Ace Translator

Here is an interesting case of marketing coercion: I received this email today!)

Hello,

We noticed that you're using a pirate copy of Ace Translator, and have logged down the IP addresses and other solid proof.

Software theft is a serious crime. If you are caught with illegal software, you may be fined and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In fact, you may be liable under both civil and criminal law. Software copyright violators in Philippines are fined up to Php 5 million, or sentenced to jail for up to five years.

We hope you will take this matter seriously. You can acquire valid licenses now from the webpage below:

http://www.AceTools.biz/purchase.html

If you don't acquire a license within 7 days, we will turn over all evidence and documentation to a law enforcement agency for investigation.

Thank you for your immediate attention.

Best Regards,
Mike Smith

AceTools.biz
http://www.AceTools.biz


The funny thing is:

I never installed Ace Translator other than their 14 day evaluation version that I downloaded from SnapFiles a few months ago. Finding the application inutile, I uninstalled it after a few days and decided to rely on Babel Fish instead , as I always did in the past.

My questions are:

1. Is this perhaps a new ploy by software developers to offer shareware then coerce users into buying the software by threatening them as in my case?

2. How in hell did they get hold of my email address unless they had an undetected trojan in their shareware installer? (The email address they used to write me this harassing letter is not one I use for internet registration. I have disposable adds for that. Besides, there is absolutely nothing in the installation process of Ace Translator that requires one to register an email address.)

Enlighten me with the various scenarios here guys....

Thanks.

 

I sent the installer of Ace Translator (downloaded from acetools.biz) to Avira for analysis. The file was found to be clean. According to some reviews, it contacts BabelFish to translate your words/phrases. So, this program needs net connection whenever you'll use it. There's a possibility it also contacts home/other domains; backdoor (client=Ace Translator, server=?)/keylogger functionality. You can upload the installer to ThreatExpert/other online sandboxes (see "Sandboxing single file scans"), to know more about what it does.

thanatos