Offer of cheap Adobe and Microsoft software at 80% off is another scam from China

AlphaBuy is one of hundreds of names used by Chinese scam sites

Who can resist $2,399 software for only $299? What a deal!

The deal is too good to be true and one of the hundreds promoted by XIN NET TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION

The company identifies itself as “Authorised Software Resellers” and “Alpha Buysite“.

The Alpha Buysite name is used over and over on their server. Authorised Software Resellers is so generic it returns 38 million hits on Google. Hard to track those people down.

The company promises to provide downloads of the DVD image files for software products like Adobe CS3 Master Suite for only $299. That’s about 1/3rd the cheapest education discount.

It is a scam promoted by XIN NET who put up sites and take them down weekly to avoid detection. The company has registered 89 sites since October 1, 2009 which are suspected to “contain malware, spyware, browser exploits, or other harmful code which can damage your system.” URLBl .

Downloading software from those sites will likely compromise your computer security and your credit card.

To impress the gullible, the site contains inert logos from Shop-Com Certified, Price Grabber, CNET, and the Better Business Bureau. None of the links work and two sites checked don’t list the company.

Let the buyer beware. A deal that is too good to be true is likely a scam.

Update – this company was able to infect NJN Network’s website in October / November 2009 simply from clicking on the site to research this story. They embedded hidden code in the main page with keywords like “download” and “free download”. It’s surprising how easy it is to get an virus infection from people who are working these criminal scams. Thankfully, we found the virus and removed it. Soon after that there were a flood of reports of US sites that had been hacked by someone in China.

Originally posted October 5, 2009