What is the deal with downloadable PSP sites??

[Americanidle]

I just picked up a PSP slim with a few games and was browsing through some review sites to find some reviews on older games and I ran into some professional looking site claiming to download everything you want for a small one time membership fee. The page also mentioned all firmware versions are fine. I then started searching on downloadable games and ran into more and more of these sites.
I don't know much at all about the PSP so I figured I'd post here to see what the deal is. I have read about homebrew and needing certain hacked firmware versions for it but that doesn't interest me at all to play around with that.
If these sites are scams, they are pretty convincing.

[Andrew Mallon]

I just picked up a PSP slim with a few games and was browsing through some review sites to find some reviews on older games and I ran into some professional looking site claiming to download everything you want for a small one time membership fee. The page also mentioned all firmware versions are fine. I then started searching on downloadable games and ran into more and more of these sites.
I don't know much at all about the PSP so I figured I'd post here to see what the deal is. I have read about homebrew and needing certain hacked firmware versions for it but that doesn't interest me at all to play around with that.
If these sites are scams, they are pretty convincing.

They're scams. They just link you to warez torrents that you could find on your own.

[Caine]

they are.  this is the same scam as those sites which claim to let you download full games and movies for free for a one time fee.  from what i've gleaned off other sites, they charge you to download the torrent file.  not exactly a good source if you ask me. 

and yes, homebrew apps are available to play psp images.  if you own the disk, you can do this yourself, or so i've heard.  there's emulation for the older generations and some useful/unusual applications.  i haven't done anything more with my unit than n64 emulation and super mario 64.  it's a bit easier with the fat psp, but the slims already have a custom firmware out there.  it's only possible with a homebrewed fat/pandora's battery though.

ha! beaten to the punch.  oh well, i'll have to fall back on substance rather than speed.