Free Software Update

Back in Dec, I wrote about the Almost Free Software offers that I kept receiving in the mail and how it clearly wasn't a smart or good deal. Since then, the parties pushing their "Downloadable Software" have gotten even more aggressive (I'm getting probably twice the number of offers today) and they have varied their approach considerably.

I still get the emails that have the list of software offers for like $79. I also get emails with images such as the one below:

Or

Or:

Or:

Office 2007 is available for enterprise users from November 30, 2006. The end user version is available from the beginning of 2007. The 2007 Microsoft Office System, also known as Microsoft Office 2007, is the most recent version of Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was scheduled to be made available to volume license customers on November 30, 2006, with general availability following in early 2007. Office 2007 contains a number of new features, the most notable of which is the entirely new graphical user interface called the Ribbon, replacing the menus and toolbars that have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception. Office 2007 also includes new applications and server-side tools. Chief amongst these is Groove, a collaboration and communication suite for smaller businesses which was originally developed by Groove Networks before being acquired by Microsoft in 2005. Also included is Office Sharepoint Server 2007, a major revision to the server platform for Office applications, which supports "Excel Services", a client-server architecture for supporting Excel workbooks that are shared in real time between multiple machines, and are also viewable and editable through a web page. While Office 2007 includes many new features, one has been removed entirely: Microsoft FrontPage is no longer being developed; its successor is the Microsoft Expression line of products. Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise
Retail Price $899.00
Our Price $79.95
You save $819.05

Or:

Downloadable Software (DS) is a rapidly growing company with a high quality software. You've come to the right place if you need professionally implemented programming solutions for your usage. Thousands of contented customers have already benefited from our software and solutions. Hundreds are joining this community every day.
We deliver superior software products and services that empower our partners and customers to dramatically improve their development, deployment, integration and management of quality applications all over the world.

Most popular OEM products:

Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Retail Price $299.00
Our $79.95

Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise
Retail Price $899.00
Our $79.95

....

These offers come from all kinds of people (most likely falsified) with subjects tell me that Carysoft, michelsoft, Jefferysoft, Jinnysoft, sanitysoft, etc., etc. have great "80% offers off MICROSOFT/ADOBE SOftware". I've even gotten some "sóftwáre dównIóád cóúpón" (again, the special characters are an attempt to squeeze by spam filters).

The domains/hosts where you are asked to go include:

• www.sobaka-oem.com (currently the most popular)
• daikal2.eu
• www.laga-soft.com
• cl.rmsofto.eu
• lloemd.eu
• buratinopedorino.eu
• nasdaqkrutchert.com
• kozel-oem.com
• ektroem.com
• kvaka-soft.com

What should you do?

Stay away from those sites. As Robert Heinlein often said: TANSTAAFL -- Their Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. If it sounds too good of a deal, it is too good of a deal.

I haven't dug deep enough into the site to figure out if they are just trying to steal your identity or to sell you bogus software, but I'm convinced that it's one or the other.

Tags : scam / spam / identity theft / rip off / tanstaafl / microsoft / adobe / vista