thoughts on pirated software?

[mit74]

I would have to say the majority of customers have some form of pirated software or torrent on their computers, unless you turn a blind eye to it you're going to alienate alot of customers. But after the last few PCs I fixed I'm started to get a little annoyed at their cheek.
These customers had their computers serviced, cleansed from spyware and trojans and security software bought and installed. I always aim to provide good service and say all my work is guaranteed and say if you have problems once returned I'll come out and sort it for free. However these customers have admitted to using torrents and one even refused to let me delete a torrented program that I said was causing the infection only to him turn up a day later saying it wasn't clean of viruses and the software I installed hadn't done it's job.
This is the best yet though: I even have a letter from a disgruntled customer saying I cleansed and installed security software on his computer only for him to get infected a day later with a real nasty root virus. His letter actually says his IT tutor who is 'extremely knowledgable about computers' was looking on sites for a keygen for software he was training him in when a problem arose. His letter states that this IT tutor said it's likely that the computer was infected before he used it and that I should clean it free of charge. I only agreed because he had spent alot of money on other stuff and knew he was a valuable customer.

Do other pros have this problem and what are your policies on pirated software and viruses?

 

[Mpg]

Take the cash.

If they risk getting dodgy software and open themselves up to virus's then just keep taking their money.

 

[mit74]

Take the cash.

If they risk getting dodgy software and open themselves up to virus's then just keep taking their money.

Most will not admit to it though and say the computer wasn't cleansed properly or they claim the security software I installed didn't do it's job and so I'm responsible.

 

[Ranks]

Maybe take a screen shot of the scan summaries for your own records. At least then you can say all was well when you left it...
Jay

 

[eog]

In this situation i , on returning the PC simply tell the customer that the computer is 100% clean of all viruses etc. I then point out that the likely cause of the virus is the torrents or whatever they have downloaded and if they continue too use it they could just as likely get another virus at anytime. There isnt an anti virus program that gives 100% protection, this is impossible, especially when human error comes into play.

 

[Logistika]

I get asked quite a few times to clean up computers because like the IT Tutor referred to I'm told that I am 'extremely knowledgable about computers' by people when they are wanting something and then referred to less courteously when a problem arises the next day or so.

The word Limewire makes me screw up my face like I'm having a stroke, as it appears to be the P2P network with the most trojans/back doors.

It is easy for the OP and others in his industry to retreat behind a mindset of
"Ok, I'll take their money as they are a customer, and if I don't someone else will" It is a false economy, as wasting time hunting down nasties for whining customers is not time well spent. Better potential customers exist.

I'm neither condoning nor condemming piracy, be it boats off Somalia, or electronic media such as software, music or films.

Although the Digital Rights Management evangelists would like all people to snitch on their neighbours and customers, I disagree as I respect a persons right to privacy more than I respect the law.

The fact that the OP and his peers turn a blind eye to torrents could be blamed as contributing to the spread of piracy and/or viruses, but I'd put the blame firmly at the door of the referenced "IT Tutor" type (ie bar room lawyers).

These ignorant brainless ba5tards have the ear of your customers, and their even worse, their misguided trust. So even though the OP is professional, he is blamed for being a negligent amateur, and has to kiss the customers bottom in remedying a machine probono knowing full well he has already performed his service. Is soul destroying, but more importantly it is seen as an admission of guilt.

My advice to him is that he displays a notice prominently at his place of business referring to terms and conditions regarding unlicenced software. Presumably the OP doesnt want to furnish his customers with output logs of whatever cleaning utilities he uses, but its an effective sign off tool to return a service card with the machine, ticked and signed by the OP or his technician confirming the status of the machine and listing out the checks he has made:


e.g.
Found Deleted Doublechecked: Date:
Spyware: 210 210 Yes 08/07/10
Trojans: 22 11 Yes 09/07/10
Viruses: 2 2 Yes 09/07/10
P2P: Limewire Yes 09/07/10
BitTorrent No

It might sound a waste of time, but that bit of paper is a good defence when confronted by dissatisfed idiots, proves by the fact that each step is signed/initialled that you have performed your quality control checks.

Remember the customer is not "always right".

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

I would not ever install pirated software for a customer. If they want to install, they can do it on their own, at their risk. It's not worth the headache nowadays. The technology has moved on so much, the Microsoft and Adobe are very quick to pinpoint pirated copies nowadays.

 

[mit74]

I would not ever install pirated software for a customer. If they want to install, they can do it on their own, at their risk. It's not worth the headache nowadays. The technology has moved on so much, the Microsoft and Adobe are very quick to pinpoint pirated copies nowadays.

It's a very risky game as a IT professional. Point proven really when this customer was quite willing to put in writing that his tutor installed all his pirated software for him. Wonder what would happen if a policeman spots all the pirated disc by accident one day, I'm pretty sure he pin the blame on this IT guy.

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

It's a very risky game as a IT professional. Point proven really when this customer was quite willing to put in writing that his tutor installed all his pirated software for him. Wonder what would happen if a policeman spots all the pirated disc by accident one day, I'm pretty sure he pin the blame on this IT guy.

Agree. Also, if you are a professional or even semi-professional IT Services company with any accreditation, it all be taken away because of this one mistake.

If you are going to make your business happen with long term ambitions then you can't take these risks. We had one person who wanted us to write a letter this week "claiming XYZ" so that they could claim it as manufacturer defect. They said they would pay us. We politely refused. Although we could have accepted and taken the money. It's just not worth it. I want to be able to sleep peacefully.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

How do you know is pirated software, and why were you looking at the drive its self rather than just running the anti virus software

 

[Billmccallum]

Not sure if it helps, but here goes....

When doing a job remove all the cr*p and make it part of your T&C's that installing Torrent, Limewire type programmes, pirated software, etc will invalidate your warranty.

Then when it comes to complaints, where they have used dodgy stuff you simply state that the warranty is not valid and they will have to pay again.

I would have to say the majority of customers have some form of pirated software or torrent on their computers, unless you turn a blind eye to it you're going to alienate alot of customers. But after the last few PCs I fixed I'm started to get a little annoyed at their cheek.
These customers had their computers serviced, cleansed from spyware and trojans and security software bought and installed. I always aim to provide good service and say all my work is guaranteed and say if you have problems once returned I'll come out and sort it for free. However these customers have admitted to using torrents and one even refused to let me delete a torrented program that I said was causing the infection only to him turn up a day later saying it wasn't clean of viruses and the software I installed hadn't done it's job.
This is the best yet though: I even have a letter from a disgruntled customer saying I cleansed and installed security software on his computer only for him to get infected a day later with a real nasty root virus. His letter actually says his IT tutor who is 'extremely knowledgable about computers' was looking on sites for a keygen for software he was training him in when a problem arose. His letter states that this IT tutor said it's likely that the computer was infected before he used it and that I should clean it free of charge. I only agreed because he had spent alot of money on other stuff and knew he was a valuable customer.

Do other pros have this problem and what are your policies on pirated software and viruses?

 

[mit74]

How do you know is pirated software, and why were you looking at the drive its self rather than just running the anti virus software

1) Removing viruses and rootkits involves more than just running an AV. This isn't PC World.
2) Cleansing and servicing requires the removal of software eg toolbars, spyware programs.
3) I will backup all data before starting work and will look for files they may want backing up but haven't told me eg pictures/files out of mydocuments folder). I inform them of this before work starts.
4) Most cases they'll tell you they have downloaded dodgy software.
5) Most cases they'll have keygens, a folder named 'softwarename+crack' or limeware/utorrent on the desktop.
6) When a home customer has a few £3500 programs on his desktop it's pretty obvious.

 

[awebapart.com]

I would have to say the majority of customers have some form of pirated software or torrent on their computers, unless you turn a blind eye to it you're going to alienate alot of customers.

Definitely do not turn a blind. Try to educate your customers.

If they don't listen, put it in simple monetary terms they will pay attention to. For example...

"You think you are saving money downloading dodgy software, but when that software has malware in it to monitor things like your credit card details you type into a website, or your internet banking login details you type in, then that dodgy software can be very expensive indeed."

And that's just one of many ways malware can affect you in monetary terms, others include downtime, repair costs, holding your PC to ransom, getting access to your website to hack that, mass-sending spam emails to get your ISP or hosting account banned, send emails to propagate malware to your friends, colleagues, clients, etc.

Pirated software is one of the most prevalent ways that malware gets onto PCs, according to one anti-virus firm's report.

My company used to developed PC and mobile phone games, so we witnessed software piracy and malware from the other end, seeing people pirate our software, or pretend to pirate our software in order to spread malware. For us it is simple to demonstrate that pirated software can try to install malware on PCs...

We developed a Java mobile phone game, that could only be downloaded via the mobile phone to the mobile phone, nothing to do with PCs at all, and could be unlocked to the full version with a serial number. What did the warez, crackz, keygen websites do? Did they simply publish the serial number so people could unlock the game? No. They provided a PC windows executable file hoping that uninformed people would download and run it on their PCs in the hope of it telling them a serial number, but in reality letting loose god knows what malware on their PCs!

There's pirated software, or pretend pirated software, or even vapourware that pretends to do the impossible, all out there with the sole purpose of persuading the uninformed user to download an executable file and run it on their PC, in order to infect the PC with malware.

 

[REBOOTTHAT]

I personally thoroughly scan all virus infected computers.

1. Safe mode - malwarebytes (picks-up most, if not all)
2. Security Essentials (uninstall after scan)
3. Trend on-line scanner
4. AVG free (which I leave on)
5. Hijackthis
6. Regedit and check the usual spots for infection.

I guess you could list out to your client what you do to find and kill infections.

Not sure if this would work, but say you are using Malwarebytes and you scan the machine and it finds infections, then the next scan it says 0 (zero) infections. Then do a print screen and save it somewhere on the client machine, or email it to yourself.

When you go back, show them that all the infections were cleared and that you have picked up something else AFTER you have cleared the PC.

Might work?

I feel for you, I haven't been in this situation yet. But I would be putting them straight about picking up infections for pirated software. I would be emphisising that it is ILLEGAL to download and install pirated software. So if they would like to take it up with any legal authority they would be putting themselves in it.

I personally wouldn't want to work with a client like this!

 

[tushar]

Thanks for sharing your information. As internet is so vast that that anything can be pirated from anywhere. So many hacker might still be hacking somebody. So be protected

 

[heathcote123]

I would have to say the majority of customers
Do other pros have this problem and what are your policies on pirated software and viruses?

It does come up every now and again. We tend to explain to the business owner that often pirated software is trojaned, and that they leave themselves personally open to legal liability.

But at the end of the day, it's their choice - not ours, and we're not the software police.

 

[estwig]

Avast, me hearties!

Shiver me timbers!

Ya scurvy bilge rats!!!

 

[estwig]

This pirate walks into a bar with a big ship's wheel down his pants. The bartender says, "Excuse me, sir, but do you know you have a ship's wheel down the front of your pants?"
And the pirate says...

Aaargh, it's driving me nuts!!

 

[Dawg]

Careful: you'll have a sweaty minging again....

 

[landlordquery]

You can't promise a computer is 100% clean. Even the MoD can't achieve that

Tell your customer the truth: that you can't make his computer perfect, but you will spend as much time as he's willing to pay for running the anti virus software, etc.

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

Internet is very vast now. It is not easy to stop piracy. Because now there are so many sites which provides pirated software.

Internet maybe vast but the technology is a lot sharper now. If you are in business, it is false economy (nowadays) putting illegal software on your computers.