Searching for free stuff on the Internet? Beware what you find.
That's the message form Web safety firm SiteAdvisor. Building on a Wall Street Journal analysis of the 20 million search queries leaked by America Online that found "free" to be the most popular search term, SiteAdvisor warned that the results produced by such searches frequently lead to malicious Web sites.
"Often, so-called 'free' items are anything but free," the company,
recently bought by security firm McAfee, stated in its advisory. "Free
screensaver and games sites are notorious for bundling spyware and
adware with downloads... Free e-card sites often share users' e-mail
addresses with third parties and can lead to a never-ending influx of
spam... Ringtone sites frequently lure consumers with misleading offers
of free tones that ultimately lead to automatic enrollment in paid
subscriptions."
Story at securityfocus.com