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Spyware Confidential

Larry Dignan, Jason Perlow, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld
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Anti-spyware program installs adware from BestOffersNetwork

By | March 7, 2006, 9:42pm PST

Summary: Yesterday I found a Google AdWords ad (using the words Spy Sweeper) for a new anti-spyware app called Spy-Shield. It looked suspicious right away because the homepage shows a supposed scan in progress that appears to find spyware. The front page also says the application is free "with the help of integrated ads that are [...]

Yesterday I found a Google AdWords ad (using the words Spy Sweeper) for a new anti-spyware app called Spy-Shield. It looked suspicious right away because the homepage shows a supposed scan in progress that appears to find spyware. The front page also says the application is free "with the help of integrated ads that are displayed periodically through Spy-Shield." Sure enough - the app will not install unless the user agrees to install software from the BestOffersNetwork, which is Direct-Revenue renamed.

I’ve blogged the details including screenshots and results of testing Spy-Shield here.

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Biography

Suzi Turner is webmaster and owner of SpywareWarrior.com, a comprehensive site that includes a spyware help forum, spyware blog and reviews of anti-spyware software by noted spyware expert Eric L. Howes. Suzi became angry about spyware in 2002 after being infected by a drive-by-download of a browser hijacker and unwanted adware/spyware and decided to help others in the same predicament. In April 2005, Microsoft awarded Suzi its MVP (Most Valued Professional) Award in recognition of her work to help internet users protect their privacy by removing and preventing spyware. Suzi is also a nurse for a national disability management company.

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I don't think so.
osreinstall 9th Mar 2006
You should delete everything in your Ad-Aware quaratine folder and test again with your program. Bet it doesn't show anything. By the way, Alexa is installed by MS thru OSs, service packs and IE upgrades and a few others. Rerun your Ad-Aware after you do something with MS.
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spyware
matthew.graff@... 8th Mar 2006
You'll run into the screen if you mistakenly key goggle instead of google.
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"key goggle"?
kentfx_z 8th Mar 2006
Is this some kind of found poetry? What could "key goggle" possibly mean? Key it where? Google? Your browser address window? The NSA site?
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obvious
Suzi_z 8th Mar 2006
I think it should be obvious that "key goggle" means to type goggle into the address bar.
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clueless
zclayton2 9th Mar 2006
if you really are that clueless how did you find this link?
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I like privacy policy
duck01 8th Mar 2006
At the moment their privacy policy link returns 404 error.

The screenshot looks familiar, obviously just another clone licensed for few hundreds.

But I would blame this one on Google (again) happy
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AntiSpyware
doc_cotton 8th Mar 2006
This is not the only "anti-spyware" program that installs spyware!
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Also Spyware in poplular 'free' Ad-Aware
Tim_M 8th Mar 2006
The popular (millions of downloads) 'free' anti-Ad & anti-Spy ware program Ad-Aware also installs a Data Miner spy-ware component. Rarely is anything truly 'free' on the Internet.
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Reference?
cbiltcliffe@... 8th Mar 2006
anti-Ad & anti-Spy ware program Ad-Aware also installs a Data Miner spy-ware component.

I'd really like to see your reference for this. Even to say what data miner it actually installs. I've used Ad-Aware for years on probably hundreds of machines, in conjunction with many other ad/spyware scanners. None of them ever picked up anything installed by Ad-Aware.

If I install Ad-Aware on a clean machine, obviously it detects nothing. Scanning with anything else after this still detects nothing that doesn't show up on a bare install of Windows, anyway, like Alexa.

What does Ad-Aware install?
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Adaware
jheffner@... 9th Mar 2006
You are not alone-what like to know (as well as millions of others the reference of the assertion that AdAware has a spyware program added).
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I don't think so.
osreinstall 9th Mar 2006
You should delete everything in your Ad-Aware quaratine folder and test again with your program. Bet it doesn't show anything. By the way, Alexa is installed by MS thru OSs, service packs and IE upgrades and a few others. Rerun your Ad-Aware after you do something with MS.

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