Then you made a mistake somewhere. When you paid your 18.88 you should have received a link via email to your personal download page. THAT is where you get your copy of PRO. If you just downloaded it from the regular download site you WILL NOT get the PRO version. You gotta follow the instructions from your purchase receipt email.

There is NO membership for LimeWire. You either download the free version or you pay 18.88 for the PRO version and 6 months of free updates. Membership is not required.

All I gotta say I these guys are slick. I got lucky when I found my copy of Limewire.. I searched and searched. Found a couple of these idiot paysites and said to myself there was NO WAY I was paying for this thing. A friend at work told me about it and he NEVER mentioned anything about memberships. So I kept up until I found the REAL Limewire download site. Tried the free version and really liked it.. so I bought the PRO version.

I was intrigued by these claims of fraud and decided to investigate one such site. http://www.limewire-downloading.com/uk/index.htm

These folks are slick. Nice professional looking page. The colors are right, different logo, but unless you've seen Limewire in action, you'd never know it. On the main page... down at the very bottom in a almost unreadable light gray is the line "LimeWire is a freeware. Please consult the Terms of use to learn more."

So... I consulted the Terms of use. OMG!! They are really out to get you. There is a clause in there that says something to the effect of.. if you dispute your purchase in any way you HAVE to use a specific email address for all correspondence. If you don't they will CHARGE you $15 for every email you send. This includes contacting the actual company who places the charge on your credit card. Here's the exact text from their TOU Page "USERS AND MEMBERS AGREE THAT IF THEY HAVE ANY REQUESTS/QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR SALES/ REFUND POLICY, THEY MUST CONTACT US DIRECTLY AT support@limewire-downloading.com AND SHALL NOT CONTACT PAY SYSTEM OR WORLDPAY. IF THEY DO NOT COMPLY TO THIS ORDER, WE ARE IN THE OBLIGATION OF CHARGING THEM A 15$ UNSOLICITATED FEEDBACK FEE TO THEIR CREDIT CARD/CHECKING ACCOUNT FOR EVERY EMAIL THAT IS NOT SENT TO THE APPROPRIATE DEPARTMENT."

So basically not only are they charging you for a FREE program, but they charge you if you complain about it too! Good thing the DMV here in the states doesn't do that.. An extra $15 bucks every time you complain about the length of the line unless you do it directly to the deaf guy in the corner wearing the blue tie!

Here's another nice quote from their website "The fee assessed by Limewire-Downloading entitles You to access the location, evaluation, and or recommendation of software products available from the web site and for the installation and technical support provided. All software recommendations refer to software that is available without charge to individuals at large for specific purposes."

Uhh.. OK... SO they're basically saying by charging your credit card we are allowing you to access software that is free to anyone and we'll tell you it's good?? No thanks, I'll try it myself and decide.

OH and it gets better... More confusing language:
"The service does not offer free trials as such the one-time charge is nonrefundable. limewire-downloading is a service website and does not issue refunds for dissatisfaction with the softwares or unability to use due to computer misconfiguration. If refund have to be made, there is a 12$ Processing Fee and Penality charge equals to 25% of the initial membership price. Customer have 30 days to request a refund, prior to this date, all request will be ignored. All penalty charges will be automatically billed to the customer's prefered method of payment and limewire-downloading is not in obligation to provide a written or verbal notice to the Customer."

Ok.. no free trial. Gotcha. No refunds for dissatisfaction or your inability to use the software. Gotcha. However, if they decide to issue a refund, there is a $12 processing fee and Penalty charge equal to 1/4 of your membership price. Yikes! I'm not good on the exchange rates but unless you bought a lifetime membership off the bat, you might actually be PAYING them to refund your money??? Now this is where I get confused... You have 30 days to request a refund... "prior to this date, all request will be ignored." In order for this to even allow for a window of possible refund time it SHOULD say "AFTER this date". Prior to the date means before. So if you bought it on June 4th and your 30 day limit was July 4th.. they are saying BEFORE July 4th your request will be ignored.. and you can't make a request after July 4th. THen there's the "Penalty charges"... they say they can charge those to your credit card WITHOUT notifing you AT ALL!! Uhhh NOT good! How'd you like a $12+ charge to just SHOW up on your credit/debit card out of the blue because you complained that you didn't like their "service". And you'd better hope you complained to the right address ... or BAM! There's another $15 charge.

I just wish there was some way of warning people about this stuff BEFORE they get suckered in. For those who've paid and lost.. I'm sorry you got taken. Let it serve as a lesson to all of us. Even thought they are often long and boring and confusing.. before you give ANYBODY your credit/debit card information READ their usage policies!!! If anything in there looks suspicious.. DO NOT make the transaction. Do the research and save yourself loads of time and money!

hi there got bank statement today and it says 1 week 41.00 and other week 21.48, now it says cd1 gt western tra plymouth, 1st one and 2nd one is, cd1 unlimited down laval, could you help me please i think this is a con reading through this and would like to know what to do next, i think limewire is great only had it a fortnight but this is a rip off!

ohh dear it seems im doing it illegally then can someone help me to get the legal 1 and proper lime wire, im stopping using this 1, what can i do, is thee anything i can do at bank and what to get rid of this, sorry for doing this again but really worried about it.

waynet94: These scam versions can't be trusted. They've been known to be filled with viruses/adwares, spywares, etc. Plus some sites will continue to charge you. Get the official free version. Then see how you like it. If after much experience you decide you'd like to go pro then you know where to get it. Cancel your transaction asap with that other site thru your bank/credit co. Then get the real LW from here: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/download.shtml

ok thanks mate just cancel direct debit at bank then and they will stop them taking further money out of my account, shall i delete the lot of my computer immediatally then?

hi there well hopefully ive finished with it now, ive been to bank and my account has shut down and a new 1 will open so they shouldnt get anymore money out of me hopefully and im going to scrap all the old fake limewire and put the proper version on, probably the basc 1 first then if thats ok go to pro, but i would like to say i hope people dont fall for it like me and others have, scamsters, you wouldnt know the difference really, but i feel some others will fall for it like me.

Hie

Anyone know of My Music Inc ? www.mymusicinc.com

I paid US$50 in order to download limewire. Only to know that the basic is free. Been trying to contact them to ccl my "subscription".

Anyone can help? Please ?

Joy

youve done like me, being selt a pup!, its a con get to your bank like i did and cancel all charges, i did there all the same ripping is off!!!

Well there you go, I have been scammed too..

The payment has already come out of my card, and I have sent the scammers a request for a refund, so I will wait and see what happens...

Here is the link where I got scammed..

http://newnet.qsrch.com/dpark?s=ip-m...g.com&prt=nn01 (This is who took my money)

Received: from mail.mp3downloading.com (h66-201-199-198.gtconnect.net [66.201.199.198]) (This is who sent me the receipt below)

support@musicmembersarea.com (This return address doesn't work)

I hope this helps others avoid the same thing as me...

Dear Shona

Welcome to the worlds greatest file sharing software website on the internet!

Please print out this page for your records.

Billing information
Membership type:Lifetime Full & Unlimited Access for a total of 27.8 $ USD
NetSpyProtector Option - Protect yourself from malware for a total of 9.88 $ USD

Grand total: 37.68 $ USD

Dear Newbies

Apart from ZebraSE, how many of you guys and girls did any research into what you were getting into before you gave your money away to the scammers?

Did anyone stop to think that what was on offer seemed too good to be true?

Did anyone check that the (scam) site had a phone number, an address and could be contacted.

Did you try to gather any information about the site, e.g. reviews, word of mouth, other recommendations, before parting with your money?

Or were you mesmerised by the scammer’s advert, i.e. smiling models, slick presentation, lots of “wordage”, etc?

If the answer to the above questions, except the last one, was "NO" then you newbies have no one to blame but yourselves for being taken.



UK Bob

Hiya,
Clearly MyMusicInc.com etc are scamming scum. They are also careless scum..

Here's how I found them..

Using 'Whois.sc" - a domain lookup site to look them up;

http://www.whois.sc/mymusicinc.com

Now they hid their registration behind Network Solutions, however, Whois.sc allows you to see *what other sites are running off the same web server*, which is often very interesting as usually people will rent a colo'd box and run all their scams off it...

sooo, running on the same box are;

http://www.whois.sc/christmysavior.com
(woah!)

and

http://www.whois.sc/imusicsearch.com

and

http://www.whois.sc/musicdownloadpro.com

all of which are basically the same scam. Note that they all have the same contact address (NOT hidden this time - lazy scammer!)


Registrant:
My Music Inc
701 Rossland Road East Ste 369
Whitby, Ontario L1N9K3
CA

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: MUSICDOWNLOADPRO.COM
Created on: 08-JAN-04
Expires on: 08-JAN-09
Last Updated on: 30-JUN-04

Administrative, Technical Contact:
My Music Inc
701 Rossland Road East Ste 369
Whitby, Ontario L1N9K3
CA
905-248-3113


Oh looky! MyMusicInc!

Anybody in Ontario want to go round and 'reeducate' them?

Dang if I were anywhere in the area I would be right with you, but it's a bit far from Australia..

Look what goes around comes around, and they will lose a lot more in time.... I have learnt not to by anything that doesn't offer paypal for payments though..

Thanks for the info!!!

antiscam

Well done, you certainly know how to check out a site.

But the main problem is that scammers rely on the fact that newbies know "nothing" and are so eager to give their money away that they don't stop and think.

So far, I think the scammers are winning. I could be wrong but check out the rest of the forum, you'll see what I mean.



UK Bob

Well ive had emails saying hi thanks for looking and all that lot, something about losing weight too!, any way i wrote a right email back, not replied since, not surprised i gave them some right swearing and abuse, and i said its thee that needs to lose weight, what thats got to do with owt i dont know!