Telcos Close To 'Deal' On Net Neutrality That Gives Them Everything They Want

Ad Scammers Getting Harder To Spot

from the reasons-to-use-adblock dept

Wed, Aug 4th 2010 12:19am — Mike Masnick

When we've discussed adblockers in the past, one important point that many people have raised is the growing likelihood of scammers "buying" ads as a method of distributing malware through popular sites. Apparently, that business of "malvertising" is getting more and more popular... and more and more sophisticated. Joshin4colours points us to a story about a super sophisticated "malvertiser" who went to great lengths to appear legit. In another discussion about that case, it's suggested that somewhere around 50% of "self-service" advertising setups may be part of some kind of scam. I'm not sure I quite believe that number, but if the number is even half of that, it does raise questions about how online ad buying and ad placement works, and how it will work in the future. Perhaps this will finally drive companies who insist on banner ads, rather than more effective forms of advertising/marketing, to rethink their position.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: advertising, malvertising, malware, scams

11 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2010 @ 12:41am

people were seriously suggesting that blocking people from your site because of an adblocker was good practice on a marketingblog, this shows the folly of their ways: i don't trust online advertising, it's sleazy, dishonest and misleading.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BruceLD, 4 Aug 2010 @ 12:42am

Subject
The recent PDF vulnerability with all Apple iPhone/Touch/iPad devices where a complete system hack can be performed with no interaction whatsoever makes this particular threat even more frightening.

The malvertisers only need to change their scripts so that the major web sites are peppered with the PDF exploit, and within 24 hours they will control 100 million Apple devices around the world.

I wonder whose going to hit first; Apple or the hackers?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/your-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-devices-are-all-wide- open-to-hackers/9207?tag=mantle_skin;content
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yogi, 4 Aug 2010 @ 2:33am

No biggie
Just No Script the whole damn internet-tube thingy and you'll be safe.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2010 @ 4:00am

Re: No biggie
NoScript is too hard to use for most users (quick: NoScript shows five domains for this site, which ones are safe to unblock? And how can you recognize something is broken on a site because of NoScript, instead of just being a quirk of the site?).

Adblock Plus with Easylist is easier (almost completely zero-maintenance, even for newbies, and easylist blocks more than merely ads), but weaker (as it is blacklist-based, it can only deal with known threats).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 4 Aug 2010 @ 4:16am

Interesting Article
While I don’t claim to fully understand what they seem to mean by “tags” and “pixels”, I did get the bits about 1) cross-checking the provided phone number against the bank’s website, and 2) checking the date of registration of domains, both those of the customer and of their references. Worth including as SOP in future.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rob, 4 Aug 2010 @ 6:16am

I love Techdirt, but I find this article amusing to read when TD's page is half filled with ads.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2010 @ 6:37am

Re: Re: No biggie
(quick: NoScript shows five domains for this site, which ones are safe to unblock? And how can you recognize something is broken on a site because of NoScript, instead of just being a quirk of the site?).

Quicker: Leave them all blocked and the site functions perfectly well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JMG (aka Joshin4colours), 4 Aug 2010 @ 6:50am

Ads aren't the problem
Before people start saying "See? Ads are destroying the interwebz!!11", just remember that credit card scams are just as common (if not more so) and people still use credit cards all over the place. The problem isn't the online advertising medium, it's the fact that there are still ways to exploit the system and the fact that consumers need to be better informed. Online advertising can work effectively, but like other advertising, has to be done smartly. There is still plenty of growth to be seen in the online advertising/media space, with some innovation and a bit of elbow grease.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2010 @ 9:57am

Re: Re: Re: No biggie
Yeah right...try watching a Youtube video with everything blocked.

I love NoScript, but I can admit it can be a little annoying/hard to use sometimes. It's the price of security I guess.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2010 @ 10:10am

Re: Re: Re: No biggie
Techdirt has ads on it?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
direwolff (profile), 4 Aug 2010 @ 4:08pm

Re: Ads aren't the problem
JMG, being informed doesn't seem to help since this exploit is so prevalent for all iOS devices. Same with credit card exploits. Knowing there are scammers doesn't help matters as they're pretty good at hiding their tracks by choosing exploits that not obvious, or attacking weak points in the chain (ie. merchant who has not properly configured and secured their servers w/latest updates).
[ link to this | view in thread ]