Another bogus site...

$1 a month or $29.95 for a lifetime Membership...payment to be payed through Paypal to My-Free-Music.com

It's on the Amazon.com music pages...

www.imusicSearch.com

I am brand new to Limewire, but certainly not to the internet, but I too am a victim of one of these scams. The site scamming me for a lifetime membership for $29.95 is ezmp3s.com. I am very new to music sites as I just purchased an MP3 player, so this site looked very legitimate to me. I found it through my Norton Utilities bonus web sites. My story ends well though, as they used paypal for which I had not updated the info on for a valid credit card. Therefore, I have not been charged, and hopefully, when paypal becomes aware that I do not have a valid credit card with them, they will just cancel the order. I don't think ezmp3s can keep me from using limewire, since it is free anyway, unless you buy the pro version. Am I right? I would not have known that I had been scammed if I had not gone to this forum site, looking for what others had to say about limewire. So, many thanks to a very useful site, Lorna

Is the 18.88/PRO version for only 6 months and is it a scam, too? I bought it but haven't received anything, and got no replys from LimeWire CSR about my upgrade.

Remember the ONLY official web site to download LimeWire:
http://www.limewire.com/
(also http://www.limewire.org/ for the open-sourced developement versions)

The official package is fully open-sourced, and subject to the GPL licence requirement: this means that a derivated work is possible according to the licence, but the GPL requirement still applies, and LimeWire clones MUST provide their sources as well, along with a copy of the GPL licence and information about how to get the sources of their clone. The GPL licence also requires that the copyright notice must be kept. Scammers that steal the sources to sell a product under their own licence are infringing the GPL licence, and they steal your money.

Also you won't get any support from this scammers that don't even show their official organisation name and street address.
Compare this to what the LimeWire web site displays for you: a physical address in NYC, USA, and people names (and their photos!). Nobody should ever buy anything on the Internet without being able to identify precisely who is the reseller.

Also some credit card processors should really be avoided for any online transaction: IBILLCS is a wellknown heaven for scammers and porn site spammers that steal your money: their identity verification is VERY weak (a "seller" can create an account with a fake identity in a few minutes with them, and they will immediately start collecting money; IBILLCS will refund those that complain, without taking any action against the scammer, that will continue to collect money). Serious credit card processors consider security more scrupulously and assist users legally: your national street banks, PayPal/eBay...

There's nothing that LimeWire can do about these scammers if you have been stolen, except publishing information about known thieves, and learning you how to use Internet more securely, notably when performing online transactions. Users should know that thieves exist everywhere on the Internet under fake identities. Those that receive hundreds of spam each day from around the world know that fact. On the Internet you NEED to be PARANOID and not trust anyone for which you can't even verify basic identity information.

LimeWire will also inform you about what you can do with the software and offers you a FREE try of the fully functional software, with the Basic version. If the Basic version works for you, be confident that the Pro version will also work for you; after your trial, that LimeWire thinks will be conclusive for you, you can then opt to support the LimeWire development project by buying a LimeWire Pro licence.
Note that the LimeWire Pro licence is NOT limited in time (only the free upgrade and free support which are exclusive to the Pro licence, are limited in time).

All serious Gnutella servent vendors offer you a free try of their software, even if they sell you licences to a Pro version to cover their development costs (this includes LimeWire.com, BearShare.com, GTKG), and they also have extensive online support areas, forums, and their developers are present in these forums, or in the Gnutella Developers Forum (GDF) on Yahoo Groups, where they discuss the protocol and help each other to detect possible bugs and quirks, or enhancements, and where they publish their own working or experimental specifications, to maximize interoperability.

Speaking of Yahoo!, you do know I suppose that typing in Limewire as search keyword at Yahoo!.com returns as Sponsor results(!) scam sites.
Man. And I was wondering how all those people got tricked. I see it now. You're new to the net. You've heard of Yahoo! (probably even used it once or twice before too). You've also heard of Limewire. So you look for it in Yahoo!.com and come up with the scam sites and get tricked because you're new...
I took the trouble to send them feedback (at the bottom of the search results page), telling them that people are being tricked because of their "sponsor results". (I didn't mention that Google doesn't do that, but now that I think about it, maybe I should have). I don't think that one feedback like that will do something, but maybe if more people sent them feedback like that (yes, I'm talking about all of you in here. Those who got tricked and those who didn't altogether), then maybe, just maybe, they might decide to think it through.

Sponsored links on Yahoo! or on ZDNet/CNET/Download.com does not mean approval by these services or quality or popularity. It's just an indication that the "sponsors" payed to get a placement on their search result pages.

I never follow such sponsored links on any site, unless this was the site I really wanted to visit before making the search...
Anyone can buy a placement on these services even for a poor and bogous product. There's no a-priori control, except for the payment itself. Of course if the sponsored link reveals to be a scam, Yahoo can make something after scrutiny, but only if the sponsor broke a Yahoo TOS policy, or if there's something illegal according to the US law. A link by itself is not illegal, unless the whole sponsored site is declared illegal. It will be easier to demonstrate a breach in the Yahoo TOS policy, if the sponsor uses its link on Yahoo to perform abusive operations such as spamming (the link alone shown on Yahoo results is not a spam), or abuse of a reserved trademark (if that link uses "LimeWire" in its domain name and describe its service without permission from Lime Wire LLC, NYC, USA). What can be done in this case is that LimeWire contacts Yahoo to claim its ownership on the registered trademark.

This said, the first two "sponsored results" on Yahoo are not working now (domain name parked?):
- www(dot)limewire-downloads(dot)com
- www(dot)limewiresoftware(dot)com
But the three others are still working:
- mp3downloadhq(dot)com
- www(dot)mp3sharing(dot)us
- www(dot)mp3musiczone(dot)com
The last three include the terms "with LimeWire" in their description, and this is an abuse of trademark. Additionally, none of these sites respect the GPL licence for the software copyright. Who will pay $1/month for these scammers that want you to pay to download a free software, modified with spywares and an illegal licence?

I had a similar experience before I downloaded limewire. I paid 20.00 for a year of unlimited movie downloads, right after I downloaded the so called software and couldn't get the movie or contact any customer support. I got page cannot be displayed. I immediately called my bank and they stopped payment and took care of it. The name of the web site was unlimited movie downloads. I hope everyone who reads this message hasn't already been tricked by these scam artist.

I PAID FOR LIMEWIRE TOO
 

So having just read the above posts then I must have fallen for it too, I have just paid £34 for Lime Wire and additional movie searches!!!!! I was directed to this site which said you had to choose your provider, and the fee you pay is for quicker d/ls, more search results etc etc and more importantly no pop ups or ads (which is what I wanted), - when I went to upgrade to lime wire pro and it said 'if you have dowloaded limewire in the last 30 days click here for automatic upgrade - which I did, when I entered my email address - It could not be found in records! Is this because it doesn't exist? - What has happened here?? This was 8 days ago!!

robbing sites
 

Having just read a previous thread I have realised that I have been scammed. Before getting lime wire I typed in Kazza.com I was automatically taken to a billing site (check it out for yourself!) I foolishly typed in my card details thinking this was legitimate!!!!! and have subsequently been billed £33.50 ($58.63) the payee is CLKBANK*COM DOWNLOAD which my bank tell me are a registered software company!!!!!! Good news is that they are going to refund my money and investigate the claim!! PLEASE BEWARE, I am not new to the internet but this fooled me!!!
Has anyone else had the same experience recently????????

Re: I PAID FOR LIMEWIRE TOO
 

Did you read the thread? You aren´t in the recordes because you never bought the Limewire PRO version, the basic version which you are using is FREE... you don´t need to pay for faster downloads because this isn´t possioble, because you are downloading from people like you and me and not from big servers.

Ask for a refund!!!

in future download ONLY from the official Limewire site:

http://www.limewire.com/

Morgwen