Yes you were ripped off - you were scammed. LW Pro costs $24.95 for 6 months worth of free updates & email support, $34.95 for a year's worth of updates & email support. The official site offers no 'lifetime' deals or 'download protection'.

If you'd purchased from the official site, LimewireLLC would appear next to the charge on your credit card statement. Since you didn't buy from the official site, your email address would never have been in the database...you're not eligible for official Pro support.
Frequently Asked Questions - LimeWire

You might've been directed to the official site for download. As long as one person from the scam site buys an official Pro, the scammers can then sell as many 'memberships' as they like & provide their victims with a link to download Pro.

Please see post #9 of this thread for other links, with more info.