[Brian - ShareASale]

I searched for info here about it...but didn't find all that much...so here is a post.

Last week, some affiliate at FineClicks.com who will remain unnamed, placed - somehow - a FineClicks.com URL in the winservs/winservn software provided by "PurityScan.com".

To me - this represents yet another threat.

For those not familiar - PurityScan puts this winservn/winservs.exe file on your computer - and you are then hit with many many many popups - I was talking on the phone with some people who were affected - and they would hit every 30 seconds.

This is bad enough when the advertiser actually intends to do business like this...but what if they don't (like me).

For smaller sites - this kind of activity can cause serious load problems on your servers, can cause downtime, very bad reputation swings, and countless angry phone calls. The thing is that apparantly, people can advertise with these guys without actually being the company....this presents a concern because if you operate an "indy" program - for example - a rogue affiliate could place his/her affiliate URL in the thing - and you would be the one with the problem...

I have contacted PurityScan - and requested that never ever ever again would any fineclicks.com or shareasale.com link ever be placed in their sofware...and I would suggest that those with Indy programs do the same....

Thanks,

-Brian Littleton
-Owner/Operator Shareasale.com
brian@shareasale.com

[Brian - ShareASale]

Oh yeah - and did I mention - i hate software apps

Thanks,

-Brian Littleton
-Owner/Operator Shareasale.com
brian@shareasale.com

[Dynamoo]

Nice catch, Brian

We picked up someone using Purityscam in my real-life work.. they logged a call with our internal helpdesk complaining about popups. We investigated his PC, found Purityscan, looked it up on the web and then realised that he'd been downloading porn and was trying to cover his tracks, so we did a forensic search of his PC, checked the access logs and then fired him..

..remember Aluria's slogan for their spyware scanner is "spyware can ruin your life"?

[I am an evil b*****d sometimes]

________
All your commission are belong to us.
Check out the latest Homeland Security press releases.

[kickaha]

Look at their agreement: http://www.purityscan.com/ps/terms.html

It does say they will serve interstitials, which I am sure no end user has any idea what that means.

The agreement looks like a cut and paste job from another affiliate agreement and makes no real sense.

The odd thing is I think I have seen this agreement before on another site. I just can't remember which one...

regards,
Wayne

Wayne Porter
V.P. Product Development
AffTrack LLC.
http://www.afftrack.com
http://www.revtrends.com
Get a free two-week trial use code ABWEB at RevTrends.com

[Brian - ShareASale]

Yeah, i read the agreement when I was downloading to test / see if it was the actual culprit - they call popups PROMOTIONAL CONSOLES. it is junk. the really bad thing about this particular software is that it is written very badly - multiple popups all over the machine...not even a tastely "one per hour" or something like that...we are talking lots and lots of pops. whos gonna buy from someone like that?

But it is dangerous, considering they will apparantly put any ad in there without even trying to figure out if it was authorized by the business....not smart.

Until they completely get my fineclicks URL out of there, I am taking this opportunity to tell people and inform them why they popups are coming up...that should make them act a little quicker in getting me out of there. We've posted info on how to uninstall/protect against thier junk.

From their site...

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>

How did those [porn] files get there?

This question is usually the first one asked when you find - or worse - someone else finds inappropriate content on your computer. "Who did this?" typically follows. This is very hard to figure out. The key is that instead of getting mad, you should just take control of your computer so that it is not possible to be violated by these dangerous parties.

There are a number of ways objectionable material can find its way onto your computer, most commonly through 1) receiving email; 2) accessing the Internet; 3) downloading applications from the Internet; and 4) loading (or installing) software applications.

Pornographers are the most aggressive marketers on the Internet, and they can deliver their content even without your permission or knowledge.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

They seem to know an awful lot about how to get files on peoples computers undetected.

Thanks,

-Brian Littleton
-Owner/Operator Shareasale.com
brian@shareasale.com

[Leader]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The odd thing is I think I have seen this agreement before on another site. I just can't remember which one... ~Wayne (this time I'm sure it was Wayne, dammit) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

A bit of higher-level Googling spots it out...

Searching for a part of their agreement which looked specific enough ("you understand that these changes cannot be reversed without running the removal executable" of) shows that you most likely saw it first at some other site using adware from AD BREAK.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22you+understand+that+these+changes+cannot+be+reversed+without+running+the+removal+executable%22+of

~Revenue is King

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

Moved to new forum (PurityScan) http://abw.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=frm&s=548608979&f=3266071653

Thank you Brian!

<font size="2" face="Verdana">Haiko


The secret of success is constancy of purpose. ~ Disraeli</font></p>

[Ebudae]

This weekend I was looking at website given to me by a merchant and got a driveby install. I got all the usual suspects - Bargain Buddy, WhenU, Ebates, etc.. plus something called "porn toolbar"

Get this - when I went in to get rid of all this garbage, I got a popup of Purity Scan asking if I wanted to get rid of the porn on my PC!

Those flaming SOB's put the porn on my PC in the first place and also the "get rid of porn purity scan" - man, what a scam if I ever saw one.

Dirty Rotten buggers!!!

Ebudae

If you understand, things are just as they are...
if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

[ecomcity]

Tar and feather Purityscan, http://www.couponica.com and the Adbreak guys out of the affiliate arena.

Domain: adbreak.com

Registrant (MR813-IYD-REG)
Michael Rost
Adbreak
info@adbreak.com
Zona 5
Panama, 00000 Pa
+507.2032344
+1.1111111111 (FAX)

Administrative (MR974-IYD)
Michael Rost
webmaster@adbreak.com


Organization:
Pornography Scan
Paul Scanner
1716 Cambridge St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
US
Phone: 617-555-1212
Email: paul@pornographyscan.com

Organization:
Couponica, Inc.
John Freeman
PO Box 300
Westhampton, NY 11977
US
Phone: 8772172900
Email: info@couponica.com

Mike & Charlie ...

If they won't adopt and feed a bird ..flip them one! BBQ some Gator and remember to flush WhenU..

[Drewbert]

&gt;Pornographers are the most aggressive
&gt;marketers on the Internet, and they can
&gt;deliver their content even without your
&gt;permission or knowledge.

If you're using MS IE/Win. But then again if you are, ANYONE can deliver whatever they want into your computer - porn, downloaded copyrighted music, fake log files, fake chat history - you name it.

****************************
Jimmy James Inc. fan club membership # 3312

"But Jimmy had fancy plans, and pants to match"