And for Internet users, not being one of these folks is priority one.
"Go and visit a related forum for a few minutes first to see what others are saying," warned Austelle, who eventually managed to get a refund.
"Enter your doubts into the search engine: `xyz membership a scam?' or something," she said.
When charging for free software, the product being traded is not the software itself, and often not even the service, but user ignorance.
The market in naivety remains profitable, and the supply is unlimited. For many, that will clearly remain an attractive business model for a long time to come.
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