Illegal software. How not to fall prey to fraudsters? – Antyweb

Recently I wrote to you about the fact that in Poland there is a lot of illegal software and at worst – well dealings is to sell counterfeit software on auction sites even where tempting, of course, attractive price and increasingly better methods criminals. We already know that the scale of the threat is pretty big – but how to guard against falling into the trap of scammers?

The average consumer of new technologies often are not aware of the risks, and criminals obviously do not facilitate identifying suspicious auction, or copies of the program. Niezaznajomiony with the subject consumer may at first glance do not see the difference between the carrier counterfeit and original available in the official, proven sales channels. On this theme leaned research firm IDC, resulting in a report drawn up on behalf of Microsoft, where it is clear that the majority of users do not realize that the use of illegal software.

45% of rogue software from the Internet, so-called. “Digital distribution” where the consumer receives activator – for him, of course, have to pay. What’s more, these activators can be the source of the original infection – from the very beginning of the program or operating system, you may be infected with adware or Trojan horse. Often, a user pays extra – their data, or risk rob a bank account.

According to data from Global Research Computer Software 2013 users frequently turn to proven licensed software from a legitimate source of Because of concern for the safety of your machine, and thus – also the data. As I wrote in a recent article on the subject – more than half of the software in Poland comes from illegal sources, and of course an important wicket for cybercriminals.

First of all, you need to beware of offers from so-called. “Super vendors”. Such offers often tempt a very low price compared to shops that have the appropriate certificates. Before purchasing any program should therefore check the market price on the Internet. Much lower, suspect the price should be a very important signal that the quotation is simply something wrong.

Drastically lower than the market price of a product should always arouse our suspicion, since he can point to its illegal origin. If the software is not just about the fact that buying pirated copies of computer criminals we earn. It is also about our security, which in this case is exposed to a number of risks. For example, counterfeit software can contain malicious code that can even steal our data, including financial or use the processing power of your computer for criminal purposes

~ Christopher Floraczak -, Director of Consumer Channel Group at Microsoft

A very important signal of suspicious origin software is also of poor quality disc label or packaging of the product. It is worth comparing the content and appearance of the box with the original, available on the Internet. If only charge your product key, you should download software only from the manufacturer – if it is suggested that we refer to other sources – is also an important signal that the software that you want to buy might be false.

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