Cheap software

A question for the team, I came across a company selling what appears to be cheap software, not sure how and keep getting marketing emails the latests offer is for Photoshop CS3 for £4.99 yes just £4.99 on a disc. There have been CAD offers, MS Office etc

Has anyone else used this company ? how reliable or safe etc etc is this type of software?

There is of course the old wisdom of if the deal looks to good to be true etc !!!!

John

At best it's likely to be pirated software. At worst a scam to grab your credit card details. Unless you have very good reason to suppose otherwise.

You must know full well that it is of course pirated software, a quick check online shows that Photoshop CS3 is nearly £600 on Amazon. If the programme on the disc actually installs and runs it is very likely to include your special free gift, namely a trojan keylogger that will send home to daddy every so often all your passwords and logins for online banking , shopping and even the model engineers forum. I have a copy of Lexia software to run diagnostics on Citroens, it sends my anti virus mad even trying to install it, so I run it on a lap top that never goes anywhere near the internet.

Professional looking site, so was the one from which I bought a download key for office 2016 on Ebay. emails from them promised that it was 'kosher'. Microsoft confirmed that it was an invalid key, it took threats of negative feedback to get my money refunded.

The old adage is - if it looks too good to be true - it is

Read the Terms and Conditions. They say things like

We specifically disclaim any implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. ...

By purchasing this software you agree that our maximum liability for any damage caused by the software is limited to 100% of the purchase price of the software. There is no warranty for the program, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties provide the program “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you....

etc.

Presumably JohnF is new to eBay. Its only a few seconds work to look at any sellers feedback where its obvious that there are a lot of unhappy customers.

99.1% is not a good number and I normally would not even bother to look to see why its bad. If a sellers feedback is not 100% and the item is something I wanted, I would investigate and make a judgement based on what the negative feedback was for. I have heard of a silly buyer who gave negative feedback for a delivery problem that was caused by them not having their postal address correct!

Ian P

Umpty-million dollar question:

Would you install anything provided by a company whose advertised products include

http://www.key-software.net/products/covert-key-logger/

MichaelG.

.

Edit:

I note that JohnF's links have been removed 

Moderators: I am happy for you to remove mine  ^^^

[or not] ... as you see fit.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 14/06/2017 21:06:40

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 14/06/2017 22:12:08

I got the impression that the OP was seeking advice rather than abuse;

<I edited that bit out of the first post so I'm editing out of the quote as well - Neil>

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 14/06/2017 22:16:33

I have no doubt whatsoever that CS3 for £4.99 is dodgy.

It is (or was) possible for people who own CS2 but have lost their CD and key to download the files and a replacement key from the Adobe website, however this is not (as widely advertised) a free version you have to create and verify a proper account and declare that you are a legit CS2 owner.

Neil

Just get Gimp and LibreOffice for free and have done with Adobe and MS.

Edited By Roger Provins 2 on 14/06/2017 22:24:36

Libre Office and OpenOffice are fine for home use, but (having tried) I wouldn't want to rely on them for business use.

Neil

Serif offer, or did until recently, genuinely free legitimate copies of their software which includes a good photo editor and a basic graphics programme. The free offer is for a copy of their last version, not the most recent version, of the programme and some features are disabled. However, all of the key functions operate fully.

Do a search for free Serif software: it comes from the Serif website.

James.

PaintshopPro is regularly offered at good prices through the Corel website, I recently got it for about £20.

From memory of previous experience, PaintshopPro is much nicer to use than Serif's equivalent.

James.

You did well there Neil, if I remember rightly the last upgrade cost me more than that, (even on a special offer for existing users).

Edited By V8Eng on 15/06/2017 07:41:43

I guess businesses can pay Microsoft prices and set it against tax.

For basic photo manipulation, re-sizing for the web, cropping etc. FastStone Image Viewer is pretty good.

It even does basic Colours, Curves Levels etc. these days.

Regards

Bill

About two years ago CS2 was offered free from Adobe including installation Key, I know this because I got it and still use it

Roy

Edited By roy entwistle on 15/06/2017 09:07:39

This what Cnet said at the time...

"Adobe has not officially released the CS2 software for free. Instead, it has cancelled its CS2 license management servers because of a technical glitch, so for those with existing licenses it is now offering downloads that do not require contact with the licensing servers. While Adobe admits this may be seen as it giving its software away for free, this service is intended for those with existing Adobe CS2 licenses."

https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/adobe-releases-creative-suite-2-for-free/

Edited By Roger Provins 2 on 15/06/2017 09:17:34