Brenda writes:

<<I received this email and several others like it and want to know your =
opinions of the honesty, reliability, and quality of their service and =
products.>>

If this was an unsolicited email, otherwise known as spam, the first rule
is: IGNORE IT!!!!

No-one should EVER reply or even consider replying to spam. Why?

1. If no-one ever replied, we wouldn't have this pernicious problem of junk
email, which currently is threatening the very existence of email as we
used to know it.

2. Any company which resorts to spam has to be unethical at best, or, more
likely, selling illegal goods as in this case.

3. You'll pay over your money, and likely won't receive the goods. You're
unlikely to have any recourse, as the vendor will be as hard to pin down as
Osama. Probably even living in the same cave. Any apparently legitimate
address will only be an empty front, probably temporary.

4. If you do receive anything, it may be defective, due to a variety of
reasons which I won't go into here. Oh yes, I've no doubt their website (if
you're foolish enough to visit it and likely at the same time be infested
with malware) will be littered with glowing testimonials. Mostly
fictitious, of course. Don't be fooled by an impressive-looking website.
These people are clever and devious.

5. No technical support or help. In some cases, expired or forged passwords
or licence numbers.

6. Get an ISP with a decent junk filter. You should not be receiving this
sort of email if your ISP's junk filters are set up properly.

7. You are very wise to question anything of this nature.  Too cheap, too
good=too bad!

Of course, all this is assuming your initial letter was unsolicited. If
perchance you had initiated the query (as you didn't say, I've assumed
not), other factors may apply. Only some (most?) of my comments may apply.
But you still need to ask yourself---or others---why so cheap? Maybe fair
enough if they're outdated versions. Or versions known to be buggy.

I'm not saying that all discounted software is bad. But anything arriving
via spam emails is certain to be bad.

Incidentally, if you have visited their website, make sure you scan your
computer with antispyware, both AdAware and Spybot at least, with fully
updated reference data. Your new-found friends are sure to be tracking your
every move, which will result in more spam.  And so the vicious spiral ever
widens.

Don Penlington
 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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