Phoney Software Sales Sites
Question from reader:
My wife is interested in purchasing a product from the following site. I am wondering if there is any way to find out if the site is legitimate or not, or what their reputation is?
<strange-looking site name follows>
Answer:
I don’t even have to check out the site. It’s pretty much a given that your wife has stumbled across, or more likely been targeted by, the unscrupulous operators of fly-by-night software distribution sites.
Such sites usually have a fairly professional look to them but there are characteristic indicators of their nature.
Spelling and grammatical mistakes for one, although current sites are much better in this area than those of just a few months back. More telling, besides the nonsensical prices, is that the actual web site address is often "cloaked" or hidden and is almost surely operating offshore.
In the case of the site you ask about the redirect is occurring through an Edmonton-based company. Without the assistance of that company it isn’t possible to learn much more about the culprit.
Typically, a site such as this has a shelf life measured in single-digit days. Use at your peril. If product is delivered, a highly unlikely prospect, it comes on a copied CD or is downloaded with an illegal, hacked unlock code.
Of course the professional look coupled with the almost irresistible pricing, usually around 10 cents on the retail dollar product price, makes for a terrific lure.
Some of these sites even offer so-called customer testimonials.
The interesting point about these testimonials is that a quick check of the domain registry will prove that they cannot be legitimate.
How can you check that, I hear you asking?
Well, try the Network Solutions domain registry lookup service (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois) and enter the domain name of the site professing to offer these fantastical prices.
For example, for the site www.softwareliar.net , enter the last two portions (softwareliar.net) into the search term box. Click on “Search” and wait for the data to be returned. The key bit of information is the “date created” field. With these software sites this is often just a day or two before you receive the unsolicited come on.
Of course the testimonials are fake. The company didn’t even exist two days ago.
You know, the old adage applies to Internet commerce: if something seems too good to be true it almost surely is. I mean, what are you thinking? That a company such as Adobe, Microsoft or Macromedia is going to be selling their software at ten cents on the dollar through an offshore outfit registered yesterday? Not a chance.
And don’t think about writing these people unless you plan to do it from a throwaway e-mail address. You’ll definitely be moved to the “warm body” list if you do. Your name (and address) suddenly become more valuable when the spam mailers realize they have a “live one.”
No, the phony software come on is just the latest in a long line of scam offerings. You might as well rent a banner aircraft from Pitt Meadows and flash your credit card and pin numbers across the lower mainland.
Stay away. Stay awake!
Everything about these promotions is suspect. You might be tempted to find some solace in the FAQ or support services these sites offer. Don’t be.
Here’s what item 11 of an FAQ I recently looked at had to say:
“Isn't this considered software piracy?”
“Absolutely NOT. We are providing a service protected under US Copyright law Section 117. This is completely legal and in no way are we breaking any Copyright laws.”
Well, there is a Section 117 but it clearly does not apply to this merchandising racket. 117 says that US citizens may make a backup or archival copy of software for maintenance purposes. There’s nothing in there about selling a thousand copies to customers overseas!
If that isn’t enough, go ahead and begin the purchase process. I’ll bet the operators don’t even have a secure page (oh, it will be labelled “Secure Page” alright but it isn’t) for the credit card transaction. What do they care? All they want is that credit card number and the security PIN.
Here’s the “About Us” for the company I used as the basis for this article:
“Our company has been in business for over 3 years. We have sold the best software in the world for the cheapest prices on the net. Since most all internet businesses are not legitimate we ask that you just buy one of our cheapest products to start out with, because then once you find out how great we actually are we know you will come back to us for all your software needs. Our site can not offer refunds however we will do everything we can to make sure that your purchase is working properly for you if not we can issue a full refund.”
What on earth does that last sentence mean?
Again, stay away!
Peter Vogel is a Physics and Computer Sciences teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School (www.ndrs.org). Suggestions and comments may be sent via email to peterv@portal.ca.
My wife is interested in purchasing a product from the following site. I am wondering if there is any way to find out if the site is legitimate or not, or what their reputation is?
<strange-looking site name follows>
Answer:
I don’t even have to check out the site. It’s pretty much a given that your wife has stumbled across, or more likely been targeted by, the unscrupulous operators of fly-by-night software distribution sites.
Such sites usually have a fairly professional look to them but there are characteristic indicators of their nature.
Spelling and grammatical mistakes for one, although current sites are much better in this area than those of just a few months back. More telling, besides the nonsensical prices, is that the actual web site address is often "cloaked" or hidden and is almost surely operating offshore.
In the case of the site you ask about the redirect is occurring through an Edmonton-based company. Without the assistance of that company it isn’t possible to learn much more about the culprit.
Typically, a site such as this has a shelf life measured in single-digit days. Use at your peril. If product is delivered, a highly unlikely prospect, it comes on a copied CD or is downloaded with an illegal, hacked unlock code.
Of course the professional look coupled with the almost irresistible pricing, usually around 10 cents on the retail dollar product price, makes for a terrific lure.
Some of these sites even offer so-called customer testimonials.
The interesting point about these testimonials is that a quick check of the domain registry will prove that they cannot be legitimate.
How can you check that, I hear you asking?
Well, try the Network Solutions domain registry lookup service (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois) and enter the domain name of the site professing to offer these fantastical prices.
For example, for the site www.softwareliar.net , enter the last two portions (softwareliar.net) into the search term box. Click on “Search” and wait for the data to be returned. The key bit of information is the “date created” field. With these software sites this is often just a day or two before you receive the unsolicited come on.
Of course the testimonials are fake. The company didn’t even exist two days ago.
You know, the old adage applies to Internet commerce: if something seems too good to be true it almost surely is. I mean, what are you thinking? That a company such as Adobe, Microsoft or Macromedia is going to be selling their software at ten cents on the dollar through an offshore outfit registered yesterday? Not a chance.
And don’t think about writing these people unless you plan to do it from a throwaway e-mail address. You’ll definitely be moved to the “warm body” list if you do. Your name (and address) suddenly become more valuable when the spam mailers realize they have a “live one.”
No, the phony software come on is just the latest in a long line of scam offerings. You might as well rent a banner aircraft from Pitt Meadows and flash your credit card and pin numbers across the lower mainland.
Stay away. Stay awake!
Everything about these promotions is suspect. You might be tempted to find some solace in the FAQ or support services these sites offer. Don’t be.
Here’s what item 11 of an FAQ I recently looked at had to say:
“Isn't this considered software piracy?”
“Absolutely NOT. We are providing a service protected under US Copyright law Section 117. This is completely legal and in no way are we breaking any Copyright laws.”
Well, there is a Section 117 but it clearly does not apply to this merchandising racket. 117 says that US citizens may make a backup or archival copy of software for maintenance purposes. There’s nothing in there about selling a thousand copies to customers overseas!
If that isn’t enough, go ahead and begin the purchase process. I’ll bet the operators don’t even have a secure page (oh, it will be labelled “Secure Page” alright but it isn’t) for the credit card transaction. What do they care? All they want is that credit card number and the security PIN.
Here’s the “About Us” for the company I used as the basis for this article:
“Our company has been in business for over 3 years. We have sold the best software in the world for the cheapest prices on the net. Since most all internet businesses are not legitimate we ask that you just buy one of our cheapest products to start out with, because then once you find out how great we actually are we know you will come back to us for all your software needs. Our site can not offer refunds however we will do everything we can to make sure that your purchase is working properly for you if not we can issue a full refund.”
What on earth does that last sentence mean?
Again, stay away!
Peter Vogel is a Physics and Computer Sciences teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School (www.ndrs.org). Suggestions and comments may be sent via email to peterv@portal.ca.
posted by Peter Vogel at 1:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home