The website www.italia programmi.net is again in the news for trying to extort a payment to none other than President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano.
The mechanism of the scam of the website has been repeatedly reported on our blog: the website offers users the possibility to download some softwares, notoriously known to be free, in exchange of the registration of their data.The truth is that, through the registration procedure the consumers subscribe without their knowledge a two-year contract with the company Estesa Limited based in the Seychelles, for the provision of a software at an annual cost of €96 to be paid in advance once a year. After the registration users start to receive letters which threaten them of a legal action if they do not pay by a certain date. Of course, the fear of facing up to a trial leads many citizens to pay off.
Despite the heavy financial penalty for misleading and aggressive commercial practices imposed by the Antitrust Authority in January, the intimations of Extended Limited keep harassing Italian people. Surprisingly, on the 6th of February a letter of payment has also reached the palace of the Italian Republic Presidency, the Quirinal.
As reported by the press, the request of a payment of 96 euros (plus 8.5 for costs with relative transaction code (F681819) and Iban for the transfer to be sent before the 23rd of February to a bank situated in Cyprus) was sent to the Italian Republic President Giorgio Napolitano.
Through the offices of the Quirinal Palace, President Napolitano, who probably has never personally registered on the website, reported the incident to the police, as thousands of other people did before him.
We hope that the many victims of the scam who have been written us during the last months could feel a bit heartened by the fact that the fraud is unevenly distributed, and it do not save the high places!
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