Stay clear of extravagant claims and bargains that are too good to be true. The rascals promise FREE downloads or quote prices at steep discounts. They offer services that are either redundant or suspect. They claim to speed up your browsing experience or to get rid of unwanted viruses. Instead they insert adware for their products and their partners. While unsuspecting customers are led from page to page. The software is indeed downloaded for free but the customer needs a key to make it to work.
The vendors offer steep discounts, which later turns into 30-day trials with the same price automatically deducted month after month. The price charged your credit account is quadruple what you've been led to suspect. They take your funds even before their products are activated. When you try to cancel your order, you get nothing but runarounds. These vendors are bandits, thieves and economic terrorists.
Sooner or later, consumers will become fed up with all this nonsense. The shenanigans are bound to undermine the credibility of corporations who offer valid products and services. No one will risk online purchases. And the fabled Cloud will come down, raining cats and dogs. The fallout will spread like a plague. The economy will crash harder than the DOT.COM fiasco. Scooters will go for a dollar a dozen on eBay. Mark my words.