RSSFirm Settles Spyware Suit for $7.5m
By Nate Mook | Published June 15, 2005, 12:39 PM
Internet marketer Intermix Media, which was sued in April by New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer for installing spyware and adware on computers that came in contact with its advertisements, has settled the case for $7.5 million. Intermix also said it would stop distributing its adware, toolbar and redirect programs.
The penalty will be paid over a period of three years, Intermix said, but Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione told reporters that no agreement had been made and the investigation continues. Intermix said it reached "an agreement in principle" that would have to be approved by the courts.
"These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers," Spitzer said in April. "These issues can serve to be a hindrance to the growth of e-commerce."
Spitzer has made it a point of his tenure as New York's attorney general to go after what he sees as corporate wrongdoing against consumers. He has successfully taken on Wall Street and several insurance industry firms.
Spitzer has now turned his attention to the Internet, as he argues companies like Intermix are a threat to the success of e-commerce.
I use Ad-aware and Winpatrol, but since installing Spywareblaster those programs have found nothing.
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|My computer is quite secure. Using Spybot Search&Destroy is all I need to keep anything off(although nothing has shown up yet since the latest format). Ad-Aware SE doesn't detect anything...ever...either, so I use it to kill MRU lists.
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|http://downloads.pcworld...are_tools/sdinstall.exe
the one that does it all.got rid of things s and d wouldnt touch
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|If you have a little extra cash, buy a used computer and install GNU/Linux. Using only Linux for surfing the web will illiminate %100 of your spyware.
I'm not asking you to SWITCH. I was introduced to Linux a couple years ago, and I've been using both Windows and Linux ever since. It's really worth the price of a used PC to have 2 different, powerful tools. Hell, if Mac was PC compatable, I'd probably buy the OS for a 3rd puter =)
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|The first of many spyware lawsuits, I hope.
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|I agree with cousinkix1953 first they should make a emoval tool free of charge. I've removed 180 solutions and hotbar a number of times on works comps it ussually involves starting in safe mode and renamming the offending folders.
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|Now, if we can get rid of 180 SOLUTIONS, the phony free POWER SCAN and the INTERNET OPTIMIZER. These are some of the worst adware programs around. Removing them requires more work than uninstalling from the control panel...
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|$7.5M would not even start to pay for the damage that spyware does to the community.
What I don't understand also, is why haven't they forced them to produce a removal tool. They should not only stop distributing the software but make a tool to remove it otherwise they continue to cause damage.
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|I must agree this is a very worthy cause. It was only just recently I got "good enough" to keep spyware off my system, but it took 2 formats and clean installs before I was able to successfully do it. Turns out my HP photo printer bypassed my firewall to let things in, when printing from within IE. Go figure - now I've gotten rid of IE using a program called nLite, and my system is running 3x faster.
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|I work for a company that provides a database system for small university police departments - spyware/malware/adware is rampant at all departments, effectively slowing down users systems and we always get blamed for it...I have to agree, someone needs to develop ONE definative program that will wipe this crud off of a machine (without a reformat) and offer some type of process monitoring tools to prevent re-infection...
why haven't we seen any class-action lawsuits on this yet?
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|I work in a computer repair center for a major electronics retailer. Viruses are no longer the major threat they were, it is spyware and adware that is the major problem. When we do scans on people's computers (for which 80% of our business is for), we may find 2 or 3 viruses, but we always find 100s of traces of spyware. It frequently breaks your internet connection if you try to remove it, it slows your system or halts it entirely, and is more difficult to get rid of than any other programs I know of. When we get rid of the threat, it frequently takes no less than 5 programs to do it (Norton, MS Antispy, SpywareXTerminator, Ad-aware, Spybot)< plus you have to go in manually with HijackThis and remove entries by hand to get it completely out. It is ridiculous that more than 90% of the computers on the internet are infected, yet it frequently gets less notice or punishment than virus writers do.
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|I agree with A.J. there.....at least you can get rid of the viruses.......somebody needs to sue Abetterinternet! I had to reformat my hardrive to get rid of it. Now I have to run a zillion antispy programs. Can't somebody write a antispyware program so a person doesn't have to run a zillion antispyware programs? Geez....you don't have to run several virus programs do you?
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|I have my own repair business and find the same thing. Norton, for some odd reason will not remove all spyware. I am unsure if it is for legal reasons. I was glad to hear the Symantec was taking Hotbar to court over legal language.
I am greatful for Elliot Spitzer to take on such a task that will ulitmately benefit us all. Please keep the fight going and get them all.
They should set up a way to donate to continue this fight. I am sure it isn't cheap to take on companies that have extremely deep pockets on the budgets of public funds.
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|I have to go to my cousins house like once a month because it is filled with spyware its slow and soo many popups I can't be asked to remove it since it takes forever since she has nothing on her PC which she needs I just format it.
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|Don't use IE and 99% of your spyware problems go away. Since I switched to Firefox I don't even use an anti-spyware program. My wifes computer which, until recently, was using IE finally came to a halt from spyware. To this day I still can't remove all of that crap off of it.
So, to answer your question, you don't need several virus programs (just need 1) and you don't need a zillion anitspyware programs. What you do need to do is to toss IE.
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|I use IE, and with a bit of knowledge on how to make it secure and you will not have any problems either. Been doing well for 2 1/2 years now.
I do scan my pc for adware and spyware, even after using FF and this also helps keep my PC clean. If I used only FF and did not use the features it provides and did not clean up my PC, could I then state the FF is a bunch of crap?
Security is not just switching browsers.
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|Try installing something that might actually keep you from having to go back....Like NOD32 AV and MS Anti-Spyware...
Of course, a reason to visit relatives isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind...
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|Yeah, but it sure takes a bit of work to get IE more secure (Disabling ActieX, for instance, does wonders).
I think the above posts point was that you shouldn't have to tinker around with the settings to be safe from this crap.
Hopefully, come IE7, the first real update to IE since all this spyware/adware crap became an issue, we won't have to tinker with IE for this anymore.
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|Boy, you don't know anything. How about 2 minutes. You have to spend more time with that to configure FF and all the extensions. This is not a knock on FF, but the point is that you have to do something, because NOTHING is secure. You have to work at it and continue to do so. If you thing you can just set it and forget it, you are going to have problems. Your comment is just a bash on MS, nothing more and not intelligent thinking.
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