I am NOT intentionally pimping priceline.com

OK, perhaps I missed something on TC recently. Have you noticed on the INDEX page that below the collecting tiki heading is a geenish-yellow line under the words "auction sites" ? If you place your cursor over it or click on it you will see that it contains a link to Bidz.com. Now I hadn't thought too much about it before but I just started a new topic under collecting tiki and when I saw the post come up it had the word "travels" underlined in the same way. I didn't know how that happened so I checked on it and there is a link to Priceline.com!
So how is this happening automatically? Is it kosher with Hanford? Did he set this up
or is it someone invading TC with their auto links??

On 2004-04-28 17:42, 8FT Tiki wrote:
Did he set this up
or is it someone invading TC with their auto links??

Neither, this is something that is only happening on your computer. I don't know the particulars, as I run Linux and happily avoid such things, but it sounds like some cruddy software got installed on your machine.

8ft,
Adware, spyware and scumware is rampant online and it is getting worse. I was talking to Poly Pop today about this growing problem and he sent me some excellent links.

Great info
http://www.io.com/~cwagner/spyware.html

I run these programs to battle Malware
hijackthis
http://www.tomcoyote.com/hjt/

cws shredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Those of you running Linnux and apple operating systems have no idea how out of control this problem is getting. Good luck 8ft.
Mahalo,
Al

Thanks to both of ya! I will investigate this further. I have not noticed it on any other pages besides TC so I guess that's why I thought it was happening on their end not mine. Hopefully I can get rid of it with your suggestions.

Being a Mac guy (but I may be buying a PC soon) - I'm wondering, how does this spyware get installed on your browser? It can't be as simple as visiting a site that is pushing this stuff, is it?
I would assume one would have to download something... am I right?

Tangaroa wrote:
"I would assume one would have to download something... am I right?"

Yes and no, for example the popular Real One Player Download installs spyware. New security issues constantly plauge Microsofts operating systems. Some Malware infect your computer automaticaly, coming in thru ports or by using active X or MS Java VM. The new trick in malware are the "Trojans". Trojans come in disguised as legitamate apps and give access to your computer to outside users, who in turn load more scumware onto your disk. Thousands of computers are infected with these bugs. According to a computer watchdog group the average computer has 38 different spy/addware applications running at any given time.

To me they have never been more than a minor annoyance. I delete them at will. My Niece recently had trouble with her computer and "Adaware" found almost 200 different ticks, all installed without her knowledge, permission or consent. A "hijacker" had changed her homepage to a rather graphic pornography site. When spammers mess with me, so what? Going after my young Niece, that angers me.

If your changing operating systems, this is something you WILL address. It's a real problem.
Mahalo,
Al
This is all you need to know
http://www.io.com/~cwagner/spyware.html

[ Edited by: Alnshely on 2004-04-30 09:15 ]

Wow - thanks Al - that IO site was veeeeery interesting - & scary! I cannot believe what is going on outside my sheltered Mac world....

So - if (hypothetically of course) I had, say... Limewire on my Mac - would I have marware on there? I haven't noticed anything....

http://www.spybot.de

Get it, use it weekly.