# PVTV4Me - scam or not?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvtv4me-scam-or-not/408996>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvtv4me-scam-or-not/408996 "2007-06-22T13:55:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvtv4me-scam-or-not/408996/1 "2007-06-22T13:55:33Z")

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I keep getting this offer to watch European TV for a one-time cost of $29.95.

They’ll also let me take a test drive for free.

So I wonder, is this a scam? Has anyone here tried it? I’m reluctant to dive in for fear of the malware contamination that might result.

Here’s the linky:

[http://www.trek-marketing.com/pctv4me/?a=pctv4mefad&cd=CD5](http://www.trek-marketing.com/pctv4me/?a=pctv4mefad&cd=CD5)

Hope to hear from y’all.

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvtv4me-scam-or-not/408996/2 "2007-06-22T14:09:16Z")

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As far as I can tell, it’s not exactly a scam, but you have to pay $ and you get a (quite possibly malware infested) interface that lets you watch whatever the BBC etc. already has available on its website for free.

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**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvtv4me-scam-or-not/408996/3 "2007-06-22T15:12:28Z")

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I suspect that, as with many of these sites, much of the content they link to is freely available on the net anyway.

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**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvtv4me-scam-or-not/408996/4 "2007-06-22T15:25:59Z")

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[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin]  
As far as I can tell, it’s not exactly a scam, but you have to pay $ and you get a (quite possibly malware infested) interface that lets you watch whatever the BBC etc. already has available on its website for free.  
[/QUOTE]

You and **aldiboronti** might be right. I crossed my fingers and went ahead and tried the free test drive. I got this long listing of all the channels, but couldn’t try any of them so I uninstalled.

In the download, you get a matrix of channels by country, with a bar graph for each, indicating the speed of transmission. There were quite a few for Argentina. But that’s about as far as my exploration went.

You pay 29.99 for one year’s subscription, but for just $39.99 (or some such paltry increase) you get a subscription for life. Which to me smells like a scam and a half.