Fraudulent sales of avast! products

In a preventive measure designed to protect customers, ALWIL Software would like to draw attention to the fraudulent selling of avast! products via several web sites.

These web sites usually offer license keys for our free Home Edition product or illegal "cracked" license keys, but charge the customer as if they were purchasing the original Professional Edition. In other cases, when the email "invoice" is received by the customer, there is no mention of avast! Instead a list of other programs is usually offered that the customer has often never heard of, let alone agreed to buy.

One clear way to spot a fraudulent site is via a message at the bottom of the website, often in small lettering, similar to the following: This website has no affiliation whatsoever with the owner of this software program, and provides ONLY a link to the software program.

Another way to spot these scam sites, is that they often offer a "lifetime" license or "Gold Package" - packages that ALWIL Software does not offer in the avast! range.

Such websites are in no way associated with ALWIL Software a.s., and cannot issue avast! licenses, as they are not partners of ALWIL Software. Therefore any money you send to them will not result in a genuine paid-for license.

In order to protect our customers from such fraud, we have prepared a list (below) of known scams sites that we are aware of. None of the below sites have any connection with ALWIL Software and are not authorized resellers of our products:

• http://www.anti-virus-101.com
• http://www.avastt.us
• http://www.anti-virus.2009fr.com
• http://www.official-anti-virus.com/avast2/
• http://www.anti-virus-101.com/avast_promo_rs/
• http://www.freedownloadzone.com
• http://www.antivirus.2009fr.com
• http://www.free-download-place.net
• http://avast.freesecuredownloads.com
• http://avast.download-suite.com
• http://avast.d0wnloadz.net
• http://avast2008.info
• http://avast.uk-s0ftware.com
• http://www.avast.2009download.org
• http://www.avast-clean.com/faq.asp
• http://www.telechargerantivirus.net/
• http://avast.antiviruz-now.com
• http://www.helpmedownload.com
• http://security-and-protection.com
• http://www.avastantivirus.cc/it
• http://www.avast-antivirus.org/es
• http://avast.antivirus-protection2008.com
• http://vvww-avast.com
• http://www.software-hq.net
• http://www.avast-downloads.com
• http://avast.free-software-center.com
• http://www.avast-hq.com
• http://www.DownloadAvast.com
• http://download-avast.com
• http://www.download-zone-free.com
• http://www.freedownloadspace.com
• http://avast-download-now.com
• http://www.mydownloadsite.com
• http://www.downloadinghome.com *

* Denotes a payment descriptor that may appear on your credit card if you have purchased from one of these sites.

** Denotes a real avast! Home Edition download wrapped in a new installer which requires a premium rate SMS to be sent in order to gain a license key.

Customers are advised to contact their credit card issuer immediately if they have purchased from one of these sites, and report the transaction as fraudulent. This will allow the credit card company to instigate a chargeback against the site, returning money to customers.

Customers may also wish to contact their local law enforcement organization for statistical monitoring purposes.

Online purchases from Alwil Software will always contain either DR*www.avast.com or E5*www.avast.com in the payment descriptor as Element 5 (a Digital River company) is the ONLY official online e-commerce partner of Alwil Software a.s.

Customers who cannot confirm where their purchase has been made are encouraged to contact avast! sales if they have any doubts as to the validity of such purchases.