Cerberus Anti-Theft App Reportedly Scamming Lifetime Subscribers
Last updated September 25, 2021
- Cerberus is revoking paid lifetime licenses and asks for renewals based on absurd arguments.
- The developers didn’t think their app would last that long, so their initial pricing wasn’t reflecting their promises.
- The app has lied to the customers and instead of apologizing they are trying to shame the userbase.
Very serious accusations against Cerberus are arising online, with multiple users reporting that the anti-theft application for Android is scamming them. More specifically, several subscribers who have paid for a “lifetime” license are seeing their subscription expiring all of a sudden and the official explanations are bringing the rage. Cerberus is a free-to-try application for Android devices that is developed by “LSDroid”, and which is meant to help users locate and recover their lost or stolen phone and tablet. After a week, the trial expires and users are given the opportunity to pay for a license that covers up to five devices, supposedly forever.
The app’s features include silent audio recording, stealthy GPS activation, loud alarm activation, internal and SD card memory wiping, and more. This set of features has convinced several people to pay for the app, but it looks like things aren't as promised after all. As many of the oldest users report right now, when they attempt to access the Cerberus app they are redirected to a PayPal page which urges them to buy a new lifetime license at the cost of €2.99. Only a few days ago, the same users started receiving puzzling warnings about the impending expiration of their license, which didn't make any sense.
Back in 2015, Cerberus decided to revoke lifetime licenses that were given to people during “free giveaways” which were organized by LSDroid in the context of promotional campaigns. The developer decided that three years of free service would be enough for someone who hasn’t paid anything and that this model could no longer be supported. Some called this scamming back then, as the company promised something that they couldn’t deliver. Paid subscribers, however, were not affected by this retraction, but it looks like the time for them to witness the developer’s unfair treatment first-hand has come too.
Source: Android Police
Those who tried to contact Cerberus have gotten an unofficial response which clarifies what the developers meant by “lifetime”, which is eight years after all. As the developer states, they didn’t think the app would last that long, so they’d set up the expiration to this period and they were pretty optimistic about it. This is blunt scamming, and even if the expiration date was set to eight years, LSDroid could very easily extend it. Instead, they are now asking for another payment, as the initial cost of €4.99 was set on the basis of operating for a couple of years, not forever. To make the situation even more shady and unethical, the app's moderators are deleting the posts of complaining users from its official support forums.
Would you trust Cerberus and LSDroid ever again in the future? Let us know in the comments down below, or on our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.
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