“Buy free software here! It’s fast! Oh, and did I mention legal?”, boldy boasts a daring scammer in an attempt to make a quick buck from the uneducated masses who now flock online for a quick top 40 chart fix. Within the last year, dozens more P2P-themed scams have wormed their way onto the internet, as more and more people have been drawn to the phenomena that is file-sharing. Unfortunately, not everyone’s first experience with P2P software is as pleasant as they’d have liked.
P2PForums has been actively reporting rogue P2P sites since early last year. Our list is nigh-on never-ending, with new scam sites popping up all the time, often when new file sharing software is released, such as eXeem, in which clone domains were set up before the developers of the application had even released a public beta.
Finally some bad news for P2P scammers. Yahoo! is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission has been asked to investigate websites which mislead customers into paying for services available freely elsewhere or making false claims based on the legality of the services “they” provide.
Quoted from Yahoo!’s source:
A Washington-based civil liberties group, the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it planned to file a formal complaint early Tuesday with the trade commission charging such Web sites with deceptive trade practices. The FTC has acted on previous complaints from the group, including one recent case over Internet spyware.
“They’re fooling people into spending money to buy products that are competing with legitimate products,” said Alan Davidson, an associate director for the group. “These are the people who are really polluting the marketplace.”
:: U.S. Asked to Probe Music Download Sites
:: Our Guide to Avoiding Rogue P2P Sites
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- New file-sharing sites hide users’ IDs
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