Judy called me and wondered what to do. She was sitting at her “kids” computer which is also used by the entire family and MySpace was delivering Trojans/Viruses which Norton AV was catching and deleting. Compounding this weekend attack were full page pops with Advertising and no easy way to close them and a phony Flash security notice to download same. The only other open application was MySpace. I walked her through the appropriate procedures and promised her that I would also take a look.
Your teen kids use MySpace. Over 70 million “kids” use MySpace. Over 26 million uniques per day hit this site. It’s the largest magnet in the world for every kind of teen abuse you could imagine including but not limited to Spyware, identity theft, spam, and porn of all flavors. It’s going to get even worse so take careful notes when you read this entry.
While I’m overjoyed to see this Spyware Affiliate, hacker, cracker, BotNet slime bag, and criminal go to federal prison, I’m going to examine the enablers. Jeanson James Ancheta admitted generating for himself and an unindicted coconspirator more than $107,000 in advertising affiliate proceeds by silently downloading Spyware/Adware to more than 400,000 infected computers that he controlled. Ancheta was also ordered to pay approximately $15,000 in restitution to the Weapons Division of the United States Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake and the Defense Information Systems Agency. He also forfeited to the government more than $60,000 in cash, a BMW automobile and computer equipment.
Your insightful emails warrant another entry on this issue. Featuring additional Spyware “conspirators” named John Robert Martinson and Spy Wiper, Spy Deleter, Odysseus Marketing and its principal, Walter Rines, plus a litany of additional characters. All of which reads like a “Mafia Conspiracy” because in many respects, that’s exactly what it is. Finally, my thoughts on serious JAIL sentences for these Spyware players.
This case was originally filed in Oct. of 2004. Finally, we have a resolution to the issue. We will trace Sanford Wallace’s own comments while the case was pending and provide guidance for you.
Feb 202006
Learn additional facts not published anywhere else about Dale Begg-Smith and his Spyware distribution. Including my very own emails, his IP data, and much more. This entry is a follow up to my original post which you should read first.
You can run but you can’t hide. If you fail to answer reporters questions in a candid and detailed manner, lots of folks will poke around and discover your checkered past. You may have won an Olympic Gold Medal, Mr. Dale Begg-Smith who runs/ran AdsCPM, but your checkered past is back to haunt you. February 20, 2006 – Don’t miss my follow up article to this entry.
I’ve been working on this article for a few weeks. Inspite of my numerous connections with Networks it’s been very challenging because Networks don’t want to go “on the record”. I’m tired of waiting, so this article contains some stories which I believe to be fact and more importantly, specific techniques which Publishers/Webmasters can use to protect their hard work and help me bring this issue to light.