ParetoLogic Anti-Spyware - any opinions?

Does anyone have any knowledge or opinions on ParetoLogic Anti-Spyware? I have been using it for a month or so and it seems okay - but tricky to tell until I encounter some nasties.

All info welcome.

Cheers,

Chris.

 

I never tryed this app,but it's from the same people that make xoft spy that was listed,now delisted as rogue by http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#xos_note Just my opinion but from this companys history(I know i'm gonna piss off somebuddy,but once a whore always a........ oh nevermind)
I would not trust or depend on this app.(I'm just funny that way)Too many excellent anti spyware apps out there with no bad history out there.I would go with any those that have proven results. Now I could very well be wrong and it could be a very good app but i'm not willing to take that chance.

 

Even Softpedia gave it a not so good review, and it seems they like almost anything over there.

 

Hi Chris,

I am the Director of Communications for ParetoLogic so I actually know quite a lot about the company and our products!

I am a member of a number of security related forums such as this one as I like to get an idea of what people think of our products and answer any questions or concerns that are voiced. As Travellinman so colourfully illustrated, it is easy for old or inaccurate information to negatively impact your reputation til the end of time!

While it's true that Spyware Warrior had at one time flagged our product XoftSpy as rogue anti-spyware, that assertion was rescinded fairly quickly as it was, in fact, unfounded. We participate in Spyware Warrior forums as well and really appreciate the feedback from its members as I will appreciate any feedback from this forum.

XoftSpySE is still one of our most popular products and customer feedback has been great as has the feedback for ParetoLogic Anti-Spyware. Each program has a different market as the ParetoLogic Anti-Spyware has real-time blocking functionality which makes the app a bit bigger and uses more system resources than XoftSpySE.

In any case, if you have any questions regarding our company or our products, please don't hesitate to post! I am always happy to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Amanda

 

My 2 cents on ParetoLogic:

They must have launched an ad campaign right about the time I was researching "the best of" Anti-Spyware programs, because they kept knocking the ball out of the park with reviewers. As a PC tech with a solid customer following, I pride myself in the research I do before recommending programs to customers. This time, I have egg on my face, and I regret the timing.

I've been using ParetoLogic for about 30 days, and am thus far less than impressed with the program's functionality, and much less than impressed with customers service on two counts:

1) The program fails to remember the configuration and forces me to deal with popup alerts every time I encounter the same services seeking permission anew. Have sent numerous messages to support which meet with the same canned responses we've all grown to loathe from help desks. I'd give my eye teeth for a customer service rep who actually reads and responds to the message.

2) Their affiliate program just plain doesn't work. They promised a hefty percentage for referral and despite the fact that I've referred customers through the appropriate link, I've garnered zero in returns. I've complained but the complaint is making the rounds through ParetoLogic's various departments.

I've had enough. I'm reverting to Spybot Search & Destroy as the free program I recommend and will shop anew for a superior paid program with real time monitoring.

 

Paretologic is on my blacklist. I never trusted Xoftspy, which is an ex-rogue AS. Once a thief, always a thief.
XoftSpy reports even Windows objects as malware. Pffft.

 

Hi, Nosake: Welcome to the Wilders. You have my full sympathy regarding recent unhappy encounters. If you are a frequent viewer here prior to joining membership, you would have plenty of info, advise and experiences posted by our members. Your advice to clients would have been made much much easier and more effective. As far as AS is concerned, there are tons of tons materials for you to review here. Have a good stay .

 

hmmmmm....2 first time posters. Think I`ll take a pass on this one as well.

 

Read this link to prevent any further mistakes in the future :
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

 

AE Cooper - You clearly have no interest whatsoever in ensuring your company behaves in a professional or legal way. I notice you have made several posts in this and other groups pretending to have concerns over your customers, however, my personal experience shows this is all an act.

I have contacted your company over the fact you falsely advertise the nature of your license agreements. This specifically relates to RegCure. I asked for a refund under the 60 day refund policy and was ignored for several days. After posting a few comments on this and other sites, I was contacted by someone from the refunds department who said they could not refund regcure as it was purchased as part of a bundle. I contacted your company again to inform you that I had not purchased it as part of a bundle. By this time I had had enough and asked to be refunded for both Anti Spyware and RegCure. Nobody has contacted me since, but you have disabled all the software I purchased from you – you have removed the registration keys, rendering it inoperative – however, YOU NAVE NOT REFUNDED ANY OF MY MONEY!

I have also contacted YOU directly and you have ignored me completely.

To recap:

You falsely represented the licence of your product. You ignore customer communication. Your business lies about what was purchased to delay processes of refunding. You disable the licence you have been paid for whilst still keeping hold of the money you were paid.

I have never known a company as bad as ParetoLogic. You have no interest in providing any customer service.

Where is my money?

taking the advice of people in this group and filing a complaint against you with the BBB.

You had your chance.

 

To ChrisP:

I empathize. Repeated attempts to engage customer support have gone unanswered. They swindled me out of three license fees and failed to honor the affiliate contract agreement. Although I've paid for, and am entitled to use their software, I've removed it from my units; junk, that it is.

PT Barnum said it best: There's a sucker born every minute.

 

I'm betting a "one-hit wonder" of the alleged "number" of security forums.

 

Hi, folks: Sharks! Cyber-Sharks! Is this noted one of them?. Ammanda at ParetoLogic, pls take notice, this is THE perfect time for you and your honorable company to emerge from hindding and to face the music. Your reputation will be tarnished if you would choose to ignore this pending dispute. There are many viewers of this forum will see this thread, of course including you. Hinding your head in sand does not do you any good, because in this situation, silence is rubbishy. Act accorgingly. BTW, I still have that XoftSpy on my testing box, after reading this , I have a strong feeling what might have been planted in it?

 

The name Pareto would demand more respect, but aparently the world doesn't work the way we would want.

 

Amanda:

I'm sorry that I didn't see this post earlier. While late to this thread, I must nonetheless respond to the assertions made by Paretologic.

I'm sorry, but your characterization of what happened with the Spyware Warrior de-listing is infact quite false. The listing of XoftSpy was not "rescinded fairly quickly as it was, in fact, unfounded." In fact, the listing was very well supported, and I'd be happy to parade the evidence of bad practices and inadequate scanning through this very forum to show our readers just why your company's program was listed at one time.

The program was de-listed because the company finally listed to us and took several steps to correct specific problems and issues that we identified. We even helped the company re-write its affiliate contract to get bad affiliates under control.

No, the program was listed for a reason. Although that was several years ago, I'll thank you for not again mischaracterizing the events that occurred then.

Eric L. Howes
SpywareWarrior.com

 

Still not refunded me. Despite all my emails etc, they are silent. Time to pay....

 

Hi, folks: Finally Paratologic's hands are caught in the cookie jar. From now on, any press release or whatsoever from them, we may just treat those as tea time materials, read it, laugh at it and shred it, as you will. Ha,Ha.

 

ChrisP,Sorry to hear about your troubles with Paretologic. I tried to give you my take on that company in post#2. Maybe you can go here http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/
and tell them your story,ask them to check out this app.If they find it rogue in any way maybe they will add it to thier Rouge Remover app,which is nice to have by the way. (I use the free version,scan from time to time)
That will definently not be good for Paretologic.Just a suggestion,I know your pissed off at them, I would be to.

 

Wow, now this is an interesting thread. AE Cooper might have had good intentions by posting in this thread, but it's pretty obvious that by doing so she only made things worse. I am going to give her and her company two thumbs down. I've never considered XoftSpy a reputable AS app anyhow, and this thread only confirms that I've been right all along.

It's a shame that Nick Skrepetos doesn't work for them.

 

Hi eburger 68:

Would you provide a link that would confirm your assertions. Also, Paretologic claims it "participates" in Spyware Warrior forums. Is this, to your knowledge, an accurate statement?

 

Hmm, travellinman, you have reminded me of something which may prove interesting. I installed some application which had a piece of spyware in it. I cant remember what it was called now, but it was some "security" pluggin for IE which kept popping up to tell me I had various spyware infections, that my registry was corrupt etc etc. I did a Google search on the offending IE pluggin (I could not remove it) and found Paretologics app came up as a cure for it - hence I purchased it and it did in fact remove it. I cant remember what the offending IE nastie was - but it was designed to reflect the aesthetics of the XP security / SP2 shields etc. The thing thats odd is that I had Trojanhunter, F-Secure, AVG 7.5 (Ewido) and spystopper running and none of them could find it - only ParetoLogics tool.

Could it be that the offending toolbar was just something created to promote the ise of paretologic software?

PS, still no refund!

 

Hi ChrisP, I really sypathize. How frustrating when you cannot even get a reply from these people. Makes ya think they should be on a rouge list.

 

ParetoLogic's newest variant, "Spam Controls", claims to detect and quarantine spam from Outlook/OE:
http://www.paretologic.com/company/media/press_release_spamcontrols.aspx

"Delete all quarantined spam emails simply and easily using the "purge" feature."
It should be interesting to see who falls for this one.

Just for kicks, I looked at their "Careers" tab - they have a job opening for a spammer (oops... "E-Mail Marketing Specialist").

They claim 85+ employees according to this link:
http://www.paretologic.com/company/postings/ipm.aspx

...and yet ChrisP can't get a response.

 

I ran XoftSpy as a total newbie.
XoftSpy reported a Windows Object (Language Icon) and I was lucky because the remove function didn't work, I had to pay first.
ParetoLogic claimed that XoftSpy was thoroughly tested by their team. If that was true, it wouldn't have reported a valid Windows object. That's unacceptable for me when a scanner does report Windows objects, any other object is ok, but not Windows.

Since then I blacklisted ParetoLogic. ~~~<snip>~~~ Peter2150

 

Well, posting only once doesn't really count as being a member of a security forum. For instance, the CEO of SUPERantispyware, Nick Skrepetos, posts regularly in here -not just once or twice- and the software he promotes/develops is solid and reliable.

One needs to earn credit to trade, miss.