Affiliate marketing and spyware
p2pnet.net News:- Our spyware researchers really hate the word ‘affiliate’. Affiliate marketing drives spyware. From the worst known offenders to questionable rogue anitspyware software – affiliates trying to sell-by-any-means are the engine behind the problem.
Known rogues install maliciously. But it’s often difficult to pin down the real rogues. There’s an incredible amount of just mediocre antispyware out there that isn’t malicious, but they use the same marketing and sales techniques as the rogues. Lots of ads (paid for by commission seeking affiliates) – No trial period – Offering a free scan – But if it finds something you then have to pay to clean it off your system. And they really get in your face about buying.
The known rogues present outright false positives – sometimes offering to clean the malware that prompted you to download the rogue in the first place. The mediocre guys might also have false positives, but due to bugs in their code, not outright lies. Adding detections for second-rate software as malware isn’t something we do, but we can blog about it to help you be aware.
Many fall into a gray area and our researchers have to put them to the test. But regardless of anything else, all of these guys, malicious or not, make apparently outrageous claims. Affiliates repeat the claims over and over in ads to drive sales and get their cut.
Check out this one site we visited. Which we will not name here but it was nuker.com. They claim to have a very positive review from Download.com. Only it isn’t a link, just an image. We’ve searched Download.com’s site for the supposed review and cannot locate it, not to our surprise. Download.com is a trusted source and these guys are trying to subvert that trust to their own ends.
They also link to a Yahoo! "Headline" on their site. But if you follow the links, you find it’s from the PR news section of Yahoo Business and that they themselves uploaded the article. They’re quoting themselves! Think you want to try their product?
Sean Sullivan – F-Secure
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July 21st, 2006 at 5:09 pm
I still won’t download ANYTHING from download.com In the past it was a prime place to pick up spyware galore. These guys would catch an open source program, load it with spyware, compile it where it was no longer open source, and offer it for download. Got to be where you couldn’t download there without picking up spyware if you got a few programs. It earned a bad reputation with me.
Now in the past, download.com decided to attempt to clean up their act and restricted the types of programs they would allow on their site. Since once you have these sort of folks in your domain digging gold with the members, it is hard to get them out, I tended never to go back. Plus there seemed to be some serious holes in the definitions of what was deemed ineligible for offers. Maybe they got it straightened out, honestly, I don’t know. Still I won’t to this day go there or download any apps offered. I guess you could say the reputation stuck and forever tainted me with distaste over ever using the site again.
July 21st, 2006 at 8:23 pm
There for a while I had the same problems. But I now ONLY download what I need from download.com. However, I am extremely careful as to WHAT I download.
July 21st, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Who needs to PAY for anti-spyware programs when there are so many that are FREE?!?!?!????? I’ve used Spybot Search & Destroy coupled with AdAware SE Personal for YEARS (starting with Win 98 and now on Win XP Pro) with MARVELOUS results! Once in a great while I’ll go to a ‘free’ online scan just to check things out. My machine(s) always show up squeaky clean!!!
July 21st, 2006 at 11:52 pm
The two free anti-spyware apps you mentioned are among a very few that are not crummy or straight up criminal. There’s a bunch of really cool freeware out there, and a HUGE amount of “free” SCUMWARE. Be careful.
July 22nd, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Yah but it’s really quick and easy to spot these. Just go to Google and type in the app’s name followed by the word spyware and do some quick research. For example type Kazaa spyware in Google and you’ll see what I mean.
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:12 pm
http://www.spywarewarrior.com has a comprehensive list of rogue programs and suspicious spyware companies.
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:42 am
The hardest thing Ive found in my Business (selling antispyware and antivirus) is trying to educate the people.
Its almost like they dont want to know!
The ones youre talking about know this and easily prey on the people.
Take care,
Doug Woodall
SpywareBiz.com