Recently there has been a new trend in piracy aimed at cord cutters. Now it seems companies want to appear more legitimate in an effort to sell you piracy.

In the past piracy was easy to spot. Just look for a service promising everything for free including pay-TV networks. You could also often tell by the look of the website.

Now, though, piracy services are stepping up their game in an effort to get you to sign up for their paid services. Their websites look more professional, and they often claim to be legitimate and even will offer phone technical support. This can make it difficult to decide what is legitimate and what is not.

This really came to light this week when a flood of readers started asking why their live TV streaming service was not working. After talking with them it turned out that these users had been using a piracy service that tries hard to look legitimate.

So how can you spot a piracy service?

With the growth of piracy services looking more legitimate here are a few ways to spot one.

#1 The app is not found inside any official app stores. If you need to side load an app to your device that should be a red flag about 90% of the time.

#2 The deal sound too good to be true. Even though many piracy services now charge the deal often still sounds too good to be true. So be skeptical about these deals that promise everything for less than other legitimate streaming services.

#3 Be skeptical of what you see on Facebook. It looks like Facebook is turning into the main way many of these piracy services promote their content. It looks like Facebook is not being all that picky about what services it lets advertise on its site. So just because you see a Facebook ad does not make it legit.

Also be careful of anyone who messages you on Facebook about a great new streaming service.

As always some of these services may be legit, but just do your research to be safe.

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