Ahhhh, now they know....

I've received an alert that Patchou's posse know about my blog entries about Patchou's new Sponsor Program:
http://www.msghelp.net/showthread.php?tid=58047

This will be interesting - I wonder if the apologists will make it past the "but its optional" excuse and start to consider what the Sponsor Program exposes users to.

Edit: 5.58pm 9 April 2006 (+0800).  The thread at msghelp.net linked to above has been locked, and the Sponsor Program is not installing.  Just tested on several systems using an installer downloaded on Saturday.  Saying yes to the Sponsor is not installing the Sponsor Program.. no shortcuts on the desktop... no pop-ups.

Uninstalling offers an option to remove the Sponsor.  Requesting removal of the the Sponsor does NOT trigger the well-known dialogue box asking that we enter a series of letters/numbers to prove we're human.

I'm not the only person to see that the Sponsor is suddenly not installing - check page 2 of the above thread (before it disappears completely).

Coincidence? I'll let you decide.

All in all this is a good few days work if the sudden disappearance of the Sponsor means that no further victims will be exposed to the malware I and others have reported.

Haven't seen the report on Patchou's new Sponsor Program? Start here:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2006/04/07/89691.aspx

Or, jump straight to the nitty gritty about the Sponsor:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2006/04/07/89692.aspx

Grab the popcorn gang - its a fascinating study in:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/swarm.htm

Keep an eye on Blog comments; I'll be letting any/all comments through unless the language is so strong that it's unacceptable to a general audience.

BTW, in case you're wondering how effective the "optional" excuse is, you should check out the documents that are being made public regarding the Direct Revenue lawsuit.  Some of the malware tactics that users are exposed to via the Messenger Plus Sponsor as detailed in my blog are also used by Direct Revenue (cite: Affirmation of Justin Brookman; The People of the State of New York v DirectRevenue, LLC and Joshua Abram, Alan Murray, Daniel Kaufman and Rodney Hook, individually; Supreme Court of the State of New York).

Published Sun, Apr 9 2006 9:50 by sandi
Filed under: , ,

Comments

# re: Ahhhh, now they know....

Sunday, April 09, 2006 2:05 PM by MenthiX
I think I would qualify as Plus! apologist with more than 4 years in the Plus! community / creator of the tutorials on msgplus.net / private beta tester etc. :)

And no, I'm not going to give you the "but it's optional". Although I do not agree with a lot of your points... you are still free to have criticism.

And some of your points I DO agree on
- Adult dating (especially AdultFriendfinder) shouldn't be there
- Online gambling isn't really appropriate either. But I believe most of those sites require a creditcard before you can start playing. I don't know any country where you can get a creditcard <18. So although it isn't really appropriate for the younger audience, it won't hurt them (correct me if I’m wrong),
- Online Pharmacy is almost the same like gambling... but I don't know if all the stores do age checks. If they don't then I agree they are inappropriate.
- "Errorsafe", "WinAntivirusPRO 2006" and "WinAntiSpyware 2006" shouldn't be advertised. I agree with you on that.

I sent an email about these points above to Patchou and hopes he does something about it. Not just because you wrote about it, because I did my own testing today too and I don't like to support a product that does this level of inappropriate advertising.

Just to let you know:
- AdultFriendFinder shall be removed soon
- ErrorSafe should already be gone (although I saw ads for it myself today... but I think it will surely be gone soon)
source: http://msghelp.net/showthread.php?tid=58047&pid=631242#pid631242

And Patchou still has to read my mail... so chances are "WinAntivirusPRO 2006", "WinAntiSpyware 2006" and "Mate1" will be removed too. Gambling and Pharmacy will be looked at.


Just so you know not all Plus1 people are bad :).

# re: Ahhhh, now they know....

Monday, April 10, 2006 2:51 PM by BV2312
Firstly i've never used Plus however if your going to make sure a big deal about the sponsor how about, in the uk we have "national lottery", msn dating , myoffers tabs? these three or either 16+ or even 18+ and yet they are visable!!!!