Spyware

Can someone please tell me why everytime I visit this forum or your site, I get spyware on my computer?

Company: The Gator Corporation
Product: Gator/Offer Companion/Trickler/GAIN
Threat: Annyoing Spyware

Company URL: http://www.gator.com/
Company product URL: http://www.gatoradvertisinginformati...p/gainfaq.html
Company privacy URL: http://www.offercompanion.com/help/p...statement.html

Functionality
Fills in passwords for you and shows you a lot of ads.

Description
Upon visit of some Gator related pages, it tries to download and install. According to Tribune Media Services (via http://www.securitynewsportal.com/ via http://www.cexx.org/gator.htm): "Gator tracks the sites that users visit and forwards that data back to the company's servers. Gator sells the use of this information to advertisers who can purchase the opportunity to make ads pop up at certain moments, such as when specific words appear on a screen. It also lets companies launch a pop-up ad when users visit a competitor's Web site."
And Gator saves your identity in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID section of the registry - good place to hide, if you've got something to hide.

Privacy Statement
Some information we may collect, use, and associate with your Anonymous ID includes:
Which web pages your computer views and how much time is spent at those sites
Your response to the ads we display
Standard web log information and system settings
What software is on your computer
Your first name, country, and five digit ZIP code
Your GAINware usage characteristics and preferences
Information associated with your Anonymous ID is used in any of three ways: a) to offer assistance (e.g. knowing when to offer help filling in a form or adjust your computer's clock), b) to select and deliver installation files for optional new GAINware and/or third party software applications, and c) to deliver advertisements and information to you on behalf of our advertisers who are often competitors of the web sites you are viewing.

[JZ]

You do not actually get spyware on your computer. Since the URL has the word Gator in it, your spyware software thinks that you are visiting a site affiliated with GAIN Publishing. This is an error in the program. HostGator is in no way affiliated with the publishers of that software. I would recommend that you file a bug report with the spyware detection software that you are using so that they can correct it.

-Justin

[Stef]

Thank you Justin, this is correct.
You could also try other spyware detection software.

Stef.

[sumtotal]

Ad-aware will do the job nicely and for free.

[David]

Spy Sweeper from Webroot seems to work pretty well too and is free as well.

David

Originally Posted by David

Spy Sweeper from Webroot seems to work pretty well too and is free as well.

David

Yeah, I already use that. However, EVERYTIME I visit this forum or the Host Gator site, the spyware comes back again and is very annoying.

[JZ]

Well, there is no spyware distributed by this site. The only thing that we can advise you to do is to use a spyware detection software that is not annoying for you.

- Justin

[haggis]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yeah, I already use that. However, EVERYTIME I visit this forum or the Host Gator site, the spyware comes back again and is very annoying.

You can't always trust spyware detectors or anti-virus programs. I tried an evaluation of a spyware prog. that said "serious alert: keylogger program found".
What it had found was the program that detects keypresses on my cordless kb.

As was recommended elsewhere, arm yourself with a good anti-spyware program:
ad-aware
Spybot Search & destroy

Both are free.

[David]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yeah, I already use that. However, EVERYTIME I visit this forum or the Host Gator site, the spyware comes back again and is very annoying.

That's weird. I use Spy Sweeper (have it active now) and have never had a problem with it causing this behavior. It may be something unique to your situation.

David