That's over 53,000 times I didn't have to see something a scumbag marketing jagoff was trying to shove down my throat.
Posted on 03/12/2005 5:48:37 AM PST by pickemuphere
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A software vendor that tried to drum up sales by offering to clean up nonexistent computer "spyware" has been temporarily shut down, U.S. regulators said on Friday.
The makers of Spyware Assassin tried to scare consumers into buying software through pop-up ads and e-mail that warned their computers had been infected with malicious monitoring software, the Federal Trade Commission said.
Free spyware scans offered by Spokane, Washington-based MaxTheater Inc. turned up evidence of spyware even on machines that were entirely clean, and its $29.95 Spyware Assassin program did not actually remove spyware, the FTC said.
A U.S. court has ordered the company and its owner, Thomas Delanoy, to suspend its activities until a court hearing on Tuesday. The company could be required to give back all the money it made from selling Spyware Assassin.
MaxTheater could not be reached for comment.
Oh! I hated the about:blank one. I found out it was linked to my Incredimail email program and got rid of it.
I haven't seen a pop stopper yet that's 100% effective. Firefox does a pretty good job though.
Bump to bookmark
I have Pest Patrol. It's the only one of three anti-spyware I have that could remove a "backweb" virus (whatever that is) detected by all three programs. The other 2 would remove the virus untill the next time I did a scan, then it was back.
Try Admuncher. I highly recommend it. It's got a 30 day free trial. It also stops a number of malicious scripts, has a built in proxy randomizer. It's layer 3 so it's sitting right on top of the IP stack which means you don't have to change anything. Install and you're done. Well worth it. Oh and it blocks EVERYTHING.
PestPatrol is good
That's over 53,000 times I didn't have to see something a scumbag marketing jagoff was trying to shove down my throat.
If you are not satisfied with anti spyware programs for one reason or another (as I was not) you can end the problem entirely by changing your browser. All these hackers target the IE browser, but if you use the new Firefox or Opera you sail under thir radar and get no more problems.
The dirty secret that no one wants to talk about is that those who get spyware get it through porn sites.
You play, you pay...
True, and a lot of it also comes from P2P file sharing software.
Click on my FR homepage ;)
Well, I'm sorry, but that's NOT where my computer got infected.
University of Phoenix....Got a Degree? Make UP Yours!
I'll see that, and raise you this:
I've got a modified hosts file in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc that forces the computer to resolve their host name to an IP of 127.0.0.1 (the internal IP of my machine, as opposed to the IP from which the ads are originating).
In other words, as far as my computer is concerned, those ad-pushing sites don't even exist!
Cheers!
I'm fairly certain Dr. Greg Cynamon is first into the fiery pit.
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