Is this Blackmail

What is the name of your state? PA

A software developer has a piece of software that, if hacked, will report your personal information to the developer. The developer then send you an email asking for a "settlement" to avoid criminal charges. Isn't this basically: "I have something on you.. Pay me and I won't tell"

I found a defintion for black mail as:

Any payment obtained by intimidation, threats of injurious revelations or accusations. The extortion of this payment. A general term covering a number of statutory offences involving obtaining money and other property by using threats of violence, threats to accuse of a crime, or other menacing conduct. Making an unwarranted demand with menaces with a view to gain or to cause a loss, for example, threatening to publish embarrassing material unless something is done in return, such as money or favours.

The details are here from their email..


What PorkChup Solutions will do with your information - Because you have potentially violated federal copyright and civil laws, PorkChup Solutions has the right to take you to trial seeking monetary penalties and jail time. PorkChup Solutions can obtain additional information about you, including personal billing information from your Internet Service Provider. With evidence provided by your ISP and the sensitive identifying information collected by eMail2Pop, PorkChup Solutions has enough information to quickly bring you to justice through international and domestic courts.

We do not want to initiate legal action - It is in PorkChup Solutions' best interest to spend the least amount of resources possible in persuing piracy. We support the piracy education program where companies raise awareness on the severity of software piracy and the damage it does to the economy. Therefore, our goal is only to teach you a lesson and not take legal action against you. To clear your name from prosecution, PorkChup Solutions offers a way for you to pay for your copy of eMail2Pop along with a minimal settlement fee.

The settlement fee is $80, which includes a legal license to use eMail2Pop for one year. Your name will also be removed from the database within six months. As part of the settlement, you agree not to knowingly use illegal software in the future. Should any of these conditions be violated, the settlement can be nullified at our discretion without refund, and legal prosecution may occur.

I'd say no.

What they are offering is a settlement of a civil suit.

The operative word here is "Hacked"

Poster:

Read this thread:
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=194541&highlight=eMail2Pop

Thanks for the link..

SO its not black mail even though the phrasing seems to indicate that they report the user to the authorities for prosecution unless they are given money?

Nope.

Besides, would you really want to call and report this:

"While I was trying to access a computer program that I had not legally purchased the right to access, in violation of state and federal law, I received this message asking that I send them $80 or they would report me."

My guess is that the consulting fee for an attorney would be much more than the $80. Or, you could just pay the licensing or registration fee and hope that the threat is just a bluff. It probably IS a bluff, but you never know.

And it is not blackmail to advise the consequences of not paying a fine or fee. For instance, it is NOT uncommon for a DA or court to tell a defendant that they can either pay the damages for an act of vandalism, or go to court and risk losing the damages AND fines AND jail time. Are they being strong-armed? Sure. Is it legal? Yes.

- Carl

You need to look at the legislative intent, as well. The key word being "unwarranted".

If you walk into a store and shoplift, but are caught, often times they store will ask you to pay a civil penalty instead of reporting the crime and prosecuting it. Would you call the blackmail or extortion? Of course not. Same situation.

This message is to the original thread poster:

Have you resolved this issue with the company yet? Or have you ignored this message and continued on with life? I am extremely interested in knowing because I am in a similiar predicament.

Thanks!

This company is scamming you

1. This company (if you can call it a company) is a one person company.
2. There is no legal way they can extract private information from your computer (EULA does not warrant this sort of invasion of privacy).


They probably don't have enough sales, so they invented this sort of scam. Scaring ppl to pay.

Since the other thread was closed, I thought I might as well use this one.

Look at the facts on this one.

1. No one has seen any law-suits from these guys
2. Your IP can't tell them much unless they go through the ISP, in which case would be the same thing as the RIAA
3. If they steal files off our pc, that's stealing (obviously) and invasion of privacy
4. EULA was not developed for these infrigements so he must have written code for himself (I bet that is illegal in some sense)
5. $80 to "settle" something shouldn't include a year account to the software in question. That should include the penalty of the "hacked" software. This is just like getting caught stealing, and paying the penalty to keep the item?
6. They know of the hacking group that is involved with this. Wouldn't they go after the release group first before the "crack" that they mention would be spread around? They could make much more money from the group who actually created the software rather than waiting for people to use it and then punishing them instead? (Conspiracy maybe?)

This just seems like a scam to me. The fact of the matter is that one can manipulate files as they wish. A mere child can move the executable file into another folder and throw another file in its place. That is not hacking at all.

If you look at this, then it should seem clear how much of a scandal this is.

All I can say to these resplies, is that I completely agree.

Also, this conspiracy that you pointed out, does sound fishy - I'm not saying that they are necessarily throwing out cracks and then catching you for them, but who's to say they aren't? Just a thought, really - I'm just speaking my mind!

If they were really wanting to stop piracy, wouldn't they go after the groups that are making piracy of their software possible? If I were the owner of this company, then I would sue the people who obtained the crack.

Out of curiousity, I downloaded the crack to see what the .nfo said. Basically, if a crack wouldn't work continuously, a release group wouldn't send it out. They would have noticed the flaw in their program and sent out a better crack for people to pirate off of.

These hackers/crackers are smarter than that. Something like this would be a disgrace to send out. That's pretty interesting to think that this group would have let this crack go, and not even tell the pirators that the software is going to get them into trouble.

It just seems to convienent to me. o.o

its a scam or not? I need more explanation because me too i have the same problem...but I Live in Canada. Who here dont have sent money and who dont have feedback of this scam? Because my 48hour was finished yesterday...

jedduff said:

its a scam or not? I need more explanation because me too i have the same problem...but I Live in Canada. Who here dont have sent money and who dont have feedback of this scam? Because my 48hour was finished yesterday...

Click to expand...

Most people here haven't sent any money, and a few are from Canada. It is most definitely a scam - there have been 0 reports on anyone being contacted by this company about this issue, personally.

I hope it's a joke....

A few days after the last thread, I'd like to confirm if anyone had further problems with this annoying anti-piracy thing... i didn't even know that the software was "cracked".... Can someone confirm that it's really a scam? Because I think it's really a bad joke if so.....

Thank you!