Norton/McAfee/AVG Antivirus Seals = Scamware + Vaporware

Just a quick shout out about these badges. You have probably seen them in footers of various sites, they look something like "protected by Norton". So lets explore the Norton one, show why its a total rip-off, and explain why you're paying for a service they are already doing for free. If you are feeling frisky you can put the badge in for free...but its totally your call and your responsibility if the internet police come and throw you in Guantanamo for such a heinous crime.

Firstly, a basic plan for "Safe Site" costs $299 a year and you wont find a feature list. http://www.symantec.com/trust-seal/ I asked a rep 6 times to show me the features, and he could not. So lets deduce the features are this: 1) You get a badge 2) Norton scans your site daily and 3) the site seal will show in Google search results beside the entry (bullsh*t). Seems like alot of money and a claim about SERPS that we know is false....how effective can a scan be from the outside anyways? Isnt this suppost to be some sort of anti-malware? Shouldnt it run server side? Dang, if only you could get that same ineffective/BS scan for free! Wait, you can: https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show? ... encart.com

So there is the one and only major feature of the $299 plan covered. Although it might not be scanning daily, you have your protected by Norton results page. Now about those fancy yellow badges in Google results? Might have been true years ago but today its a blatant lie. Scamware. Prove me wrong and show me a search result that has this badge beside it. Gives me a good laugh. [Edit: upon more probing the rep admitted that they do not naturally show anymore and users would have to download software to see these in SERPS]

Onward to the badge. In order to use the badge, you must be scanned by Norton. Since we have that "Safe Web" page, we can deduce that we have been scanned and are safe in Nortons eyes. We are "protected by Norton" in exactly the same way as the $299 plan. So why cant we show a badge? The rep also couldnt answer that one....apparently it goes against terms, but there are no terms dealing with "Safe Site" nor the badge. So lets make a badge. Instead of a popup, just make it a link to your https://safeweb.norton.com scan results page since its basically a clone of what is in the popup.

Boom in 5 minutes you saved $299 a year and owned the scammer company at their own game. Rinse and repeat for the other antivirus companies such as McAfee (https://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/www.opencart.com) and AVG (http://www.avgthreatlabs.com/us-en/webs ... ncart.com/). You will save over $1000 a year for these vaporware badges.

Have fun.

Great Post!

I find it funny that when you go to: https://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/www.opencart.com the feedback is generally "Phishing or other scams".

wishmedia wrote:Great Post!

I find it funny that when you go to: https://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/www.opencart.com the feedback is generally "Phishing or other scams".

Thanks my friend. Yeah i noticed that too, but its a spammer. I think they choose that flag so that people are like "OMG WHOE WHAT" and click in to see their spam comment.

Haha I dunno, when you see the cost to promote your extension on the extension page I might be inclined to agree with the "other scams"