The Castle Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : The Castle

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: TimF who started this subject	11/21/2002 7:41:57 PM
From: TimF	of 7936

From Langalist news letter by Fred Langa - > >__________ > >Fred: Your recent discussion of spam made me think of a recent incident that your readers may appreciate being made aware of. > > >I received an email recently from a friend, which claimed that an e-greetings card was awaiting me and all I needed was to click the quoted link. The associated site required me to download an ActiveX element. I was a little reluctant but checked the digital certificate, which checked out. On accepting the download an EULA (End User Licensing Agreement) appeared. And this is where I made my mistake - I didn't bother to read it. > > >The e-card appeared but with no personal message. In another window I noted that Outlook was receiving lots of messages from the server announcing failed sendings. I thought 'virus' and turned off the computer. On restarting my system without the email software a virus scan showed no problem. Unconvinced I checked Google which led me to a series of articles/warnings about Friendgreetings.com > > >The EULA contained a notice indicating that I gave permission for the 'card' to be mass-mailed to everyone on my address books. In addition, it gave the company the right to add other software to my system and even an apparent right to prevent me from removing such software! Popup windows had started to appear advertising products. I located the removal instructions and cleared my system of the offending software. I then emailed all my address book entries to warn them of the problem, apologise and gave removal instructions including the McAfee URL http//vil.nai.com/vil/content/v%5F99760.htm to verify that my email was not itself a hoax virus. I finally wondered how I was going to repair my monitor from the repeated head bashing that I'd been giving it. > > >Contacting our technical people revealed that this 'attack' is not counted as a virus because of the EULA and so the virus software doesn't check for it. Obviously the message here is to read the EULA with care, but also that people out there are getting pretty nasty in order to sell online advertising. > > >Regards and thanks for the list and plus --- Mike Robertshaw > >"Friendgreetings" is nasty--- a combination of spam+trojan. But, as many have found out, although it's unethical and scummy, it's technically legal because users are agreeing to let it do its thing when they accept the EULA. > >In my opinion, companies that behave this way should be driven out of business. > >More info: google.com

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next