Sextracker Busted for Spyware and everybody is still using them?
 

I'm not sure I really understand this. The news is out the sextracker has their hands in SPYWARE. Here is what I don't understand.

1. Why this isn't a bigger subject on GFY. There was one post and it died out. On some other boards it's huge news.

2. Why all of the Sextracker top 100 still have their counters up. Are you guys that much in need of an ego stroke? You've just been told that your counter is most likely being used to hit up your surfers with spyware. Are you guys going to sit back and send the message that this is ok?


I really don't get it. I know the whole industry has nothing but great things to say about Bode. That's definitely besides the point. There seems to be little doubt that Sextracker/FlyingCroc is actually doing this. Am I missing something? Why are people still flying the Sextracker counters? If a NEW sponsor loaded up spyware on their hosted galleries they'd be ousted in a second. Why are we as an industry allowing Sextracker to get away with this? This seems like absolute bullshit to me.

really? how do you know they run spyware :(

Dunefield I guess you slept thru the weekend.

Here is one leak that came out this weekend
http://gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=424069

The Hun will takes his down right away

The best coverage I've seen on it is on Oprano alot of valuable information there on this subject. A few former employees and former business associates involved in the adware scandal speak out.

why would anyone care half the people here push spyware/adware/toolbars themselves.

Unfortunately it seems that not too many folks care here as they know someone, or are themselves pushing the crap.

Some of GFY's biggest board sponsors utilize spyware to advertise over the top of big sites on the web.. ie, sleazydream, PK, Pornno, Sex.com, and so on and so on...

I imagine it will take them getting their systems compromised to understand the full effect of what spyware is doing to them..

Sextracker has been fed adult hits from major SE's for years now, you know how many systems they have infected? :helpme :warning

Mickey, your post really says alot about our industry. If that is the case then we really are a lowlife scumbag industry and the goverment should come in and regulate things for us.

We are in an industry where making money is so easy. We all make way more than we would in any another industry. Instead of being happy with that, the greedy bastards go out and try to fuck over our surfers even more. It's the same old shit with this biz. A bunch of lowlifes greedy pricks that are raping the surfer, getting rich and leaving somebody else (the honest webmasters) to clean up the mess they've caused.

Why doesn't someone post a list of all the sponsors/companies using spyware and shit. I personally will be more than happy to ban them and their products across all my sites. I'm here for the long run and I'm here to treat our surfers fairly the way I'd like to be treated.

Just to make clear TopBucks' stance on spyware, we have a strict zero tolerance policy which we made official in December. We realize that spyware victimizes the consumer, the webmaster, and the industry as a whole. In-house we have a full-time system administrator who monitors some of the known spyware products and we take action as needed to ensure our sites and our webmasters are not targets. We also have a policy to not work with or purchase advertising from locations utilizing spyware advertising.

There are some other respectable companies within the industry who have similar policies.

~Alli

Didn't quickbucks fold after it was known they weer doing spyware?

I hate typing shit like this in case I have the story wrong.

2 reasons. Ego and advertisers. Top 100 love thinking they're really the top 100 on the net. Some are, some arent. Top 100 use sextracker to gain exposure amongst advertisers. Very few of the top 100 will stop using sextracker. Nobody innovates or changes in this industry. Everyone copies. Maybe if the top 20 stopped using sextracker, everyone else would copy them, but that wont happen.

spyware sucks ass..but i know there huge money in it :thumbsup

because no one seems to give a shit...
they'd rather bitch about spam or post "would you hit" threads...

at EGC, we've gone so far as to educate our members on spyware/adware and about anti-spyware products

this kind of bullshit takes away from ALL of us, especially when they start replacing YOUR affiliate codes

It seems companies are finally starting to wake up to spyware issues. We have an extra machine that we load up with spyware / adware to see how it effects our sites and some friends.


Spyware though, seems to be getting taken care of pretty quickly with the MS spyware software. At least in my opinion it seems MS is on top of the spyware issue now.


Adware on the other hand really bothers me. I guess it?s legal. Toolbars from adult companies and non-adult companies pop full sites / ads over our sites. Quick enough the surfer wouldn't notice. If the surfer is looking for my boob site, they are shown another companies boob site. Now this doesn't happen to every site or every program, but it sure as hell does happen. Maybe as high as 20% of your traffic is affected from what I guess.

How about webmasters on your program that steal signups from other webmasters on your program? Yeah, it gets that crazy.


A lot of programs allow traffic to be sent through toolbars and other adware products. From what I understand it's a HUGE source of traffic/signups. After all it's easy work stealing traffic from your competition / friends.

Shap, are you THE Shap from Montreal I used to know back in a day?

FCI in the last few years has changed.. it is not the company it once was in my own oppinion.. And this does not really suprise me if it is true because things they have done in the past.

Sad that a company that was going in such a good direction at one point could be doing shady things now to create additional revenue streams...

Doc dude what's up. Good to hear from you. I agree with you.

Winetalk that's me.

I agree Shap and it will be interesting to see what unfolds. Personally, I'm glad we never used a 3rd party counter for our TGPS and though we'd probably be in the top 20 on ST and get alot more exposure, this latest fiasco made it all worthwhile.

I think alot of people are just taking the 'wait and see' approach right now and mostly waiting for an official reply from the parties involved.

reading up on about 30 pages of it now

Well I learned something today (TopBucks always on the ball)

Good way to look at this..

Adware - Is like icq, a free product that offers random advertising, they don't collect info on you or where you are surfing, they just have random ads. (Example only)

Spyware - When they collect information on you: where you a browsing, what your trends are, what you use for email & offer ads targeted at what you visit. Even a toolbar would be spyware if it were aggressive.

Doc I agree. So far I see 5 sponsors that have stepped up and said they are 100% against this.

EvilGeniusCash
TopBucks
TwistysCash
Reel Profits
and
Lensman

I agree 10000 %

If we stopped doing biz with companies who deal in spyware, there would be about 5 places left to send traffic.

ST has been doing spyware for months, and you guys just now realize it?

Make that years, not months.

We need to get the processing companies to quit working with companies that use illegal/agreesive tactics to produce sales.

use a counter that has NO links.. thus NO install is possible..

Only thing I ever head about them was they had an agreesive dialer that would go over other dialers. I have hit the ST sites with our open machine and have never had spyware installed on my machine, I never installed the dialer or had to tried to auto install on me.

Most Dialers are spyware loaded BS anyway, so I don't think most webmasters knew how deep into they went.

At least those 5 places would deserve the business.

Here's a scary thought....

Let's take Paycom and Ccbill for example. What if these spyware guys are stealing the hits going to our join forms with the processors. Would this not be possible for them to do?

that is a very scummy way to do business

thread from 06/30/2004: http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...n+sextracke r

so this is known at least since more than 7 months....

I have heard of this being done. I have to admit though, I have never seen it happen.

In theory, they could steal one source of traffic, like german traffic, between the hours of 2am and 4am, or when your ICQ goes off line the spyware starts, they could know I'm a US company and not have it effect US people, they could steal user information for pw sites or personal use, it's pretty fucking endless.

Yeah, I remember that.. Honestly though, so many adult companies and webmasters have been and still are that agressive with dialers. Not that makes it a good thing, just why I think so many people are passive to it.

And Doc wouldn't that make sense according to your traffic and signup trends? In the past 3 months I've noticed extremely weird trends that make no sense. Our sales are usually very steady however we are seeing some days where the sales just drop real bad. The interesting thing is on those days where sales are low the traffic is the same, Hits to the join page are the same, hits to the join form are the same, only difference is JOIN FORM SUBMISSIONS are waaaaaaaaay down. Now why all of a sudden would join form submissions drop 40 or 50% in one day? And then bounce right back the next day. These are people that have already entered their information in our pre-join page. It really makes no sense.

It sure would be nice to see a processor step up and add to their terms and conditions that any site using Spyware will be terminated. That would be a huge step in the right direction.


Now Brad I know you like making a shitload of money. Honestly, do you feel it is right to make money by scamming surfers? And do you think if we continue to screw the surfer in everyway possible that they will continue to trust us and buy our products?


Alot of big programs love to point the finger at free sites being the reason sales have dropped. And free sites being the reason making money isn't as easy as it was in 1999. How about Xpics and IEG. Those two companies hurt sales more than any free site ever has. What about CE, Vivid, Python running cross sells at $70 a month in such small print no surfer ever saw it? One of those company's CB+refund rate was well over 25% in the DMR days. 25% of their charges were reversed and disputed. We can't keep screwing our surfers. They are our clients and we need to start treating them that way.

Good to hear, although your prechecked cross sales kinda blow :winkwink:

threads that deal with britneyspears and would you hit it, are much more important then spyware

Scary thought?
LOL! Call it a reality.

Curious how the hun says he hates Sextracker, but of course puts the counter right at the top of his page.