Ding Dong, DirectRevenue Is Dead

from the apparently-it's-tough-to-make-money-being-legit dept

DirectRevenue was considered one of the worst adware/spyware firms out there for many years. The company was famous for changing names every time people started to figure out how sleazy the company's marketing techniques were, and then repeatedly claiming it had cleaned up its practice of sneaky installs when the reality was that it kept doing the same thing. Eventually, the company was sued and paid a $1.5 million fine -- significantly less than the $28 million in profits the firm's founders apparently had made (and the $80 million the company had brought in over the years). Either way, now that the lawsuits appear to be done, and the fact that it's pretty difficult to make any money in that business without surreptitious installs, the company is shutting down. I'm sure the founders who walked away with all that money aren't too upset by it, however.
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Filed Under: adware, spyware
Companies: directrevenue


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2007 @ 4:35pm

    burn them at the stakes! I spent 3 hours removing spyware from a clients laptop today.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    RandomThoughts, 25 Oct 2007 @ 4:45pm

    Mike, can we start calling you Pud?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. They will be back

    DirectResponse will be back. Not the same company, but the same people. It's not just the money that motivates people like this. The thrill of the kill is a high like any other addiction.

    These types can't just take the money and run, they are continually thinking "out of the box" to create that next great scam.

    As the article stated above, a fine does nothing. Unless prison is involved for the principles, they will be back.

    I worked in the past for many of these types of companies and we were always moving to a new location, changing the business name, running new advertisements, changing the phone numbers, etc.

    Kevin Trudaeu is another example. The FTC rules he misleads customers with his advertising yet they only give him a fine and and he comes right back.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2007 @ 6:17pm

    Re: They will be back

    wow, somehow throwing Kevin Trudaeu's name into an article comment on DirectRevenue is great. Someone a little bitter towards old Kevin?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Rich Kulawiec, 26 Oct 2007 @ 8:27am

    Max is right, of course; they WILL be back

    I've maintained for many years that there is no such thing as
    an ex-spammer; neither is there, apparently, any such thing as
    an ex-spyware vendor. (Of course, sometimes they're the same
    people, cf Spamford.)

    And why should they stop, anyway? The worst that will happen
    to them is a mere slap on the wrist, a pitifully inadequate fine
    extracted years later (if at all). With millions to be made, and
    inconsequential risk, they have every reason to continue.

    Which is why the only reasonable response on our part is to
    blacklist them (their domains, their networks, etc.) forever....
    regardless of how many times they apologize, promise to
    reform, etc.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Stan Dalone, 25 Jan 2010 @ 12:04am

    Direct Revenue and Media6

    Beware of the New York company Media6. The same DirectRevenue scumbags are now holed up there. http://media6degrees.com

    link to this | view in thread ]

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  8. icon
    lrobbo (profile), 12 Jun 2012 @ 9:59am

    I'm sure they were in floods of tears.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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