In a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission, the Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said software developer Mail Wiper and its marketing affiliate Seismic Entertainment Productions have misled consumers in promotions for anti-spyware software.
The privacy rights group asked regulators to launch an investigation of Mail Wiper, which produces a product called "Spy Wiper," and Seismic. It wants them to block the companies from using deceptive advertising practices or "home-page hijacking" techniques in the future, according to the complaint.
"It is especially important that the Commission act in this case because there is evidence that a variety of other companies claiming to market 'anti-spyware' software may have begun deploying advertising strategies similar to that used to advertise for Spy Wiper," the group wrote in its filed complaint. "The potential of the Internet will be substantially harmed, if users come to believe that they cannot use the World Wide Web without being subjected to deceptive advertising or be at risk of having the settings on their computers repeatedly changed by the sites they visit."
The charges come amid a rise in complaints about alleged unethical advertising tactics among anti-spyware companies, with some recent incidents going considerably beyond deceptive marketing. A CNET News.com investigation last week found evidence of "anti-spyware" products that actually installed software widely viewed as spyware, without giving any notice.
Spyban, a company highlighted in that article, has now ceased distribution of its anti-spyware software through its Web site and through Download.com, a software aggregation site owned by News.com publisher CNET Networks. More than 43,000 people have downloaded the software over the past four months, according to Download.com, despite posted warnings about bundled software.
Wednesday's complaint may serve to heighten official scrutiny of companies that appear to be preying on consumers' growing fears of "spyware," "adware" and other software surreptitiously installed on consumer PCs to serve up advertisements or quietly monitor online behaviour. Regulators have spoken on the issue, and presidential candidate John Edwards introduced anti-spyware legislation in 2001, but little official action has been taken.
According to the CDT's complaint, the advertising and distribution process for Mail Wiper's Spy Wiper software relied in large part on frightening consumers with unsupported claims, and may have involved changing people's home page without permission.
CDT investigators said they downloaded source code from Spy Wiper ads distributed by Seismic, which operates a Web site called "Default-homepage-network.com." According to the complaint, code contained in those ads warned of spyware attacks signalled by unusual activity such as the opening and shutting of computer CD-ROM drives. But CDT said the ads themselves triggered the suspicious activity.
CDT also alleges that Seismic distributed ads for products and services that launch a series of pop-up windows that ultimately lead back to promotions for Spy Wiper. After viewing those ads, CDT testers said home-page settings on their browsers had changed to default-homepage-network.com.
The CDT complaint raises new questions about how much responsibility software companies must take for the promotion of their products through third-party affiliates, a common practice on the Web. Confronted with evidence of controversial marketing practices by partner Seismic, Mail Wiper claimed ignorance, telling the CDT that it was not aware of and did not condone any irresponsible behaviour that its affiliates might be engaged in, according to the filing.
Nevertheless, the CDT decided to file a complaint against both companies, in part reacting to numerous protests from consumers.
"The question is how much Mail Wiper knew and when they knew it," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the CDT. "It seems to us that they should have known who the affiliate was that people were complaining about and help people get their computers fixed."
Executives for Mail Wiper could not immediately be reached for comment.
A representative for Seismic declined to comment on the specifics of the complaint. "We feel that everything we are doing is within the boundaries of the law," he said. "We feel the complaint is not accurate."
On the front page of its default-homepage-network.com Web site, Seismic contends that a third company has been taking control of computers and pointing them at that site without its permission. It also says that its business involves reconfiguring the home page in people's browser software.
Advertising by affiliate
Mail Wiper isn't the only company whose marketing methods have come under fire from sceptical online users. Increasingly over the past few months, anti-spyware products have become a staple of unsolicited advertising emails, often sent by affiliates of a software developer rather than the developer itself.
Links to one such product, dubbed "Spyware Nuker," appeared in several unsolicited email messages to CNET News.com last month. The software is a product of Trek8, a software developer that also sells pop-up ad blockers and that is developing an anti-spam tool, according to its Web site.
Cody Cacares, Trek8's head of customer service, said he was unfamiliar with all of the practices of the company's email marketing affiliates.
Spyware Nuker has raised eyebrows among some spyware watchers for its licence agreement, in which it reserves the right to make any automatic updates in the future, "including but not limited to... advertising or other value-added software."
Cacares called the advertising reference in the licence agreement "legal language," and said the software would not download anything that the user did not approve. "We wouldn't purposefully install any other program that is not related to our program, or send files that have any advertising links onto anybody else's computer," he said. "It doesn't download anything without your consent."
A CNET News.com test of Spyware Nuker last week found that the software did detect some common advertising components. In addition, the installation did not appear to include any bundled advertising software along with it.
Another product, SpyHunter from Enigma Software Group, has also shown up in email advertisements in recent weeks. These emails were sent by affiliates, including a company going by the name "Kazaa Gold". Neither Enigma nor its affiliate returned calls requesting comment.
Talkback
Many thanks for the information. SpyHunter appeared on my screen with a warning that all kinds of snooping could be going on through my computer WITH AN OFFER OF FREE DOWNLOAD TO COMBAT THE PROBLEM. I downloaded, it performed a scan, sited several file as of "medium" level of danger and one as "serious" or some similar designation. When I tried to use the program to eliminate the "serious" file, I was told I had to purchase it. That's when I went looking for their "uninstall" command and said "bye!"
Again, many thanks for the information.
My computer is currently affected by this anti-spyware advert & every time I log onto the Internet I get their homepage & both of my disk drives open! I am so angry that some company is able to advertise so agressively & disrupt my systems settings & I have no control over this. I cant seem to stop this from happening.
You can remove it. Downlaod SpyBot Search and Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/
www.stopzilla.com is the best solution to Spyware, Adware and popups
Just get Spybot S&D or AdAware.
There is loads of new rubbish coming out that just mucks up your computer even worse. I personally use S&D but AdAware is good for those people who don't want to have to check for spyware often.
I was recently-Feb. 10, 2004, made to believe that i need this spynuker program, by Trek Blue to remove spyware from my computer. I did order the program and the 29.95 was charged to my account twice. I called the number on my bank statement 3 times got a different reply by Eran each time. The third time he told me that I would be refunded the second charge, I am waiting to see and now find out this is a fake company. What can I do to help fight this type of scam?
what a load of crap
If you ordered via credit card then your card company is entirely legally responsible for ensuring that it only accepts payments from "reputable" companies.
The fact that a company is allowed to take credit card payments is supposed to show that the creditcard firm has checked them out.
Complain directly to your credit card company and they will investigate and refund you.
Btw, www.lavasoftusa.com and www.kolla.de are the homepages for adaware and spybot which are free...no need to buy anti-spyware tools.
I cllicked my browser Home button and SpyWiper took control of my desktop, filling it with a flurry of nonsense pages of all sizes that I couldn't close out fast enough and finally gave me a full page ad telling me there's a GO that my computer is bugged right now and that I had only that day, March 8,2004 to order the Spy Wiper for 29.95 regularly 49.95. I could not close it out. I had to cntrl+Alt+delete to shut down my computer. But I printed the ad first to get their URLs. so I can make complaint to who?They changed my Homepage to "default-homepage-network-com/max2.html
Try Lavasoft....it's free and I've had no problems
I found this on their website
Worst Practices - Why we have decided to leave COAST
Nicolas Stark Computing AB (Lavasoft) announces that we will no longer tolerate, support, or participate in the COAST (Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors) organization. The current leadership's overt agenda to concentrate on revenue generation flies in the face of the spirit of the original mission Lavasoft set forth when we founded COAST. Not only do their current efforts shed a bad light on COAST, but also reflect badly on the entire anti-trackware industry.
To understand our decision to leave the organization we founded, you will need to understand what COAST was intended to be and why we started it in the first place.
Over the last two years we have become increasingly concerned about the obvious problems with overall standards and the unethical behavior of many new entrants to the anti-trackware industry. Nicolas Stark began the Ad-aware project in direct response to the security industry's inability/refusal to address on-line Privacy and aggressive advertising issues. The goal then as it is now is to provide a means to inform the user of what has been installed on their systems, to enable them to remove said content at their choice, and to bring pressure on the advertising/software industry to change the way they do business.
It was expected and inevitable that the popularity and success of Ad-aware would cause others to see an opportunity and join the industry. This is just simple economics and is the way all industries begin and later, grow. What we have found both extremely disturbing and to be a great disappointment is that most of those who chose to enter the anti-trackware industry have not had the fortitude or desire to adhere to the standards we have set from the beginning. They see potential sales and revenue as the goal of their existence rather than embracing the causes of consumer reporting, ethical advertising, and social change.
In June of 2003, we began what has become known as COAST (The Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors). Our goal was to bring together a group of industry leaders to formulate detection/definition standards, a code of ethical conduct, consumer education, and an easily accessible place where everyone could come to find information about companies and applications that adhere to the highest standards of public service.
spywiper has changed it's name to spydeleter.
I have not used Stopzilla in at least two years, yet the software company charged my credit card with a "renewal fee" yesterday. A Stopzilla representative said he would reverse the charge, crediting my credit card, but I think the practice of surreptitiously charging one's card is highly unethical. I would encourage anyone who ever purchased a Stopzilla product with a credit card to be aware that an unexpected charge may appear on your bill!
Davey Jones
The programmer of SpyWiper/SpyDeleter is being investigated by the FTC. His name is Sanford Wallace and is a resident of Barrington, NH, but has been working in Las Vegas. He says he may have to return to NH, but also says he has done nothing illegal, since the new anti-spam legislation doesn't take effect till 2006.
FYI
The very same thing happened to me just yesterday. I got my credit card bill and discovered a charge of $29.95 from STOPZilla. I purchased their product a year ago but had not authorized them to bill me for any type of upgrade or renewal. I also had not received any notification via email, mail or telephone offering anything from STOPZilla.
I called STOPZilla and the person who answered the phone immediately knew what I was calling about before I even spoke. They must be getting lots of calls because I had to wait almost an hour before someone picked up the line. I requested that they credit back the charge and pointed out to them that when I purchased the original software product I never authorized them to bill me from then on whenever they felt like it. STOPZilla told me that the credit would show on my account within 3 days.
On a more evil note. STOPZilla immediately disabled the product that I originally purchased. Each time the STOPZilla product starts it remotely connects to their servers before it will start running. The appearance is that it is connecting to download updates to the program but it is also checking to see if they will continue to allow you to use the software. So now the STOPZilla product no longer functions at all. I instead receive a pop-up message:
"STOPZilla has detected that this copy has been suspended"
"STOPZilla will now shut down"
"Please contact STOPZilla at 1-877-877-9944"
I fully understand the companies right to request additional payments for future support or updates to the software. However, I should be entitled to continue to use the product that I originally purchased. The software industry has long considered that the consumer was purchasing the right to use software but did not actually own it. This does not mean that when I purchased STOPZilla I agreed to rent it for a year AND I DO NOT SEE THIS MENTIONED ANYWHERE ON STOPZILLA'S WEBSITE.
My current copy of McAfee virus scanner is telling me that it needs to be renewed and is not currently downloading new signature files. But guess what, it still allows me to continue to use what I purchased from them including the updates and I don't see any charges appearing on my credit card from them.
When I bought my last car I understood that I could not start making and selling copies of it. However, the automobile dealer is not going to come back after a period of time and repossess my car unless I continue to pay up or automatically send me a bill requesting more money or disable the engine in my car remotely unless I pay up.
I have been in the tech. industry for a long time and have been using, building etc. personal computers since even before the IBM/Intel PC's. This is the only software product that I have ever run across that has a built-in vendor kill capability. As far as I am concerned STOPZilla has broken the agreement made to me when I agreed to purchase their software product.
The worst of it is that when I uninstalled Stopzilla (a couple of months after installing) it went on-line to uninstall and I even filled out an exit questionaire. They knew I uninstalled it. They would have know if I re-installed it.
When I called today, they said "Oh, that's just an uninstall, you have to notify us that you don't want the service anymore."
That is ridiculous and makes the ripoff all the more blatant. They explicitly knew I had uninstalled the software and were even given the reason why, yet somehow that doesn't constitute notice?
WINANTISPYWARE imbeds itself into your computeer wwhen you think you are taking only a test drive.
You are not alone, the same exact thing happened to me. This should be reported to the corresponding office of consumer affairs. This practice is just like stealing.
I had the same problem. Fortunately a phone call to their service 877-877-9944, and they offered an immediate credit. Although that was nice, it does not make up for this practice of using my confidential credit card information from a year ago to automatically bill me without my request, or acknowlegement.
I was very surprized to see that they are boasting about good standing with the BBBOnline. When I visited their site, they was only one complaint registered about billing. Well... Now there are 2, and I would like to encourage anyone else who is treated the same to register your complains BBBonline.com you can find them with their phone number of 8778779944.
WinAntiSpyware
It entered my computer, uninvited. My norton finally cleared it.
If I ever find them - I will shut them down