Has anyone used Software-Search.Net?

Here's the link:

SOFTWARE-SEARCH.NET // Home

Are these guys legit? Has anyone here used them? The price on Visual Studio Pro 2008 is almost ridiculous. It has to be too good to be true...

I have never used the site, but the prices give a hint on what you should do: stay away.

Prices are competitive, these are too good to be true. I have helped so many that have been ripped of with Windows keys etc.

You are a long standing member of the forum, who has helped many, the last thing we would want is for you to be ripped off. I will try to research the site and see their location.

This is scary, from their webite
8. Why can't I receive any emails from Software Store?
We do not send 'spam', or unsolicited bulk commercial emails. We do not share your personal information, such as your email address, with any other parties. However, some email services reject our emails like shady due to standard letter subjects. So we recommend you NOT to sign up to Software Store services via the following email services: Hotmail and MSN: If you haven’t received emails from us, the reason is most likely Hotmail's 'Junk Mail Filter', which is supposed to block 'spam', or unsolicited bulk email ('junk mail'). Unfortunately, it sometimes blocks even solicited mail including ours. You will certainly find all emails you have missed either in your 'Junk Mail' folder or in the 'Trash' folder. You can either disable the Junk Mail Filter, or add us to the 'Safe List', which is the list of accounts you do not want to be blocked by the Junk Mail Filter. To do so, you need to log in to your Hotmail account. (Select 'Options', then select 'Safe List'.) You may wish to contact Hotmail for assistance. Yahoo: If you are a Yahoo Mail user, please check your Bulk Mail folder. If you find our message in your Bulk Mail folder, open it and click on "Send to Yahoo! for Review" to let them know Software Store emails are not unsolicited commercial email (spam). If you do not want a Bulk Mail folder at all, go to Mail Preferences. You may wish to contact Yahoo for assistance.

That is questionable. Personally, I would steer clear. These, taken from the front page of their site, makes me highly suspicious:

I know that you can often save money this way, but over $2200? This sounds far too good to be true.

My personal practice, if I cannot find a physical location that I can visit in the US or at least Canada, I stay away.

I could not even find an address. Stay away.

Mellon Head said:

Here's the link:

SOFTWARE-SEARCH.NET // Home

Are these guys legit? Has anyone here used them? The price on Visual Studio Pro 2008 is almost ridiculous. It has to be too good to be true...

Click to expand...

I haven't dealt with them, but here's a minor cautionary tale.

About a year and a half ago, I ordered a full install package of Photoshop CS4 Extended from AAA Electronics Enterprises. The price was around $200US, or about the same as a standard upgrade license.

When it showed up, I attempted to use the key to activate the demo version I'd already downloaded from Adobe. PS would accept the key, but Adobe's activation server would not. However, it would run if I did a full install.

While it was a slickly packaged version, it turned out to be pirated. It installed using a widely published hack that prevented the software from contacting the activation server.

I called the company about it. When it I explained what I'd found, the phone connection was broken. Subsequent calls were not picked up. (Caller ID is a wonderful thing, no?)

The good news was that I'd paid for it through PayPal. The sellers refunded my payment after I filed a dispute with PayPal. They also professed ignorance of the pirated nature of the software. I was out a few dollars for international currency exchange. (The company was in Canada; I'm in the USA.)

(I have since acquired a standard upgrade license directly from Adobe.)

This is just an anecdote, proving nothing, but do you seriously believe that a legitmate vendor can offer legal versions of current mainstream software at those prices? If so, there's a bridge in Brooklyn I can get for you at an even better price, although it's off the market for a few years while it is being renovated.

Their address and toll-free number for Canada and US is supposedly:

300 Atlantic Street
Stamford Connecticut 06901
1-800-626-0430

They also have the Better Business Bureau logo on their website but that can easily be copied. But the BBB might be a way to check up on their legitimacy:

Connecticut Better Business Bureau - Connecticut BBB

Yeah. I was pretty sure it was a scary place and I had no intention of doing business with them, but I was curious if anyone here had bought anything from them without getting burned. I suspect that if anyone has, the answer would be a big "yes".

I dug a little deeper, and I found this in the F.A.Q.:

1. Why do you sell software cheaper than official brand providers do?

Because buying the software with us you receive the copies of downloaded licensed versions. This means, you will have no hard copies of documentation (licenses or instructions) - just files and instructions in .txt format. This software is not registered online. But we can offer you all updates for most of the software. This software is purchased by wholesale from official providers, whose wholesaling prices are considerably lower. As we do the minimal price markup free of packing, recording, transportation expenses, our price is lower than the retail price of official providers.

Click to expand...

(The bolding is mine.)

Now that kids, is scary. I wouldn't be surprised if one of their "official providers" was The Pirate Bay. This looks like nothing more than a slickly packaged "pay for warez" site.

So, let me add my voice to the chorus of "stay away."

This is what I found about them.

Software-search.net - Software Search // Home


Steve

They are NOT BBB accredited.



Yet they show these logos on their site:



I would have to say that, based on the above information, that they are not accredited with any of these.

My recommendation is, therefore, that you STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE.

Dwarf said:

My recommendation is, therefore, that you STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. And I'm running MalwareBytes right now to make sure I didn't pick up anything either.

Okay, just got the all clear on that one. Time for an MSE scan.