“Watch Sports in HD Online” Scams

If you are a sports fan, but don’t have the money to — or don’t want to –  pay for cable/satellite channels, you probably have tried to find free or cheaper sources online, right?

I was trying to update my Online TV Scam List, and found many new scam sites. Most of them are football (American football) related. If you paid for any of these, contact them and get a refund. Some sites do offer your money back, but there is a $9.95 non-refundable fee of some sort.

Take a look at the updated list to see the new additions.

Watching sports online for a one-time fee is no different from any other satellite TV on PC BS with one-time fees. They don’t have any content distribution of their own. They simply give you links to free P2P sources or online streaming sources like Justin.tv — often, very poorly.

Things to watch out for (sports in particular. For general info on scam satellite TV for PC sites, see the original Satellite TV on Your PC Scams article):

1. Any site that offers a one-time fee for lifetime access is likely a scam. No company can offer you such a legitimate deal.
2. “Thousands of channels,” “In HD,” As seen on…” are some of the typical catch phrase used to lure you in. Don’t listen to their lies.
3. You are asked to fill out a form before any details of their service is revealed. harvesting customers’ personal information is a popular tactic used by online marketers to continuously send you marketing emails (that would be spam).
4. Here is a typical form that i came across. It’s used by many sites. I wouldn’t be surprised if one person/company owned all these.
   
   You see one of those, don’t fill it out.
5. Sites are usually made to seem as content-abundant. But you’ll realize that most links go to the same page or serve no real purpose. Scammers usually don’t bother to fill their websites with content.

Some Free Sites:
I’ll keep this list brief. I’ll try to bring you a full article on watching sports online in the near future.

• Justin.tv – I keep recommending this one. Justin.tv should really pay me for this. ^^ You’ll find football (soccer) and other sports being broadcast.
• SopCast.com – Sopcast.cn responds better, try that.
• TVUnetworks.com – Since SopCast seems to be on a down hill, use this instead. This one seems to be climbing in popularity.
• Atdhe.net – Updates its links frequently. A simple page with daily links. I remember seeing some 18+ ads pop up sometimes; don’t know if it still happens. You’ve been warned.
• P2P4U.net – I think this one’s better than Atdhe.net.
• NBA.com – If you’re an NBA basketball fan like me, good news! You can get free trial of NBA League Pass until Nov. 3.

That’s it for now. I’ll write up a more in-depth article on watching sports online later.