Chris O. Actually this is a just a redirect address, you are looking at the same site, popgoodssite.info.

It's a fairly common procedure, and quite easy to do, to create any number of web addresses and point them all to the same site. This one is easy to spot, better ones do a better job of disguising what they're up to.

I believe some traders not only point several addresses at the same page, they also create say, a thousand pages, all on the same website, and have, say, 500 different addresses all pointing to apparently different pages - which are actually all in the same space and owned by the same person. While that may seem a lot of trouble to go to, domain names are just a few bucks each now and there are big discounts if you buy in bulk. Given that the cost price of these allegedly-genuine products to the dealer is effectively zero, because they're pirate software downloaded off the web for free, everything you give them is sheer profit. They only need a few customers before they have their investment back.

If your credit card has been charged, and the transaction was direct rather than through PayPal, just tell your credit card provider and you should get a refund in around 30 days. It's standard procedure and the credit card companies are all well aware of these Chinese merchants and what they get up to.

Don R. Thank you for the explanation Chris. I'm going to research the Chinese trade commission (?) and see if they can start monitoring scams like this. I'm planning on buying USA made from now on.

Chris O. You're welcome, good luck. Scams from China in general account for several thousands of websites, so don't expect monitoring to be of much help, though. Everyone from governments down is aware that they're there. It's a multi-billion dollar export industry for China, to which we are already so heavily indebted that nobody wants to risk rocking the boat too much. Not to mention proven connections with organized crime that make intervention by anyone less well equipped than the FBI a potentially dangerous operation.

In my experience software trading is usually based out of Eastern Europe rather than China, since China has manufacturing capacity that Europe doesn't. This sort of fakery is much more appropriate since it requires no physical resources. I'm not that surprised to find Chinese dabbling in it too, because in the end it's all one huge criminal community, but it's not a big Chinese thing.

Don R. Thanks Chris for putting this into perspective. It's evident that the solution is to make buyers aware and show them how to make sure that a seller is credible.....my next task. I think there is a way to check out the physical location of the URL Don.

Chris O. I can save you the trouble. A URL doesn't have a geographical location, because the site that uses it may be anywhere. However, the root domain name has a location of sorts, which is the comany that the registrant paid in order to use the name. In this case the registrar is Godaddy, in the USA, which is the biggest registrar there is. They are at godaddy.com. They merely hold the records relating to who the registrant is and have no other interests.

They can tell you that this domain name is registered by someone in China, which we already know.

The next thing by way of physical location is to find the place where the site that is currently using that name is actually hosted. A website is nothing more than a bunch of folders on a hard drive, so someone out there has to own that hard drive and the server it lives at.

In this case, the server belongs to SoftLayer Technologies Inc., in Texas, but the site redirects to one stored at Sharktech Internet Services, in Montana. There are only three sites stored at one address here, of which only two are active, and they both belong to the same person in China.

Since only three sites are hosted on this particular address, I'm going to assume that this customer has a 'virtual server' and the terms of use of these normally distance the provider from what their customers choose to do with them. Unless a customer takes to outrageously spamming from their network or attempts to attack them, normally they won't get involved.

If I were to dig a bit deeper I think, from what I saw in a very quick look, that just a couple of servers here are hosting a whole heap of sites selling fake software.

Hope that information is useful to you.

Don R. Chris, What a web of deceit! Again I guess the message is "buyer beware". Make sure one knows the reputation of the seller. I think Pricegrabber, Nextag, and Amazon have rating systems that should give the purchaser some degree of security. Am I wrong?
Again, thanks for all the info. Don

Chris O. Depends what you mean by "some degree of security"; if "some degree" includes "zero" then yes.

I can show you a five-star rated dealer on Nextag who is a known fraud artist and obviously selling pirated illegal software, right now. It took me about a minute to find him, and another five seconds to see he was running a scam, and maybe five minutes to confirm that, though I didn't really have to.

I would place more trust in Amazon and Pricegrabber myself. But people subvert any user-driven ratings system, even the one here at SiteJabber, and it's certainly been known to happen at Amazon. Using a ratings system should be your second line of defense, after your own knowledge. And that's doubly important when you buy online, because an online store front means nothing. You can't see the person or company behind it, and it's simple for a person with a laptop in his bedroom (perhaps in China) to hide behind a store front that looks as good as any major high street store.

While "buyer beware" isn't bad, the problem is that the buyer must first recognize he's in danger, which he often will not. Ask any Toyota owner.

Don R. Interesting Chris. Solution...buy local from people you know. tx