While searching for an older version of a software package I owned that was now defective, I came across www.PirateAccess.com on the top ten Google listings. I fell right into their trap.
Although the site is clearly offering stolen software (Warez), it does offer older programs, free ebooks, and public domain software as well. They state that you can get a lifetime membership for just $2.97 and offers unlimited downloads.
I should have known something was not quite right. They require you to pay the funds to a porn directory site, rather than directly to them. They use CCBill to process the payments. They tell you that you need to sign up for a 3-day trial membership to any one of a dozen different porn sites, but then simply cancel your membership within 3 days. They get your $2.97 and you get your access to their software downloads.
The first thing I noticed is that the system automatically signs you up for a monthly recurring fee for the porn sites at $39.95. If you don't cancel the membership, then you end up paying that monthly fee forever unless you can figure out how to cancel. But I played along with their game.
You get an email from CCBill that gives you an account number. You then go back to PirateAccess.com and put in your email address and the account number that you got. Here's where it gets interesting:
The system automatically rejects your code, even after waiting a period of time for it to work its way through the system. If you go to their help area, they will admit that many accounts get rejected because the system is faulty. They then tell you to put in your information and your code number and then check back later - they will not email you a confirmation or any other kind of response.
This is an exact quote of what their "help page" states:
"Having trouble?
"Please review the following
"Check your spam and trash inboxes in case you have missed the email (as the email is adult related it may automatically go to spam)
Allow up to 24 hours for the email to arrive
Please ensure you enter the correct ID
Are you sure you completed all the steps? Have you even paid yet?
Does your credit/debit card have little or no funds?
If you are still having problems please fill out our form here, or if you have received a receipt but aren't sure which ID to use click here
"Attention: We have been receiving a lot of emails lately regarding accounts not being registered, we are extremely sorry to the genuine users out there who are actually signing up, we are currently working on a receipt verification system which we hope to have up by November, until then we suggest you keep checking your inbox for emails."
Of course the only link you have is the machine generated link at the top of the page which their server changes with each new generated page. The link is very long and impossible to remember, so I copied the link to another document. I waited awhile and then went back and pasted the link into my browser. As expected, the page came back as "not found" - which would be typical for machine generated pages.
Oh, by the way. I figured that I would go over and take a peak at the porn site that I had to sign up for. I quickly found out that that was a scam also. Even though I had paid for a "trial membership" - I could not get to any pages. Clicking on any link simply took me to another page that told me to sign up for the full $39.95 membership in order to get to the actual porn site that I had already purchased a trial membership for.
Clearly the whole thing is a total rip off. If they can get 100 people a day to buy a trial membership for $2.97 and then give nothing back for it - and being a non-refundable "trial membership" they don't have to pay you back or refund your money. That's $300 a day for nothing and nearly $10,000 a month ripping people off.
It is clear that their scam works because they think you won't want to admit to buying a trial membership to a "porn site" and will not want to incriminate yourself by accessing a Warez site that sells stolen software - even though that might not have been your original intent. It's all based on the fact that people who have been scammed would rather walk away from $2.97 than possibly incriminate themselves.
I will be filing a complaint with my credit card company and also CCBill.
I did a Whois search to find out who owns the website, but their identity is cloaked by an internet privacy company in Westchester, CA 90045, USA.
Beware - there is nothing at PirateAccess.com except real pirates waiting to rip you off.
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