Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
A
aerog
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Hi all:
Just a brief note about the recent spammer we've had. You might well have see "911Turbo's" message on here the other day asking you to click on his geocities site. Today we had "Davidthecoolest" logon and do exactly the same thing. Both people were located in Israel and I suspect they're both are the same person and both have been, or will be banned.
If you see someone spamming the whole forum site PLEASE don't be tempted to click on their link. In all likelyhood the site will either be an advertising site putting you into an endless loop of popups, or will be a site that rewards the scum spammer because he fooled enough people into clicking on his link.
DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK!
Just some other information if you're really interested about what the site was. The link he posted sends you to a short geocities website that brings up some popups by itself (nothing malicious there by the way, they're genuine popup ads, but very annoying). That site automatically sends you to a site called "outwar.com" - the only purpose for that site is to reward people, like our friend the spammer, by encouraging them to do exactly what he's done here - post a link and make you click on it. The reason is simple, outwar fills the borders of it's pages with more online advertising. Some of that advertising also tries to install software that will cause more popups to show up unpredictably, or will modify your internet browser so you're forced to use their search or "homepage" which is more than likely filled with advertising for porn sites, and others.
Gator, located in California (gator.com) is quite often installed by hiding behind a number of useful looking applications. One tells you that a certain application or addon is out of date and you should upgrade it, so you're tempted to say "ok". Another asks if you'd like to install a utility to keep your clock up to date and you're tempted to do it (this utility actually works by the way). All the applications Gator hides behind are usually genuine, but Gator actually hides, watching what your internet activities are, then sends activity reports back to a marketing company.
Not really a "virus", but certainly not something most people would want on their computers - given the option. These programs are known as hijackers, annoyware, and spyware but usually don't cause any irreversible damage to your data, and aren't usually self-replicating like a virus is.
Xupiter is a similar scheme and is known as a browser hijacker and originates from a company in Hungary. Every attempt to remove Xupiter results in it mysteriously restoring itself.
The best solution for Xupiter and other embedded applications that seem to install themselves as a result of a spam-attack (short of editing your registry) is to find a program called "Spybot Search and Destroy". Another source for really good information is the website SpywareInfo.com
Finally, a word of warning: often the spammer websites put the calls to install these various applications on a delay. While you're trying to close all the pop advertising (which usually is quite harmless, just annoying) suddenly the installer pops up and you click it out of force of habit - then it's too late. A decent anti-popup application like Ad-Subtract (which also removes a lot of advertising from websites, I've used it for years) will help squelch the popups and make browsing the web a little more enjoyable.
[ 06-05-2003: Message edited by: aerog ]</p>
Just a brief note about the recent spammer we've had. You might well have see "911Turbo's" message on here the other day asking you to click on his geocities site. Today we had "Davidthecoolest" logon and do exactly the same thing. Both people were located in Israel and I suspect they're both are the same person and both have been, or will be banned.
If you see someone spamming the whole forum site PLEASE don't be tempted to click on their link. In all likelyhood the site will either be an advertising site putting you into an endless loop of popups, or will be a site that rewards the scum spammer because he fooled enough people into clicking on his link.
DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK!
Just some other information if you're really interested about what the site was. The link he posted sends you to a short geocities website that brings up some popups by itself (nothing malicious there by the way, they're genuine popup ads, but very annoying). That site automatically sends you to a site called "outwar.com" - the only purpose for that site is to reward people, like our friend the spammer, by encouraging them to do exactly what he's done here - post a link and make you click on it. The reason is simple, outwar fills the borders of it's pages with more online advertising. Some of that advertising also tries to install software that will cause more popups to show up unpredictably, or will modify your internet browser so you're forced to use their search or "homepage" which is more than likely filled with advertising for porn sites, and others.
Gator, located in California (gator.com) is quite often installed by hiding behind a number of useful looking applications. One tells you that a certain application or addon is out of date and you should upgrade it, so you're tempted to say "ok". Another asks if you'd like to install a utility to keep your clock up to date and you're tempted to do it (this utility actually works by the way). All the applications Gator hides behind are usually genuine, but Gator actually hides, watching what your internet activities are, then sends activity reports back to a marketing company.
Not really a "virus", but certainly not something most people would want on their computers - given the option. These programs are known as hijackers, annoyware, and spyware but usually don't cause any irreversible damage to your data, and aren't usually self-replicating like a virus is.
Xupiter is a similar scheme and is known as a browser hijacker and originates from a company in Hungary. Every attempt to remove Xupiter results in it mysteriously restoring itself.
The best solution for Xupiter and other embedded applications that seem to install themselves as a result of a spam-attack (short of editing your registry) is to find a program called "Spybot Search and Destroy". Another source for really good information is the website SpywareInfo.com
Finally, a word of warning: often the spammer websites put the calls to install these various applications on a delay. While you're trying to close all the pop advertising (which usually is quite harmless, just annoying) suddenly the installer pops up and you click it out of force of habit - then it's too late. A decent anti-popup application like Ad-Subtract (which also removes a lot of advertising from websites, I've used it for years) will help squelch the popups and make browsing the web a little more enjoyable.
[ 06-05-2003: Message edited by: aerog ]</p>
