I've seen this little "scam" a few times now and I've decided it's time to say something about them so that hopefully a few of you won't fall victim to them. The scam starts with an innocent-looking advertisement that promises to give you access to lots of music, movies, and other downloads cheaply, or even free. I've even seen such advertisements in banner ads and even in Google AdSense blocks like the one on this page.

You're usually directed to a page like the one I'm linking to here. This page tells you that you'll "find and download movies, music, and your favorite TV series" and that you will "get instant access to unlimited DVD quality movies (including new releases". It shows pictures of movies like "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", TV shows like "Desperate Housewives", and more. The implication from the ad is that by purchasing some software they are selling, you'll have access to some great network of "759,989 users" with "over 95,000,000 media files" that you can transfer to your computer or iPod.

What they're not telling you, unless you click on the link marked "Legal Disclaimer" is that they are selling you Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software. They're also not telling you that P2P software is generally available free of charge. The "service" they're selling you is most likely access to a list of links to P2P networks where you can download copyrighted movies, music, software, etc. While such materials ARE freely available on those networks, downloading such items from P2P networks is most definitely ILLEGAL and will open you up to prosecution. This is explained in their legal disclaimer, and is pretty much the opposite of what the rest of the site indicates. They imply that you'll be downloading the latest movies (for example) for free, but in the disclaimer they explain that doing this would be illegal.

So what we have here is someone attempting to rip off those who aren't familiar with P2P networks and the law. They charge the people $39.99 for "unlimited access" to P2P networks which cost nothing to access in the first place. They give people the impression that they can download anything they find on such networks safely and legally. Only in the disclaimer do they tell you that you'd actually be breaking the law if you do what they suggest. And believe me, the way the authorities are watching P2P networks these days, you'll very likely be caught.