Buyer Beware: Free Far Cry 2 Offer is a Scam
Buyer Beware: Free Far Cry 2 Offer is a Scam
February 21, 2009
PC gamers, if you've received an authentic-looking e-mail offer from Steam for a free download of Far Cry 2, don't click through.
The ad is not legit and the link does not go to Steam, but rather to the perhaps aptly-named ripway.com.
Here at GP we received two of these offers yesterday, and several members of the Joystiq crew received them as well.
We've notified Steam and we trust that they are taking the appropriate measures to shut down this apparent scam.
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LOGINGamePolitics ShoutBox
Posted 11/22/09 at 11:48pm
ZippyDSMlee: AE:they feeding you well? I am enjoying win7 and heading to bed...uhg I need to get up early and start back to cleaning/painting blahg >< need tog et stuff done befor thanksgiving....
ZippyDSMlee: AE:they feeding you well? I am enjoying win7 and heading to bed...uhg I need to get up early and start back to cleaning/painting blahg >< need tog et stuff done befor thanksgiving....
Posted 11/22/09 at 11:41pm
Andrew Eisen: Just got home from an eight hour recording session at Capitol Records. A lot of fun but damn exhausting.
Andrew Eisen: Just got home from an eight hour recording session at Capitol Records. A lot of fun but damn exhausting.
Posted 11/22/09 at 08:44pm
BearDogg-X: 10 N. O. Who Dat?
BearDogg-X: 10 N. O. Who Dat?
Posted 11/22/09 at 09:45am
ZippyDSMlee: JD:I think doc phill is still sout about the break up with his wife he dose not fill holes as much as make them bigger these day
ZippyDSMlee: JD:I think doc phill is still sout about the break up with his wife he dose not fill holes as much as make them bigger these day
Posted 11/22/09 at 12:06am
JDKJ: You should get Phil McCraken to help you spackle those banisters.
JDKJ: You should get Phil McCraken to help you spackle those banisters.
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:57pm
ZippyDSMlee: Oh in the pirate hunter article I need my song ieda heckled DS,JD,Beemon sic im !!!
ZippyDSMlee: Oh in the pirate hunter article I need my song ieda heckled DS,JD,Beemon sic im !!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:56pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:no I am tried from prepping the banisters for painting , worked on them from 12 to 4 and 6 to 8...after I got back from the store...got up early got ready...blah...been up all day..I need a nap...
ZippyDSMlee: JD:no I am tried from prepping the banisters for painting , worked on them from 12 to 4 and 6 to 8...after I got back from the store...got up early got ready...blah...been up all day..I need a nap...
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:42pm
JDKJ: No. You gonna stay up late tonight soldering?
JDKJ: No. You gonna stay up late tonight soldering?
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:41pm
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:Don't you mean Mctite?
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:Don't you mean Mctite?
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: @Zip: Neil, Bob, and Lik McTaint. The McTaint brothers. LOL!!!
JDKJ: @Zip: Neil, Bob, and Lik McTaint. The McTaint brothers. LOL!!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:44pm
Flamespeak: I still think military personell, killing other military personell, on a military complex should be handled by military courts.
Flamespeak: I still think military personell, killing other military personell, on a military complex should be handled by military courts.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:43pm
Flamespeak: I could see this a mixture of the two charges rather than just one or the other.
Flamespeak: I could see this a mixture of the two charges rather than just one or the other.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:43pm
Flamespeak: I think this was mainly a person who snapped, but evidence is showing he definitely had strong inlinations to islamic-extremism.
Flamespeak: I think this was mainly a person who snapped, but evidence is showing he definitely had strong inlinations to islamic-extremism.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:41pm
Flamespeak: People are trying to claim that Hasan's actions were not terrorism. I don't jump on the 'terror train' like others, however
Flamespeak: People are trying to claim that Hasan's actions were not terrorism. I don't jump on the 'terror train' like others, however
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:38pm
mentor07825: Britain certainly does deserve it! And the French! God damn it, it was a hand ball!!!
mentor07825: Britain certainly does deserve it! And the French! God damn it, it was a hand ball!!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: mentor07825:Well Brittan dose deserve it....
ZippyDSMlee: mentor07825:Well Brittan dose deserve it....
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:33pm
ZippyDSMlee: Alyric:I don;t hasliburton having to pay back billoins... don;t you love it when the rich roll over the goverment without a care?
ZippyDSMlee: Alyric:I don;t hasliburton having to pay back billoins... don;t you love it when the rich roll over the goverment without a care?
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:32pm
mentor07825: I say we nuke the whales, for the benefit of both mankind and the environment.
mentor07825: I say we nuke the whales, for the benefit of both mankind and the environment.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:28pm
Austin_Lewis: I say we try Al Gore too. I always said he was in on the racket.
Austin_Lewis: I say we try Al Gore too. I always said he was in on the racket.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:16pm
Alyric: The leaked information proves these organizations knowingly defrauded governments (i.e., taxpayers) out of billions of dollars. Yet there will probably never be a trial.
Alyric: The leaked information proves these organizations knowingly defrauded governments (i.e., taxpayers) out of billions of dollars. Yet there will probably never be a trial.
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
No way! People can't get a 50 dollar video game for free? It fucking blows my mind!
It's almost as bad as those emails that used to be sent around saying for every person you send it to, you'll get 2000 dollars. Really? People buy into that shit? You think you'll get paid for sending an email?
God, some people are too dumb to be trusted with the internet.
Really? People buy into that shit?
It's so nice to see someone with actual faith that humanity isn't as stupid as percived once in a while. After working retail and as a tech for so long, Nothing surprises me anymore.
I just don't understand it. There are no free sandwiches; that's a basic rule of life. So why do people forget it so readily?
Remember when those games were released by the Airforce for free? Plus your analogie about sandwhiches is incorect for there are free sandwhiches even if you have to ask.
Plus it is official looking. It could fool someone who isn't up to speed on things.
Actually, there are no free sandwiches...
You because you don't have to pay for it, should it mean that someone else, somewhere, won't pay. Which is not the case here anyways, since you are the one getting screwed. (Could've been phishing, for all we know.)
mmmm..... sandwich. *Gurgles*
So just cause you aren't paying for it doesn't mean someone else isn't? Duh... I mean that's obvious as hell. @Both of you. However Someone might believe this was free just filled iwth in game ads, or suspicious extra downloads from steam. The point is sometimes people do offer things for "free" to you don't get into fricken semantics over what free means. Jeesh next time a friend offers you a free can of soda or something are you gonna say? "WELL ITS NOT FREE YOU'RE PAYING FOR IT AREN'T YOU!?"
HA HA HA!!
Is was your slightly overzealous response to Lewis that threw me off, which either was meant to deter from the article, or you did not understood the concept of "free". Of which, was more interesting to respond.
Afterall, the argument was rather one-sided. So as far as this argument (in this particular article), is concerned, that sandwich was not free
and if it was....... it stunk of moldy bread and expired bologne.
Sorry for the misunderstanding...
Son, I've been all around this world, and I'll promise you this; there are no free sandwiches.
Also, AA and all the other military recruiting games come with the price of being hounded by recruiters in game in some cases, or the game being really shitty in others. Imagine if I said 'yeah, you can have a sandwich, but I made it with your tax dollars and its a shit and mayo sandwich'.
While you can argue semantics (Free games require downloading, which requires internet, which isnt free, heck the PC your running the game on wasn't free either) in the context of the topic at hand I think argueing that there are no decent, free and catch-free games out there can be a bit of a bold statement.
Military recruiters hound you in military recruitment games sure, there are much less invasive ones like Trackmania Nations which only expects you to look at advertising posters as you play.
What about N, Dwarf Fortress, Spelunky or Savage? Those are completely catch-free as far as I can tell.
Aren't you still paying for internet? There's a catch right there.
I already stated that in my first paragraph...
The internet is not really a catch, its a given, heck its a given in the topic as downloading Far Cry 2 off steam would still require internet....
What I'm trying to say is that the point of the phrase "There are No Free Sandwiches" is that things are never as free as they seem, in a attempt to teach people to always look the gift-horse in the mouth.
But that isn't true, as I pointed out there are plently of instances whereby things ARE as free as what they seem.... Which defeats the very point of the phrase in question.
Quite simple my dear friend. People are, in a general sense, GREEDY! I have seen an instance where a sign was made and in huge letters it said sugar soda and in between the words in characters smaller than what I'm typing is the word free. Tons of people thought the soda was free because they read the small free but missed the giant sugar above it. It's similar to people seeing a sign that says 2 for $4 or 1 for $2 and think they're getting a better deal if they buy two. (Don't laugh, I've seen worse)
When you combine the greed with a sense of entitlement, where they think the world owes them, they see this and only think "SCORE!" so it's easy for these to work.
It's not so much a manner of them forgeting it, more of they've never acknowledged it in the first place.
Well, they did give away the first Far Cry game free for awhile, the "cost" being that you had to look at in-game ads during loading screens but otherwise it was the full game, offered via download. The only thing about Far Cry 2 that makes it any less likely is how recently the game was released. It doesn't really surprise me that people could fall for this.
Scam artists couldn't come up with a better game than Farcry 2? Yick. The only thing worse than that being a scam is if it was legit, and you ended up with that dog turd game.
-Ultimately what will do in mankind is a person's fear of their own freedom-
it's not so much a scam, just a lie. It's what's called "Blind Link Advertising". It's extremel innefective, because once the clicker realizes they've been lied to, they never go back to ripway again.
For anyone who hasnt' checked, Ripway is a file storage service, similar to rapidshare, or my favorite, mediafire
I actually smell a test case with this, to see how effective it is. This is actually a known tecnique for virus writers to get it going. While the clicker thinks that they can just leave, the virus/worm/trojan is already in their system.
hmm, odd coincidence that I got a "Someone sent you a free game" email yesterday only mine was legit and involved a forum game on GOG.com