Spyware Warrior

[DamnSpyware34]

Attention to all! There are more sleazy affiliates on the loose.

Exhibit A:

Download SpySweeper
www.AdwareAlert.com Scan, Remove & Block Spyware Complete Solution. Free Download.

This AdwareAlert link goes to:

[Nemesis6]

Try searching for "Adaware" on google.com. It'll bring up a pctools.com sponsored link with the title "Adaware". It'll switch from that to "Spyware Remover Download" and other titles, too, so just refresh untill you see "Adaware". The link leads here - hxxp://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/%3Fref%3Dgoogle

Same goes if you type in "NoAdware".
_________________

[DamnSpyware34]

I can't go to google.com because when I type that address into my browser, I get redirected to google.com.au

BTW, do a search on google.com.au for spywaredoctor (note the missing space) and you will find yet another AdwareAlert ad from the same affiliate.

Also to anyone representing companies that I've posted about in this thread, don't even think about flaming my work. As long as these sleazy affiliates misusing the names of trusted applications are still around, I will try to find them and expose them.

You have been warned.

EDIT: Whoops! Forgot the proof.

Spywaredoctor
www.AdwareAlert.com Free Download. Complete Protection. Scan, Remove & Block Spyware

Link goes to:

[pctools]

Hi all,

I am from PCTools, maker of Spyware Doctor.

We would like to confirm the following:

1) Adwarealert.com is not an affiliate. PCTools will investigate into this.

2) The following are approved affiliates. Unless we are misreading the post regarding this, we can see no problems with these affiliates:

www.Anti-Spyware-Download.com
http://www.computerrecover.com/spyware-remover/spyware-kw.php


Thank you.

Regards,

PC Tools

[DamnSpyware34]

pctools,

You misread my post but I understand why (the post is so long it's easy to misread it).

The problem with those affiliates is that they are misusing the names of trusted applications, namely Ad-Aware and ZoneAlarm.

Also, I said that the computerrecover site is pushing StopZilla, not Spyware Doctor.
_________________
Spyware is so uncool.

[EASTER]

I think we all need to PETITION as a community Google ourselves and work to encourage them re-evaluate their search results to push these bad uRl's to the very end of a Google Search result. Or even separate them into a different database.

How many times do innocent users turn to Google, including many of us in our research, only to find various "top results" in searches laden down in wait with exploitable pages and pop ups.

Whats the concensus on this?
_________________
*******************


THE FORCE IS VERY STRONG IN THIS FAMILY!

[herbalist]

I don't think they would do that unless there was profit in it for them. Earlier, when they refused to turn over search records, I thought that just maybe they were taking a stand on the moral high ground. Then today, I see on the news where they agreed to worse demands in China and did almost the exact opposite. From what I see, the message from them is clear. They'll do whatever makes a profit. Here, they refused to comply, looking to keep customers. In China, they complied with everything, looking to expand their customer base. Many of the ads you're referring to are the paid ads. If they keep following their usual pattern, the decision that makes the most money is what they'll go with. Since those are paid ads, I'd expect that they'll stay on the top of the page, unless they're shown that doing so may be costly to them.
Rick

[EASTER]

Hello again Rick:

Unfortunate but true, things appear as is like a Catch 22 proposal. Google assumes to advance on the profit potential route since they are now "public" and have an obligation to their stockholders while keeping their customer's high search rankings even though they might be the result of ad products which in turn many of them come heavy laden with avenues that lead straight to exploitables if not laden themselves at first landing on them.

Then there are those sites who specialize in offering popular music or other goods, who either knowingly or not contract with ad agencies based on popularity of the content, who themselves regularly practice Rotational Ads Distributions that lace their verts with virus and/or URL redirects to other sites that dump their payload.

My suggestion is merely to point out that we can at least as a whole unified community raise some fuss and make some noise in Google's direction. The notion that the Google industry directly endorses spyware and viruses by virtue of their current database formulas considering the profit potential doesn't exactly inspire confidence on one hand while on the other it makes for a fantastic turnover rate in the anti-spyware and anti-virus industry the more they can load up the crapware on those search results.

I confronted on a couple of occasions website owners who offered digital products online that the webpages were sponsored by rotational ads w/viruses attached after getting tagged with an exploit or two and was met with surprise from the owner who at least did turn over the ad agency info to me.

When directly confronted with "evidence" such as i forwarded logs and also captured the payload files themselves along with url page address and times, the ad agency in question continued the loop by suggesting their ads carrying the payloads was actually another ad vendor they contract with and so forth, so that story went.
_________________
*******************


THE FORCE IS VERY STRONG IN THIS FAMILY!

[herbalist]

Even if Google were to agree to something like that, setting up the criteria for sorting the results and dealing with the large number of sites would be huge job. Just trying to keep up with so many changing sites would be expensive. I can see where they could use robots to regularly check the paying sites but I'm not sure how much more they could really do.
Rick