On 7 January 2006, three days before the auction of the final 1,000 pixels was due to end, Tew received an e-mail from an organisation called "The Dark Group", and was told The Million Dollar Homepage would become the victim of a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) if a ransom of $5,000 was not paid by 10 January.
Den 7 januari 2006, tre dagar innan auktionen av de sista 1 000 pixlarna var tänkt att avslutas, fick Tew ett e-postmeddelande från en organisation kallad "The Dark Group", där det framgick att The Million Dollar Homepage skulle utsättas för en DDoS-attack om han inte betalade 5 000 dollar innan den 10 januari.