Piracy sites rely heavily on third-party advertisements to generate revenue. Unlike legitimate ad networks, the ads on these sites are often unvetted. Clicking a button to play a movie often triggers a redirect to a malicious site or initiates a download of ransomware, spyware, or adware. This can compromise your personal data, corrupt your hard drive, or even hijack your device.

The domain names were like shapeshifting clouds: tamilyogi.com , then tamilyogi.cc , then tamilyogi.foo , .bar , .watch . Every time the legal authorities—the digital police—blocked one address, Baba would simply buy a new island. This game of whack-a-mole became the central legend of the site.