Torrent freak, an authority in the popular torrent craze, has published a post entitled, BitTorrent Rip Off Sites, and How to Avoid Them. With the ongoing issues of Comcast forging packets, the RIAA and MPAA ruining people's lives, this is another reason to avoid public torrent trackers.
Some Torrents Provide False Hope
A large percentage of torrent users have downloaded falsely labeled movies only to end up with a password protected .rar archive. Conveniently, the password is no where in the readme, or the nfo. Instead, users are instructed to visit an affiliate (CPA) site and fill in their email address in order to receive the archive's password. The password never comes, nor will the enjoyment one might have experienced had they been able to watch the movie.
Out With The Old & In With The New
The new plague haunting torrent sites is pretty nasty and will probably earn the malicious persons way more cash in the end. Here's an excerpt from TorrentFreak,
"This particular brand notifies people who try to play a video file they’ve just downloaded that they need to download a codec if they want to play the file. The site they are redirected to is of course a scam, most of them are filled with annoying ads."
Annoying ads aside, the codec that's required to play the movie is the big earner. Most of these pay per install (PPI) sites pay up to a dollar, if not more, every time an affiliate gets the company's software installed. Twenty torrent sites at an underestimated download count of twenty downloads per site is $400. To double that, upload 2 torrents to all twenty torrent sites. Not everyone has the same standard of living, obviously, but I could easily manage on $400 a day.
Let's Take This One Step Further
Not only does the torrent's unloader earn a dollar for every codec installed, but say they also included a custom written bot to add your network into their collection of botnets. Your network is now operating as a spam relay, a seeder to help spread their garbage torrents even more, an Adsense clickbot to make them even more money, and countless other malicious activities you're probably unaware of. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; torrents are bad news. And until these malicious pricks learn to respect their fellow humans, gain some integrity, establish some morals, and redefine their ethics, BitTorrent is a protocol I'll continue to stay away from.
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