Something to say about the legitimacy of 'cheap' Kaspersky software...

Hi all,

Recently, i've seen people questioning the legitimacy of 'cheap' Kaspersky licences available from certain websites.

In my opinion, MOST of them are legitimate. We must not forget that these licences are targeted at a different market(s) where the income of most users are significantly lower than Western countries.

I have been working in Asia for the past couple of years, and have seen many software available at 'ridiculous' prices. Yet, THEY ARE legitimate.

For example, in Taiwan, Kaspersky's Antivirus and Internet Security cost $30 and $54 respectively. This may not be a big deal. But the REAL DEAL is that once you have purchased a licence, for example, Antivirus 6.0, you can extend it for 2 years at a cost of $19. So, for a measly $49, you can have a Kaspersky antivirus licence for 3 years. With this licence, you will get free version updates/upgrades (e.g. 7.0 and 8.0).

One may question whether these prices are legitimate. But they are! These deals are available from Yahoo Taiwan (yes, directly from Yahoo) and PCHome (one of the largest online vendors of I.T. products in Taiwan). I don't think a company of such stature (e.g. Yahoo) would be selling illegitimate products. I purchased one of these licences sometime ago, and i get support directly from Kaspersky's office in Taiwan (www.kaspersky.com.tw). This is also the case for other brands. For example, you can get a NOD32 3-year licence (plus a 1GB USB pen drive) for around $50. While i was working in China, i have even seen Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 available for $12 (again, legitimate).

When we see these prices, we must not feel hard done by. These prices are set for a reason. They are for a different market. How can we expect people in China paying the same price as we do when their income is only a fraction of ours (for example, i know a lot of my colleagues in China are earning only $250 per month BEFORE tax, and i am talking about decent office jobs, not 'cheap' labour).

I don't know if i am allowed to post the web links (for those prices) here. But if anyone is interested in having a look, i can provide it for reference.

 

lol, you call that cheap?

i got kaspersky internet security 6 for 3 YEARS, for $19 lol

 

Want to share how you did that?

 

I was wondering if anyone in the US can buy Nod32 for example from a UK site, and still be considered good to use and in english? With those prices I gotta do more comparing!

 

same here!

 

Want to share how you did that?

 

See this thread.

 

cheers blackcat, was too drunk to go looking for the thread

how gutted are all the others in this thread now... lol muuhahaha

even worse is, its a licence i dont even use.

 

If this is true, then you guys in China/Taiwan are REALLY lucky. I live in an Asian country myself, our incomes are not much better than those in Taiwan and China. Many AVs are extremely costly on my pocket, and being a student does not help either. Our country's distributors like to cheat us like hell and rarely charge anything below the official price charged by the vendor itself.

I would definitely be interested in seeing those links for this reason.

 

OT: Where're you from? Singapore?

 

No, I'm from India....

 

Go to eBay and simply type in Kaspersky Internet Security and it will take you to a page with 43 listings. Some of which are "digital delivery", meaning they send you the license key only. Then you download the program from the Kaspersky site. All perfectly legal. I see a couple of "Buy It Now" listings right now for as little as $18.95, but they are for one-year licenses. (Being in India, you may get a different version of eBay.)

 

i would never bid or buy a digital delivery of a licence from ebay, NEVER!

the licence could be a cracked one, or anything.... and could be blacklisted at ANY TIME.

i warn you, do not do this...

if you are going to purchase antivirus software of ebay, please make sure you get the product (cd/boxed/manual etc) and try to, if possible purchase it from a high scoring powerseller which reflects a business.

 

Although your concerns would be entirely justified if the seller was a newbie, buying on eBay is all about trust based on the feedback system. So if a seller of software licenses has a feedback record dating back many months, with no one giving him/her any negative feedback, then the transaction will be perfectly safe. After all, they state in the auction ad that the license code they sell you is legal, authentic, will only be used once, etc. So make a copy of the ad and you're legally covered in the event of any problems.

Advising people not to buy a software license on eBay is like telling them not to buy ANYTHING on eBay. Because they could be ripped off no matter what they buy. But again, it's all about how long the sellers have been in business, and how many negatives they have. People routinely buy items on eBay that cost many $100's or even $1,000's, and they don't get ripped off. So buying an $18.95 software license from a reputable seller on eBay is a risk anyone can handle.

 

What about these buys?

KAV 6.0 $19.95

http://www.softwareblowouts.com/kaan60oem.html

KIS 6.0 $21.95

http://www.softwareblowouts.com/kainse60.html

 

I buy most of my software from these guys.

http://www.computersworth.com/

Great people to deal with, same day shipping, and legit software FTW!

 

I've bought two digital licenses keys from eBay, KIS 6 and KAV 6. A very good deal on both. There was a problem with the KAV license key, but it was taken care of very quickly by the eBay reseller. Neither license has been blacklisted by Kaspersky. I even double checked with Kaspersky support. If the reseller is reputable, and reputable is the operative word, why not take advantage? Why pay more if you don't have to?

 

im not saying dont buy from ebay, people are misreading my post here.

"if you are going to purchase antivirus software of ebay, please make sure you get the product (cd/boxed/manual etc) and try to, if possible purchase it from a high scoring powerseller which reflects a business."

sure its still ok to get a digital delivery, but id only get it from the highest rated sellers, my post was just to label a warning

 

Well, that's why you have free AVs to avoid being abused by commercial vendors:

1. AVG
2. AntiVir
3. Avast
4. AOL AV Shield

I use Avast myself and happy with it.

BTW, have you considered using Linux/BSD (amongst others)? Both free.

Cheers.

 

I didn't say that you said "don't buy from ebay". My statement was "Advising people not to buy a software license on eBay is like telling them not to buy ANYTHING on eBay."

LOL!!! Oh, now you're saying "sure its still ok to get a digital delivery". That's not what you said in your previous post. Here, let me quote what you said in that post in order to refresh your memory, as your scroll bar is apparently not functioning, so you're unable to scroll back up to see what you said:

Notice the part where you said "i would never bid or buy a digital delivery of a licence from ebay, NEVER!"

 

This is getting sick indeed. I cant read this forum anymore.

 

Never mind.

 

What C.S.J said was that he would NEVER buy a license from EBAY. He didn't say he wouldn't buy it from the internet (if i understand it right). If i buy a license from kaspersky.com it's still a digital delivery..

 

I think AlamoCity needs a tranquilizer. Have a shot of some good single malt Scotch and relax.

 

You didn't understand it right. This is what he said:

As you can see, his above post pertains to buying on eBay, period. Meaning that he's now saying it's okay to get a digital delivery on eBay, just buy it "from the highest rated sellers".

Whereas in his original post (the same day), he said: