Questionable TurboTax Software

danithomp24 · ‎August 8, 2019

Hi, I'm helping my Dad with his taxes and I have some doubts about his TurboTax software. Trying to figure out for sure if it's legit. Is there anyone with TT Premier 2018 who could provide a photo of the authenticity ring on the disk? Or maybe copy/paste the About TT text? There seems to be some strange verbiage in that text - although I have to admit that I have never really read it before so it may be normal. I have a Mac if that makes a difference.

xmasbaby0 · ‎August 8, 2019

Where did he obtain the software?

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

danithomp24 · ‎August 8, 2019

From a family friend who bought it and then chickened out of doing his own taxes. My Dad thinks I'm paranoid and doesn't want to ask the friend where he got it (I bought fake software once before, so I probably am a little paranoid). It has an authenticity ring, but that seems like it could be reproduced. I googled, but didn't find any real way to ID fakes.

xmasbaby0 · ‎August 8, 2019

I have 2018 Premier--supplied to me directly from Intuit. Here's the "About TurboTax" text:

TurboTax Products Tax Year 2018

© 2018 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit, the Intuit logo, TurboTax and the TurboTax checkmark design, among others, are trademarks of Intuit Inc. Other parties' marks are the property of their respective owners. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable law. Features and services within TurboTax products may be the subject matter of pending and issued U.S. Patents assigned to Intuit Inc.

This distribution may contain Xerces-C, Copyright © 1999-2016 The Apache Software Foundation. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 . Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

This distribution may contain Mono Runtime 4.6.2, the source code of which can be found here http://mono-project.com/Main_Page. Mono Runtime is licensed under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License, which can be found here http://mono-project.com/FAQ:_Licensing. The runtime libraries are under the GNU Library GPL 2.0 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/library.html#TOC1) (LGPL 2.0).

================================

THE AFNETWORKING SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

================================

This distribution may contain Sparkle v1.17 (https://github.com/sparkle-project/Sparkle/blob/master/LICENSE).

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

=================

EXTERNAL LICENSES

=================

bspatch.c and bsdiff.c, from bsdiff 4.3 <http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/>:

sais.c and sais.c, from sais-lite (2010/08/07) <https://sites.google.com/site/yuta256/sais>:

SUDSAVerifier.m:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted providing that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

================================

This distribution may contain Crypto++ Library 5.6.5

Boost Software License - Version 1.0 - August 17th, 2003

================================

This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/)

================================

This distribution may contain:

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

mesquitebean · ‎August 8, 2019

Here's how you can get a number to phone TurboTax Support, and they can ask you for some info from the CD.

You can use the form at the link below to schedule a call back, or it may provide a number. Hours are 5AM-5PM Pacific (8AM-8PM Eastern) Monday-Friday

Where the form asks what product you are using, be sure in the dropdown menu to indicate "CD/download" and the proper operating system, then indicate which Edition.

https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact

danithomp24 · ‎August 8, 2019

Thanks! That's exactly what his looks like - I'm guessing he's probably right and I'm probably just paranoid. The authentication ring looks so much less fancy than my 2016 disk. I had an accountant do our taxes last year bc of an overseas move and a new rental property so I don't have last years program. Thanks again for humoring me 🙂

danithomp24 · ‎August 8, 2019

Thanks! I'll give them a call. I thought that I had read somewhere that TT wouldn't help to authenticate anything so I was resorting to google and asking around.

mesquitebean · ‎August 8, 2019

I'm not sure how the "About TurboTax" text info helps you. If it's a pirated/counterfeit CD, it seems like the "About" information would simply be copied as well as any other files on the CD. But we don't really hear much about fake CDs in this forum. Most of the scams people report here are unauthorized pirated software downloads from "too-good-to-be-true" deals on the Internet. Only a handful of large reputable well-known resellers like Amazon, Staples, Office Depot, Newegg are authorized to sell TurboTax software downloads.

danithomp24 · ‎August 9, 2019

IDK, you are totally right, it would be easy to copy. When we moved overseas I chickened out of continuing to do my taxes, so I hadn't seen TT 2017 or 2018 and the interface honestly seemed a bit more clunky and then the authentication ring was a lot less glitzy than the one on my 2016 disk so I started to worry. It makes me feel better that you don't hear a lot about fake discs in the forums. I'm sure my dad and husband are right and I am just being paranoid - but having been burned before, I think I am scarred for life.

mesquitebean · ‎August 9, 2019

@ danithomp24

I'm sorry, but we're not going to be able to say one way or another in this user community forum. If you are concerned about it, you need to either confront the giver and figure out its history, or see if TurboTax Support can assist you using the contact form at the link I left above.

Maybe a fellow user with a CD will respond in this thread, but most of the forum helpers use the download version.

mesquitebean · ‎August 9, 2019

@danithomp24

Maybe when you phone Support, they would furnish you a download instead, if they can identify your CD.

If you're still living overseas, however, you may have trouble reaching Customer Support by phone. In that case, you could use messaging to reach a Support agent directly through Twitter or Facebook.

https://twitter.com/TeamTurboTax
or
https://www.facebook.com/turbotax

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Questionable TurboTax Software