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From: Ablang <HilaryDuffFutureWife@ablang-duff.com>
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Subject: Viruslike Game Annoys AIM Users
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 01:48:46 +0000 (UTC)
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http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114745,tk,dn021204X,00.asp
Viruslike Game Annoys AIM Users
Osama Found game spreads through adware and instant messages.
Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
A new Web-based game that lets players pretend to catch Osama bin Laden is
annoying some America Online Instant Messenger users with its viruslike
self-promotion.
The new game, called Osama Found, grabs names from a user's AOL Instant
Messenger address book and automatically sends those users instant messages
with links to a Web page where the game can be downloaded.
America Online is aware of the problem and is considering legal action
against the maker of the game, according to Andrew Weinstein, an AOL
spokesperson.
Osama Found is not a virus or an Instant Message worm, but an example of
what some call adware, Weinstein says. Such software runs in the background
on a computer and can be used by marketers to display advertisements and
promotions on a user's desktop.
Users Complain
AOL Instant Messenger users across the U.S. have reported receiving
messages from correspondents (or "buddies") with links to the game's Web
site. Internet users who visit the site are prompted to install the small
program, or applet, and play the game.
Once installed, the program allows the game's maker, PSD Tools of
Cambridge, Massachusetts, to send out what it describes as "additional
content such as, but not limited to, advertisements and promotional
messages to your computer and programs that may alter your home page to
offer you content," according to a terms-and-conditions document that
accompanies the installation program.
Also hidden in the terms and conditions for installing the program is
language that allows the software to "interoperate with your current
instant messaging client so as to permit the automatic sending of
advertising messages originating from your Computer to your contact or
'buddy' list."
That may violate AOL's terms of service, Weinstein says. Those terms
prohibit using AIM products to send unsolicited bulk communications or to
authorize others to use an AIM account to do so, Weinstein says.
AOL is investigating legal steps it can take to halt distribution of the
game.
"We think this is a slimy piece of adware that we want to protect our users
from," he says.
AOL suspects that the adware targets only AOL Instant Messenger users, and
the company plans to update its Instant Messenger home page with a warning
about the adware and tips on how to remove it, Weinstein says.
Virus Squad Investigates
Network Associates also received reports of the game Tuesday and Wednesday.
Antivirus researchers at NAI's McAfee antivirus unit studied the Find Osama
game, and they agree that it is not a virus or a Trojan horse program, says
Craig Schmugar, virus research manager.
The Find Osama game is similar in design to the so-called "friend-
greetings" incident from 2002, he says. In that case, an e-mail message
inviting users to retrieve an online greeting card from the Friend
Greetings site tricked many e-mail users into installing an adware
application.
The ruse demonstrates the importance of reviewing end-user license
agreements carefully before installing a new software program. It also
underscores the danger of downloading and installing unsolicited software,
Weinstein says.
--
Hilary Duff turns 18 in this amount of time:
http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?day=28&month=09&year
=2005&hour=00&m
"At a dinner party, one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well
but not too wisely." -- W. Somerset Maugham
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