I was asked recently to install a copy of a well known application on the workstation of a user. The user had purchased it from a highly recommended website that day and was impressed when they found they could download a zip file version.
Alarm bells started to ring when the price was mentioned. The application, which retails in the UK for around £350 was purchased for $65 via a credit card. When we came to install it, it became apparent why it was so cheap.
- Free Keygen in every box
The serial was provided by way of a keygen – a small program called a key generator which produces illicit serial numbers which will allow a program to be installed – which isn’t something that comes in the retail package.
Clearly the website in question has some questions to answer as it would appear that they are fraudulently selling pirated software under the guise of legitiment retail software. However there is a greater question about the security of the users credit card number which is easily far more valuable to any dodgy website.
The software is now is the Recycle Bin and the user is looking for another supplier for their software.
