Named & Shamed
Keumars Afifi-Sabet puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and misbehaving software
SOFTWARE WARNING!Fake ‘Alldup’ duplicate remover
In an unsettling piece of irony, the brilliant duplicate-removing tool AllDup has itself been duplicated - or so it appears if you type its name into Google ( 1in our screenshot right). Top of the results is an advert for a tool that seems to be called ‘Alldup’ 2 , but a closer look shows it’s actually Duplicate Files Fixer 3 .
I was concerned by this because in Issue 677 we named AllDup as our favourite duplicate remover. We said to download it from www.snipca.com/49056 (which redirects you to the correct site), but I’m sure some of you would have searched for it on Google and found this copycat software.
To me, it seems a classic case of one program deliberately masquerading as another more reputable rival in the hope of tricking users. Looking for clues, I clicked the link (www.duplicatefilesfixer. com) and was taken to a download page (pictured left) from a company called Systweak Software.
I’d never heard of them, so emailed to ask what was going on, but got no reply.
After a little more digging I came across Tweaking Technologies (www.tweaking. in) – the .in suffix means it’s an Indian firm – which seems to own Systweak. Its other programs don’t inspire confidence – just look how close Advanced Photo Organizer’s logo (on the right, above) is to Google’s now- defunct Picasa (on the left).
In this case, imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery, but the surest sign of desperation.
WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT?
WHAT THEY SAY
Judson Althoff, Micros
