Spyware Assasin Busted

[andriegel]

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.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&e=2&u=/nm/20050311/tc_nm/tech_spyware_dc

 

[Virgil]

Great news, I hope this is the first of many to fall.

 

[kw31]

I suppose they use a popup page that looks like a normal windows window
Been having more and more people advertising this way
Absolutely hate it!!

 

[Zeeble]

Yes, I find them all the time when Im using IE, my mum thought it was real and nearly paid up before I stopped her.

 

[vip-ip]

The easiest way to get rid of these..... NOT AD-AWARE!.......

Start >> Run >> format C

3 hours later you have Windows XP on a completely clean HDD =)

 

[dgridley]

Misleading popups (or any advertising) are the bane of the Net.. I hate the "You have 1 message waitng" ads...

 

[matrics]

Misleading popups (or any advertising) are the bane of the Net.. I hate the "You have 1 message waitng" ads...

Oh, yeah? Have you seen the "You have 2 messages waiting" ones? :lol: now THOSE are annoying

 

[dc1pop]

Your computer clock maybe wrong ??? lol

 

[Brian]

The easiest way to get rid of these..... NOT AD-AWARE!.......

Start >> Run >> format C

3 hours later you have Windows XP on a completely clean HDD =)

easiest way is to right now turn your computer off, unplug it, put it int he box, and put in the closet and forget about it

 

[CrazyTech]

Glad to see this starting to happen.

 

[Joe Tito]

The easiest way to get rid of these..... NOT AD-AWARE!.......

Start >> Run >> format C

3 hours later you have Windows XP on a completely clean HDD =)

^^ Amen my brother. I honestly don't understand why people waste their time and money buying/running spyware sweeps when in a simple 1-3 hours period (depending on computer speed) you can have an absolutely clean system with a fresh intall of XP. People amuse me.

 

[Peter]

not everyone knows how to format a pc let alone set windows up

 

[Rob]

I am the 1,000,000th visitor to NamePros. I have won a prize.

Great.

 

[vip-ip]

easiest way is to right now turn your computer off, unplug it, put it int he box, and put in the closet and forget about it

Better put it up on eBay, saying:
"My computer is really slow. It's a Pentium 1 or 2, I'm not sure. I don't know what's RAM, but I'm sure I have 10 GB hard drive. I got some crap of sum sort in thUr, I dunno wtf that is so SOLD AS IS yo"

If a laptop with a boot in it was sold, I think a computer with spyware will sell even better


People amuse me, too, actually people pay big bucks in search of one-of-a-kind program that will have a buttom "CLEAN" on it and the computer will get rid of all the spyware in an instant. There's no such program :lol: That's why I download trial versions of programs and crack them :notme:

 

[Kodeking]

I am the 1,000,000th visitor to NamePros. I have won a prize.

Great.

You are visitor number 4567 and then you refresh the page. You magicaly go back in time and become visitor 3453.

 

[Rowan W]

Misleading popups (or any advertising) are the bane of the Net.. I hate the "You have 1 message waitng" ads...

Heh, ads are the bane of IE, not the internet.

 

[Mayur]

I hope the government takes down all of these retards. I have to clean out hundred of traes of spyware every day.

 

[redking]

I'm surprised this hasn't happened earlier. Lots of people are clueless about spyware and evil companies could use the hysteria to take advantage of people. Glad there guys were caught and hope nobody tries anything like this in the future!

 

[Zeeble]

I'm surprised this hasn't happened earlier. Lots of people are clueless about spyware and evil companies could use the hysteria to take advantage of people. Glad there guys were caught and hope nobody tries anything like this in the future!

Could? They have already, thats the problem

I just think that the internet is not regulated enough, it is becoming more regulated but not as much as physical industries.

 

[calian]

It might not even be that it's not regulated enough, its that the internet is anarchy and 97% of the people using it don't act that way. They assume it is a tightly regulated realm like their real world existance. Hence "they couldn't do that" and other similar statements when confronted with the reality of the unsavory folks operating online.