Latest McDonald's Giveaway Prize: Spyware

from the not-lovin'-it dept

Mon, Oct 16th 2006 4:23am — Carlo Longino

McDonald's Japan came up with what it certainly thought was a great promotion recently: print a code on its soft-drink cups, then get users to send in a text message with it to see if they'd won one of 10,000 MP3 players pre-loaded with 10 free songs. But not only were the MP3 players some junky-looking McDonald's-branded model, but they came with an added bonus: spyware. Apparently the devices were laced with the QQPass trojan, which logs keystrokes and passwords. McDonald's Japan has apologized and set up a hotline for affected consumers to call. Just what good that will do remains to be seen if a consumer's passwords for financial sites have already been stolen. Ah, those halcyon days when all you had to worry about from McDonald's giveaways was keeping babies from choking on their small pieces...

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41 Comments

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thecaptain, 16 Oct 2006 @ 4:28am

The article is a little light on details.

Does anyone know if this was done on purpose (ie: Because of some really moronic marketer who might have thought this was a good idea?) or due to a hacker or wannabe who works there?

At this point I would have NO trouble believing a marketting exec or a committee of them sitting around and thinking this is a GREAT idea.

sigh
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- beeurd, 16 Oct 2006 @ 8:24am
  
  Re:
  I doubt it was on purpose.
  As a manager for McDonalds, i've had to endure lectures on how hard the company works to avoid bad publicity, because lets be honest now, McDs don't really need to do anything to get bad publicity. So the thought of them risking something like that knowing it could backfire just doesn't add up to me.
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  - JustMe, 16 Oct 2006 @ 9:02am
    
    Re: Re:
    Yup. And Elvis eats at your McDonalds daily.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 9:12pm
    
    Re: Re:
    I work in McDonald's US IT and know the guy currently in charge of APMEA (Asia-Pacific-Middle East - Africa) IT. There's no way this was intentional on McDonald's part.
    
    I'm 100% speculating, but the "gold" load was probably infected at the factory where these things were assembled. If intentionally infected, it was someone working on the image in the factory, not someone in McDonald's managment.
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JustMe, 16 Oct 2006 @ 5:25am

I ORDERED THE KEY LOGGER WITH CHEESE! Geeze, will this outfit ever get anything right?
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Republican Gun, 16 Oct 2006 @ 5:27am

I'm lovin it!
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 5:27am

Big mac is watching
I'll be scared when my big-mac connects to the internet via wi-fi and transmits vital data such as temperature of burger, obesity of purchaser, seating positions and length of meal.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 5:33am

so why exactly were people prompted to enter in their passwords for financial sites on an MP3 player with apparent hidden wireless phone home capabilities?
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 5:41am
  
  Re:
  >_
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ConceptJunkie (profile), 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:04am

In Soviet Union, capitalists spy on you. Wait...

I'm glad I finally figured out years ago that McDonald's sucks all the joy out of their food and sells it to places like Wendy's on the side. I'm no food snob, but the last time I ate a Big Mac (in the mid 90's), I felt afterwards like I had eaten something, and I remembered the act of eating, but no sensation of taste or enjoyment remained in my mind.

I'm no food snob, but that was horrible. That McDonald's has to resort to all these giveaways to entice customers is no surprise to anyone. If they would get back to selling food people want, maybe they could give their hyperactive marketing department a little breather.
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- mousepaw, 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:11am
  
  to: concept junkie
  amen
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- Bobby Cannon, 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:17am
  
  Re:
  I'm no food snob...
  I'm no food snob...
  
  Haha, no one said you were. Stop being so self conscious.
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- jsnbase, 16 Oct 2006 @ 9:39am
  
  Re: ConceptJunkie
  No kidding the food is bad, but you talk like they're on the verge of bankruptcy. This is McDonald's we're talking about. They could afford to build a frigging restuarant on the moon if they felt like it.
  
  Trust me, they'll sell plenty of 'burgers' with or without the MP3 players.
  
  Food snob.
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- Rick, 19 Oct 2006 @ 11:18am
  
  Re: ConceptJunkie
  "If they would get back to selling food people want, maybe they could give their hyperactive marketing department a little breather."
  
  It's called Chipotle.
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Mike F.M, 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:05am

D'UH
The spyware would have been transmitted to the user's PC when they connected it to add more songs.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:36am
  
  Re: D'UH
  and how exactly would that happen? not on my pc it wouldn't. it's a removable drive no matter how you look at it, so at most, even with an autorun.inf, my pc asks me what I want to do, which is usually something like:
  
  1. Open folder to view files
  2. Run pointless_application.exe
  
  which would you do? oh wait, you're probably an idiot.... nm
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  - Max, 16 Oct 2006 @ 7:11am
    
    Re: Re: D'UH
    Well, considering what McDonalds 'food' might do to human brains, I'm opting that at least 50% would chose alternative 2...
    
    Seriously though, a lot of people that would be getting these prices might be very tempted to click some 'McDonalds Fun & Games.exe" found on their McDonalds giveaway.
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  - Mike F.M, 16 Oct 2006 @ 8:31am
    
    Re: Re: D'UH
    There are going to be some people out there who would run the program (curious people or idiots) ... probably the same people that haven't figured out how crap McDonalds food is by now.
    
    Does anyone know what music came with the things?
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  - Brad Eleven, 16 Oct 2006 @ 8:42am
    
    Re: Re: D'UH
    The Curse of Superior Intelligence:
    
    In direct proportion to your intelligence percentile in a population of any size, other people appear as stupid to you.
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  - hacker_1337, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:18am
    
    Re: Re: D'UH
    A trojan can be inbedded in an mp3 file, the code would execute when the file was double clicked then the mp3 would play in media player, the user would never know what happened. you dumbass
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    - Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 9:45pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: D'UH
      I guess avoiding malware for dummies should be sent to all the idiots that were infected. CH1: common sense; CH2: not using shitty DRM capable media players; CH3: autorun junk programs you don't need to begin with are pointless.
      
      Don't forget to send this new "... dummies" book to that idiot "hacker" up there. He must've been infected by a kids meal from japan. sorry dude, but you need schoolin'
      
      While we're at it, who is planning on letting the macincrap users in on the fact that they keep blabbing about being malware resistant and people will finally take notice and start writing malware for macs.... only one reason it hasn't happened yet... there aren't enough of you morons using macs for it to be profitable, or even to matter at all. yeah, keep pushing your macs ;)
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drjones, 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:17am

Does that even qualify as spyware?

People have been thrown in jail for less. Really. That has gone a step beyond your typical spyware app, wich monitors and reports your browsing habits etc to a marketing company.. this *is* cyber crime.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 6:30am

WTF
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Rabid Wolverine, 16 Oct 2006 @ 7:22am

McDonalds
I hate their food.
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Doppel, 16 Oct 2006 @ 7:43am

I quite enjoy the occasional Big Mac and fries..

I just thought I'd add the comment for balance..
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Joe, 16 Oct 2006 @ 7:52am

McD
over 99 billion (trojan) horses served
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- Chris, 16 Oct 2006 @ 8:23am
  
  Re: McD
  roflol, Wendys is so much better.
  
  Honestly though, how did this happen? Wait, I know, when they gave away the songs teh got the trojan and the DMR mixed up and thats how all those trojans got on those computers. Lets blame Sony for thinking up the enitre DMR thing.
  
  Wouldn't it be funny if that really happened and McDonalds sued Sony for them getting the two mixed up?
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- Big Fat Fatty, 16 Oct 2006 @ 11:23am
  
  Re: McD
  Nice, haha.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2006 @ 9:38am

I eat at McD's....No I'm not fat, or stupid. So all you wannabe bloggers with your worthless opinions can suck my cheeseburger spraying asshole. McDonalds FTW!!
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nunya_bidness, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:02am

Same old story
McDonalds has been selling trojans for years, they are disguised as various food items, and once consumed can cause all sorts of problems to your operating systems. Several variations such as the BigMac and McLobster can empty the contents of your entire digestive system in a matter of minutes! Other more malicous ones like the salads and "French" fries, have the ability to alter perception and cause the victim to consume abnormal amounts, and deposit clogging residue in the circulatory system, only to show up years later in the form of a heart attach. We must ban together to stop this relentless foe once and for all.
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anna, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:02am

Snickering
Do you want fries with that spam?
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Mr.BingoBango, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:07am

'doh
Do you want fry-ware with that?
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Brad, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:13am

Pet peeve
NOT "affected".

Rather "effected".
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- Brad, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:16am
  
  Re: Pet peeve
  Another pet peeve: idiots, e.g., me! :-)
  
  This cold is effectively affecting me...
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Squidly, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:38am

Spam-N-Eggs Please!
And here I thought the only McDonalds that sold spam was in Hawaii!
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Skeptic, 16 Oct 2006 @ 10:52am

Turned off after Monopoly scam
I've been wary of McD's prize offerings since that dude ripped off all the winning Monopoly tickets a few years back. I would've hoped for very careful consideration before implementing ANY prize program.

I'll bet corporate is very upset about this one...
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RaYz, 16 Oct 2006 @ 11:56am

Trojan?
The trojan can start any where from the website you login to, or from playing the mp3. The way that Windows O/S is currently written, it can come from anywhere! No viruses on my Macbook here :)....yet...
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Dainichi, 25 Oct 2006 @ 11:42am

Re: #34
Watch out, the macs are starting to use intel chipsets. This means that any code written for windows and x86 is potentially just a few lines shy of being a mac proggie.

The difference before was something along the lines of the following example

Windows:
this is data in memory: ioioiiii
Mac:
this is data in memory: 11110101
the difference is in the order of the bits

Now with the Mac-intel the difference is more like
windows:
ioioiiii
macintel:
IOIOIIII
the diference is more just the format
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- Robyn, 10 Apr 2007 @ 11:10pm
  
  Re: Re: #34
  There's a lot more potential than reality in this danger.
  
  Keep in mind that Linux has been running on x86 chipsets for a LONG time, and code written for Windows AND x86 lacked not only the equivalent system calls in Linux, but might not even get to EXECUTE on Linux.
  
  Also keep in mind that Mac-Intel can only run X, which is based on UNIX.
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a dude, 6 Feb 2007 @ 11:32pm

right...
mcdonalds is nice once in a while, and shit happens. and ur stupid to think that an mp3 from a kidsmeal is gonaa be worth anything. these things are made to be cheap and crap
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rahul, 28 Jan 2008 @ 2:43am

not happy!!!
Mc Donald's are just WANKERS!!! how dare they do this!! i am very annoyed!!:P:P:P
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