Comments on: Beware Softonic Download Scam

By: Gustavo B.

Gustavo B. — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:41:47 +0000

Softonic is absolutely a scam site whenever you try to download a trial software from the link of the original publisher in their site it will show a message like this:

“The download link from the publisher’s site appears to be broken”
“The file is always available through Softonic’s Deluxe Services”

I made a test for 10 different programs.

This is Bullshit… Don’t pay for trial software.

By: James Stewart

James Stewart — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:57:13 +0000

Tom: Thank you very much for your prompt response to this issue.

By: Tom Clarke

Tom Clarke — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:44:40 +0000

Hi there, short update: Our changes in the wording are already online as you can see on our site now. Again, we’d like to say sorry for any inconvenience caused. Tom at Softonic

By: Barr

Barr — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:46:17 +0000

Looks like this is the case with nearly everything on the site. I’ve just paid to download something else which is a trial version. Avoid these scammers.

By: Tom Clarke

Tom Clarke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:05:03 +0000

Dear Otaku Software team,

We are very sorry for any confusion caused. It was never our intention to mislead our users. As an immediate step we have deactivated the paid download option on our Deskspace download pages. As soon as possible, we will change the wording of the paid download option on all program pages to “Download trial version of %program_name% from Softonic” to make it clearer that you pay for getting the software from our server, not purchasing the full version. Thanks a lot for your feedback.

Regards from the Softonic team in Barcelona

By: James Stewart

James Stewart — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:23:37 +0000

You’re absolutely right. If they don’t take it down soon their reputation is also going to take a major hit.

By: Nico Westerdale

Nico Westerdale — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:15:37 +0000

I’m amazed that Softonic has taken this step as it’s clearly extreemly confusing to users. I’d imagine that they will get a lot of complaints and be forced to take it down as it’s very misleading.