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#1406703 - 02/03/06 04:58 PM FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
A few weeks ago, I had to do a total rebuld
of my computer, including installing all of my FS9 again.

Obviously, it has been a rather long task, tweaking everything and getting it all running correctly again.

I reinstalled one of my payware aircraft, the new FSD Cessna 337 - which my wife purchased for me last year as a gift.

I had to reinstall again, because I renamed the aircraft on my sim from "FSD" to "Cessna" as it should be. When I did my reinstall, it failed and I got some blurb message about contacting FSD tech support and pasteing in the error message.

I then got a sh*t email from FSD; "Your system has been scanned, you are a hacker, blah, blah, blah"

Now, this is all very interesting to me for a number of reason:
1. I have NEVER been a hacker because I am a sys admin. I'd lose my job.

2.They make claims regarding "registry entries" in my system. Are they then not hacking ME?

3.Threats of "Fraud" being reported to my wifes credit card company...funny, we have the reciept for the product.............

4.Demands, this that, this that, the guy is just WAY too boring....

Anybody else had this problem with these people? I recall reading somewhere that they treat their customers like crap. Now I understand why.

And what is the legality of THEM scanning MY PC, given that it is left on line because of the broadband.

Would be nice to hear if anybody else has been stung in this way. I've paid for my product, I should be able to install and reinstall a million times if I want to, without dropping onto some website.

Other opinions or views appreciated.


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#1406704 - 02/03/06 06:19 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
Joined: Jul 2000
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boshar Offline
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boshar  Offline
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the Netherlands
Don't feel bad. It is the standard FSD 'customer treatment'. I wil never buy from them. There are to much experiences like yours that have warned me.

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=118&topic_id=1434&mode=full

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=197&topic_id=13510

#1406705 - 02/03/06 07:13 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
Joined: Feb 2001
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-E Offline
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-E  Offline
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I bought an FSD package. Once. 'Nuff said?


Loser is the opposite of winner.
Looser is the opposite of tighter.
#1406706 - 02/04/06 03:24 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
The plot indeed thickens......I would SO like to take legal action against these people.

In a recent email to me, they admit to installing "a number of unseen .dlls" onto my computer. As well as this, they sent me a copy of several days worth of TRACERTS that showed the aircraft being registered on four different I.P Addresses, all part of the same subnet.

The interesing point was, one of these as I stated was in Sydney.

After consultation with my isp, they have just shifted a lot of i.p addresses from Sydney to Perth.

I now intend to make it my own personal crusade to lose FSD as much bussiness as is humanly possible.

Morons!


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406707 - 02/04/06 12:56 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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Kris Offline
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Kris  Offline
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Norway
I have the 337, Areostar and the piper in, no probs here

#1406708 - 02/05/06 08:18 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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planejunky Offline
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Ipswich, United Kingdom
I re-installed the T-38/C-17 combo last week and found myself jumping through hoops to get past the reg key entry in the installer! I had to download an updated installer, and even then I still had problems with by password.

I got it installed after about half an hour, but as this was payware, I really felt annoyed that I should have to go through all the hassle.

It's a bit like the Aerosoft A-10, where I have to re-set my password at Sim market to re-install the product. Sure piracy is an issue that needs to be tackled, but to create all this extra bother for the end user is simply unacceptable.

All this along with the hassle of the Eurofighter Typhoon from that AFS-Design clown (which ain't that good anyway!), I'm now very careful about who I buy from.


Planejunky

http://www.uk-warbirds.net The one stop guide to historic aircraft flying in the UK!
#1406709 - 02/05/06 09:18 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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Posts: 25,138
RSColonel_131st Offline
Lifer
RSColonel_131st  Offline
Lifer

Joined: Jan 2001
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Vienna, 2nd rock left.
Taco, this starts sounding illegal. They do not have any right to monitor your internet/connections/computer so much.

#1406710 - 02/06/06 12:08 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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planejunky Offline
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Ipswich, United Kingdom
Any chance of a list of those "unseen .dll" files? I'm getting worried here, though my Norton security software hasn't picked up anything, and a full scan is performed every week. I have to agree with RSColonel, it sounds very suspect to me.


Planejunky

http://www.uk-warbirds.net The one stop guide to historic aircraft flying in the UK!
#1406711 - 02/06/06 02:13 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
Hi guys,

This goes to prove that you should not f**k with somebody if you don't know who they are.

Firstly, they gave ME an apology and a refund, long story, but there you go. As an experiment, I tried to reinstall the aircraft, to no avail.

I manually edited my Windows registry, and deleted all entries belonging to them.

After another email from them, claiming that the offending .dll was called "Keylib32.dll", I decided to investigate deeper myself.

OK, that particular .dll is installed in Windows by default. It essentially gives Windows a register call of software that you have installed, such as MSOffice, Adobe Acrobat Reader etc. From what I have seen on Microsoft Technet, it does not READ AND TRANSMIT OUT INFORMATION!

These guys are none to savvy, because ALL of their registry entries are prefaced with their company name.

I'm at work right now, but when I get home, I intend to open, view, and if necessary edit that particular .dll file.

Now, going on their simplistic way of doing things, if I see even anything REMOTELY resembling FSD in their, I'm gonna sue thier asses.

As I've said before, I'm a highly skilled I.T Pro, and a network admin. I'm looking at netowk security issues all day long, and a personal hate of mine are people who code this sort of thing into applications.

I won't be happy until I've put them out of business.


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406712 - 02/06/06 02:19 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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FishTaco  Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
And Planejunky;

I forgot to say, I'm runningTrend Microscan 2005 Professional, and my firewall is on at all times.

Tonight, I'll be reviewing the firewall reports and TRACERTing every i.p that has attempted an inbound connection to my system.


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406713 - 02/06/06 02:45 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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Aladar Offline
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Fremont, CA
Kick their ass, Seabass!

#1406714 - 02/06/06 10:55 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
Hmm, looks like I've called their bluff again....

One of the emails I recieved from them prompted me to download a hooky copy of their cracker unwrapper from a torrent site.

Apparenly, this wrapper contains a digital signature of a "Mr Rogers", who brags about breaking FSD protection, and from that sig, they accused me of pirating their software.

know what? Today, I downloaded just that file, and ripped it to shreds with a Hex Editor. no such signature or reference to "Mr Rogers", so this means that FSD MUST have installed an illegal application on my computer.

To be continued.


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406715 - 02/06/06 11:09 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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planejunky Offline
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Ipswich, United Kingdom
Ok mate, thanks for that. I look forward to seeing what you come up with, as you rightly say the plot thickens! ;\)


Planejunky

http://www.uk-warbirds.net The one stop guide to historic aircraft flying in the UK!
#1406716 - 02/08/06 01:54 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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FishTaco  Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
Right, an update.

I am going to sink these people if it kills me!

Because I was given a refund, I totally deleted the aircraft from my computer, and cleaned the registry of it's entries. I edited that .dll file with a hex editor, and found NO REFERENCES AT ALL to a Mr Rogers.

To validate things further, I took FSDs advice, and downloaded the keygen program off of a warez site. Once again, when broken down, so reference to a Mr Rogers.

I also found a new file in my FS9 directory, I would not ordinarily care, but it is called TRACE. After opening the file, it contains an ongoing list of 0's similar in look to a PING request.

I dropped back onto that warez site, and searched again for FSD Products. On one of the products, posted by one of the more popular "hackers" there, he issued the following warning:

"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES UPDATE ANY OF THESE AIRCRAFT FROM THE FSD HOMEPAGE! TRHEIR UPDATES CONTAIN TROJANS THAT WILL INVADE YOUR SYSTEM!"

It's always nice to know where you stand. At least I know I'm not alone on this one. Wonder what the AFP will think of this practice?


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406717 - 02/08/06 01:56 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
Forever Cromulent
FishTaco  Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
Right, an update.

I am going to sink these people if it kills me!

Because I was given a refund, I totally deleted the aircraft from my computer, and cleaned the registry of it's entries. I edited that .dll file with a hex editor, and found NO REFERENCES AT ALL to a Mr Rogers.

To validate things further, I took FSDs advice, and downloaded the keygen program off of a warez site. Once again, when broken down, so reference to a Mr Rogers.

I also found a new file in my FS9 directory, I would not ordinarily care, but it is called TRACE. After opening the file, it contains an ongoing list of 0's similar in look to a PING request.

I dropped back onto that warez site, and searched again for FSD Products. On one of the products, posted by one of the more popular "hackers" there, he issued the following warning:

"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES UPDATE ANY OF THESE AIRCRAFT FROM THE FSD HOMEPAGE! TRHEIR UPDATES CONTAIN TROJANS THAT WILL INVADE YOUR SYSTEM!"

It's always nice to know where you stand. At least I know I'm not alone on this one. Wonder what the AFP will think of this practice?


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406718 - 02/08/06 09:02 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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Legend Offline
Legsie is such a
Legend  Offline
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Zutphen, NL / ShangHai, China
...of course, this warning - from a hacker - could be similar to "under no circumstances, break into a house that is secured by Heavy Boys Security". I mean, they offer a pirated product, so of course they warn you against downloading official updates - these can easily be recognized as pirated; all FSD needs to do is check the registration code if you do a request a download.

What I don't understand is why FSD wants you to download a cracked version of their product.


There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the universe is for it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
#1406719 - 02/08/06 10:50 AM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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FishTaco Offline
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FishTaco  Offline
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Perth, Western Australia
Legend,

Yes, I agree, it seems like a rather bizarre thing to say, dosen't it?

My wife is in agreement; she is wary the they may still be monitoring me, however, I still have the original email.

Oh well, I'm sure that they have their own motivations for doing what they do, but personally, I don't understand it.

My last email correspondence form them stated that they would not have taken an objective stance toward me if I had been more reasonable.

However, as I've previously stated, the first 4 emails that I recieved were all attacks, basically "already guilty".

I wonder how anybody else would have reacted to abuse and threats?

Great to hear the communitys views.


Kindest regards,

AJ

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
#1406720 - 02/08/06 04:55 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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Colonel Kern Offline
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When do they do the system scan? When you install the aircraft?


The Colonel

"They're not toys. They're collectables."
#1406721 - 02/14/06 06:08 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
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Mr B Offline
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Mr B  Offline
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Don't you have a firewall or something going? That should've smacked this crap down hard.

Cheers

Mr B

#1406722 - 02/15/06 02:27 PM Re: FSD Aircraft - Beware!  
Joined: Apr 2005
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JG5_Grue Offline
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Kent, England
A firewall in a domestic environment is usually only configured to block inbound traffic.

A trojan on your PC (which can be bought through the firewall as an attachment) can send stuff out through the firewall unless the firewall is configured to filter outbound traffic. This is complicated as it will restrict your use the internet.

You need to use anti-virus and anti spyware software in addition to a firewall to protect your computer and those will still not protect you against the kind of software that this thread is talking about - hence the frustration of the author.

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