Today I googled emc styleworks download and came up with the following website WWW.FULLDOWNLOADS.US (DON'T GO THERE).

I filled out the required form and selected to download styleworks and paid the requested fee.

Within seconds I got an email confirming the transaction and a receipt. 30 minutes later I get a call from my credit card Fraud line.

Bottom line - there was no styleworks but a $97.00 a month subsciption to a PORN SITE!!

The companies whose names showed up for billing at the credit card company were given to me by the credit card fraud agent and are CBCTR.NET BCOUR.NET - ALL A FRONT FOR JETTIS INTERNATIONAL. I never did go out to any of these sites.

Bottom line - I cancelled the credit card and will be issued a new one.

Be careful out there!!
Hammer

[This message has been edited by hammer (edited 09-01-2009).]

In all fairness what were you expecting.

What's worse is you posted this on the forum letting everyone know you tried to purchase the program illegally.

$5 for a program that costs hundreds dollars from the developers website.

Its your own fault. I don't like saying that but this is just so silly.

Irishacts,
First, I am not familiar with Styleworks or how much it does or does not cost. Second, my post is for folks awareness.


Don't be the usual "ASS" like many here and even assume to make any judgements about me.

Hammer

Seriously, before doing business with ANY site, one needs to observe due diligence & conduct a search in order to make sure that said site is completely legit. Even without doing this, if you had really done your homework, you would have known the cost of EMC Styleworks and that any site offering it for substantially less was offering it illegally or was a complete and total rip-off! Regular, run-of-the-mill, common-sense stuff, I'm afraid...

Michael

Hammer, let us know if it is a good site. May be you'll find a good organ there

I only do buisenss on the web with big wellknown websites... Never ever without reading some reviews about those from wellknown sources.

The internet is more dangerous then the suburbs of LA.... so lets be carefull ouside there....

Come on man, you can't be that stupid.
The website is full of porn advertisements and emc style works is even listed as cracked software on the site. And on top of that you honestly though the program would only cost $5.

Go back there and put “hammer is a complete idiot” into the search engine and it works the same. Or maybe they are selling a photo of your face after they stole your credit card.

To Irishacts,

Kiss my rosy red ars!!

Like I said, not interested in your opinions or your attacks.

Hammer

I bet it's rosy red too after getting shafted by that porn site.

Seriously, I have no sympathy for you because it's so bloody obvious the website is a fake.

The best thing you can do with your time now is ask for the thread to be pulled before you make a complete idiot out of yourself. Chalk it down to experience and a lesson learned the hard way.

oh god, I love it.

chas

Hammer, I've removed your thread on KORG Forums so you can put this behind you. I strongly recommend you ask for the same to happen here.

This does not help you or anyone on this forum. People don't need to be warned of what happened to you.

You need to put this behind you and move on.

Hammer.., I'm not going to be as harsh as James with my words.., but I do have to agree with him. This whole thing had "RED FLAGS" all over it.., but you missed every single one of them!

You have to be an educated consumer too. Seriously..., getting StyleWorks for $5.00 should have hit you right in the face as a scam.

All due respect.., but you got taken because you weren't as attentive as you should have been with this. I agree.., request that this post come down because it looks a little bad on your end. That website alone that you provided should have also been a red flag to you.

You have to be more responsible and do your research first. You got taken because you failed to do that. Honestly.., did you really think you were getting the REAL LEGIT program for $5.00 ??????

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 09-01-2009).]

Actually, I think that's enough 'piling on'. It's not like the rest of us are on such moral high ground that we haven't tried to get something for nothing. Also, I don't think the rest of this forum are ex-pats from Mensa, either.

chas

Hammer,

We all make mistakes - something that appears to be too good to be true usually is, you have taken some stick know, you have left the site on your thread for all to click and someone will, it’s just too tempting to have a look at, do like James said, get the thread removed ASAP.
Regards

Hey folks - all this post was supposed to be about is a fair warning to anyone about the website below.
WWW.FULLDOWNLOADS.US

If you go there you will not see anything that suggests what it turns out to be. The other two websites mentioned in my post were provided to me by the credit card fraud agent because they were the sites billing me -not the site above.

As for pulling the post - that is up to Nigel. Whatever he decides is best for the forum is fine with me.

Hammer

Hey, hammer.... I've got some Rolex watches for sale. Only $50

Interested?

Of course you are not. You probably figured out they are fake or stolen. And, no offense, but you figured this out for the above site. But you went ahead and did it anyway. Give thieves and scam artists your credit card #, what did you THINK would happen?

I do a search on Google : Underground Access

I found that in 2 clics ...

UnderGround Access Is A Scam and also Extremely Degrading:

The sponsors of these kinds of scam websites are hard to uncover, because they use porn websites that are for some ungodly reason protected by laws which allow them to legally operate thier businesses. The goal of these sponsors is to generate a small one time fee for the porn site as well as for themselves, and if you agree to thier terms, that enters you into a willfull agreement between them and you.

1st of all exposing yourself to porn itself is degrading in itself and takes away from your integrity in many ways, which are mostly spiritual. 2nd you support an industry that you may be against, but willing to suck-up to since it's only less than $5.00 and as it is advertised "then you are done with it", but in reality you have actually contributed and in addition to your contribution, you have become the receipient of a SCAM!

THINK ABOUT IT!

Denise
Washington
DC,United States

Dean - you have my empathy for making an HONEST, naive mistake because that's what you say it was. I believe you. We have all made mistakes and sometimes not done our homework as diligently as maybe we should have. EMC Stylework for cheap? I couldn't begin to quess what it's worth because I've never taken enough interest. Would I order from such a site as the one you mentioned, gee I hope not, but it happened to you.

For all of you SZers out there who have come out with your insults and admonishments, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Your behavior was rude, not helpful at all and just plain nasty. Here's a fellow member who tries to relate a warning to us and you come out of your glass house and start throwing stones. This could have been done in such a friendlier, more helpful manner. All I can say is I'm embarrassed to be a SZer today.

Cass, very well said, I agree, especially "your glass house" comments. I don't believe anyone here including myself is a candidate for Sainthood. Hammer was only trying to be helpful.

Sorry, cassp, but if a guy comes up to you on the street and offers you something at pennies on the dollar, do you for one minute think he is honest?

NOBODY goes to sites like this expecting to get:



and thinks that the site is an honest one.

And nobody gets mad at a forum where a member comes on and says 'I tried to steal some software and got ripped off!' and gets the scorn they deserve. At least, nobody that isn't into stealing software themselves..

Personally, I am ashamed that anyone DOES sympathize with him. If I broke a leg trying to break into your house, would you be as sympathetic. cassp?

I agree with you too. I only made a joke to attempt to relieve the tension in the thread.

I know Hammer very well. He does NOT need to look for cracked software--he can buy the whole music store if he wants to.
He made a mistake and tried to keep us from making one too. Thanks Deane.
DonM

Amen, Don.

It doesn't matter how or why Deane made the mistake. He reported it to us and many stomped on him insensitively, IMHO. Maybe he's not as internet savy as you assume. Whatever the case, it was the TONE of the collective admonishments that was dowright rude.

I agree with Don Mason. Hammer said he was unfamiliar with EMC styleworks hence he might not know the true value. I would give him the benefit of the doubt. From what I have seen on this forum Dean is not the type of guy who would "steal" pirated software. I have paid money in the past for demo versions of software so $5.00 could have been a demo for all I know. If he were such a person I don't think he would have posted the warning to us at SZ. Yes he made a mistake but I believe his intentions were to protect fellow SZer's. So my 2 cents is forgive and forget. Cheers!Brian

Irishacts...Sharp

I'm really supprised with Your Harsh Attitude coming out on this Forum!...I Would think One who Produces Sampled Keyboard Products for Sale,and a Internet Business Person could and would want to conduct themself more Professionally...These People on this Forum and People reading could be Potential Customers!...It Sure Does not make GOOD Business sense to Me...

Not a Good Way to "Win Friends and influence People"....Dale Carniegie

Harold

Diki,

Your wrong man - I didn't try to "steal" anything. The site offered a product in which I have a passing interest for a price. Paying for something is not stealing it. I wonder how many members here have searched for a good deal on a product they want to try - or do you just go out and pay whatever price is offered to you? Once again, there are folks reading into posts things that are not there.

Later,
Hammer

Hi Harold.
Here's my problem with all this and why I said what I did.

1: He went to a website that clearly mentions cracked software on every page.
2: The membership benefits listed on the website clearly mention every form of pirate software / movie / media going.
3: If you search for any program it will be listed as fully cracked software in the title.
4: There is porn all over the webiste pages.
5:..... look I think you get the point, there's clear indications at every turn what the website is offering and that it's ALL illegal.

I'm not calling the guy a liar or a thief. I'm simply saying, what else did he expect, and that I also have absolutely no sympathy for him. How anyone could miss so many signs and not even read what it says on the website before entering in their credit card details defies belief.



I have never been anything but myself online and I don't think there is anyone here that can question my good intentions for my fellow musicians regardless of what I said in this thread. If anything I think I've even tried to watch out for the guy by suggesting he get the thread removed. I've actually done this for him over on KORG Forum since I own that site, which is again justy more prof that I'm not a trouble maker looking for a fight or to just rip someone apart. You would have to go along way to find someone who as done so much good work for so many online as I have.



Read it , great book.

Sincerely
James.

[This message has been edited by Irishacts (edited 09-01-2009).]

Hammer,

Thank you for warning us about this.

My advice is to watch your replacement credit card's billing - I have found out that most credit cards will put the recurring electronic billing charges to the new card (replacing the cancelled one). You may be forced to dispute those charges every month, and have to contact the charging company to stop this fraud.

A few years ago I had my credit card stolen and promptly canceled it and replaced with a new one (new number). and someone had billed their 5 AOL accounts to it. While the 1st month' charges were only $125, the following month they started billing the remote access (AOL used to charge per minute), to the tune of $300-400 per acct per month. I would dispute one month's charge only to see a new month's bill with even more charges. In total I had nearly $60,000 in these fraudulent charges, until I finally got through to AOL and got them to reverse the charges. In the process I had to file an Internet fraud form with FBI, and have a long and fruitless argument with AmEx about the merits of canceling a lost card if they are going to carry over and approve the electronically posted charges on the replacement one anyway.

Good luck

Okay, so hammmer tried to download a dodgy bit of software. He's an individual, he's a big boy, he can make his own choices. We all live or die by our own choices in life, don't we?

Some people here are all over him for those choices, BUT, he also chose to give out a warning about a dangerous website. He didn't create that website, he merely got sucked in by it. Are we all so astute and on-the-ball all the time that we've never been seduced by a some smooth spiel in the past, even though the 'red flags' were there? Come on, be honest about that. Hah, thought not.

Having been stung, hammer chose to give out a warning about what turned out to be a bad experience for him. He didn't HAVE to do that. He CHOSE to. Was that a bad choice, too?

This is the website to EMC Style Works, they now have Styleworks XT. I guess it newer than Styleworks 2000. I believe that its in germany.

if you want to deal with someone from the states, www.ketronus.com also sells them.
http://www.emc-musicsoftware.de/viashop/storefront/start.asp

good luck

EMC Software Vertriebs GmbH
P.O. Box 100252
51402 Bergisch Gladbach

Tel. x49-2204-916080
Fax x49-2204-916090
e-mail: EmcSoftware@aol.com

Paying $5 for a $400 program IS stealing it. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it. Dance around this all you want, it's not going to change...

Still want that Rolex? Only $5 now... Just because YOU didn't steal it, wouldn't make it NOT receiving stolen property.

OK folks let's get back to the reason for this website -- ARRANGERS, before we lose any more valuable members and valuable member inputs.

Jerryghr

Wooww, Harold, that is the best book ever written imho. I just wish that more people read it, or take the workshops.

This thread is very interesting imo.

I would have to resonate more with Irish and Diki. It looks like a sleazy site. It's obviously pirated software.

It's like, "This dude sold me bad coke." Well duh! If you buy coke from strangers, it's pretty likely you are you're going to get ripped off. Same thing with cracked software.

Just 'cause almost all of us have used pirated software at some point doesn't make it right and doesn't make the indignation wrong - even when it's hypocritical. Lot's of bad things were once socially acceptable, like slavery.

I don't think Hammer is a cretin, but I think it's ok to call him on his lack of discretion.

Beakybird

WATCH OUT www.downloadkeeper.com don't go there. My point: there are thousands of these sites. Don't forget to run your spyware software when you have visit these sites. They leave a lot of sh#@#t on your computer when you visit them.

[This message has been edited by FransN (edited 09-01-2009).]

So you thought that getting unlimited downloads of software for $5 was completely legit?

Beakybird

You are beating a dead horse when you insist on talking about something that cannot be changed.

Hammer,

I lost $1550 from a scammer who signed up in this forum and talked a good game - shame on me!

I lost $1400 to a contractor who promised to build a shed, under contract. I lost and he is jail - shame on me!

I left my equipment in the parking lot of a previous job!

I left my equipment in my garage when I went to unload!

Life goes on ...... we all make mistakes, and I for one, will never criticize you for an honest mistake.

So if the rest of you want to chastise me, go right ahead

Hammer,

If you are a Christian: The Bible says that "Jesus made Himself of no reputation"

Who am I then to care about my reputation.

This insults between the proud and the humble have been going on for ages and will continue to go on for ages. Please do not be put off by it.

I can recall many similar incidents in my life and chose not to be upset by it.

Henni

[This message has been edited by Henni (edited 09-01-2009).]

Well Hammer,

If you dare to look - all the names I haven't seen for a while crawling out of the woodwork to have a dig or support, perhaps you need not have been so open and kept it to yourself, none of us are too old to learn. a old quote I heard years back "BETTER TO REMAIN SILENT AND BE THOUGHT A FOOL THAN TO OPEN ONES MOUTH AND REMOVE ALL FORM OF DOUBT" don't take this litrally!

I think we would be better getting back to to the real business, having a go at companies who rip us off in broad daylight selling KBs that don't perform and don't do what they say on the box!

They are scamming us just the same!

Lets draw a line under this it's getting too many hits!

[This message has been edited by Tony Hughes (edited 09-01-2009).]

I think enough has been said on this topic now but I will leave it for others to read.