Open source impersonation

This page is dedicated to software presented in way that falsely suggests the application in hand have its source code available.

How it works

There can be multiple tricks used for this deception, including:

• A website design that draws similarities from an open source developing platforms (e.g. Github star badge).
• Public source code consist of compiled binary files.

Why it is a problem

1. Falsely rendering themselves as transparent and trustworthy which may deceive consumer into less caution while handling the software.
2. Application can perform unnecessary or malicious commands on host systems.

What doesn't consider as deception

• Some close source application use open source platforms(e.g. Github) to publish their program for a reliable or alternative download server.

Examples

• 

  The pictures shows Top of the BetterDisplay Pro website.

  BetterDisplay Pro is an application for display settings. Their website design are similar to open source projects' websites. It has Github star badge. On their repository no part of source code is available[1]. Download button directly downloads the program from Github. There is no indication that the application is close source on the website.