Plugrush popunders - malware?
 

I'm seeing some user reports over the last week of malware possibly coming up from some of the plugrush popunders. I don't have specifics but I thought I'd put something up here so people can watch their own sites. The reports are that some of the popunders are trying to install malware ow Windows systems. That's all the info I have at the moment.

I notice that there have been other reports in the last few months: http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/plugrush.com

Its happened before - I think its something they battle with all the time.

The scammers are sneaky bastards and will go to any lengths to pull the wool over their eyes.

I don't think for a minute that PlugRush condone it....

Yes we have been having a couple of problems the past week, but we are now working with some major anti-malware and anti-virus companies to get rid of all of these. We are taking this EXTREMELY serious, and we are working as hard as possible to stop this from happening...If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to comment and let us know, we take all of you serious.

I remember back in the day that the TGPs took a snapshot of the page they listed, they then had a bot that checked it for alterations.

Every change needed approval.

It would be harder to do it now - but it might be a challenge for a good script guy....

Wouldn't be a problem to code it. But not really a realistic requirement towards todays advertisers. Advertisers want to have dynamic campaigns which often shows content or landingpage based on the visitors location, browsers, OS and other things, in order to maximize the revenue spent. Or they might even just have a landingpage that shows random profiles, online cams or latest updates. None of that would be possible if we had a requirement that the page can't change.

What we have recently done though, is create a script that is constantly crawling campaigns from 70 different countries, and checking where they are redirecting to from different countries, and then check all destinations against multiple online virus and malware database services like google safesearch and others. It has caught quite a few shady campaigns already, and we will continue to improve on it to make it even more efficient. It's our top priority to get rid on any malware issues on our network.

It's pretty serious because if you are branding a site it's horrible to have users running around talking about getting viruses from your sites. I had to pull the pop unders from that site and will have to wait a few months before I consider putting them back. I can't risk it happening again. I would lose all credibility with my users.

I would love a whitelist system where I can approve advertisers and maybe even advertisements. Especially for pop unders. Failing that some sort of ranking system might help where I can specify only the most trusted based on longevity and volume can place ads on my site. It may hurt the earnings on the site but for some sites I would rather not take the risk.

I know Plugrush isn't allowing it on purpose. Have you guys considered trying to sue the people doing this or bringing criminal charges against them? Presumably you know who they are.

At fpctraffic, we've been battling the same issues as plugrush on our popunders as well. We've got a pretty good system in place, but I understand plugrush's frustration with the issue. In many cases it's a "whack-a-mole" problem.

We've recently implemented a customized whitelist for some key publishers (as signupdamnit suggested), and it's seems to be working.

I also welcome any suggestions to improve not only our system, but all popunder traffic systems. No legit broker wants malware in their system.

Would you mind taking me serious and return my support email, please?






Thanks. :thumbsup