Spitzer vs. Spyware: A Profile In Courage

A champion in the battle against online piracy has come from an unlikely source -- NY State Attorney General and future gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer.

All we can say at Stop Piracy Now is "Thank You, Eliot Spitzer!"

Spitzer has filed suit against Intermix, a Delaware company operating in California, alleging deceptive trade practices and trespass to chattels. You can read more about the suit in a press release on Spitzer's website.
The trespass to chattels claim particularly caught our attention because it was a key claim in a lawsuit filed by our patron company, MetroGuide.com, against Hotels.com also as it related to spyware. Spitzer, catering to potential voters, is naturally approaching the spyware matter from the perspective of the harm that it does to consumers and is not focusing on the harm it does to copyright holders. But, nonetheless, this is a major first step. We pray that the brave AG will not seek the "amicable resolution" sought by Intermix in their public statement, but rather deal a knockout blow that puts other spyware operators on notice to cease their activities or face the Wrath of Spitzer.
At SPN, we have repeatedly implored our own state AG, Charlie Crist, to do something about the scourge of spyware but have never received a response. Given the Spitzer precedent, and Crist's own political ambitions, maybe this time he'll listen.

NYT: Postal Orders Used For Online Fraud

Be extra careful if someone offers you a USPS postal order. According to an article in the New York Times, they have become a vehicle for online fraud. The article mentions that the postal inspector's webpage is a place to report such crimes.

"Is it ethical for open-source projects to make money gaming search engines?"

Waxy.org has a very interesting discussion is online about alleged search engine spam on the popular Wordpress open source website. SEO spam is a huge problem, but, like file sharing, "everybody does it." We've never accepted the "everybody" argument as an excuse, but what mechanism is there to relieve the temptation of the good guys to indulge in a spam tactic, when all they see is the bad guys constantly getting rewarded for doing it?

9 YEARS in the slammer for the spammer

It's about time! Pending appeal, a judge has finally recognized the damage done by spam and sentenced a spammer to 9 years in jail. See Fox News for more details.

Today's WSJ Page A1 Features Click Fraud

We consider, for entirely good reasons, the Wall Street Journal to be a "lagging indicator" when it comes to technology. The conservative paper usually gets around to reporting trends after they are well established. So, once the Journal takes notice of a tech story, it's been well-researched and it's now a mainstream story.
Such is the case today with click fraud. The lead story on Page A1 recaps several online evils that we have been railing about all along:

Click fraud is the latest problem plaguing the Internet, alongside spam, identity theft and online-auction fraud. Kevin J. Delaney, "In 'Click Fraud,' Web Outfits Have A Costly Problem"

Each of these acts of piracy has the potential to shut down online commerce as we know it, but click fraud is the most dangerous of them all. In response, a click fraud lawsuit has been filed that is seeking class-action status. For commentary, see the Search Engine Watch Forum.

Sources of Spam and Viruses. Contrary to popular belief, most spam and viruses do not originate in developing countries, but come from wealthier nations. According to Oren Drori of Commtouch:

These trends contradict prevalent assumptions: that spam is primarily sent from developing areas .... In fact, Commtouch analysis shows that wealthy countries of Western Europe are the source of more spam than developing eastern European counterparts. The same trend can also be seen in the Asia Pacific region: richer countries simply spam more.

The article presents a table showing which nations are producing the most spam and viruses. (McGann, Rob. "The Deadly Duo: Spam and Viruses, February 2005
." www.clickz.com (22 Mar. 2005).)

Cost Per Acquisition Model Is Giving Way To Online Brand Advertising. Problems with purchase validation and declining ad inventories are fueling the rise of the Cost Per Metric (thousand) alternative model.

Will CPA selling continue? Let me put it this way: if brand advertising is the most robust media dollar (read: lucrative to the publisher), then direct marketing will ascend in weak media markets (e.g., 2001-2004). Are we trending toward a weak or strong media market? I'd venture strong. That means brand dollars will rise fast in the foreseeable future. (Picard, Eric. "Good News! CPA Is Dying." www.clickz.com (14 Mar. 2005).)

Phishers Now Use DNS Cache Poisoning to Pharm. Pirates posing as legitimate websites to induce banking and other customers to submit sensitive personal information are employing wildcard DNS records and cache poisoning in their latest assaults.

The technique, known as DNS cache poisoning, is also being utilized by phishers in an attack know known as "pharming" where a poisoned DNS server redirects users to the phisher's Web site. The "poison" is essentially false DNS information that is injected into a vulnerable DNS server. (Kerner, Sean Michael. "DNS-Based Phishing Attacks on The Rise." www.internetnews.com (07 Mar. 2005).)

Pay-Per-Click Affiliates Hard To Police. Fraudulent clicking from affiliate websites is hurting Web advertisers, and search engines profit from illegitimate clicks, despite their public watchdog posture. According to Scott Boyenger, president and CEO of ClickDefense:

About 15 to 20 percent of all click activity is erroneous. Seventy percent of that is not by real people .... The advertiser is the loser and the companies offering PPC are winning, and so are the affiliates. (McGann, Rob. "Experts: Policing Affiliates Big Challenge for PPC Search Players" www.clickz.com (04 Mar. 2005).)