I loaded QT on a backup computer a few months ago to see how it worked with IB. This is a computer I kept on standby on a dialup in case my dsl went down while I was trading. After I experimented with it for a few minutes I wanted to get back to trading so I closed QT and IB, then reopened the IB login in case I needed it. The other thing that was running was Opera with one window open that reloaded Briefing every sixty seconds. After awhile I glanced over at the back up and I noticed a bunch of internet traffic showing up on the modem lights. I was concerned about a virus so I shut down Opera and the IB login. The internet traffic continued. NOTHING was open on my computer. I ran spybot, and sure enough there was some new spyware. I deleted it, reopened Opera and the IB login and went back to trading. After awhile I started wondering what had happened. Out of curiosity, I shut down IB on my main machine, opened it on the backup and restarted QT. After a few minutes I closed QT and IB. Again, I saw a ton of internet traffic where I should have only been seeing Opera reloading once per minute. Again I shut down Opera. NOTHING was running on my machine but there was intense internet traffic. I ran Spybot again and found spyware again. The third test, I shut down the modem and rebooted the machine and reconnected it to the internet. I put up the IB login box. No unusual activity. I let it run for awhile then I opened QT and IB and played with the charts for a bit. Once again I closed QT and IB, there was the internet traffic with no programs running. Once again I ran Spybot and found spyware. As far as I'm concerned, it was obvious the spyware came from loading QT.
As far as proving it, I can't. The backup computer is in storage as I decided I didn't need a backup any more.
You don't want to take my word for it, don't. I know what I saw.
PS. I know from following Bob Z's posts about running SI and IHUB that it is common for advertisers to sneak stuff onto sites that aren't in their agreements. Can you say POSITIVELY that no advertiser has done that to you? |
