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FTC Shuts Down Pop-Up Extortion Firm
An anonymous reader writes "The FTC has shut down D Squared, a company that's been spamming via the Windows Messenger Pop-Up Service. In some cases, ads would pop-up every 10 minutes, and only advertised a $30 product that disabled similar pop-up ads. The FTC is slamming the extortion gauntlet on them. Interestingly, the FTC only caught onto all this because one of their own commissioners was among those getting spammed."
"Interestingly, the FTC only caught onto all this because one of their own commissioners was among those getting spammed."
There's a lesson for us all, there.
"POP-UP ADVERTISING is a fact of life," said Howard Beales, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "But one company has taken pop-ups beyond annoyance."
No it's not. I use Safari (Mac OS) and Mozilla (Linux/Windows) for all my web browsing. And I use Trillian, Gaim, or Fire for IM.
So no, POP-UP Advertising is deifnetly not a fact of life. It's just that too many people are unaware how easy it is to get away from.
Shame on us! We are intruded upon every day and no one complains. Hour by hour, our eyes and ears are bombarded with advertisements, but we accept it all as a fact of life. Why do we allow this tresspass into our daily lives? Why is it considered acceptable to allow companies to push products in our faces every second of every day? Why don't we have laws against advertising?
If someone dumps raw sewage in the streets, the cops will take them away. If someone plays their boom-box too loud in my neighborhood, they will eventually be fined. So why do we allow billboards, huge store signs, and ads on cars, busses, and park benches to pollute our visual environment?
I should be able to go for a walk or ride my bike outside without having to endure constant sales pitches, without having huge logos and brand names all over the place. Don't you agree? Is some corporation's desire to sell a product really more important than our desire of a peaceful environment?
If I stood outside your house all day shouting "Buy My Product!!!" over and over you'd get kind of angry wouldn't you? So why don't you get angry when corporations do the same thing via huge billboards? What exactly is the difference?
They are talking about "Windows Messenger", which has nothing to do with web browsers.
Well this is like the story a few days ago about an FBI agent who was spammed about a credit card scam and got the women arrested. Prehaps things like the FTC should have one individual who they try to get on every mailing list / get target by spammers. Least that way something could be done
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Not Redmond disciples...all software developers.
No offense, but I don't want to be partially responsible when someone abuses something I have written. Sure, you will say, "write better software" but the thing is, even perfectly written software, when used for something it was not designed for, can have bad effects. Should we blaim the person who wrote ping if it is used in some sort of denial of service attack?
This is ridiculous. I understand why it's difficult to block spam: the sender makes an effort to be anonymous and unknown. They aren't recognized as legitimate companies and many of them are overseas and not subject to many laws.
Read the title. "FTC Shuts Down Pop-Up Extortion Firm" This is a firm in the United States with one heck of a business model. If what they're doing isn't illegal, it needs to be. The idea that a company could do this for so long and scam so many people certainly doesn't prove the effectiveness of our system to me. Something needs to change.
I hope we all do some research and think twice the next time we hit the polls. Matters like these are the responsibility of many various lawmakers. Let's hope they can earn all those figures and get some work done at the same time. Sure it's difficult, but suck it up for once.
It's good for Network Admins. Let's say you're going to reboot the Mail server because of some problem that requires you reboot it now (as opposed to a maintenance window). Well, "net send /domain:whatever The mail server is being rebooted. Your e-mail usage will be temporarily interrupted."
That way, you only get calls from the 50% of the people who are so stupid as to click "OK" without reading the message, instead of the 100% of the people in your building you are too stupid to understand that glitches occasionally happen and e-mail might not be available for 1 minute of the day.
Yeah, you geniouses, tell me glitches don't happen "if you're a good sysadmin". Great, thanks. Would it sooth the super-geeks I had said "glitches occasionally happen when using M$ servers"? Fine, pretend that's what I said.
Now, why the HELL do ISPs allow these packets on the wire, as they are a LAN service only, is beyond me
Not that I totally disagree with you in this instance, but one could also say, "why the HELL do users allow these packets from the internet, as they are a LAN service only, is beyond me". I'd rather have the freedom to decide what I can do with my connection than have someone else "secure" it for me.
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Squirrel
We use them over the 'net all the time, we just have our firewall allow only from trusted sites.
The NET family of commands are more useful than just popup messages.
It's not up to the ISP to block ANYTHING. What's inside those TCP or UDP packets is none of their fucking business.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The people who wrote ping do not have the ability to prevent it's abuse in the same way that Microsoft IS responsible for leaving this abomination on by default. There's a difference.
I've gotta tell you, I guess I prefer lazy ISPs. They are there to provide internet service, not firewall service - that would be my job. If you are getting these ads, you obviously aren't running a firewall on your windows box. If that is the case, I consider it a "dumbass tax" - where as, you being the dumbass, get taxed in annoyance.
Cox cable blocks access to smtp ports, you suggest blocking more packets - its just a beginning of the "Great Firewall of the US".
Not A Good Idea(tm)
Sorry if I sound paranoid, I just tend to look at the slippery slope side of things.
ymmv
In all fairness, presumably the messenger service exists in the first place because it was supposed to be useful. The fact that you should have to disable what is _supposed_ to be a useful service on a system in order to keep out people who have no business messenging your PC in the first place is sort of counter-intuitive, don't you think?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If companies weren't aggressive advertising they would not be competing for clients, and therefore not winning clients. Further, if no one could compete, the average joe would not know about many products available -- just because you and I research doesn't mean everyone does. Why not just go back to the stone age? Advertising allows for companies to flourish and maintain viable concerns through growth. If you're so unhappy about it move to the dessert.
"Ain't I a stinka..." - Bugs
Oh wait, I know why I've never seen one. I bothered to take the few minutes and spend the money to secure my pc's and network before attaching to my cable modem.
What do you want people that make toilets to handhold you also when you go take a piss? Might hit the floor and make a slick spot then go after the plumber or something.
Its called accepting responsibility, in this case for your network.
Checks are not percieved to be worth anything if there isn't money behind them. People know that and take steps to make sure that they are legit (requiring ID, not sending an item until the check has cleared, using check verification services). With money, people generally assume it's valid... and our entire economic system would collapse if too much counterfitting existed.
I have blog like everyone else
So one of the FTC's commissioners is browsing the internet on an firewalled connection on some type of windows box. Interesting, sounds very secure. No doubt he works on that box regularly probably with important information.