I don't know much about the "technology" of malware ( worms, adware, viruses etc) but I want to comment on something very nasty that I came across today.
I noticed that Myspace.com was the "top Gainer" on Google's 2005 search hit list so I decided to visit the site. In the games section they had a "feature" game for the day called Crazy Coins. I tried out the game (which was difficult in itself because it was designed to make you download it). Anyway after a few minutes I suddenly got a pop-up saying I had a registry problem and that I needed to run a program called Winfixer. The popup was designed to look like a Microsoft system dialogue window. I tried to close the popup but this only led to some other windows and more popups. It was the worst kind of slimy Marketing I have ever come across. Fortunately I seem to have escaped without downloading anything, but I am sure that thousands of people are going to get caught by this.
I guess I should have seen the warning signs that Myspace.com is a treacherous site when I saw one of those horrible flashing spam ads on their home page "Warning - Error X AN error has occurred on your computer".
When I checked out what this "Winfixer" was all about I couldn't find much on the web but it appears to be a VERY SLIMY company that creates deliberate system/registry problems on your computer so that you have to buy their product to get rid of the problems it creates in the first place. There also seems to be another shady subindustry building up around getting rid of Winfixer.
My warning is to beware of both Myspace.com and the very slimy companies it seems to be promoting.
I noticed that Myspace.com was the "top Gainer" on Google's 2005 search hit list so I decided to visit the site. In the games section they had a "feature" game for the day called Crazy Coins. I tried out the game (which was difficult in itself because it was designed to make you download it). Anyway after a few minutes I suddenly got a pop-up saying I had a registry problem and that I needed to run a program called Winfixer. The popup was designed to look like a Microsoft system dialogue window. I tried to close the popup but this only led to some other windows and more popups. It was the worst kind of slimy Marketing I have ever come across. Fortunately I seem to have escaped without downloading anything, but I am sure that thousands of people are going to get caught by this.
I guess I should have seen the warning signs that Myspace.com is a treacherous site when I saw one of those horrible flashing spam ads on their home page "Warning - Error X AN error has occurred on your computer".
When I checked out what this "Winfixer" was all about I couldn't find much on the web but it appears to be a VERY SLIMY company that creates deliberate system/registry problems on your computer so that you have to buy their product to get rid of the problems it creates in the first place. There also seems to be another shady subindustry building up around getting rid of Winfixer.
My warning is to beware of both Myspace.com and the very slimy companies it seems to be promoting.
