weeva writes "Wired News reports that federal prosecutors have indicted a 20-year-old California man for installing adware on 400,000 Windows machines he compromised with a variant of RxBot. Jeanson Ancheta allegedly pulled in $60,000 in affiliate fees from porn pop-up company Gammacash, and 180solutions subsidiary ZangoCash. The feds hope to seize his BMW."Ads_xl=0;Ads_yl=0;Ads_xp='';Ads_yp='';Ads_xp1='';Ads_yp1='';Ads_par='';Ads_cnturl='';Ads_prf='page=article';Ads_channels='RON_P6_IMU';Ads_wrd='doj,security';Ads_kid=0;Ads_bid=0;Ads_sec=0; Alleged Adware Purveyor Indicted Log in/Create an Account | Top | 122 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 122 comments 0: 116 comments 1: 91 comments 2: 70 comments 3: 35 comments 4: 16 comments 5: 13 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Congratulations!! (Score:5, Funny) by Senes (928228) on Friday November 04, @05:36AM (#13948835) Someone give those guys a free iPod. [ Reply to ThisKids, try this at home by Chapter80 (Score:2) Friday November 04, @07:41AMRe:Kids, try this at home by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Friday November 04, @08:06AMRe:Kids, try this at home by plover (Score:3) Friday November 04, @08:41AMRe:Congratulations!! by op12 (Score:2) Friday November 04, @10:48AMRe:Congratulations!! by darkonc (Score:2) Friday November 04, @12:08PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. So . . . (Score:5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 04, @05:37AM (#13948836) So when will Sony be indicted? [ Reply to This Re:So . . . (Score:5, Funny) by Beatbyte (163694) on Friday November 04, @08:12AM (#13949197) (http://www.hooklinesinker.org/) You'll see signs. Aeronautical swine are probably the most visible. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:So . . . by AdamWeeden (Score:2) Friday November 04, @08:39AMRe:So . . . by Daetrin (Score:2) Friday November 04, @10:27AM Hurhurhur (Score:2, Funny) by HugePedlar (900427) on Friday November 04, @05:37AM (#13948839) (http://www.hugepedlar.com/) Go on - someone make a joke about porn pop-ups, please! [ Reply to This Re:Hurhurhur (Score:4, Funny) by debilo (612116) <shegez@gma i l . com> on Friday November 04, @05:43AM (#13948855) Go on - someone make a joke about porn pop-ups, please! I'd pay for those! [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Hurhurhur by Rosco P. Coltrane (Score:3) Friday November 04, @05:48AMRe:Hurhurhur by debilo (Score:2) Friday November 04, @05:52AM Stick it to him (Score:3, Funny) by siphonophore (158996) on Friday November 04, @05:47AM (#13948862) By "seize his BMW" I hope they mean "seize his head and put it on a pike in the Internet town square between Google and MSN." [ Reply to ThisRe:Stick it to him by Rosco P. Coltrane (Score:3) Friday November 04, @05:51AMRe:Stick it to him by crackbaby58 (Score:1) Friday November 04, @08:00AMRe:Stick it to him by tompaulco (Score:2) Friday November 04, @10:59AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. So what happens to the Companies (Score:5, Insightful) by FidelCatsro (861135) * <.moc.liamg. .ta. .orstacledif.> on Friday November 04, @05:49AM (#13948870) (Last Journal: Tuesday November 01, @04:38AM) 180solutions and Gammacash have put up a show claiming to be the good guys here and helping stop these scurrilous cads . So will there even be an investigation into their affairs.Perhaps I am a touch cynical , but I very much doubt they had no idea how a lot of their affiliates work . Did they even look into the business they work with , see if they are legitimate . Perhaps they did not know and were just inept , I very much doubt it though . [ Reply to This Re:So what happens to the Companies (Score:5, Insightful) by meringuoid (568297) on Friday November 04, @05:54AM (#13948880) Perhaps they did not know and were just inept , I very much doubt it though .They probably did not know, because they did not want to know. Their policy was probably 'ask no questions, get no lies': you don't investigate at all into your affiliates' businesses, and then when the faeces strike the ventilator you can honestly claim ignorance... [ Reply to This | ParentRe:So what happens to the Companies by KiloByte (Score:2) Friday November 04, @06:07AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by cduffy (Score:2) Friday November 04, @06:16AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by adtifyj (Score:3) Friday November 04, @06:42AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by NineNine (Score:3) Friday November 04, @07:24AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by fm6 (Score:2) Friday November 04, @12:20PMRe:So what happens to the Companies by Josuah (Score:2) Friday November 04, @06:53PMRe:So what happens to the Companies by hackstraw (Score:2) Friday November 04, @07:55AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by smooth wombat (Score:3) Friday November 04, @09:53AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by hackstraw (Score:2) Friday November 04, @11:22AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by merdark (Score:2) Friday November 04, @11:53AMRe:So what happens to the Companies by DustMagnet (Score:1) Friday November 04, @01:20PMRe:So what happens to the Companies by erroneus (Score:2) Friday November 04, @11:04AM Just 60,000? (Score:1) by Sattwic (545957) on Friday November 04, @05:50AM (#13948873) (http://jagan.biz/ | Last Journal: Friday September 23, @12:21AM) 400,000 computers and just 60,0000$?Or 60,000$ per month? [ Reply to ThisRe:Just 60,000? by Senes (Score:3) Friday November 04, @06:04AM Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor (Score:2, Insightful) by putko (753330) on Friday November 04, @05:59AM (#13948887) (http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2768 | Last Journal: Wednesday October 05, @03:08AM) The guy ran bots -- he took control of thousands of PCs, and used them for purposes like sending spam.Taking control of thousands of PCs, is unauthorized use of someone's computer, which is illegal.That's much worse than Talmudically tricking folks into loading up some Adware (e.g. if you want to run the P2P, you are also agreeing to run our adware bot). [ Reply to This Re:Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor (Score:5, Interesting) by fmwap (686598) on Friday November 04, @06:10AM (#13948909) Not necessarily...consider this, what's worse: Your wife divorcing you to marry some jerk she met on the internet Your wife divorcing you to marry your best friend. Point being that, sometimes it's *better* to be fucked over by the man in the black hat, instead of a reputable software company that provides contact information and is only legal because of one sentence burried deep in an EULA...at least thats MHO. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor by Dr. Evil (Score:2) Friday November 04, @08:25AMRe:Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor by pyro_peter_911 (Score:3) Friday November 04, @09:35AMRe:Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor by scheming daemons (Score:1) Friday November 04, @10:42AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor by gstoddart (Score:3) Friday November 04, @09:52AMRe:Bad Summary: More than just Adware Purveyor by gstoddart (Score:2) Friday November 04, @11:48AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.1 reply beneath your current threshold. Noble Cause (Score:5, Funny) by GodOfCode (878337) on Friday November 04, @06:09AM (#13948906) Why does this always happen to men who work for noble causes?! After all, this chap was just facilitating the distribution of knowledge and information. [ Reply to ThisRe:Noble Cause by sgt scrub (Score:1) Friday November 04, @09:43AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. evil axes to grind (Score:4, Funny) by dankelley (573611) on Friday November 04, @06:13AM (#13948916) Damn him, for buying a car not made by US workers. [ Reply to ThisRe:evil axes to grind by JonathanR (Score:3) Friday November 04, @06:38AMRe:evil axes to grind by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Friday November 04, @06:52AMRe:evil axes to grind by SB5 (Score:3) Friday November 04, @10:06AM Simple (Score:5, Insightful) by wehup (567821) on Friday November 04, @06:51AM (#13948981) Seems like the feds could clean all of this up by launching a quick investigation into *every* affiliate of the spyware/adware companies. The only way an affiliate can get someone to load this junk is by trickery or exploit. [ Reply to ThisRe:Simple by ScentCone (Score:3) Friday November 04, @07:47AMRe:Simple by wehup (Score:1) Friday November 04, @10:25AMRe:Simple by ScentCone (Score:2) Friday November 04, @10:35AMRe:Simple by wehup (Score:1) Friday November 04, @11:35AMRe:Simple by Thing 1 (Score:2) Friday November 04, @08:29AM 60,000 for installations only (Score:5, Insightful) by nietsch (112711) on Friday November 04, @06:52AM (#13948984) (http://linux-studie.nl/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 21, @01:22PM) So this guy had the installation hacked up so he didn't need any users permission to install the spyware. Why on earth didn't he also hack the display of the popups so they were shown to /dev/null (or whatever the windows variant is) instead of to the user. The most succesfull virusses are the ones that affect their host the least. Or if it was really only the installations, why not fake the installation?Worms/bots/virusses usually try to patch the vulnr they entered with. If they extended this behavior to keep windows fully patched then they could even be beneficial to their victims/hosts. That would increase the chances of survival of the malware even more. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Overheard at FBI... (Score:5, Funny) by mrselfdestrukt (149193) on Friday November 04, @06:58AM (#13948994) (http://www.news24.co.za/ | Last Journal: Friday November 04, @06:49AM) Fed1: Let's see, we can go after any one of these 3 guys.Fed2: What cool stuff do they have?Fed1: Well, this one guy has a bike and a couple of laptops.The other one has a BMW and a couple of ipods and the other guy a Toyota and a house.Fed2: Hmm. That's a difficult one. I'd say,lets go after guy number 2 with the BMW and we keep quiet about the ipods and pocket them. In a month it will blow over and my wife can drive the BMW.Fed1: But I want a bike!Fed2: Focus pinky! [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Seizing (Score:3, Funny) by MECC (8478) * on Friday November 04, @07:06AM (#13949007) "The feds hope to seize his BMW." Hopefully they'll seize other things of his that start with the letter 'B' [ Reply to ThisRe:Seizing by hamburger lady (Score:2) Friday November 04, @07:15AM Re:Seizing (Score:5, Funny) by zootm (850416) on Friday November 04, @07:34AM (#13949073) Bentley? [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Seizing by mr. methane (Score:1) Friday November 04, @12:17PMRe:Seizing by zootm (Score:2) Friday November 04, @11:05AMRe:Seizing by MECC (Score:2) Friday November 04, @01:46PM3 replies beneath your current threshold.1 reply beneath your current threshold. wow, what a kingpin (Score:5, Funny) by EllynGeek (824747) on Friday November 04, @07:12AM (#13949016) Sixty thousand smackeroos, that's the high life all right. After buying the BMW he had gas money for a few weeks. [ Reply to ThisRe:wow, what a kingpin by Capt James McCarthy (Score:3) Friday November 04, @07:17AMRe:wow, what a kingpin by bored_geek (Score:1) Friday November 04, @05:35PM Ah, the delicious irony (Score:2, Funny) by NetCow (117556) on Friday November 04, @07:47AM (#13949114) Funnily enough, in Romanian "ancheta" means "investigation".Gotta love this... [ Reply to This Hope victims got help to secure their system (Score:1) by Been on TV (886187) on Friday November 04, @07:52AM (#13949128) (http://www.andwest.com/blojsom/blog/tatle/) Let's hope the victims got help to clean up and secure their systems. Preferably by moving them to Linux and OS X of course, or they will soon be p0wned again.Come to think about it, that'd be a pretty good prospect list for a business to have... [ Reply to ThisRe:Hope victims got help to secure their system by Ragein (Score:1) Friday November 04, @09:23AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. I hope... (Score:3, Interesting) by jcr (53032) <<moc.moidi> <ta> <rcj>> on Friday November 04, @07:56AM (#13949138) (Last Journal: Saturday September 03, @09:27PM) I hope this is the SOB that's been sending me those goddamned "online pharmacy" ads. They're just about the only ones that are getting through my filters, but I'm seeing 5-10 of them every day.-jcr [ Reply to ThisRe:I hope... by Code Master (Score:1) Friday November 04, @09:05AMRe:I hope... by Gordonjcp (Score:2) Friday November 04, @09:06AMRe:I hope... by ocelotbob (Score:1) Friday November 04, @09:49AMRe:I hope... by Tired and Emotional (Score:2) Friday November 04, @04:31PMRe:I hope... by sgt scrub (Score:1) Friday November 04, @09:55AM The Sad Thing (Score:2, Interesting) by Comatose51 (687974) on Friday November 04, @07:57AM (#13949144) The really sad thing is that this month's Inc magazine posted a list they called the "Inc 500" (wantabe Forbes here) and 180Solutions was among the top time companies (maybe #4 IIRC). They are evil but they're making a lot of money. [ Reply to This If this were a drug-related case (Score:4, Insightful) by thedbp (443047) on Friday November 04, @09:04AM (#13949475) (http://www.dev.null/) They would have already seized all his property, and even if he was found not guilty, he wouldn't get any of it back.This guy may very well turn out to be a scumbag, but until a court of law determines him to be a scumbag, I don't think we should be so smug as to cheer for the fed's inalienable right to take whatever it wants from whomever it wants. [ Reply to This Not enough! (Score:1) by Turbofish (585771) on Friday November 04, @09:05AM (#13949482) Take his car?!! For what he did?!!! "Hangin's not good enough!Burnin's not good enough!He should be torn into itsy, bitsy pieces,and BURIED ALIVE!!!!!" Seriously, though... at least a public whipping till he needs hospitalization is in order. [ Reply to ThisRe:Not enough! by bored_geek (Score:1) Friday November 04, @05:32PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. 180 Solutions (Score:3, Interesting) by HermanAB (661181) on Friday November 04, @10:00AM (#13949882) is still free and according to TFA even helping the authorities catch their own pushers. So WTF? [ Reply to This Plus, it's in their advantage to catch them (Score:2) by rfc1394 (155777) <Paul@paul-robinson.us> on Friday November 04, @10:08AM (#13949948) (http://paul-robinson.us/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 21, @12:16PM) The adware supply companies probably have provisions in their contracts causing affiliates to forfeit all unpaid commissions if they are caught spamming. So the adware company not only gets the money paid for the ads the affilliate spammer generated, they don't have to pay the spammer anything!This reminds me of how some sweatshops would hire lots of illegal aliens to work for them, then after 3 weeks on the day before they were supposed to be paid, the INS would raid the place and deport them all, so as a result the business owner didn't have to pay them anything! And then he'd start over with a fresh crew. [ Reply to This The real problem? (Score:2, Funny) by geobeck (924637) on Friday November 04, @10:16AM (#13949997) "If you use our advertising software, you absolutely shall not under any circumstances anyway ever make use of hackbots like the ones at www.hakz0rz.com/180solutions/popuphakz/code to install our software on any computer you do not own without the express consent of the user. The instructions at www.hakz0rz.com/180solutions/popuphakz/howto will tell you exactly what you are absolutely not allowed to do under any circumstances anyway ever, *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*."Forget the small-timers and go after the real problem. [ Reply to ThisRe:The real problem? by antispam_ben (Score:2) Friday November 04, @11:47PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Traitor caught? (Score:1) by Mr.Fork (633378) <mr,fork&shaw,ca> on Friday November 04, @10:47AM (#13950325) (http://www.xjowners.com/) ....The feds hope to seize his BMW... Heck, around 2 dozen machines were infected in my government office with that adware vairant. Guess we might be able to claim timeshare on that BMW for the hours they spent cleaning infected machine? I'm hoping for the weekend to Vegas next month. [ Reply to ThisRe:Traitor caught? by someone1234 (Score:1) Friday November 04, @12:22PM The reality (Score:1) by Peeptophe (252809) on Friday November 04, @12:51PM (#13951559) The Feds shouldn't be bothering with this kid.The real problem are the companies running these businesses, not the people "exploiting" a system that was built to be exploited.180Solutions is trying to portray themselves as a legitimate business by making comments like "we have updated our adware so that the installation click-wrap notification process is presented from our own servers, instead of inside the code where it's vulnerable to tampering".The consumer is the victim and 180Solutions is the criminal. They are nothing more than system, resource and privacy rapists and should be dealt with as exactly that. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:2) by vex24 (126288)