How to tackle the "codec installers"..

any ideas on how to accomplish that?

No, he just wanted to open a new thread while the other one is still on top.

ohh... ok...
but i still would like to hear any solutions / ideas anybody might have

First: If you find any site like that on google, copy the entire entry, go down the bottom of the page, and click "dissatisfied with the results?" link and report them. The more complaints google gets, the more likely they will either ban the entries or better still put that spyware warning on their entries that makes it all but impossible for people to get to the site.

If you run a TGP, never have "open" link trades. Have people contact you first.

I put up a message for my surfers on my TGP - http://www.youngchickz.com along with a way to report any fishy things they see/find. It's not something that will stop it, but at least I try to inform people the best I can.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3875

Someone clever enough needs to write a 'codec' filled with spyware that will actually go through and clean a users machine of the nasty refcode stealing "codec's". If a user is dumb enough to download one, they will download the other:P

would be easier to make a fake codec that totally fucks up the user's pc. That way he'll have someone reinstall Windows (a clean system with no refcode stealing spyware) and the user will hopefully have learned his lesson and stay away from those "download this codec if you want to see free porn" type of sites.</evil mode>

Just start your own, or buy those spots on the torrent sites and use their advertising technic... not nice.. but biz isnt always friendly..

Exactly.

You can cry a lot and make no money or stop crying and make money.

You can also cry a lot in jail

Advertising there is illegal?

No, but spreading such stuff is.

It may be illegal, but like many things on the internet fuck all is ever done about it. We are moving more and more online and our lives will rely more and more on it, soon the internet will have to be properly policed. And I don't know specifically how to do it but I'm quite sure it would not be hard for Firefox to be able to stop these things, much like it stops pop up's etc. Also I would never rely on Microsoft to protect you :D

The only way to ever stop any of these things is by drying up the money... Nothing else will work, or at least not in any reasonable time frame... In other words, it's the sponsors that are paying them.. buying ad spots etc. etc. etc. that are the ones that have to take action... but the majority won't because they need the cash now and don't care about the future... Down the road when the real commision based affiliate traffic starts drying up, they'll be forced to pay big dollar per click/impression amounts to the guys with the traffic, which will include these theives (cause they'll have the traffic). They'll just keep their heads burried in the sand and call it something like "adapt or die"...

Oh.. and NATS, MPA, Executive Stats etc. should ALL be working like crazy to make sure that not only is their software as tight as it can be to prevent theft, but it should also be monitoring and flagging affiliate accounts where there is odd activity, for example if an account starts having referers that a different affiliate has. It's EASY to find the sites/domains where this stuff is hosted. So why aren't those entered into a database and checked against referers.. domain ownership checked and cross referenced etc. etc. etc... This stuff isn't rocket science...

The thing is, there will be sponsors that turn a blind eye to this, but why? They will still get money from the sale whether its stolen or not.

Well they do get money now, but they will get less later.. why? Because eventually affiliates will give up, already some have started to give up. I myself have considered giving up, and if it gets any worse i will.

With more and more affiliates giving up on the business because of more and more stolen sales, the overall traffic going to paysites will decrease. The trojan/spyware sales obviously will decrease too, less affiliates to poach from.

Aside from the obvious moral reasons, this is why paysite owners need to all suspend the accounts of these fuckers, and it shouldn't be too hard for them to work out which accounts are theirs.

Maybe the good people from NATS can do something, build something into NATS i don't know...