Syamntec FAKES warning!
Straight_Man
Geeky, in my own wayNaples, FL Icrontian
Someone in Michigan is bulk distributing FAKE Symantec CDs. They can be distinguished as follows:
This is for Norton SystemWorks Pro 2003:
Fakes have Norton SystemWorks in GREEN, not BLACK. Fakes do not have the W in a right-rotated Trapezoid with the word Windows below it-- they have
For Windows
XP\2000\NT\ME\98
Where the logo should be to right near top of what should be plain yellow and is instead metallic gold-yellow on FAKES if you look at CD with title upright.
The whole body of text that explains the Symantec copyrights is too wide-- starts where the left edge of the clear part of the CD is, and is not aligned to center of CD hole as it should be. The word "holders" is misspelled holders.
There is no holographic security ring on this CD. Holographs are on back, the data side, about an 170 arc of ring background only should be visible on front of CD and these are totally missing that ring.
Someone took parts of a box cover, scanned it, and put it on these CDs (they are silver face labels, wrong mfr of blanks also), and made up the rest and literally bulk pirated them. The gears are box cover size, related to title, and the size of gears is 1\2 of what it should be as far as whole scale for a legit CD. A Short-Media scoop for ya all. The Syamntec donut logo is missing, and the part about using CD in emergency pre-install is wrong font size (too small) ON FAKES.
This is not a hoax, this has been confirmed by Symantec in about an hour of phone calls to Oregon and California Syamnatec facilities, and the seller to me, in Florida, got an immediate refund demand which shocked the heck out of him as he is an OEM in Florida also. I am not gonna give this guys' name out, he acted right (refunded within one hour) and will probably be asking the FBI to help bring the duplicator to justice as he has a very large amount of the CDs from multiple sources and he is an Ebay Corporate seller. He got the CDs from multiple sources, and ships hundreds a week.
Basicly, do not buy Symantec CDs on ebay. Not for the 2003 or 2004 or later versions, as Symantec will be actively using DRM tech in the 2004 year. If you have such, you can do this-- first get the seller notified of the penalty for such, $10,000 federal fine per copy. If that does not work, Symantec folks have told me they will refund the money of folks who have receipts for purchasing 2003 CDs that are not legit if the CDs and copies of purchase records for them are returned (they use receipt needed).
I am out zero cash, except for phone calls to Symantec (most of which were toll free) and FBI's semi-local enforcement\investigations team for the iffcc(Internet Fraud Filing Complaint Center is main part of title) team there (not toll free). FBI said five copies was not enough to proceed given current heavy case load (they will be test buying), so I went back to the seller with a "forthwith" refund demand with no questions asked. Seller is still sorting good from bad, and is legit but niave or has niave employees. He will have a guide to good ones versus bad in about 48 hours from me.
For 2004, Symantec is directly offering bulks of 10 or more copies to also help combat the black market in Symantec CDs, to OEMs. Prices NOT firm or settled yet on bulks.
John, who does not like to see folks given CDs that are fake and do not work and do not register with unique serial numbers and subscription codes. (Sorry, this is a HowTo recognize good Symantec stuff thing, not an ordinary thread start, HAD to be a tib long and will be an exception). I am not gonna give you 14 MB scans to put up, someone might copycat from them.
This is for Norton SystemWorks Pro 2003:
Fakes have Norton SystemWorks in GREEN, not BLACK. Fakes do not have the W in a right-rotated Trapezoid with the word Windows below it-- they have
For Windows
XP\2000\NT\ME\98
Where the logo should be to right near top of what should be plain yellow and is instead metallic gold-yellow on FAKES if you look at CD with title upright.
The whole body of text that explains the Symantec copyrights is too wide-- starts where the left edge of the clear part of the CD is, and is not aligned to center of CD hole as it should be. The word "holders" is misspelled holders.
There is no holographic security ring on this CD. Holographs are on back, the data side, about an 170 arc of ring background only should be visible on front of CD and these are totally missing that ring.
Someone took parts of a box cover, scanned it, and put it on these CDs (they are silver face labels, wrong mfr of blanks also), and made up the rest and literally bulk pirated them. The gears are box cover size, related to title, and the size of gears is 1\2 of what it should be as far as whole scale for a legit CD. A Short-Media scoop for ya all. The Syamntec donut logo is missing, and the part about using CD in emergency pre-install is wrong font size (too small) ON FAKES.
This is not a hoax, this has been confirmed by Symantec in about an hour of phone calls to Oregon and California Syamnatec facilities, and the seller to me, in Florida, got an immediate refund demand which shocked the heck out of him as he is an OEM in Florida also. I am not gonna give this guys' name out, he acted right (refunded within one hour) and will probably be asking the FBI to help bring the duplicator to justice as he has a very large amount of the CDs from multiple sources and he is an Ebay Corporate seller. He got the CDs from multiple sources, and ships hundreds a week.
Basicly, do not buy Symantec CDs on ebay. Not for the 2003 or 2004 or later versions, as Symantec will be actively using DRM tech in the 2004 year. If you have such, you can do this-- first get the seller notified of the penalty for such, $10,000 federal fine per copy. If that does not work, Symantec folks have told me they will refund the money of folks who have receipts for purchasing 2003 CDs that are not legit if the CDs and copies of purchase records for them are returned (they use receipt needed).
I am out zero cash, except for phone calls to Symantec (most of which were toll free) and FBI's semi-local enforcement\investigations team for the iffcc(Internet Fraud Filing Complaint Center is main part of title) team there (not toll free). FBI said five copies was not enough to proceed given current heavy case load (they will be test buying), so I went back to the seller with a "forthwith" refund demand with no questions asked. Seller is still sorting good from bad, and is legit but niave or has niave employees. He will have a guide to good ones versus bad in about 48 hours from me.
For 2004, Symantec is directly offering bulks of 10 or more copies to also help combat the black market in Symantec CDs, to OEMs. Prices NOT firm or settled yet on bulks.
John, who does not like to see folks given CDs that are fake and do not work and do not register with unique serial numbers and subscription codes. (Sorry, this is a HowTo recognize good Symantec stuff thing, not an ordinary thread start, HAD to be a tib long and will be an exception). I am not gonna give you 14 MB scans to put up, someone might copycat from them.
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