Zango Confirmed Sponsors List

[Linkster]

As mentioned here http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...0&postcount=57
Its time to stop wallowing in this and take action to make sure the sponsors that are benefitting from this are removed from our sites

CAUTION - only post sponsors that you can PROVE - and show the proof - and this is not limited to Zango - any toolbar installer that will screw the original referrers aff codes or ignore them or hijack a surfers computer is included

[Linkster]

Probably should also add that this includes any sponsor that accepts sales from the keywords you bid on through zangocash - which is quite an impressive list of sponsors to say the least

This is not a new problem - although it is affecting the adult world more now that myspace users have been hit with the installs and evidently the company (in its various forms) has been around for some time. I saw that both CJ and the other large mainstream aff companies have had their affiliates battling this since at least 2004 with many large affiliate programs actually taking action to remove the affiliates from their rolls - and it would be the right action for these adult companies to take as well, however some may not know, as well as some may ignore the problem as they dont realize they are losing money

[virgohippy]

How would I begin the hunt on my end? Is there any way I can find and identify sponsors/sites without installing the fuck-ware on my own system?

[tickler]

<script> 
var agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(); 
if (agt.indexOf("zango")!=-1) {

Put something here

}
</script>

- Do some sampling/logging of your surfers to see how many are infected.
- Display a warning to the surfers that they are infected.

Sponsors could do some similar testing at their end to set red flags for possible theft. Too many sales wirh the flag would warrant back checking the referring URLs to check for modified links. If they catch anyone, they should file criminal charges against the affiliate, and Zango, not just suspend the account.

[digifan]

It is a great idea... and too important to ignore the benefits to be gained from a possible cooperation to hunt them down together with the members of another webmaster forum so I posted there about your plan Linkster and was proposing this cooperation as well.

http://www.askdamagex.com/showpost.p...75&postcount=9

Hope this helps.

[Linkster]

Digifan - I appreciate that and I have also asked over on GFY (and am asking publicly here) if we can all put aside board ideologies for a little bit to cooperate on this one as it affects everyone - to the tune of 200,000 new surfers in primarily the US every day

[DamageX]

Originally Posted by Linkster

Digifan - I appreciate that and I have also asked over on GFY (and am asking publicly here) if we can all put aside board ideologies for a little bit to cooperate on this one as it affects everyone - to the tune of 200,000 new surfers in primarily the US every day

Linkster, great initiative! If you guys already have a list started, please point me to the thread and I will also link to it from ADX.

[digifan]

I'm glad it can be worked out and will be for sure

[nation-x]

good stuff

[Jim]

I guess we should start this list with NetFlix
This thing runs a lot deeper than just adult sponsors.
http://www.1source4.info/0504-hb2-netflix/netflix1.wmv
OK, I just terminated my netflix accounts...who's with me?

[DamageX]

Originally Posted by Jim

I guess we should start this list with NetFlix
This thing runs a lot deeper than just adult sponsors.
http://www.1source4.info/0504-hb2-netflix/netflix1.wmv
OK, I just terminated my netflix accounts...who's with me?

Never promoted them in the first place, so I guess that's a very good start.

[Simon]

I still can't get that wmv to play. I get an error message that the host doesn't support streaming. But when I read about Netflix on this page it seems to be saying they're a victim of Zango.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by DamageX

Never promoted them in the first place, so I guess that's a very good start.

I never did either but you don't want to buy from them either, do you?

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by tickler

- Do some sampling/logging of your surfers to see how many are infected.
- Display a warning to the surfers that they are infected.

I stuck the code on a couple of pages and will add it to more over time. For now I have it linking to a blank image. I'll play with it more and see if I can't come up with some creative uses.

If anyone has a "Zango removal procedure" page I'll gladly link to it. If not, I'll just have to find/write my own.

[Jim]

The movie is exactly as they explain it. And, I get what both you and thta page is saying. So, either an affiliate of netflix bought the traffic from Zango or Netflix itself bought the traffic. I found a page listing a partial list of Zango clients.
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/images/180-jan06/
You are probably right...it probably is an affiliate buying traffic from them.

So, you know what we can expect from any sponsors accused of using zango, right? "It was an affiliate and we have terminated their account".

I did also read that yahoo used them up until last year. Here is a good page about the owners of Zango. http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates/

And here is how to remove the software...
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-zangosearch.html

[plateman]

I found a list of domains and programs that vango dont target, http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/18...xclusions.html and did a bunch of hunting and couldnt find the ones they do target

[walrus]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

If anyone has a "Zango removal procedure" page I'll gladly link to it. If not, I'll just have to find/write my own.

Working on one now for my blogs and would be more than happy to share.

[DamageX]

Originally Posted by Jim

The movie is exactly as they explain it. And, I get what both you and thta page is saying. So, either an affiliate of netflix bought the traffic from Zango or Netflix itself bought the traffic. I found a page listing a partial list of Zango clients.
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/images/180-jan06/
You are probably right...it probably is an affiliate buying traffic from them.

So, you know what we can expect from any sponsors accused of using zango, right? "It was an affiliate and we have terminated their account".

I did also read that yahoo used them up until last year. Here is a good page about the owners of Zango. http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates/

And here is how to remove the software...
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-zangosearch.html

Any sponsor allowing affiliates to generate sales via Zango is just as guilty as the affiliates themselves, if they know about it.

[digifan]

Here is a link to check if you are infected or not,
http://sharkideas.com/zango-test/
and another link to how to remove it,
http://www.symantec.com/security_res...519-99&tabid=3

PS You are awesome jim

[Jim]

Originally Posted by DamageX

Any sponsor allowing affiliates to generate sales via Zango is just as guilty as the affiliates themselves, if they know about it.

That's the thing, how do you prove they know about it? Sure, once a list is gathered, they have been warned. But until then, you never know the truth. That is, unless you are stupid and admit to it by saying we had to do it to compete. At first look, it looked as though netflix was stealing traffic that bestbuy bought a commercial for. But, after further investigation, it seems maybe netflix knew nothing about it. I truthfully think the only winners in this thing is zango.

Webmasters and sponsors both are going to be hurt before this is over. I have said this in private and I will say it now...the answer is to build a better mousetrap. We already know how to tell if a surfer has the toolbar installed. It can't be hard to do something with these surfers knowing that. Hell, just redirecting these people with the toolbar to a page letting them know they have adware and how to uninstall it will help greatly. Not to mention a decent programmer that can write a program that will disable the toolbar.

After reading a list of the investors, we are the proverbial David fighting Goliath. We need to work smarter, not harder.

[Xallow]

Hmmm.... would id be ok to make a popup window on free sites that we submit (the popup window being the Zango test thingy) that way, every surfer that visited that particular free site would be notified if they were infected.

[DamageX]

Originally Posted by Xallow

Hmmm.... would id be ok to make a popup window on free sites that we submit (the popup window being the Zango test thingy) that way, every surfer that visited that particular free site would be notified if they were infected.

Probably not necessary, if the linklist owner himself has already put a user agent checker in place and redirects all Zango-infested traffic to a different page. That traffic will likely not see your free site to begin with.

Jim, I agree on the better mousetrap thing. I'm gonna give this some thought, see what I can come up with.

[Jim]

DamageX, like I said, even a simple redirect page that would say, "Your computer has been infected by an adware program." Scare the shit out of the surfer by saying these people now know where you have been and what you are doing. And then give them a way to uninstall the toolbar. Also, recommend some anti adware software for future attacks. That alone would probably stop the problem by probably 30% or more. It really doesn't matter what you do to someone with the toolbar...you aren't going to make money from them anyway.

I truthfully only learned today that an affiliate could use this software. It does seem to be in the best interest of everyone to get some software up and running to put an end to it.

We will work on something as well.

[Linkster]

Just so that there is some basic understanding here:
First zango does run an affiliate program of their own called zangocash - which allows affiliates to make money off of installs
They also work with publishers/sponsors to provide content based on keyword searches and highlighting certain words on a web page
On top of that they work with anyone that will bid on certain search terms PPC which is where I think sponsors are most vulnerable - I can sign in right now and bid on cams dot com - and put my own ad on the surfers browser even if Im not cams dot com - I can also pop any other aff programs ad for that PPC ad - so if I were say promoting another personals/cams program I could pay to have their console with my aff code show up
Second - Zango is a small part of a much larger problem - there are somewhere around 400 programs that do this same thing - while zango has received a lot of attention because of their recent myspace attention - the ad I saw said basically "to view adult content on myspace - click here" which then installed zango - and explains part of the high rate of installations recently

As far as the idea of redirecting to a removal page - I have two problems - while we should be informing surfers - which is easy to do with a java popbox and a link imbedded in that box to take them somewhere to remove it
We should not be trying to sell them off to a removal program as most of those also install another program/toolbar
We also should not be pushing most of these removal programs as they also block cookies which defeats a good 50% of the affiliates we do use normally

Just some things to start thing about

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by Linkster

Zango is a small part of a much larger problem - there are somewhere around 400 programs that do this same thing

Time to form our own organization to combat these sorts of threats as they arise?

Could start with a group responsible for handling and verifying anonymous tips (seems to work well with the ASACP?), another group deals with technical/creative solutions to the threat, and a third disseminates information to all parties concerned about how to deal with threat.

Obviously this sort of problem isn't going to go away if/when Zango's tamed... so why not lay down the groundwork now and create a system which treats it as such? The collaboration of ideas here, now, is really refreshing, but a more permanent system might be more efficient in the long run.

I nominate myself as the official whipping boy!

Just gotta think about funding now... money is a great motivator, afterall.

And Jim I think you make a good point about not turning this into a money making scheme to exploit the surfers. It's not in our best interest to turn them off from our valiant efforts to make the web a safe and fun place because of short sighted thinking... like the people at Zango practice.