Author Topic: Scumbags Hall of Shame (Read 18554 times)

Curt · « **on:** January 26, 2010, 03:50 AM »

Please read http://oncallnerd.com/blog-spam-hunt/ for proper context
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Scumbags Hall of Shame:

I know DrmRemoval now can be added to this list
Any others?

y0himba · « **Reply #1 on:** January 26, 2010, 08:01 AM »

I am so glad to see Xilisoft on that list.

Bamse · « **Reply #2 on:** January 26, 2010, 08:41 AM »

I am glad to see he mentioned download.com being used to promote such quality and spyware-free products

Uh, brothersoft - he won't get many affilate deals for a while... If there is one conspiracy I believe in it is the production and distribution of crapware.

Not sure I would put Sothink in this category but would have to check. Real production might be over shadowed by aggressive marketing.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #3 on:** January 26, 2010, 11:15 AM »

I am so glad to see Xilisoft on that list.
-y0himba (January 26, 2010, 08:01 AM)

Any chance I can get you to expand on that a bit? A friend recommended their DVD/Audio copy/riping software to me the other day ...(some friends are brighter that others)... I haven't tried any of it yet, and am thinking perhaps I should not given your comment.

Curt · « **Reply #4 on:** January 26, 2010, 11:31 AM »

Not sure I would put Sothink in this category
-Bamse (January 26, 2010, 08:41 AM)

- it's not a 'category'. The blog author believes Sothink to be part of the same company as the other names listed.

Curt · « **Reply #5 on:** January 26, 2010, 11:33 AM »

I am so glad to see Xilisoft on that list.
-y0himba (January 26, 2010, 08:01 AM)
Any chance I can get you to expand on that a bit? A friend recommended their DVD/Audio copy/riping software to me the other day ...
-Stoic Joker (January 26, 2010, 11:15 AM)

The blog author is not so much picking on their programs as on their spam,

Curt · « **Reply #6 on:** January 26, 2010, 11:34 AM »

Please read http://oncallnerd.com/blog-spam-hunt/ for proper context
-Curt (January 26, 2010, 03:50 AM)

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #7 on:** January 26, 2010, 11:42 AM »

I am so glad to see Xilisoft on that list.
-y0himba (January 26, 2010, 08:01 AM)
Any chance I can get you to expand on that a bit? A friend recommended their DVD/Audio copy/riping software to me the other day ...
-Stoic Joker (January 26, 2010, 11:15 AM)

The blog author is not so much picking on their programs as on their spam,
-Curt (January 26, 2010, 11:33 AM)

Right... Caught that part when I read the blog post ... I was wondering if y0himba had another reason for disliking the company in question.

Bamse · « **Reply #8 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:04 PM »

Yes Curt most of them obviously belong to the same "category", Sothink does not. As far as I know they have never been in the dvd, video converter business. More specialized tools for web dev and flash stuff, been around for years. Not clear from his list why they are listed unless sothink is just a cover for other interests.

Curt · « **Reply #9 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:19 PM »

... the same "category", Sothink does not. As far as I know they have never been in the dvd, video converter business. ...
-Bamse (January 26, 2010, 12:04 PM)

http://www.sothinkmedia.com/

click thumb:

Scumbags Hall of Shame

scancode · « **Reply #10 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:25 PM »

http://www.sothinkmedia.com/
-Curt (January 26, 2010, 12:19 PM)

http://www.sothink.com/

I think sothinkmedia is a spinoff... Sothink/Sourcetec definitely seems webdev for me

Curt · « **Reply #11 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:28 PM »

http://www.sothinkmedia.com/
-Curt (January 26, 2010, 12:19 PM)

http://www.sothink.com/

I think sothinkmedia is a spinoff...
-scancode (January 26, 2010, 12:25 PM)

No, the link is from the bottom of Sothink's homepage, "Sothink Sites:..."

scancode · « **Reply #12 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:29 PM »

http://www.sothinkmedia.com/
-Curt (January 26, 2010, 12:19 PM)

http://www.sothink.com/

I think sothinkmedia is a spinoff...
-scancode (January 26, 2010, 12:25 PM)

No, the link is from the bottom of Sothink's homepage, "Sothink Sites:..."

-Curt (January 26, 2010, 12:28 PM)

I stand corrected. >.>

Bamse · « **Reply #13 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:37 PM »

Wow, so either sothink is the mother of all this or just jumped the wagon. They have been around since forever, unlike some of the other ??? companies. Means they have something to lose. As he have found out it is highly popular area so if in spamming business they will.

But who is spamming on the forums? If they all have affiliate and reseller deals like Sothink then it can be anybody. Does not have to be directly tied to company - which won't police any affiliate rules, not if there is money to be made. You know PC-Tools? They are master of affiliate spamming with security stuff, indirectly to blaim with high percentage shares of deals and extravagant service towards eager marketers. No policing what so ever. But Sothink is at least not a typical company doing this. I doubt you find much "history" behind most of those urls.

From 2008, then list is even longer today.

Yes Sothink still promote the golden oldies from 2002 or so but also has a side-business

housetier · « **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:39 PM »

I think we should put the names from image in the first post in this thread as text as well, so people can easily find them. We shouldn't link them, just name and shame them.

Bamse · « **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2010, 12:51 PM »

Why not link to them? Good enough for download.com, softpedia.com so ?

Well google "nidesoft" then, that is a typical dvd, ipod, wonder site. Click contact and you get an email address. Almost like a template for crap. Sothink has forum and all so I would think they have simply noticed popularity of click click tools and then thought hmm we want some of that. Or they are feeding them all, who knows.

Curt · « **Reply #16 on:** January 26, 2010, 04:17 PM »

Why not link to them?
-Bamse (January 26, 2010, 12:51 PM)

The blog author's reason:

I discovered that they seem to have people who do nothing but make fake blog postings to spread the URLs for their crap software.(...)
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(...) I've started to collect a list of all the aliases/domains that this group uses. (I didn't list the complete URLs, as I don't want Google to think this is a page of links, thereby making the problem worse.)

Deozaan · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2010, 05:06 PM »

Why not link to them?
-Bamse (January 26, 2010, 12:51 PM)

I think mainly because if you link to them, there are websites like McAfee's Site Advisor that will give DonationCoder an "unsafe" or "untrusted" rating because it links to other known "unsafe/untrusted" websites.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #18 on:** January 26, 2010, 06:58 PM »

The bog author's reason:

spread the URLs for their crap software
Someone's on a roll!

-Curt (January 26, 2010, 04:17 PM)

Bamse · « **Reply #19 on:** January 26, 2010, 10:34 PM »

You serious about Mcafee? Norton too I guess. Well both are worthless nd I know it only take 1 file to go from green to red - chose to believe text is not enough. I don't think they rate forums like that but anything is possible. Value of links depends a bit on context. Doing a Google search, showing Google you have an interest, might not be recommended if they are to be silenced. Direct link would have been better.

Bending over to false positive services is scary and won't necessarily help since they are out of control! Know hackforums? (for educational purposes of course) Highly block worthy site yet all green

Even at WOT where it might have started out as red but thanks to social powers is now green. WOT is the intelligent one where anyone have a vote. If certain people decided to make Donationcoder red, red it would be. There is little to no value in putting icon on site showing off GREEN status. What they would like site admins to do. If they worked just a little bit to clean up mistakes then may be, but they don't so ignore. They are invalid sources though WOT is fairly accurate, still...

app103 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 27, 2010, 12:09 AM »

I was just given this link on friendfeed, in response to a post about this spamming issue with these companies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XRumer

It does offer a suggestion on how to beat it and prevent the spam on forums that require registration.

y0himba · « **Reply #21 on:** January 27, 2010, 07:24 AM »

Any chance I can get you to expand on that a bit? A friend recommended their DVD/Audio copy/riping software to me the other day ...(some friends are brighter that others)... I haven't tried any of it yet, and am thinking perhaps I should not given your comment.
-Stoic Joker (January 26, 2010, 11:15 AM)

They keep churning out versions with NO major changes and require more money every time they do for the upgrades. The software is bloated, and the tech support is non-existent. Not to mention if you buy ONE product you get spammed up to 20 times a day from them alone trying to get you to spend more, and you also notice a rise in the amount of spam mails you get a day from others. They also pay folks to spam blogs, forums, and email to sell software.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #22 on:** January 27, 2010, 09:01 AM »

Any chance I can get you to expand on that a bit? A friend recommended their DVD/Audio copy/riping software to me the other day ...(some friends are brighter that others)... I haven't tried any of it yet, and am thinking perhaps I should not given your comment.
-Stoic Joker (January 26, 2010, 11:15 AM)

They keep churning out versions with NO major changes and require more money every time they do for the upgrades. The software is bloated, and the tech support is non-existent. Not to mention if you buy ONE product you get spammed up to 20 times a day from them alone trying to get you to spend more, and you also notice a rise in the amount of spam mails you get a day from others. They also pay folks to spam blogs, forums, and email to sell software.
-y0himba (January 27, 2010, 07:24 AM)

Excellent, thank you [Delete] ...that's off my to-do list now.

wraith808 · « **Reply #23 on:** January 27, 2010, 11:52 AM »

I'm using a really old version of Xilisoft DVD copying software, and have received no upgrade e-mails, and the software is lean and mean, and just works. I guess they've changed...

Curt · « **Reply #24 on:** January 27, 2010, 05:23 PM »

- maybe it has to do with accepting emails or not? I don't know, but I have several programs from the group in mention, and I have never received any spam from any of them. But I have of course 'noticed' that 3 of my DRM removing programs from different companies in this group are almost identical!!