you connected to a monitored tracker. Run your VPN, visit ipleak.net and also test torrents on that page. And make sure you have internet kill switch enabled.
I would be sure to at ALL times have qBittorrent set to ONLY use your VPNs interface (Found in Advanced Options)
Like u/kovica1 said… your VPN is leaking, you did not have it running, or you connected to a monitored tracker. Run your VPN, visit ipleak.net and also test torrents on that page. And make sure you have internet kill switch enabled.
Maybe you didn’t set up the killswitch and the vpn dropped but the file was still downloading. When I was living in Germany for a little while, I always used to torrent when using nordvpn and I never had any problems. You should carefully check your settings or just consider switching vpns.
Most probably expressvpn has logged your usage, if you have connected successfully.
But they have also proved that they dont log data.
So maybe due to some connection errors.
Here are some tips,
Don’t download from public torrents with very high seeds/ or activily participate in a torrent swamp.
Make sure your VPN has kill switch on and directly configured with the qbittorrent.
Go for private trackers, public trackers is vv risky.
Avoid popular TVs movies softwares and games (especially German studios) from PUBLIC TORRENT.
I personally feel that, instead for paying a VPN I would buy a seedbox/ real debrid (not much of a difference form seedbox, if you aren’t seeding ) for all torrents/ DDL. (Real debrid/premiumize has many hosters included). Been using for a month no letters till now.
Of you are in Germany, you normally have an IP address for a maximum of a day. Generally, you get disconnected (Zwangspause) and you reconnect a moment later with a new address. Depending on the VPN, this can mean it shuts down but your torrent program continues automatically when the link comes back. See other’s suggestions about a kill-switch or binding to the VPN.
Don’t get me wrong lawyers get here insanely expensive too. That’s Literarily a cheap lawyer for making approx 1-3 letters that’s it nothing more which one of the 3 letters is a standard Form with added information…
It’s not like a real case where the lawyers fight it out via letters and bullshittery.
Restarting a client without the VPN will do that but you have to be very unlucky to be picked up in that short interval. It seems you were.
Note that although the German copyright lawyers are tough, there are major problems about associating an IP address with a person, particularly when your connection may potentially be accessed by others (i.e. WiFi in an apartment building) There are some lawyers who will sort you out for about €300 or so. A lot but rather less than the usual amount proposed by the copyright lawyer.