Vice's Motherboard Explores Murky World of Premium Site 'Scrapers'

Vice's Motherboard Explores Murky World of Premium Site 'Scrapers'

LOS ANGELES — Vice-owned tech news site Motherboard released a report this morning about the murky world of rogue actors “scraping” models’ content on premium platforms to share, and sell,  alongside scraping tools through Discord servers.

Earlier this afternoon, Discord told Motherboard reporters Samantha Cole and Robert Cox that the company had removed some servers "where people were trading and selling databases of stolen videos and images from creators, as well as sharing tools to continue scraping more content."

The original report focused on the misidentified "data leaks" supposedly plaguing leading platforms like OnlyFans and others. These so-called "leaks," Cole and Cox explained, were actually the product, not of elite hacking, but of much more mundane, low-skills practice known as "scraping."

Though grabbing content from premium sites like OnlyFans manually, downloading videos one-by-one, “would be laborious and time-consuming,” Cole and Cox wrote this morning, “a user with some basic technical knowledge can automate this process and collect content by using a tool called a ‘scraper.’ This software churns through the OnlyFans site and downloads whatever videos and photos a user has access to.”

According to the Motherboard article, “any subscriber could run one of these programs and locally download all of the content a model has behind a paywall, then re-host it on free sites, resell it, or in the worst cases, use it to dox and harass models.”

The Motherboard investigation identified what the writers called “an entire supply chain of people stealing sex workers' labor using scraping programs, without permission, in some cases by the hundreds of terabytes.”

This morning, Cole and Cox also zeroed in on Discord servers selling scraping services, software and instructions.

"Some people own server farms that download terabytes of data every day from OF [OnlyFans]," a developer of one of the OnlyFans scrapers who goes by the handle Digital Criminal told Motherboard.

Scraping tools included Chrome browser extensions, Python scripts and a Windows program, some of which were successfully tested by the tech news site. Motherboard reported that “Google removed an OnlyFans scraping Chrome extension when approached for comment.”

"The data I scrape is resold to a few clients who either own adult websites that host pirated content or people who resell content on Discord. I only handle OnlyFans though," another developer identified as "DHRB" told Motherboard. "It really is just going down a rabbit hole. One person sells to another, and then that person sells to another, and so on."

Scraping's Victims

Motherboard also interviewed adult and cam performers with premium accounts, like Romi Rain and Mistress Harley, who stressed their feelings of violation and helplessness as victims of this blatantly unauthorized use of their data and IP.

ManyVids’ Bella French, JustFor.fans’ Dominic Ford and FanCentro’s Kat Revenga also spoke about scraping of models’ content.

An OnlyFans spokesperson told Motherboard that “the platform has a dedicated anti-piracy team that issues DMCA takedowns on behalf of its creators.”

"This procedure is inclusive of all required notices to move any infringement up to litigation if target websites refuse to comply," the spokesperson explained. "OnlyFans also notifies the offending domain registrars and hosting services as well as reporting to all major search engines. With a duty to help battle against illegal piracy, OnlyFans is firmly in the fight to protect user content. Takedown success rates this year have been over 75 percent across offending image hosting sites, torrent providers, and cyber lockers."

Cole and Cox reported that after the publication of their initial article, Discord “removed multiple servers and banned the owners of each,” according to a Discord spokesperson.

"Discord prohibits the sale, dissemination and promotion of cracked accounts," the spokesperson continued. "We ban users and shut down servers that are responsible for this behavior. In cases of copyrighted material, we respond promptly to DMCA takedown requests and take the appropriate action."

To read the original Motherboard article, “Inside the Underground Trade of Pirated OnlyFans Porn,” click here. For the afternoon update, “Discord Removes Servers Dedicated to Pirating Porn,” click here.

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Strike 3 Holdings Sues Meta for Pirating Vixen Media Group Content to Train AI

Vixen Media Group owner Strike 3 Holdings filed suit in federal court this week, accusing Facebook parent company Meta of copyright infringement and alleging that Meta has extensively pirated VMG content to train its artificial intelligence models.

Pineapple Support, Streamate to Host 'Navigating Grief and Loss' Support Group

Pineapple Support and Streamate are hosting a free online support group to help performers cope with grief and loss.

Friday is Final AV Compliance Deadline in UK

Friday, July 25 marks U.K. media regulator Ofcom’s deadline for user-to-user services such as tube, cam and fan sites to implement its requisite “highly effective age assurance” measures for preventing minors from viewing adult content.

AEBN Publishes Popular Searches for May, June

AEBN has released the top search terms for the months of May and June from its straight and gay theaters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Ofcom Releases Transparency Reporting Guidelines

Ofcom, the U.K. media regulator, has made public its official guidance detailing how online service providers — including adult sites — will be required to publish annual transparency reports on their efforts to protect children from online harms.

New AV Rules Take Effect for Ireland-Based Sites

Ireland’s Online Safety Code came into force Monday, including a provision requiring adult sites headquartered in Ireland to implement age assurance measures beyond self-declaration.

XBIZ Amsterdam Calls on New Startups for 'Spotlight' Program

XBIZ is pleased to announce that its new “Startup Spotlight” programming will make its European premiere at XBIZ Amsterdam 2025, set to take place Sept. 2-5 at the Jakarta Hotel Amsterdam.

Texas Resumes AV Lawsuit Against Aylo Following SCOTUS Decision

A district court judge in Texas has unfrozen the state’s $1.6 million lawsuit against Aylo for allegedly failing to comply with age verification requirements, Bloomberg Law is reporting.

JuicyAds Wins Trademark Infringement Case Against Fraudulent Domain

JuicyAds has won its World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) case against a website using a similar domain to impersonate the company's site and defraud customers.

Anissa Kate, Jordan Starr Top AEBN for Q2 of 2025

AEBN has published its top-selling stars for the second quarter of 2025, with Anissa Kate landing atop the leaderboard for straight theaters and Jordan Starr heading up the gay rankings.

Show More