Bill Frist Should Do Something Drastic... Just For Me

My computer is being martyred. I've got the NAIL.exe trojan and it's just wasting away before my very eyes. So called "experts" say nothing can be done, but I know my laptop. It's my baby. I've had it for years and she's trying to communicate.

A crime has been committed. There's nothing natural about this at all. People should pay, and the goverment should be erring on the side of on-line life.

Bill Frist should do something drastic... just for me. It's a holiday weekend and I can't think of a better time for an emergency congressional hearing to free my computer than midnight July 4th, 2005. Independence Day from spybots, trojans, worms and malware.

I want the government after those ABI Network/ Aurora son's of bitches that hijacked my computer. And I need your help.

E-mail Bill Frist. I can't. I've been jacked. I can't even write FoxNews. Be the voice for the voiceless. Support the culture of on-line life. Send me money. Name laws after me. No really...

Save Rant's computer.

Class Action Lawsuit Against "Direct Revenue"

4/6/2005
Lawsuit Filed Against Direct Revenue
Link via DSLReports.com security forum, posted by Eric L. Howes.

A class action lawsuit claims that the Defendants are involved in installing “spyware” on millions of computers without the computer owners’ consent, utilizing it to track the Internet browsing habits of the owners and then send them intrusive targeted “pop-up” ads. Plaintiff Stephen Sotelo, individually and on behalf of all persons similarly situated, sues Directrevenue, LLC, DirectRevenue Holdings, LLC, Betterinternet, LLC, Byron Udell & Associates, Inc., d/b/a Accuquote, aQuantive, Inc., and John Does 1-100.

The Complaint claims that the Defendants, who are allegedly either members or advertising supporters of the Internet “spyware” industry, have unlawfully used and damaged many individuals’ computers to make money for themselves, while willfully disregarding the computer owners’ rights to use and enjoy their personal property.

Defendant DirectRevenue allegedly deceptively downloaded “harmful and offensive” spyware to the Plaintiffs’ computers which tracked their Internet use, invaded their privacy and damaged their computers. Relying on DirectRevenue’s spyware as the key to getting inside Plaintiffs’ computers and learning their Internet browsing habits, Defendants Aquantive and AccuQuote allegedly bombard the Plaintiffs’ computers with intrusive advertisements. (...)

DirectRevenue allegedly engages in “uniformly deceptive misconduct” to secretly install its software onto consumers’ computers. It allegedly bundles its spyware into other legitimate software which is available to be downloaded for “free” on the Internet, such as a video game. When the consumer installs that “free” game, he or she allegedly simultaneously (but unknowingly) downloads DirectRevenue spyware bundled into the game being downloaded, without consenting to the installation of that software.

The Defendant then allegedly bombard users’ computers with ads that constantly “pop up” over whatever web page a user is viewing. The ads are allegedly sent in a manner that breaches the security of affected computers through bypassing commonly-used “pop-up” blocker software, designed to stop ads like those sent by the Defendants. The Complaint quotes an estimate by Newsweek magazine that DirectRevenue may have as many as 1.5 billion advertising impressions (i.e., pop-ups) per month. If a computer infected with the spyware is viewing music-related Internet sites, the spyware sends a signal of such activity back to DirectRevenue, which then allegedly targets the computer user with advertisements from competing music companies.

Some of these ads allegedly deceptively give the user the appearance that there is a “Security Alert” being sent by the user’s computer itself or from Microsoft Windows, which states that “Spy Software may be installed in your Computer.” DirectRevenue allegedly claims access to 12 million computers in the U.S.

The spyware allegedly destroys other software programs on a computer, and it and the ads send allegedly cause computers to slow down, take up bandwidth over an Internet connection, use up memory on a computer, utilize pixels and screen space on monitors, and frustrate computer users. The software and po-up ads allegedly decrease productivity by requiring that hours be spent figuring out how to get them off of a computer, closing ads, and waiting for a slower machine to operate.

Class action status is sought on behalf of all persons or entities who had BetterInternet install spyware on their computers located in Illinois on or after April 1, 2002 and who had advertisements sent to their computers as a result. (...)


PDF document of the complaint filed against DirectRevenue here:

www.courtbriefs.com...

I had the following email from David J. Fish, the attorney who filed the complaint:


A law firm is investigating claims of pop-up advertisements containing files with the following names: Ceres, BestOffers, BetterInternet, LocalNRD, MSView, MultiMPP, MXTarget, OfferOptimizer, or Twaintec. If you would like to report your experience with these files, email: [email protected]

It’s not to late to contact Mr. Fish.

arggh! Aurora and ABI, those were on my desktop and got really annoying. I went on safe mode and tried to get it there, deleted it right out of the registry, and when that didn't work I reformatted my entire computer! I feel your pain RANT.

Another thing to watch out for is the Jouvziha Trojan/Virus which I think is a brand new thing. I had that on the laptop I'm using now, and I think its worse than that ABI one. It starts off disabling your computer from opeining links. Then it barrages you with pop-ups, then slowly devours Windows until your computer reads nothing but jibberish. Had to reformat that one too, and stupidly didn't have a backup of anything. .

So best of luck with your computer RANT, I know how frustrating it can be.

[edit on 2-7-2005 by zhangmaster]